Dear Alumni,

I am writing to ask whether the Sydney Alumni organization or any of its individual members share my interest in providing their intellectual property to develop high quality education to support Australian and global health and sustainable development more effectively. I would love to discuss this potential with any interested parties.

In February 07 I left teaching at Sydney University and became a self-funded retiree. However, for the past eleven years I taught health policy and environment management subjects. Prior to that I spent ten years as a public servant in the NSW Dept. of Industrial Relations and the WorkCover Authority. I am happy to be retired, but I hate to see my intellectual property go to waste as a result of organizational restructuring. I think that NSW public servants and academics possess a wealth of knowledge which could be exploited more effectively than currently occurs, to provide high quality, cheap education to Australia’s advantage. Do others agree and want to pursue this challenge with me?

On 13.3.07, I heard John Della Bosca, the NSW Minister for Commerce, Finance, Industrial Relations, Ageing, Disability Services and Vice President of the Executive Council speak at a meeting of the Institute of Public Administration (IPAA) Australia (NSW Division), of which I am a member. In question time I asked, ‘Will you capture and use my intellectual property?’ He answered ‘Yes.’ In the general discussion over drinks, I approached Mr Cappie-Wood, the President of IPAA, to ask how this might sensibly occur. He replied that if I produced my teaching material in disc format it could be put on an appropriate website. I hope to discuss particulars of what might be most useful with IPAA officers soon. However, I would also love to discuss my interest with others who have similar views. It would be great if we could work together.

I recently also wrote to the newly established Business, Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council and asked them if they would like to use any of my Sydney University teaching content but have not heard from them yet. I have a total of forty-eight lectures for four subjects in community and industry management. I also gave my undergraduate books of lectures and other published writing of mine to my post graduate students, where relevant, to help them develop their self directed research projects. My lectures are supported by twenty Powerpoint slides per lecture, which may help students develop English language knowledge related to key issues in their occupations. I also encouraged my students to make short films. I produced the first two of my own two years ago, for Sony Tropfest, for the filmic experience.

I have a useful letter from Sydney Uni. which informs me that as a result of the University of Sydney (Intellectual Property) Rule 2002:

‘although all copyright in teaching materials is owned by the university irrespective of the medium, this position of ownership may be altered where there is relevant agreement with a third party’.

It also states the university provides me with ‘a non-transferable, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use the teaching materials for the purpose of teaching at any time in the future’.
Basically, although I am financially secure I would be very sorry to see my teaching potential disappear instead of expand. I developed the material carefully for eleven years because I thought mine should be a core Australian teaching link approach for the future.

In 2005, the elite Australian universities known as the Group of Eight argued that the currently preferred model for a research quality framework in Australia should have a purpose. They suggested that the first elements of this should be to provide governments, businesses, researchers and institutions with the additional information they need to assess the value of their investments in research and to plan future research strategies. However, as the Vice Chancellor of Sydney University pointed out in a related discussion about the Australian Research Council and its normal method of peer review for allocating research funds:

One of the dangers in a developed economy is that universities conceptualise themselves partly as businesses, which of course you must, but you must never lose sight of the core objectives of the university, and absolutely fundamental to that is academic freedom.
(The Australian Financial Review, 14.1.05, p.29).

I share the above view completely and also believe that academic freedom should normally be conceptualised as related to the primary responsibility to search for truth, rather than personal advantage. I hope to promote my policy and teaching approach at the United Nations (UN) Global Forum in Vienna entitled Re-inventing Government. I leave on 20th June 07 and have also sent a letter similar to this one to the UN University Centre in Tokyo and to Transparency International, which are partners at the conference.

I would love to meet any others who might share my interest or who are going to the UN conference on Reinventing Government.

To view the complete article by Carol O'Donnell please click here.


Article reference number: CO-020407
If would like to respond to this article with your own feedback, please email alumniadmin@vcc.usyd.edu.au quoting the reference number above in the subject line of the email. Your feedback will be forwarded to the author, Carol O'Donnell.