February 2016

Emeritus Professor Sue Clegg will be the first of a number of visiting scholars to be hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) throughout this year.

The University of Newcastle (UON) is partnering with Universities Australia and universities across Australia in a new national campaign – Respect. Now. Always. – designed to support university communities to work together to prevent sexual assault an harassment.

The University of Newcastle has received $19 million of NSW Government funding for its Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health (CRRMH) and the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program based in Orange.

Following a series of discussions involving the Vice Chancellor, the Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance and the Chief Operating Officer the Strategy, Planning and Performance (SPP) unit will transfer into the Resources Division portfolio from the Vice-Chancellor's Division.

The University of Newcastle has attracted eight Higher Education Participation Programme (HEPP) National Priority Pool (NPP) grants, totalling almost one million dollars, to help improve the tertiary education experience and process for students from diverse backgrounds.

Almost half a million dollars in funding has been awarded to two academics from the University of Newcastle (UON) to investigate solutions to major equity challenges in higher education, in a national first Equity Fellowship programme.

The NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, the Hon. Anthony Roberts MP, has praised the University of Newcastle as home to "world-class research and innovation" during a visit to the University.

The Centre of Excellence is currently seeking to fill the role of Equity Ambassador for the Access and Student Experience theme.

The SMART (Science, Maths and Real Technology) Program and the Science and Engineering Challenge have recently partnered with the Little Scientists Initiative providing professional development workshops for early learning educators across the Hunter. These professional development workshops aim to empower educators to include STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) in early learning centres and address the shortage of STEM skills from a very young age.