With medical research requiring millions of dollars of funding every year, and a climate of diminishing government funding, universities are increasingly seeking out philanthropists and donors to support their work.
At Macquarie we have invested significantly in building relationships with valued partners that share our vision to provide an integrated approach to holistic patient treatment, discovery and continuous learning. The University’s MQ Health initiative is the first of its kind in Australia, and built around clinical programs committed to all three aspects of Heal, Learn, Discover.
A recent gift to the University shows that sometimes we don’t have to look very far for support of this vision.
A group of seven doctors in our own Macquarie Neurosurgery team recently donated $133,000 to the University to enable new research and global collaboration in the study and treatment of the human brain.
Professor Marcus Stoodley, Program Head for Neurosciences, says the donation illustrates how passionate Macquarie Neurosurgery is about improving health outcomes.
“There is a real commitment among our surgeons to develop and promote improvements in clinical care,” he says.
Professor Patrick McNeil, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, notes that the donation – which has already funded the hire of a postdoctoral clinical research fellow – will help the University build on our achievements in neurosurgery research.
“It will allow us to accelerate our progress in this area and affirm our reputation for excellence in neurosurgery both clinically and academically,” he says.
The surgeons’ donation – though notably significant – is not the only example of Macquarie staff personally supporting the University’s activities, notes Paul Dennett, Executive Director in the Office of Advancement.
“Each year we see Macquarie staff generously supporting initiatives such as student scholarships through our workplace giving scheme, as well as initiating their own informal fundraising activities to support our research in areas like motor neurone disease,” he says.
“It’s wonderful that so many Macquarie staff feel so passionately about making a positive difference.”
PLEASE NOTE my initial post below (at the bottom) has a typo in it – remove the word “not” from the first paragraph – I’ve resent with the correction.
Admin: Could you delete the post with the error, thanks.
This donation to the University is very valuable and the motivation for donating is to be greatly admired. I would be the first to acknowledge that the team featured above are doing fantastic work both professionally and in terms of their philanthropy – good on you all and thank you for supporting the University’s work.
However, my first thought on seeing the above photo was, “Wow, Macquarie surgeons demonstrate the gendered nature of neurosurgery.”
Are our other specialist teams this gender-exclusive? I was wondering whether you just forgot to ask the women along to the party, but on viewing the Neurosurgery website I see that all of our nine neurosurgeons are male and both Fellows and Clinical Scholars are male. Of the two Associate Specialists, one is male, one female. But – GUESS WHAT? – the two NURSES are women! And ALL EIGHT ADMINISTRATORS!!
Amazing.
As I’ve acknowledged above, the donation is great news – no taking away from that! But the photo and staffing data on the team’s website do invite the question of what are these men (and the University) doing about getting more women into their specialisation? And please – let’s not hear the same tired old excuses that “we can’t find any qualified women” or “women don’t apply”. Let’s see some inclusive ACTION on gender equity.
Here’s a thought: How about Macquarie takes the lead in the area of gender equity in the medical specialisations, as well as in medical research and teaching? Maybe the University could sponsor a special “talent spotting” and mentoring program to provide pathways for women into the specialisations.