Avondale attracted strong enrolment in 2011, the first-semester intake of 1347 students almost equalling the 2009 record. There were healthy increases in Early Childhood Education, Nursing and Outdoor Recreation. The Bachelor of Nursing program, with a first-year intake of almost 160 students in 2011, has experienced particularly good growth in recent years. Nursing students may choose to study the first year of their course on either the Sydney or the Lake Macquarie campus. In 2011 all eligible nursing and teacher education students received Commonwealth Supported Places, giving substantially discounted tuition and the option of deferring all tuition payments until annual earnings exceed the threshold set by the Commonwealth (currently $44,912 p.a.).
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Strong enrolment in 2011
Tuesday, January 31, 2012New Director of Marketing and Advancement
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Colin Crabtree at the Avondale Alumni Association’s Annual General Meeting. Photo: Ann Stafford
Colin Crabtree became Director of Marketing and Advancement at Avondale in August 2011, replacing Lorin Bradford, who held the position from 2006 to 2010. Colin was previously Marketing Manager (Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Australia and New Zealand) with Abbott Medical Optics.
He brings to Avondale almost 25 years of sales and marketing experience in the medical field, including seventeen years at marketing manager and product manager level, and one-and-a-half years in national sales management. He has won an impressive array of awards in sales and marketing.
Colin commenced a Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing) at Avondale in 1981. After further work experience in medical device sales and as an anesthetic technician, he graduated from the Diploma in 1990 and upgraded to a Bachelor of Nursing in 1992.
When asked what motivated him to be a part of Avondale’s mission, Colin said, “While I attained a high level of career ‘success’ as measured by the world at large, the more I gained, the more empty the rewards became – never capturing what is really important in life. I believe life experiences have been given to all of us by God to meet a greater overall purpose or mission, and it’s always only a matter of time before that mission is presented to us in clarity. My new role as Avondale’s Director of Marketing and Advancement is an opportunity to use the skills and experience I’ve gained elsewhere to help others ‘find their inspiration’. It is also an opportunity to give back to the God-centered organisation that has inspired so much in me.”
Avondale’s vocational training ‘a model of best practice’
Tuesday, January 31, 2012Dr Wayne Miller
Coordinator, vocational education and training
Avondale College of Higher Education
Avondale is both a higher education provider and a provider of vocational education and training (VET). State regulatory authorities recently conducted audits of all private Registered Training Organisations in Australia. After a comprehensive review of Avondale’s VET sector, the senior member of the audit team stated that Avondale presented as “a model of best practice.” There were no non-compliance issues.
Avondale passed another significant milestone in 2010, gaining Commonwealth approval to offer VET FEE-HELP to students in the Diploma of Outdoor Recreation. VET FEE-HELP is a Commonwealth loan scheme assisting eligible students with all or part of their tuition costs. Eligible students in Avondale’s Diploma of Outdoor Recreation do not need to pay tuition fees up front. The fees can be deferred and repaid to the Commonwealth via the tax system over a period of years after the student graduates and begins earning above a specified level.
A third milestone in 2010 was Avondale’s re-registration for a further five years as a Registered Training Organisation. Re-registration was granted without the usual re-registration site audit, a further acknowledgement of the quality of Avondale’s vocational education and training sector.
Outdoor Recreation
Avondale offers two training package-based programs in Outdoor Recreation, the Certificate III in Outdoor Recreation and the Diploma of Outdoor Recreation. We were delighted with a record enrolment this year with 11 in Certificate III and 19 in the Diploma. We believe the record enrolment in 2011 is a result of VET FEE-HELP approval.
If you were to visit the Outdoor Recreation Department on the ground floor of the Chan Shun Auditorium, you would meet the brightest-eyed students you could hope to see. Some might rattle as they walk with an assortment of hardware as they prepare to hone their roping skills in the nearby Watagan Mountains. Some may be loading sea kayaks in anticipation of a day trip to Broken Bay, Port Stephens or Port Jackson, where emerging guiding skills can be put to the test.
