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UQNEWS, FEBRUARY 2009 ➔ 10IN BRIEFRURAL SCOOPA UQ journalism studenthas won a $10,000 scholarshipfor her reporting of rural news.Brooke Hargraves, who is in herthird year of a Bachelor of Journalism,won the inaugural J.B. Fairfax Awardfor Rural Journalism for a story onsustainable farming techniques.“As a journalism student whocomes from a small town in ruralQueensland, just to meet guys likeJohn Fairfax and Vernan Graham fromRural Press and have had them readmy work is incredible,” Ms Hargravessaid.Ms Hargraves won the prize witha story about the ability of farmers tostore carbon emissions in soil and willuse the money to help cover studycosts, fees and living expenses.A LITERARY HISTORYAcclaimed author David Malouf hasrecalled his time as a student at TheUniversity of Queensland to celebrate80 years of the Fryer Library andto launch the final volume of TheBibliography of Australian Literature.In a memorable speech atCustoms House on November 12,Dr Malouf paid tribute to the FryerLibrary, which holds one of thenation's most important collections ofAustralian literature and was crucialfor the creation of the four-volumebibliography, which records 40,000works and 12,000 authors.WATERPROOF WIRELESSIn a world-first, UQconnect, UQ's ownnot-for-profit Internet Service Provider,is bringing wireless Internet to theBrisbane City Council's CityCats.All CityCat passengers withwireless-enabled laptops will be ableto access the Brisbane City Counciland Translink websites for free.UQ Information TechnologyServices director Nick Tate saidthe new service was great news forCityCat passengers.“UQconnect is pleased to beable to offer this world-first service tostudents, staff and other passengers,”he said.“A wireless network on the CityCatmeans passengers can truly beconnected everywhere.”STEWART GOULDSTOCK.XCHNGTradition maintained$2.3 MILLION FORLANGUAGE LEARNINGAn Australian-first alliance betweenQueensland’s three largest universitieswill expand higher learning in a range ofAsian and European languages.With $2.27 million in Australian Governmentfunding, UQ, Griffith University and QueenslandUniversity of Technology (QUT) will pool teachingof at least nine languages so that their studentsmay learn them as part of formal studies.Students at all three institutions – whichtogether have about 110,000 enrolments – willbe able to major in Chinese, French, German,Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russianand Spanish. None of the universities currentlyoffers this range of languages.Success is in 2009 Queensland RhodesScholar Caitlin Goss’s genes.The UQ graduate was announced the winnerof the prestigious scholarship to Oxford Universityat Queensland Government House in November,edging out a field of highly-qualified candidatesfrom across the state.While Ms Goss is the daughter of formerQueensland Premier Wayne Goss and UQPhD candidate Roisin Goss, sister of 2007Queensland Rhodes Scholar Ryan Gossand granddaughter of 1927 scholar KonradHirschfeld, it is her strong academic achievementand personal qualities that made her stand outfrom the other 21 applicants.Ms Goss graduated from UQ with a Bachelorof Arts (first-class honours)/ Bachelor of Laws,and was awarded a University Medal in 2006.In September she will travel to OxfordUniversity to study a Bachelor of Civil Laws,allowing her to expand her knowledge of postconflictlaw reform.Ms Goss hoped her studies would allow herto help set up new legal systems in countriesrecovering from war.“I’m interested in law reform in general andin the immediate term see myself practicing thisoverseas in post-conflict situations,” she said.“In the longer term I’d love to come back toAustralia and apply what I’ve learned.”Ms Goss is UQ’s eighth Queensland RhodesScholar in a row.The system will begin to roll out thisyear following the government’s fundingannouncement in December.The alliance is the first of its kind involvingmultiple languages and three Australianuniversities. It arises from a determination by thethree Vice-Chancellors that major world languagesmust continue to be offered at university level inBrisbane, despite difficulties with enrolments.“If we applied accounting principles alonesome of these languages would disappearfrom university curricula,” UQ Vice-ChancellorProfessor Paul Greenfield said.“However the three universities’ bottom line isthat we can’t afford to see language scholarshipatrophy in Australia’s third biggest capital city.”2009 will also see another landmark languageevent when the Institute of Modern Languages(IML) celebrates its 75th anniversary later this year.Established in 1934 at UQ, IML has grownto become one of the country’s largest providersof comprehensive language instruction andtranslation and interpreting services.In 2009, 83 courses will be offeredin 26 different languages, withapproximately 3000 enrolments drawnfrom UQ staff, students and the generalpublic.IML director Georgiana Poulterwelcomed all past and presentstudents to contribute toanniversary celebrations,which will culminate in a galaevent in June.INFO ➔ www.iml.uq.edu.au