Page 2809 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
University of Canberra in a number of fields so that Canberra as a whole is seen as a centre for medical excellence right across the board. I refer to nursing education, education for young doctors, education in research and education in the many specialties which are related to what goes on in a first class university medical school.
There are, of course, the problems of fundraising, and that is necessarily on the table. Both sides have discussed it. I am sorry that the time is so short but I would like to stress here a well worn theme - the special role of research in creating other side effects. I agree that there must be social equity and social justice in any kind of medical hospital scheme. Putting considerable amounts of money into research does not mean that you damage that. On the contrary, you enhance it. These are the effects of adding research to hospitals and universities in this area. You first of all produce the highest level of expertise available and that expertise spreads out into other fields. Good research is also related to good teaching; you attract high calibre staff.
There are worries. I hear worries about the morale of doctors in some present systems. There is no doubt that once you have a medical school you attract those kinds of professors and that kind of research which produces a snowball effect in all areas of medicine in a city or in a State. There is also, in research, a spreading effect from field to field to field.
You may appoint a professor of anatomy or a professor of physiology, but given the multiplicity of areas of research these days it is very rare indeed that that research does not spread right across a whole area of academic disciplines. Furthermore, research - and I think this is central to our kind of city and our kind of economy in the future - attracts further research and above all further development.
If I could give the obvious example, at the ANU in areas of research that already exist there is this relationship between a whole number of research fields and Anutech. This is the body at the ANU which processes the results of that research and markets it, making the university not just a place of research, education and teaching but a place where practical applications of research are put into being. I hope that will be very much the case with our medical schools and medical education.
To conclude, I hope that, given the growth of a national-international research centre, wherever it is - Woden, Canberra, Calvary, John James, whatever their names are - the ACT will grow in that particular area. Finally, I believe that will be a very great economic benefit to this city as well as a benefit to medical education and medical practice.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .