Inspiring the next generation of researchers and practitioners

The Charles Perkins Centre will expand the University’s education mission nationally and internationally.

The research and education hub for the centre is a new building that will provide state-of-the-art facilities for over 1,455 students but more importantly, it will facilitate the collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment that can lead the way for a new chapter in education and inspire the next generation of researchers.

The Charles Perkins Centre has three strategic aims focused on education.

• Leading the way, providing exciting teaching spaces and new ways of delivering existing course units.
• Creating and developing new teaching and learning opportunities at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional development levels by emphasising multidisciplinary programs that cut across traditional faculty boundaries.
• Engaging with a diverse range of communities to build effective academic-community partnerships.

Leading

This component is focused on existing units of study in the University (107 of them) that will be moved into the new building for the start of Semester One, 2014, mainly from the Medical and Natural Sciences divisions.

So far, the University has:

• confirmed the 107 units of study proposed to move into the new building, how they are currently taught and what their requirements are
• established that the proposed units of study have room for growth in the new building and that there is capacity to add the teaching of further existing units of study
• planned a pilot of a shared wet teaching 'superlab' for implementation in Semester One, 2014
• researched learning and teaching practice that will support or enhance a multidisciplinary approach to education.

Creating

The Charles Perkins Centre is committed to the development of new programs that provide an opportunity for innovative, transdisciplinary collaboration and learning aimed at enhancing the health and wellbeing of both individuals and communities.

The research theme and domain leaders will lead the development of new programs, initially for postgraduate students and professional development short courses.

Work has already commenced in three of these research themes:

1. Health and complex systems
2. Health and social ecology
3. Physical activity and energy expenditure

The development of these programs will be achieved in collaboration and with academic, administrative and financial support from faculties and the Education Portfolio.

Information required for the preparation of proposals will include surveys of programs and units already taught at the University and other institutions nationally and internationally (ie the current landscape), information on faculty contributions and ownership, data on student loads, and an assessment of unmet demand to allow marketing and business plans to be produced.

Engaging

Engaging the community to develop enduring academic-community partnerships is critical to the mission of the Charles Perkins Centre.

The Community Engagement Group (CEG) will be set up in the latter half of 2013 to be chaired by the Associate Academic Director (Education). It will include Charles Perkins Centre domain and theme leaders and key stakeholders throughout the University and the wider community.