Richard Cashman, Adjunct Professor (1 September 2004)
Business
ABC 720 Perth
Adjunct Professor Richard Cashman says the Athens Olympic Games were a great success for Australia in terms of gold medals. Cashman says Australia spends extraordinary amounts of money on elite sports and it has been estimated that each of the 49 medals won by Australia at the Games cost the Australian taxpayer around $50 million. There is some evidence to suggest that Australia's successes at the Olympics encourages increased numbers of Australian children to take up sports. Professor Cashman says Australia's swimmers benefit the most from sponsorships and endorsements after the Games. Professor Cashman says the Olympics takes people's minds off negative issues such as terrorism.

Grace Ding (1 September 2004)
Design, Architecture and Building
Sydney Morning Herald
The booming construction industry is no longer a boys-only zone. Like the industry, courses in construction studies are still male-dominated, says Grace Ding, a lecturer in construction at UTS. However, more female students are taking an interest. "They are still a minority but it's growing," she says. Ding attributes the growth to an industry push to attract school leavers.

Professor Andrew Benjamin (1 September 2004)
Design, Architecture and Building
The Age
Australia's likely absence from the Venice Biennale highlights a funding problem for architectural promotion. One of Australia's top architectural photographers, John Gollings, has taken matters into his own hands generating a virtual Biennale on the Internet, in collaboration with Professor Andrew Benjamin of UTS

Dr Yega Muthu (2 September 2004)
Law
2SM, New FM (Newcastle)
New research indicates that harassment on the Internet has the same impact as other forms of stalking. Dr Yega Muthu says pestering emails and text messages have been shown to be threatening and intimidating to victims.

Keri Spooner (2 September 2004)
Business
Business Review Weekly
Managers wanting to restructure their workforces should be mindful of the risks. Sometimes the strategy of making staff reapply for their jobs is well-founded, according to a senior lecturer in human resources management at UTS School of Management, Keri Spooner. "But, at other times, it is either designed to legitimise the status quo or to simply get rid of people who are known to be poor performers," she says. Such motives reflect basic flaws in how an organisation manages it's staff. "If staff are genuinely not required because of restructuring, they should be made redundant or offered the training needed to equip them for a new position."

Professor Michael Adams (3 September 2004)
Law
Lawyers Weekly
The CLERP9 amendments to the Corporations Act have added to a complex web of liability for contraventions of the Act. Professor Michael Adams provides a guide to how various breaches will be treated.

Keri Spooner (5 September 2004)
Business
Sun Herald, Sunday Age
Many Australian households, with their secret armies of paid workers, are starting to resemble the one in the 1970s BBC drama Upstairs Downstairs. The reason, says Keri Spooner, senior lecturer at UTS, boils down to the fact that many people are working over and above the call of duty.

Dr Sarah Edelman (6 September 2004)
Science
ABC Newcastle
UTS psychologist Sarah Edelman discusses procrastination and how people have different attitudes to what they put off. Lack of energy and opportunity are fair reasons for procrastination and common psychological reasons for inaction. Perfectionism can be a factor in procrastination - black and white thinking can force people to give up.

Sabina Belli, Research Fellow, Research and Development (7 September 2004)
Science
Inner Western Suburbs Courier
Groundbreaking research aimed at breaching the defences of disease -causing single-cell parasites has won UTS researcher Sabina Belli a scientific research award in the 2004 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes. Dr Belli, a Research Fellow and Chief Investigator in the UTS Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases, has won the $10,000 University of NSW Eureka Prize for Scientific research. Dr Belli has provided insights into how the protective cyst wall surrounding the infective stage of apicomplexan parasites develops.

Dr Peter Waxman (7 September 2004)
Design, Architecture and Building
Inner Western Suburbs Courier
The author of Australia's must-read educational tool on real estate insists Investing in Residential Property is not a "feel good book". Investing in Residential Property does not advise people what to do by glossing over issues but it's factually based, looking at issues such as the economy, interest rates and taxes while providing anecdotal snapshots of Australia's obsession with real estate. The book was first written in 1988 but market conditions and increased interest has lead the author, Dr Peter Waxman, an economist lecturing in Building and Land Studies at UTS to update the book every couple of years.

David Wilson, Associate Professor (7 September 2004)
Information Technology
The Australian
IT students are more optimistic about their future. Some IT students are getting job offers before finishing their degrees, says David Wilson, education dean at the UTS IT faculty.
"Three or four years ago, 90-odd per cent of our final-year students would have had offers to start when they'd graduated," Wilson says. "It's a real sign that the industry is feeling more confident, in that they are willing to make offers to graduates on the assumption there's going to be work."

Professor Jane Hall (7 September 2004)
Business
Launceston Examiner
Prime Minister John Howard splurged $1.8 billion in a move he says will make it cheaper for people to visit the doctor. Health economist Jane Hall, the director of the Centre for Health Economics, Research and Evaluation at UTS, suspects the Government measure could result in GP charges going up and thinks it is unlikely to have a big impact on bulk-billing rates.

