Melbourne GSM News
- ARC Future Fellowship awarded to Professor Tony Scott
- New degrees offered in 2010
- Risks on the road to recovery...
- New Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor, Teaching, Learning and Equity - Professor Gregory Whitwell
- New Deputy Dean for Faculty of Economics and Commerce - Professor Nasser Spear
- Dr Angela Paladino has been awarded the Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence.
- Customer Behaviour students shine in 2009 Procter & Gamble Case Competition
- Graduate salaries on the rise
ARC Future Fellowship awarded to Professor Tony Scott
Congratulations to Professor Tony Scott, Director of the Health Economics Research Program, Melbourne Institute, on being awarded one of only 200 prestigious four-year Future Fellowships by the Australian Research Council.
On 9 September, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, announced the 200 outstanding national and international mid-career researchers. Senator Carr stated that “all 200 Future Fellows will conduct research into areas of national priority and will advance Australian’s international research and innovation standing”. Professor Scott was one of only 14 Fellowship recipients who were invited to attend Minister Carr’s function in Canberra when the Fellowships were announced.
There was a total of only 200 Fellowships awarded, covering all disciplines, with just two awarded in economics, and only 11 awarded within the social science disciplines. Researchers associated with the University of Melbourne were awarded 25 of the Fellowships.
In congratulating Professor Scott, Professor Margaret Abernethy, Dean, Faculty of Economics and Commerce and Director of the Melbourne Graduate School of Management, said that this is ’wonderful recognition of Tony's research and the standing of the Melbourne Institute and the Faculty’.
Professor Peter Rathjen, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), said ‘the addition of 25 research Fellowships across the University provides a valuable opportunity for Faculties to augment the strength and range of research programs - especially welcome in these times of budgetary restraint’.
The title of Professor Scott’s project is ‘Incentives and performance in the health care system’.The research will examine changes in financial incentives for health care providers, which can have direct effects on their behaviour and influence patients' health outcomes, quality of care, and access to health care. The research will provide a richer understanding of the effects of incentives, and will influence policy on the design of incentives for health care providers in Australia. Changes in incentives will ensure patients receive more appropriate, higher quality, and less costly health care, in the most appropriate settings, and delivered by the most appropriate health care providers. This will have direct effects on population health and well-being and the capacity of individuals to lead healthy and productive lives.
The ARC Future Fellowships scheme is administered by the Australian Research Council under the National Competitive Grants Program. The Australian Government has committed funding of $844 million over five-years from 2009 for the scheme.
Information about all Future Fellows and their research projects is available at http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/futurefel/ft_outcomes.htm
Two new degrees will be offered for the first time in 2010
9 Sept 2009
New in 2010 will be the Master of Commerce (Management) and the Master of Commerce (Marketing) - which are ideally suited to recent business/commerce graduates who wish to undertake advanced level study in management or marketing. The courses provide a pathway to the PhD program and to careers in areas including consulting, strategy and planning and business analysis. New Master of Commerce Degrees release (pdf 14.92KB)
Risks on the road to recovery...
In the latest issue of the Melbourne Institute Monthly Bulletin of Economic Trends, the Institute’s macroeconomics team have placed a high probability on GDP growth remaining a small positive number in calendar year 2009 and the unemployment rate staying below 7 per cent by the end of the year.
Professor Guay Lim remarks,
“As the rate of growth in the Australian economy picks up, we will be watching out for three types of risk: (1) that inflationary pressure does not lead to wage break-outs which would have a deleterious effect on job creation; (2) that the now prevalent state of “under-employment” reflects only a temporary adjustment phase, and (3) that the current increase in housing activity does not turn into another asset price bubble”.
Contact:
Professor Guay Lim
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
The University of Melbourne
Tel: 03 8344 2145
Email: g.lim@unimelb.edu.au
Media Enquiries:
Cliff Howard
Communications and Publicity Manager
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
The University of Melbourne
Tel: 03 8344 2154
Mob: 0402 780050
Fax: 03 8344 2111
Email: howardc@unimelb.edu.au
Melbourne Institute Monthly Bulletin of Economic trends (July 2009) PDF 389kb
New Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor, Teaching, Learning and Equity - Professor Gregory Whitwell
Professor Gregory Whitwell, Associate Dean (Academic Programs) The Faculty of Economics and Commerce, has been invited by The Provost to be Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor, Teaching Learning and Equity, for up to six months until a new provost is appointed.
Professor Margaret Abernethy, Dean, Faculty of Economics and Commerce and Director, Melbourne Graduate School of Management, congratulated Professor Whitwell and commented ‘this is recognition of Greg’s leadership in teaching and learning’.
The Office of the Provost fosters collaboration across the University, managing changes in policies and practices that affect the academic life of the University as a whole, with a view to the delivery of curricula and a Melbourne Experience based on the provision of high quality, consistent student support
Professor Nasser Spear - New Deputy Dean for Faculty of Economics and Commerce
Professor Nasser Spear is the newly appointed Deputy Dean position until the end of 2009. Professor Nasser is currently Associate Dean (International) and he will continue with this role until the end of the year.
Professor Spear received his PhD from the University of North Texas. He holds the G.L. Wood Chair of Accounting and is a Fellow Certified Practicing Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant. Professor Spear has published in leading international accounting journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting Literature, International Journal of Accounting, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, and Management and Information Technology.
