Teaching and Learning

The University’s teaching and learning activities in 2001 continued to focus on meeting the challenges of providing a world-class education in the face of rapidly-changing technology and the diverse learning needs of a diverse student body. The University is committed to maintaining its ethos of providing a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ educational experience for students, combining the best features of new technologies with those of a campus-based interactive learning environment.

High quality remains the pervading principle underpinning the University’s teaching and learning activities and the following examples illustrate the achievement of excellence at state, national and international levels:

Undergraduate commencement
The University enjoys a very high level of demand for undergraduate places from the highest-quality school leavers and other applicants, and as a consequence, our cut-off scores for courses are consistently among the highest nationally and are likely to rise again in 2002. Almost 80 per cent of the top five per cent and almost 70 per cent of the top ten per cent of WA school leavers applied for admission to UWA in 2001. The University’s market dominance in this area has been consistent over many years.

Teaching awards
High quality teaching is an integral part of attracting high quality students. In 2001 the University was again a recipient in the Commonwealth Government’s annual Australian Awards for University Teaching, in the category of Humanities and the Arts. Since their introduction in 1997, UWA academics have been recipients of individual national awards in the areas of biological sciences, health and related studies, the humanities, flexible delivery/learning and engineering, and the inaugural Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year.

International collaboration
The University’s Centre for Medical and Surgical Skills is the most advanced medical technology complex in the world. The centre, resulting from a significant global collaboration, is able to establish ‘live’ links across the world and provides courses for surgeons, anaesthetists, general practitioners, nurses and dentists at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In 2001 the centre introduced a series of International Surgical Master Classes, internationally acclaimed programs that ensure a high degree of personal teaching while offering participants the maximum possible level of practical training.