Commercialisation lecturers take out teaching prize

Three UQ Business School lecturers have been awarded with a prestigious Australian Teaching and Learning Council (ATLC) Citation.

The trio received the citation for their work in the Commercialisation in Practice course offered to postgraduate students through UQBS, and were officially awarded the grant on August 3.

Course co-ordinator Dr Martie-Louise Verreynne, Entrepreneur in Residence at UniQuest Clint Ramsay, and manager of the Queensland Government’s Venture Capital Attraction, Dr Stewart Gow, were thrilled to receive the honour.

“It is nice to receive recognition for your teaching effort, however, I think it is more important that it recognises the excellent work that staff in the Innovation area of UQBS are doing, and to receive recognition for the effort that all of us have put into developing our delivery,” Dr Verreynne said.

“The people who teach the innovation management programs at UQBS have received several school, university and national teaching awards over the past few years.”

The ATLC citations recognise those who have made an outstanding and significant contribution to the quality of student learning over a sustained period.

“Our ability to engage industry in the learning experiences of business students has created a unique learning model and fertile learning environment for the students enrolled in the course,” Dr Verreynne said.

“Students have found the subjective inspires and motivates them to apply their prior learning to a distinctive business sector with the knowledge that there are very tangible outcomes for them. These include improved business acumen, critical thinking and networking skills and the ability to deal with adverse business situations.”

Mr Ramsay said students had directly contributed to the charter of UniQuest, which is to identify, package and commercialise university technologies and expertise.

“Since the inception of the course, their efforts have assisted in UniQuest securing more than $20 million of venture capital investment for our portfolio companies,” he said.

Past Commercialisation in Practice students Lucie Novakova and Mek Cheng also praised the course.

Ms Novakova, who completed a three-month internship with Uniquest after completing the subject, now works as a research assistant within UQBS.

“This course really strikes a balance between the real business world and academia, and the continuous improvement of the way the course is delivered puts it at the top of many students’ lists,” she said.

Ms Cheng said completing the subject had allowed her to develop her skills further in the areas of market and competitor analysis, financial modelling and drafting business plans.

The Commercialisation in Practice lecturers also received a UQ teaching award in 2009, and reinvested the prize money to implement alternative methods of delivery.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Deborah Terry praised the recipients of UQ's 10 ATLC citations.

“The result reflects the University's enormous strengths in teaching and learning, and cements UQ's record of winning more national awards for teaching than any other Australian university since the national awards system began in 1997,” Professor Terry said.

Media: Martie-Louise Verreynne (07 334 68160), Amanda Sproule (0435 553 225), or Cathy Stacey (07 3346 8068)