Opportunity over constraint : research development in a changing university structure

Over the last 10 years the Australian Higher Education sector has undergone considerable changes: some philosophically motivated, such as increased equity of access and others, more economically motivated. University of Western Sydney Nepean is a creature born of such change, established in 1989 from the Nepean College of Advanced Education as part of the establishment of the University of Western Sydney. At its inception, UWS Nepean lacked significant research infrastructure and was primarily focused on teaching in a narrow range of workplace focused disciplines. In 1989 the then Department of Biological Sciences, consisting of three academic and two technical staff existed solely to provide service teaching to nursing students. This paper provides an historical overview of how one department, within a new university, set about establishing a research culture and research presence, particularly the strategies that were developed and used by a small group of university staff to both promote and reward research excellence. These strategies encompass collaborative relationships with neighbouring institutions, creative use of budgeting and innovative development of undergraduate teaching programs which address the teaching-research nexus, and with a strong focus on developing industry/regional links. It is a story of personal and institutional growth, with the overall success of such strategies being measured by traditional measures such as a dramatic rise in research income and increased productivity, as well as the development of a range of beneficially collaborative relationships.