The previous Deputy Dean, Professor Jeff Borland, has stepped down to focus on his research and teaching until he takes up his appointment to the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard. Professor Borland is the first economist for a number of years to be appointed to the position, which he will commence in mid 2010. He will be the first economist to hold the chair since University graduates Professor Max Corden (1986) and Professor Bob Gregory (1983-84). Professor Borland will contribute strongly to Harvard’s micro-economic teaching curriculum, as well as teaching a course on Australian economic history. As well as teaching, Professor Borland will be involved in the promotion of Australian studies across the US, through visiting similar research centres and events to organizing public seminars and lectures.
Dr Angela Paladino has been awarded the Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence.
Dr Angela Paladino has been awarded the Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence. The Dean, Professor Margaret Abernethy, said that Angela has an outstanding record of Teaching and Learning achievement. She has been recognised with numerous nominations and prestigious teaching related awards both locally, nationally and internationally, including the Deans Outstanding Lecturer B Award in 2006.
Customer Behaviour students shine in Procter & Gamble Case Competition
For the second year in a row, the Faculty of Economics & Commerce has partnered with one of the world’s largest companies, Procter & Gamble, on a highly successful knowledge transfer activity: the Consumer Behaviour Case Competition, led by Dr Elison Lim from the Department of Management & Marketing.
Throughout the semester, the students of the undergraduate and graduate Consumer Behaviour subjects (325-202 and 325-666) worked in teams on a real life case study provided by Procter & Gamble with the task to invigorate two of the deodorant brands: MUM (undergraduate students) and Gillette (graduate students).
Based on the assignments submitted by all students, three undergraduate and three graduate teams were selected to participate in the Case Competition Finals on Saturday 30 May. Following an intensive preparation and training schedule provided by staff from the TLU and Graduate Careers Centre, the teams presented their recommendations to a judging panel from P&G and the Faculty.
The judging panel consisted of Dr. Martin Davies, Deputy Director of the Teaching and Learning Unit who chaired the competition; Mr. Richard Kenner, Associate Consumer & Marketing Knowledge Manager from Procter & Gamble; Dr. Anish Nagpal, Lecturer in Marketing; and Ms. Michal Carrington, PhD Candidate from the Faculty of Economics & Commerce, who holds ten years hands-on experience in the FMCG sector, with considerable expertise in the deodorant market.
Case Competition Finals
The teams presented for 15 minutes in front of the judges, their fellow classmates, friends and family. The presentation was followed by a 10 minute Q&A with the judges, during which time the teams had to answer on-the-spot questions related to their recommendations. All the teams delivered high quality presentations and created innovative solutions which P&G would be able to adopt.
The judges had a very difficult decision in choosing the winning teams, but after much deliberation the prizes for the top teams were awarded to undergraduate team A-Team Consulting (Jessica Nia, Christopher Backman and Nisha Karna) and graduate team PentaBrent Consulting (Alexander Lloyd, Levent Akbas, Neville Unvalla, Ardhana Rai and Filippo Baschera).
Following discussions with participating students, Dr Elison Lim, Academic Coordinator for Consumer Behaviour, noted: "It was fulfilling to know they enjoyed the Case Competition and that they developed a deeper grasp of the subject through participating in it. The students learnt about uncovering consumer insights the P&G way, received coaching from P&G's senior management, and interacted closely with the P&G team. I believe that the students have gained a level of confidence and experience that prepares them well ahead of their counterparts as a result of participating in this case project."
All participants received a Certificate of Participation and the two winning teams were awarded a sample bag of Procter & Gamble products as well as the opportunity to visit P&G’s Melbourne office for a Lunch and Learn day with P&G Managers.
Bettina Stypmann, Graduate Student, Team Think Tank commented on her experiences of working on a real-business case study: “The real-business case study made the whole case more challenging and interesting as we knew that the deodorant category is a real problem for Gillette right now – our ideas and suggestions would actually matter”.
Richard Kenner, Associate Consumer & Marketing Knowledge Manager for P&G, commented on the students’ accomplishments: “The standard of presentations from the finalists this year was exemplary and exceeded expectations. Congratulations to all students involved and especially the finalists for putting together such polished and consumer lead presentations. I look forward to this successful partnership continuing many years into the future.”
The competition was followed by a lunch reception.
Many thanks to everyone involved in the project, in particular: Dr Elison Lim, the judges, the Student Experience teams from the Melbourne GSM and the Commerce Student Centre, the TLU, Graduate Careers Centre and of course to the students themselves for all their hard work and enthusiasm.
Winning graduate team PentaBrent Consulting with the judges and Dr Elison Lim
Graduate salaries on the rise
September 2008
Some new Australian postgraduates in their first full-time employment are starting work on salaries in excess of $60,000 according to a new report by Graduate Careers Australia.
Graduates with a research masters degree or PhD in their first full-time employment in 2007 started work on a median annual salary of $60,000 (up from $56,000 in 2006).
Those with a masters coursework degree began their full-time careers on $50,000 (also $50,000 in 2006) and those with a postgraduate diploma or certificate started on $49,100 in their first full-time job (up from $47,000 in 2006).
Postgrad study a move to bank on (The Age Online)