INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC EVENT: Research Seminar – Growing Research in a Young University

Research plays a significant role in any academic setting, particularly in the context of higher education. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that research culture is inherent in every academic activity in a higher education institution. For that reason, on 5th September 2012, the Research and Development Division of BINUS International organized a research seminar event with the aim of enhancing research culture and passion among its faculty members. The research seminar, which was entitled ‘Growing Research in a Young University: Some Experiences from QUT Australia’ was held in auditorium room 310, at the Joseph Wibowo Center campus in Jakarta, Indonesia.

As part of the research seminar, Professor Thomas Grattan Cochrane, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Technology, Information and Learning Support from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Australia was invited in order to share his vast experience, as he was involved with QUT’s early research growth stage. Professor Cochrane is an active researcher whose research interests include copyright licensing, information privacy, and computer security.

Prof. Cochrane opened the seminar by sharing suggestions for building an excellent research foundation for growing an academic institution. The suggestions included: the importance of selectivity and concentration, development of cross disciplinary institution, heavy focus on applied research with industry end users, and the attention paid to early career recruitment.

Specifically, he pointed to the current trend of research activities in the international academic community, which emphasizes collaboration with industry as the end users. This phenomenon is due to the nature of business becoming even more complex than before. Consequently, the research activities have become collaborative and are heavily focused on applied research.

Following this, he also shared several background stories regarding the development of QUT’s two main research institutes; the Health & Biomedical Innovation Institute and the Future Environment Institute, which were originally developed from cross disciplinary institutes and industries collaborating together. Furthermore, Prof. Cochrane also emphasized the importance of recruiting young talent to be part of the faculty members in order to bring new energy, know-how and enthusiasm.

The event proved to be very interesting, judging by the many comments made and questions asked by the audience. This could be due to the many similarities between BINUS International and QUT. (ASR)