Postgraduate eNewsletters
Arts - Issue 1, March 2009
New Research Opportunities
In 2006 Macquarie University launched a bold initiative to recruit top-class researchers from around the world in key areas of research strength. Two years on, the success of the program has led to a further round of recruitment.
Macquarie aims to rank amongst the top 200 research intensive universities in the world by the time it turns 50 in 2014. To achieve this goal, in 2006 the University commenced the first phase of a recruitment campaign focused on attracting world-class researchers to its areas of strength. These researchers were appointed to nine Concentrations of Research Excellence (COREs) in areas which include ancient cultures and social inclusion.
"Put simply, our strategy is to recruit around our strengths because top-quality researchers will almost always want to work with other top-quality researchers," said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Jim Piper. "Each time we recruit more world-class researchers, the reputation and quality of our research will rise, and the educational experience for our students – undergraduate and postgraduate – will be enhanced."
With the first phase of the campaign proving so successful, in May 2008 Macquarie embarked on a second phase. Forty-three new research positions were announced and a second worldwide search for researchers began. The new positions were coupled with the establishment of seven new CORE areas, two come from the Faculty of Arts - social, cultural and political change and legal governance.
The Social, Cultural and Political Change CORE is a cross-disciplinary group with expertise in the history of media, culture and politics and a research agenda that explores the intersections between them.
The Legal Governance CORE builds upon Macquarie Law's established reputation for cross-disciplinary research in the fields of international, public and private law. Research is being conducted in legal governance and regulatory problems facing governments, businesses and communities in the new world order.
"We believe that academics who are doing scholarly work at the cutting edge of their disciplines make the best teachers," said Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz. "Instead of teaching from books written by others, research-active academics are the ones who actually write the books. In a research university, both teachers and students are actively involved in the pursuit of knowledge. Macquarie's aim is not just to teach facts and skills but to open students' minds to life-long inquiry."
For further information visit Macquarie's Concentrations of Research Excellence.