Issue 581 (March 2009) - Office of Marketing and Communications

ScholarsEXCELUQNEWS, MARCH 2009 ➔ 09More than 100 new UQExcellence Scholarshiprecipients were commendedat a special ceremony at theUniversity in February.UQ launched its new academic scholarshipprogram last year, with two types of scholarshipsawarded – UQ Excellence Scholarshipsvalued at $6000 a year for the duration of thestudent’s program and more than 200 UQ MeritScholarships providing $6000 for the first year ofstudy.UQ Excellence Scholarship recipients receivedtheir certificates from UQ Vice-ChancellorProfessor Paul Greenfield at the event.Excellence Scholar Wesley Draper, fromNeurum, between Woodford and Kilcoy, visitedUQ St Lucia for the first time to attend the“Since most of myfamily and friends aresports addicts, why notenter a career where Ican not only treat theirinjuries, but remain intune with science?”Research by UQ Business School’sRenee Adams has found womenappear to significantly enhance themonitoring capacity of the boards theyjoin.Using detailed data sourced from theUS Investor Responsibility Research Centre,Professor Adams and co-researcher Dr DanielFerreira found boards with more femaledirectors were characterised by greaterparticipation of directors in decision making,tougher monitoring of the CEO, and morealignment with the interests of shareholders.Professor Adams said the researchprovided solid evidence to support what haduntil now been a largely ideological debate.“Boards around the world are underpressure to recruit more women with somecountries legislating quotas to improvediversity on boards,” Professor Adams said.UQ Excellence Scholar Jade Denmar and her grandmother Lola at the awards presentationpresentation, and has recently commenced aBachelor of Physiotherapy.The 17-year-old attended Kilcoy State HighSchool, where he shared joint captaincy and wasSenior Dux of his year.Mr Draper encouraged other students toapply for a scholarship, with his successfulapplication helping him to fulfil his dream ofworking for a national sporting team.“After bouncing back and forth betweenprofessions such as pharmacy, dentistry andmedicine, I finally decided upon physiotherapy,”he said.“Since most of my family and friends aresports addicts, why not enter a career where Ican not only treat their injuries, but remain in tunewith science?”UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)Professor Deborah Terry said the newBusinesswomen add to boards“From January last year, companies inNorway have been required to ensure at least40 percent of directors are female.“Spain is following suit with their quota,also 40 percent, coming into effect from 2015and Sweden is threatening to do the same.“The research suggests there will be ameasurable improvement in the monitoringcapacity of boards incorporating more women.“However, our findings do not support theargument for quotas as increased monitoringcan be counter-productive in well-governedcompanies.“Ultimately decisions about boardcomposition must be made at the companylevel, taking into account other boardcharacteristics.“What our evidence does show is thatwomen board members are not mere tokens.”The research is to be published in theJournal of Financial Economics.scholarships were one of the richest universitymerit scholarship packages for school leavers inQueensland and also one of Australia's biggest.“We received almost 1500 applications fromYear 12 students across Queensland, as well asthe Northern Territory, New South Wales, ACT,Victoria and overseas,” Professor Terry said.“We were tremendously impressed by thedepth of talent and the academic achievementsof these young people.“Selecting the recipients was a very difficulttask. All UQ Excellence Scholarship recipientsscored an OP1 (or interstate equivalent), makingthem among the highest academic achievers inAustralia.”INFO ➔ www.uq.edu.au/scholarships– ELIZA PLANTLYLE RADFORD UQ BUSINESS SCHOOL