As an academic, manager and innovator, Kathy Ramm has been at the cusp of CQUniversity's growth over the past 35 years...

Since 1977, she's helped a small, one-city Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education transition to a full University with a national network of campuses, servicing around 20,000 students, including internationals from more than 100 countries.

Kathy Ramm accepts her 35-year service award from VC Professor Scott Bowman

Along the way, she's juggled her time between the coalface on campus and external relations overseas, representing the University in more than 20 countries*.

LINK also to Kathy finds joy in student progress 'from raw to roaring'

Kathy was born and raised in Central Queensland and spent the early years of her childhood being home-schooled on Townshend Island near Shoalwater Bay, as part of the only family on the island. Townshend is now used as a bombing range as part of the defence force exercises.

After boarding at Rockhampton Girls Grammar - where she taught in later years - Kathy completed her Bachelor of Business (Accounting) at the CIAE, alongside Graham Ivers and Henry Schreiber.

"I enrolled because Blue Jefferies next door was backing out his driveway and said 'Kath I am going out to the Institute to enrol in a degree. Do you want to come?'. He dropped out after three months, but I kept going. Professor Wally Woods was one of my first lecturers."

Kathy is farewelled by Jenny Taylor and Kay Wolfs

Kathy was interviewed for an academic role by John Carkeek, who was the first Head of School of Business. She became one of the first two female lecturers in the Business and Law area at CIAE.

"In the good old days, I taught up to four courses per term with 20 hours contact time, as well as preparing study materials for the next term, and undertaking the role of program advisor for the Associate Diploma of Business and the Bachelor of Business. As well, we would travel for a week or so each year supporting the marketing effort of the Institute, run by Greg Klease. We conducted Outreach sessions (classes at outposts) on weekends in places like Mt Isa, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, for distance education students," Kathy recalls.

Kathy was head of the School of Accounting and Law for around 18 years.

"Because Accounting was the largest degree program in the institution, our School and Education were always the first to be taken to other campuses - all the regional campuses.

"To manage consistency and quality, we pioneered TVI (Tutored Video Instruction) use in Australia, a method used in the Silicon Valley at that time. Classes in Rockhampton were videoed, sent by courier to Mackay etc, and played with a tutor present to explain any issues. This was pre-internet! The concern of staff was that they may need to join Actors Equity, but some people found they performed well and looked pretty good on camera."

Staff gather to farewell Kathy

"Later we moved all three years of the degrees to regional campuses, in Vision 97, and introduced ISL (interactive system-wide learning). This was a major logistical exercise, and a major step in the growth of the regional campuses.

"My driving motivation was to ensure that the people of the wider Central Queensland region had better access to education to the highest level than I did during my studies. I see education as the major means of giving people of all backgrounds a chance to grow personally, socially, culturally and professionally. I believe that education makes us all better people, better able to develop our nation and to take care of those folk who need assistance."

Kathy recalls that it was 1986 when the federal government approved the enrolment of full-fee paying international students in Australian institutions, and the senior management of CIAE saw this as a means of developing higher enrolments. 

"The buzz at the time was the development of technology, globalisation, and massification of higher education. As a Business Faculty, we felt we needed to be at the forefront of each of these areas.

"Initially, there was an Executive Officer (International Education) appointed, Judith Anderson, who worked with some of the Deans of the six Schools at the time to cover engagement with countries such as Japan (Prof David Myers), Thailand (Prof Kevin Fagg), Indonesia (Prof Nirwan Idrus).

"Most international initiatives and activity was undertaken in the Faculty, and I was the Project Manager for the investigation, approvals and set-up of many of the Trans National Education (TNE) ventures.

"The Faculty of Business & Law, along with Prof John Smith from the School of Mathematics & Computing, initiated a number of early TNE ventures, such as Singapore with the Lim brothers, Hong Kong with HKCT, Dubai with a local partner, and Fiji with JOBS Fiji. The institution learned a lot from these ventures, even though all are now long gone.

"Our first Vice-Chancellor Prof Geoff Wilson agreed to the setting up and operation of CMS - initially in Sydney in the Imperial Arcade. A few of us in the Faculty would go down to assist in the enrolment period, when students would swarm over the campus.

"I have been privileged to work with and learn from folk like Mark Skinner, Peter Bakker, Ken Hawkins, Peter Carter and a long list of really dedicated people as a result of the CMS operation. This was a great innovation at the time, and the CMS operation has provided a great catalyst for the University."

"I was encouraged to undertake a term as President of Academic Board, to move the University to embrace the CMS initiative - to get acceptance that these were CQUniversity students, and all CQUniversity policies and processes should apply equally; to develop a quality assurance approach to L&T; and to develop a more comprehensive set of policies relating to students and programs.

"The recruitment of international students to Rockhampton, and specifically the operations of the English Language Centre, has made a wholesale difference to the multiculturalism of Rockhampton as a city. We celebrated the 21st birthday of the ELC last year. Seamus Fegan, the inaugural Director of Studies this year received an award for the Most Outstanding Contribution to International Education in Australia."

* Countries Kathy has travelled to representing CQUniversity: Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, New Zealand, India, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Macau, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom representing the University.