FUTURE STUDENTS

How will business be different after the GFC?

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has reshaped the world of business. If greed was ever good, it’s definitely not now. Values are top of mind. New skills are required. What do you need to know to make it in the post-GFC business environment?

Associate Professor Cheryl Kernot

A talented entrepreneur never lets a crisis go to waste, says Associate Professor Cheryl Kernot of the Centre for Social Impact. The GFC has prompted the growing momentum of a new type of business player – the “social entrepreneur”.

Social entrepreneurs use conventional business models to deliver social or environmental returns. The difference is in the bottom line.

With the wake-up call of the GFC, business is putting a stronger emphasis on values.

“The GFC has focused attention on the leadership role of business professionals in building citizenship and social responsibility,” says the Dean of the Australian School of Business, Professor Alec Cameron.

Key qualities for managers include greater resilience, flexibility, the ability to deal with large elements of uncertainty – and being able to make decisions in an unpredictable environment.

Postgraduate students can learn more about social impact in business through a series of new courses now being rolled out through the Centre for Social Impact, forming the Graduate Certificate in Social Impact.

HIGH ENERGY OPTIONS

In the past year, Aswin Andrison, a strategy consultant at IBM Global Business Services, has been working on teams developing strategies for two of Australia’s largest energy utilities and helping them to build the country’s first smart energy grids. Smart grids match the supply and demand of electricity more efficiently and enable the widespread use of renewable energy sources.

His part-time Master of Commerce studies have not only helped him to understand the prevailing economic forces in the industry, he says, but also with the innovative thinking required towards generating improved environmental returns.

Technology – what’s next?

Technology is changing our future in mind-boggling ways too numerous to mention. Think nanomaterials, artificial intelligence, quantum computing ... and we can’t overlook the seemingly infinite scope of cyberspace. Next stop? Convergence.

The long-anticipated arrival of convergence – when all entertainment and communications media will stream through one device – may never happen, predicts Professor Gerard Goggin of the UNSW Journalism and Media Research Centre. “Divergence is more likely,” he tips.

We need only look at the different forms of television to see we’re not heading in a unilinear direction. You may watch digital TV, download your favourite programs on the internet, purchase a boxed set of DVDs or watch short-form TV on YouTube.

THE ONLY CERTAINTY IS CHANGE

Fast technological change is just part of the allure of a career in the media for Master of Journalism and Communication student Tushar Apte. “The contemporary media environment is undergoing major shifts in all facets – from the dissemination of news and media to the actual business models themselves,” he says.

“There will be some great opportunities for people with the right skills and attitude to adapt. To me, the possibility of being involved in that process is exciting.”

The unknown in our technological future is people: what they adopt or reject and how they use technology, says Goggin who, with Associate Professor Kate Crawford, is researching mobile media use by 18–30-year-olds.

Mobiles have become an important space where young people consume and create media, while also maintaining and updating wide social networks, Crawford says.

“Cultural practices around the mobile are changing rapidly. Everything from taking photos at a gig, to updating Twitter, to reading and documenting news events – the mobile is a central part of our social and media landscape.”

Technology is the great enabler providing choice, flexibility and collaboration in the delivery of UNSW coursework. These days it’s all about options. More customised degrees to suit personal ambitions, interests, timetable preferences and instant ways to connect between lectures and tutorials. Podcasts, vodcasts and UNSW TV are all part of the mix.

What’s the good news about climate change?

Change a light bulb and you can help to change the world. Global warming is arguably the biggest threat to our planet, but the convenient truth is everyone can play a role in cutting back on carbon emissions.

In our daily lives we’re all directly responsible for producing greenhouse gases by using energy to drive, using electricity to power our homes and by throwing away garbage. Preventing climate change on an individual level is about smart choices – what we buy, consume, reuse and recycle – and simple acts of efficiency such as insulating our homes and correctly inflating car tyres.

Globally, it’s another matter. As governments grapple with establishing policies and frameworks to arrest the trend, evidence of the need for urgent action grows alarmingly.