Kahleb Radford mastering the white water
A highlight for diploma students this year was a four-day skill development adventure hosted by the New Zealand Kayak School on pristine big-flowing rivers on the west coast of the South Island. When I asked three participants why the trip stands out, they described the experience as “a hard-hitting white water experience. We learnt so much in four days,” they said. “We not only learnt to paddle well but to instruct well.”
Outdoor Recreation also supplies services to Avondale’s higher education sector, enabling students in selected degree units in teacher education courses to gain skills and qualifications (dual-badging), as recommended by the outdoor recreation industry for persons who will work in outdoor adventure programs.
The Outdoor Recreation Department is also expanding its partnership arrangements with Adventist Schools Australia, offering web-based support to school principals, outdoor education coordinators and camping program supervisors with resources such as Standard Operating Procedures, notification forms and links to industry-based bodies. Through a partnership with Gilson College, Macquarie College and Avondale School, we train their teachers through short courses and then these teachers in turn mentor our Outdoor Recreation students in the field during work placements.
While rock climbing, abseiling, sea kayaking, white water kayaking and bushwalking are fun and provide the endorphin kick some of us enjoy, they also foster personal growth and development in our adventure activity leaders-in-training.
While we integrate faith and learning in all Outdoor Recreation units, certain units are specifically designed to enhance students’ understanding and experience of Christian spirituality. In these units, aptly called Visionary Leadership in the Outdoors I and II, Adrian Ellison mentors students in the religious, ethical and social values of Avondale’s philosophy of outdoor recreation. What a blessing that our students are beneficiaries of Adrian’s fifty years of experience in adventure-based learning from a Christian perspective!
Dr Jane Fernandez-Goldborough appointed Vice President (Learning and Teaching)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Dr Jane Fernandez-Goldborough
Dr Jane Fernandez-Goldborough has been appointed as Avondale’s new Vice President (Learning and Teaching), replacing Dr Philip Brown, who has accepted a position as Principal of Newbold College, England. Jane was previously senior lecturer in English in Avondale’s School of Humanities and Creative Arts.
Jane’s love for teaching and working with young people was shaped through her early career as teacher and principal in a school for underprivileged children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Impressed with Avondale’s Christian ethos, she came to Avondale in 1985 to study secondary education with a major in English, graduating in 1988. She subsequently completed a Bachelor of Arts with honours and a Doctor of Philosophy with Macquarie University.
Jane joined Avondale’s staff in 2001. Since then she has authored a book on K.S. Maniam, a writer of the Indian diaspora. She has edited books and contributed chapters and articles to academic journals and inter-disciplinary publications. She has presented scholarly papers at international conferences, led out in research initiatives and is involved in collaborative projects with several networks.
Her teaching is inspiring, and she has provided strong leadership in developing at Avondale the nexus between quality teaching and research. Jane is committed to Avondale’s vision to become a premier Christian institution.
Avondale stars again
Tuesday, January 31, 2012The 2012 Good Universities Guide has once again given Avondale top 5-star ratings for key indicators of quality education:
- staff qualifications
- student-staff ratio
- teaching quality (all graduates)
- teaching quality (domestic graduates)
- generic skills (all graduates)
- generic skills (domestic graduates)
- overall student satisfaction (all graduates)
- overall student satisfaction (domestic graduates)
For more than ten years Avondale has repeatedly scored 5-star ratings for quality teaching, generic skills and student satisfaction. With the addition this year of separate ratings for domestic graduates, Avondale received more 5-star ratings than ever before – eight altogether. Only one other institution matched this score.
The Good Universities Guide compares universities and leading private higher education providers Australia-wide. Its ratings for teaching quality, generic skills and student satisfaction are derived from surveys of recent graduates conducted by Graduate Careers Australia, the leading Australian authority on graduate outcomes, educational experience and career opportunities, which it researches in association with government, the higher education sector and business. The ratings for staff qualifications and student-staff ratio are derived from data collected by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Avondale’s president, Dr Ray Roennfeldt, described Avondale’s ratings as “extremely gratifying.” “While we’re working hard to increase our research intensity,” he said, “the 5-star ratings for students’ educational experience show that we also remain focused on our core strengths in quality teaching. Our staff members are totally committed – they’re the best.”