The education sector was not immune from the pressures of the GFC and 2009 was characterised by the need to trim costs and overheads. The University of Melbourne introduced several reforms to enhance business efficiency. Budgets have been made to work harder and unnecessary costs have been cut.
We are looking forward to reaping the benefits of the structural and operational reforms we undertook last year. 2009 forced us to re-evaluate the way we approach many of our business activities, which has led to a thorough cleanout.
The Federal Government has announced reforms to the education and research budgets, which will provide more funding for the university sector from 2011. The sector will also benefit from the significant capital projects injection, which has significantly upgraded the quality of university and research infrastructure. The University of Melbourne currently has close to $1 billion in capital works projects underway.
Our greatest challenge is funding the cost of education and research. The strengthening Australian dollar, bad press about the safety of international students and growing competition by other markets for the education and research dollar are our greatest challenges. Ensuring Australia remains an attractive and competitive destination for high quality students, academics and researchers is fundamental to the success of the sector.
An ability to understand people and a broad knowledge of different cultures, combined with demonstrable skills in the relevant professional discipline. Increasingly I'm looking for candidates who also have skills in utilising technology to enable better communication and more efficient work processes.
Over the next 12 months we are likely to be seeking talented marketing staff to assist in opening up some new and profitable business ventures. We will also be looking for talented communications staff in both our new and traditional media spaces. Additionally there will continue to be the usual staff turnover, which I believe is part of a healthy work culture.