Curtin University has announced that its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry AO, will continue in her leadership role at the University.
Curtin’s Chancellor, Mr Colin Beckett, said he was delighted that Professor Terry had agreed to renew her contract for a further five years, following the completion of her first term at the end of this year.
“Curtin has been extremely well led by Professor Terry, as reflected in the University’s continuing rise in national and global university rankings and its ongoing development and expansion,” Mr Beckett said.
“Since she took the helm at Curtin in early 2014, she has overseen a number of key strategic initiatives that have positioned the University for a very bright future.
“Locally, this has included securing final approval for the establishment of the Curtin Medical School, which enrolled its first students last year, the expansion of our city presence to better engage with our partners and alumni, and the progression of our Greater Curtin development that will turn the Bentley Campus into a lively urban precinct and innovation hub.
“Beyond our shores, the establishment of new campuses in Dubai and Mauritius has been very important to our vision of becoming a truly global university, attracting new cohorts of students from the African and Indian Ocean regions and further strengthening the University’s international profile and reputation.
“Curtin is now ranked in the top one percent of universities in the world. Curtin has major capabilities across a wide range of areas, including those that are so critical to our future, such as digital agriculture; defence and international security; data science; and a major involvement in one of the 21st century’s largest scientific projects, the Square Kilometre Array.”
Mr Beckett said that important global alliances had been established under Professor Terry’s leadership, including membership of the world-leading online learning consortium edX, through which Curtin was now offering a range of innovative Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) including its latest MOOC, Noongar Language and Culture, that was taking local Indigenous culture to the world.
A deep partnership established with the University of Aberdeen in 2017 was also delivering high-impact research and innovative teaching programs in areas of mutual strength (such as energy, medicine and health, creative arts and business) and creating valuable opportunities for staff and student exchange.
“Professor Terry is a highly respected researcher, educator and leader and Curtin has benefited enormously from her strong, values-led leadership,” Mr Beckett said.
According to the 2018 CWTS Leiden Ranking of universities, released last week, Curtin has risen to ninth nationally and 316th internationally. This follows a significant improvement in the Curtin’s performance on the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (Curtin now ranked 180 and 9th in Australia, up from 303 in 2014) and the Nature Index and National Taiwan University ranking, both of which also rank Curtin 9th internationally. In 2016, Curtin was named as Australia’s most collaborative and fastest-rising university in research rankings.
