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Professor John Biggs, the University of Newcastle, Australia

About the original

DescriptionThis photo appeared in the News, Volume 13, Number 4, 30 March to 13 April, 1987. The text was: "Off to Hong Kong Professor John Biggs, Dean of Education, leaves the University in September to take up a Chair in Education at the University of Hong Kong. Born in Hobart, Professor Biggs studied at the University of Tasmania and later at the University of London. After taking out his PhD in 1962, he became Lecturer in Psychology at the University of New England. From 1966-69 he was attached to the Higher Education Research Unit at Monash University. He spent the next four yeas at the University of Alberta in Canada, where he was Associate Professor, then Professor of Educational Psychology. He resigned from there to take up his Chair at this University in 1973. Since 1958 Professor Biggs has written extensively, resulting in the publication of eighty-two entries, including ten books. He has been a member of several educational bodies, including the Board of Teacher Education of New South Wales Higher Education Board, and the Councils of the Australian Council for Educational Research, the Foundation of Child and Youth Studies, and Newcastle College of Advanced Education. He also acted as consultant to the School of Teacher Education at Riverina CAE and the Curriculum Development Centre in the Australian Capital Territory, while his work on student learning has provided the framework for staff development workshops in several CAE's and universities. Professor Biggs was Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Education, and variously Dean and/or Head of the Department since then. He worked for the creation of the Faculty (before 1975 Education was a Department in the Faculty of Arts), the Curriculum Resource and Research Centre, and the Faculty's higher degree structure, which includes the Master of special Education degree, involving the Special Education Centre at NCAE. Professor Biggs strongly opposed the mover to transfer the University's Postgraduate Diploma in Education to the CAE in 1990. He said this was purely a political manoeuvre, taken without consultation or thought for the academic and professional consequences. "The move brought Council and Senate on a collision course'. It also means that when - not if, but when - the University and the College do merge in some form or another, the University will enter that union so much weaker that it might otherwise have been. Whichever way you look at it, the decision was bad news for the University'. Enrolments in the Diploma in Education this year look like being 40-50 per cent up on last year, he said, "a record rate of increase and excellent evidence as to where students preferences lie'. Professor Biggs said that when Senate discussed the transfer of the Diploma in Education to the CAE last year some members warned that University enrolments in several Undergraduate courses could well be reduced. He said that he had been fortunate to be part of the Department of Education during the 70s. "We were very productive and the atmosphere was one of optimism and growth;' he said. "We enjoyed more research grants per capita than any other university education department in Australia. Now this'. Apart from retirements, there had been four resignations from the department: two senior lecturers, an associate professor, and a professor. "This tells its own story about our state of morale. Unless these senior academics are replaced with more than fixed term lecturers, not only will a productive Department have been wantonly crippled, with something like ten or a dozen research higher degree students left in the lurch, but the College will be calling the tune in a key area in future liaisons with the University'. Professor Biggs emphasised, however, that he was extraordinarily fortunate that the Hong Kong post become vacant at the time. "The research opportunities there are very attractive. The Hong Kong School Authority is looking closely at ways of abolishing external assessments while maintaining academic standards. This is ideal for extending both the work Kevin Collis and I are doing with the SOLO taxonomy on school-based curriculum development and assessment, and my recently published stuff on student approaches to learning. And then of course, the University itself is very proud and supportive of its role in teacher education: That will be a real plus'." This image was scanned from a photograph in the University's historical photographic collection held by Special Collections. If you have any information about this photograph, or would like a higher resolution copy, please contact us or leave a comment.InformationSubjectUniversity of Newcastle (N.S.W.)Newcastle UniversityJohn BiggsNew'sEnrolment DaysEnrolmentsEnrolment DayEnrolmentDatenot specifiedSourcehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/4154883562/

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CollectionUniversity of Newcastle History

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RestrictionsThe image can be used for study and personal research purposes. If you wish to reproduce this image for any other purpose please contact Special Collections. Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

IdentifierP2788

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