Associate Professor Geoffrey Riordan (7 September 2004)
Education
ABC Radio National
Riordan says school discipline involves creating an environment conducive to learning. He says teachers' and children's impressions of what is appropriate vary from school to school. He believes schools are the best judges of programs which will work in their situation, but believes the Federal Government should provide funds to assist in attaining these goals. He believes the focus on discipline and education by the Labor and Liberal parties reflects the need for more teachers.

Dr Simon Beecham (7 September 2004)
Engineering
Sydney Morning Herald
Model Farms High School recently hosted a visit from a symposium on water-sensitive urban design. The symposium, organised by the Upper Parramatta River Catchment Trust, studied issues to do with urban water run-off management and reuse. The concept was developed for the trust by Dr Simon Beecham of UTS.

Vicki Sentas (8 September 2004)
Law
Sydney Morning Herald
Squatters can be charged with criminal trespass under the Inclosed Lands Protection Act for entering a building without the owner or the occupier's consent and remaining there after being asked to leave. But only the owner or occupier can ask them to go -or get the police to forcibly evict them - and squatters are rarely charged with trespass these days, says Vicki Sentas, co-ordinator of UTS's Community Law Centre. Sentas advises squatters to negotiate with owners to stay for a s long as possible. "Assure them that you will look after the place and protect it from being vandalised. If they agree to let you stay, try to get the agreement in writing."

Dr Murray Pratt (8 September 2004)
Institute for International Studies
Sydney Morning Herald
Learning a second or third language can open a world of job opportunities. As part of Peter Giurissevich's studies at the Institute for International Studies at UTS, the 21 year old is preparing to to study Spanish intensively for two years before spending a year living in Spain.
Spanish is one of the most popular languages among the undergraduate students completing 32 combinations of degrees, says Dr Murray Pratt, Deputy Director of the Institute.

Sue Martin (9 September 2004)
Nursing, Midwifery & Health
Sydney Morning Herald
The Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at UTS has bought a doll called Nursing Anne. it is an electronic mannequin used as a teaching tool for student nurses from first year to third year, helping them to recognise abnormal and normal heartbeats, treat wounds and recognise unhealthy sounds and symptoms. Faculty technical officer Sue Martin says it allows students to train and do their procedures before the real-life experience of hospital wards.

Dr Carolyn Currie (9 September 2004)
Business
Channel 2
Labor has signalled another shake-up for superannuation including scrapping the co-contribution scheme, putting the surcharge back to 15%, ending subsidised superannuation for non-permanent residents and stopping those who are not working from contributing to their superannuation. Super industry research shows Labor's plan would strip nearly $4 billion from superannuation savings over three years. Currie says Australia's youth would be the biggest losers.

Associate Professor Douglas Tomkin (12 September 2004)
Design, Architecture and Building
Sun Herald
Remote controls are reaching plague proportions in Australian households, with up to 10 in the average home, researchers believe. Associate Professor Douglas Tomkin from UTS's design faculty said surveys of students, their friends and families showed most had 'double-digit' numbers of remotes. "There's no question that they are increasing ever more," Mr Tomkin said.

Associate Professor John Leaney (13 September 2004)
Engineering
Computerworld Australia
The software engineering industry is in need of some tough love, the kind of attention more commonly known as 'bondage and discipline' to pull it into shape and transform it into a serious profession. It is an industry in dire need of standards, according to UTS Professor John Leaney, as well as a stiff regulatory framework that includes penalties and government driven legislation.

Ben Hunt, Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) (13 September 2004)
Business
Australian Financial Review
The postgraduate education scene has never been under greater pressure - from executives wanting to learn new skills, and from the rise of specialist degrees to challenge the role and importance of the MBA. Ben Hunt, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning in the UTS Faculty of Business says most institutions have very high quality MBAs. If there's a reduction in demand, he says, there will be a reduction in supply. More MBAs doesn't mean they are devalued. It won't be so exclusive, but there will be more people who are better-trained and better-educated.

Malcolm McKenzie (16 September 2004)
Executive and Admin
Sydney Morning Herald
While competition is increasing, there are many ways to continue your studies - full-time, part-time or online. At UTS, postgraduate research has increased by nearly a third in the past three years. As a result, getting a place in most postgraduate degrees is becoming very competitive. Malcolm McKenzie, Manager of the UTS Careers Service, suggests meeting with a career adviser at any university before taking the postgraduate plunge to explore your motivation for taking another degree and your possible career options afterwards. "Most of our postgraduate programs at UTS are vocation orientated," he says. Many postgraduate courses can channel a general undergraduate degree into something more marketable," he says.

Dr Paul Allatson (16 September 2004)
Institute for International Studies
Hobart Mercury
Australians want Democrat John Kerry to win the US presidential election - by a landslide. Paul Allatson, a senior lecturer in Spanish and US-Latino studies at Sydney's UTS, said Bush's poor performance in a poll taken among non-Americans was the result of a backlash against his foreign policy.

Dr David Eager (16 September 2004)
Engineering
Courier Mail
Children are still being hurt in playgrounds despite national playground surfacing standards.
Dr David Eager said there were more than 100,000 child admissions to emergency departments every year for playground injuries. Dr Eager, a senior engineering lecturer at Sydney's UTS, said the injury data did not reflect the expected decline in frequency or severity of playground injuries, which ranged from concussion to broken bones.