>> In 1967, the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) opened its doors. A new
type of higher education provider for a new post-war era. WAIT's early leaders had
a bold vision for what this new Institute could become. This forward
looking leadership has continued across the decades. Highly respected technical
educator Dr. Hayden Williams was the first of these innovative leaders.
As WAIT's inaugural director he embraced a broad view of technology that saw
the arts flourish as much as the sciences. He quickly established WAIT's
reputation as a practical and inclusive higher education provider and steered it
through a dramatic period of growth in the 1970's. In 1980 the dynamic Dr. Don Watts
took the helm. He led the national push for Australian tertiary
institutions to attract overseas fee-paying students. And he succeeded in
his controversial ambition to gain university status for WAIT, so that it
could make the most of its early success.
>> Don Watts was absolutely exceptional.
He was a man with extraordinary vision because he saw the opportunity to change
WAIT to a university status.
>> He was pioneering, he was bright, he was
outrageous sometimes, but did he make a difference.
>> In 1987 WAIT became Curtin
the first University of Technology in Australia. Professor John Maloney took on
the leadership of the new entity the next year, building on the progressive
agenda already established by his predecessors.
>> Curtin at that time had
become quite well known in various areas. It had pockets of great research here,
it was known as an institution where teaching was very much valued. It had
a smaller international reputation, but I had started on that and
those were the things that I was interested in, internationalising the University,
building up the research base, building on the teaching base.
>> John Maloney would also oversee the building of the John Curtin Centre which created a new
physical heart for the Bentley campus and announced its arrival as a
University of consequence. When Professor Lance Twomey took over in the late 1990's,
government funding was tightening, but Curtin had a strong growth agenda.
>> The sorts of things I had in mind were really related very much to expanding a
number of programs we had, looking at the quality of staff, the quality of
students that we had come through to it, developing in a much bigger way,
our research profile, looking at a greater community, a better interactive community.
>> During Lance Twomey's decade as Vice-Chancellor, he championed a number
of important issues close to his heart, promoting more women to senior roles,
encouraging more indigenous and disadvantaged students to study at
Curtin and strengthening the university's multicultural profile.
Decisive leadership would also see Curtin open its first offshore campus
when some high profile visitors from Sarawak, Malaysia came knocking on the
university's door.
>> We came to an arrangement very soon, wherein we
provided the intellectual content, the program, the academic direction.
They provided the money and the site. They came to us in February of '98, we had students
starting in February quarters in Sarawak in '99.
>> Curtin's vision for growth and international expansion would continue, even in difficult times.
>> I came to be Chancellor after the untimely death of a very wonderful
Chancellor Harry Perkins. People would say that that was a period when
the university grew very fast. Our international students numbers increased
vastly and that was in spite of the fact that we had to deal with Asian financial crisis.
>> When Professor Jeanette Hackett became Vice-Chancellor in 2006,
she further strengthened Curtin's international profile, its research
reputation and its financial foundations.
>> When I look back, I think we've done
really well as a team in strengthening our research. A strong research
performance through focus leads to an international reputation. So we've done
that really well. In the period I was in the Vice Chancellors role also we grew,
we grew by 50 percent and that is huge, and it's with that large footprint that
were able to deliver really top quality services and that also led to really
strong financial outcomes, because we needed to have the money to invest in
our research, to invest in wonderful facility for our students and for our
staff and for our partners.
>> With the support of a council highly focused on
efficient governance, Curtin was able to undertake some major new initiatives to
position the university for great things.
>> Curtin Singapore was an in
something we started, the foundation was another thing we started. The Australian
Sustainable Development Institute was another initiative that was begun.
There were many initiatives and it's fair to say the real push for a medical
school started then.
>> It's just moving on and on and on. I mean we've got a
magnificent medical school now, we've got a law school, Greater Curtin seems to
be happening all around us. It's just exciting, it's not going to stop.
Curtin sees its role as moving Western Australia and the region forward, being
the innovators, making this an attractive place to live and to invest and to be
educated. That's leadership and I think Curtin's doing really well at it.
>> Curtin thanks all of its wonderful Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors, who over the past
50 years have helped shape it into the successful global university it is today.