The evidence is irrefutable, says Professor Matthew England, co-director of UNSW’s Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) who monitors developments daily using complex computer models. “There is a clear relationship between greenhouse gases and climate change, with known impacts over Australia including warming, and more severe droughts,” he says.

COUNTING CARBON

Alex Nimz intends to play an active role in helping to stop global warming. In his final semester of a Masters of Environmental Management, he has his sights on a career in carbon consulting.

“I chose this degree for its interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development and climate change solutions through policy design and business strategy,” says Nimz who believes his strong grounding in energy markets and their regulation, energy efficiency and demand management (including performing energy audits) will enable him to make informed decisions in designing strategies for carbon-conscious development.

The good news is the scale of climate change we lock in can be significantly reduced with appropriate action and a massive de-carbonising of our economy. Once we stop producing greenhouse gases the climate system will eventually stabilise at a new state – hopefully not too different from the stable climate regime the planet has experienced over the past 8,000 years.

“If we make significant reductions now we might avoid the very worst impacts of climate change, minimising adaptation costs that would otherwise blow-out in the future.”

More than 30 postgraduate students and research fellows are currently working at the CCRC to advance our knowledge of the physical climate system, while building their careers in this vital field.

What happens when the resources run out?

SOLAR SUCCESS

Some 1.6 billion people around the world have no reliable access to electricity – but current production techniques for solar energy cells are expensive, putting them beyond the means of most people in developing countries.

With the aim of producing a cheap, green renewable energy supply, Nicole Kuepper, a PhD student in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, is developing the iJET solar cell concept, a low-cost solar device which uses inkjet printing, aluminium and a low-temperature pizza oven to generate electricity.

Kuepper, who scooped two coveted Eureka Prizes for her innovation, lectures in engineering at UNSW where she has helped to develop courses on the ethics of manufacturing and sustainable energy in developing countries.

“I love working with passionate people who want to help address climate change and poverty by thinking and experimenting outside the square,” she says.

There’s a global race to find new energy sources. Ultimately, we must replace coal and oil with cleaner, more efficient and affordable energies. A recent CSIRO report found solar energy is the people’s choice, but a myriad of new energy alternatives are being explored, among them are wind, biofuels, geothermal energy and solar hydrogen.

By 2025, two million jobs are predicted to have been created worldwide through the development of solar power. UNSW blazed the trail as the first organisation internationally to offer an undergraduate degree program in Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy.

For more than 15 years, the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering – and now UNSW’s Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics – have held the world record for the development of highly efficient silicon solar cells. In addition, UNSW has developed the most successfully commercialised photovoltaic technology internationally. Our academics have been consistently ranked among the leading solar energy researchers worldwide.

Finding real solutions to the energy challenge is also the goal of the UNSW Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis, a multi-faculty institute focused on innovation and understanding in all aspects of energy generation, use and conservation.

Postgraduates are drawn to develop their pioneering possibilities at UNSW due to its outstanding track record.

Sustainability is not an option – it’s essential!

COUNTING CARBON

Plentiful supplies of cheap energy and sustainable development don’t usually go hand in hand – but architect Mohammad Kotbi, a PhD candidate in Sustainable Development in the Faculty of the Built Environment at UNSW, believes the two can co-exist. He’s devising a sustainability rating system for buildings in his home city, Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia where petrol sells for 20 cents per litre at the pump.

Energy is not in short supply in the Middle East, but fresh water is – and Kotbi is determined to convince local developers to consider water efficiencies when designing.

“Governments across the region have a lot to learn from Australian sustainability practices,” he says. Kotbi hopes to use his postdoctoral expertise to work with the Saudi Arabian Government as an adviser and to establish the country’s first university courses in sustainability.

The case for designing sustainable built environments is compelling when you consider that soon more than 50 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. According to the Green Building Council of Australia, buildings consume 32 percent of the world’s resources including 12 percent of its water and up to 40 percent of its energy. They also account for about 40 percent of waste going to landfill. In short, buildings are responsible for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by human activity.

The role of architects, builders and designers is critical in determining the shape of the world to come – beyond the physical dimensions of buildings is the sustainability of whole societies.

“A new generation of professionals must be equipped to face challenges never confronted by their predecessors,” says Professor Alec Tzannes, Dean of the Faculty of the Built Environment at UNSW. “We’ll look back on the early 21st century as a period of enormously significant change.”

Professor Tzannes – who continues to practise as one of Australia’s most distinguished architects – is bringing a fresh approach to the challenge of creating a sustainable future. Stronger ties between academia and industry are crucial to designing, constructing and managing sustainable built environments, he says.

With this practical perspective, he’s developing pathways between real-world architecture and academic study and research activities.

UNSW offers advanced interdisciplinary coursework programs in sustainable development for graduates from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as postgraduate research degrees.

A fair go for all

Social justice and human rights issues are constantly in the news. The rights of individuals under terrorism laws, the detention of refugees and the ongoing process of making reparations to our Indigenous community are just three hot issues that regularly eclipse everyday social justice concerns. We don’t all have the basics for a good life – enough money to live on, good work opportunities, access to affordable housing and transport.

Australia’s current housing affordability crisis is one area where hardship is glaring. About 200,000 people are estimated to spend more than half their income on rent. While the number of homeless people is growing, increasing numbers of families are living in motels, caravan parks and cars as they wait for public housing.

Professor Julian Disney

“Affordable housing is crucial. Without it, people are impoverished, families and communities eroded, jobs lost and the economy weakened,” says Professor Julian Disney, Director of the Social Justice Project at UNSW. “The chronic lack of affordable housing is especially bad for renters, partly due to weaknesses in the tax system and to the decline of public housing.”

Professor Disney led a team of housing experts who developed detailed proposals for boosting the supply of low-rent housing, particularly by non-profit organisations. The proposals were adopted by the Federal Government in its recently announced National Rental Affordability Scheme which is now being implemented across Australia. The scheme is targeted to provide at least 100,000 new low-rent houses over the next decade.

“We’re known for our engagement with major contemporary issues through contributions to public debate, submissions to official inquiries and the broad span of research and teaching,” says Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor David Dixon. “We’re moving along the national agenda on a spectrum of social justice and human rights concerns.”

The Faculty of Law postgraduate courses include the Master of Laws with a specialisation in Human Rights, and the Master of Human Rights Law and Policy which includes the opportunity to undertake a Human Rights Internship.

Can we prepare for the next pandemic?

In April, as the first reports came out of Mexico, the world rocked to the news of the next potential pandemic, H1N1 – or swine flu. By July, it had become a reality.

New diseases are poorly understood as they emerge and they can be devastating in their impact. Influenza pandemics spread throughout the world’s population like the epidemiological equivalent of a tidal wave, says Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

For Jan Gralton, a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW, the practicality of her research work has big appeal. At the onset of the swine flu pandemic, the Federal Government used her early research into the transmission and infection control of respiratory viruses as it considered how to protect health care workers. Now Gralton’s clinical research with children involves calculating how close you can go to a coughing and sneezing flu sufferer without risking direct infection.

“I may be the one who tells everyone where they can and can’t stand if there are sick people around,” jokes Gralton who hopes to work for the World Health Organization or UNICEF to develop and implement infection control policies for highly transmissible diseases.

Pandemics may be infrequent events – there were three influenza pandemics in the 20th century – however, understanding their impact is now more pressing than ever. Globalisation, the number of people living with chronic diseases and high expectations of modern medicine demand we know more about how to contain and deal effectively with a pandemic.

Preparing for these eventualities raises big questions: What can we learn from our response to the global threat posed by the H1N1 virus? What will be the next pandemic – and how will we deal with it?

Prevention is better than cure. People who wear face masks are four times less likely to a contract a flu virus, according to Professor Raina MacIntyre, Head of UNSW’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine who led the first clinical trial of surgical masks in frontline health care workers.

Professor MacIntyre is also researching the flow-on impact of the next pandemic on critical infrastructure. “A pandemic could potentially cause large-scale absenteeism affecting essential services and putting consumer products in short supply,” she warns.

UNSW’s Master of Public Health program has a new elective and specialisation plan in infectious diseases, with a focus on pandemics and emerging infections.