New Tricks

Reflections on a Life in Medicine and Tertiary Education

Richard Larkins

• Publisher: Monash University Publishing
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781922235442
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Medicine Biographies

"High above the hushed crowd, Rex tried to remain focused. Still, he couldn't shake one nagging thought: he was an old dog and this was a new trick." *** These words lay beneath a Gary Larson cartoon showing a dog riding a unicycle on a tightrope in a circus bigtop, while juggling balls with its front paws, swinging a hoop round its middle, balancing a jug on its head and holding a cat in its mouth. The card with the cartoon was sent to me by my long-time scientific colleague, Marjorie Dunlop, in 2003, to mark my transition from Dean of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne to Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash University. *** From the Foreword: "I had just turned 60 and this was indeed a new trick. I started writing these reflections three days after I completed my term [as Vice Chancellor] at Monash University. I was entering the next phase of my life. It would be studded with a variety of interesting and challenging part-time activities. I thought it an appropriate time to reflect on the tricks I have learnt both as a young dog and an old dog and the experiences I have had in an adult life time spent in medicine, research, health policy and higher education." *** What is the essence of leadership? In this book, Richard Larkins, a major figure of Australian science, medicine, and university administration, provides a rare and candid account of a life lived in the public eye, and of the philosophy Larkins has drawn upon to negotiate the personal and professional challenges that life has tossed in his direction. (Series: Biography) [Subject: Biography, Higher Education, Medicine]

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright and imprint information
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Preface
• Context
• Undergraduate at the University of Melbourne
• Internship and Clinical Training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
• London
• The Senior Medical Staff of the Royal Melbourne Hospital
• The Repatriation General Hospital Heidelberg
• Saudi Arabia, 1981
• The James Stewart Chair of Medicine, University of Melbourne, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
• China, 1985
• Casemix Funding and the ‘Crisis’ in the Hospitals in the 1990s
• Medical Education, the Medical Workforce and the Doherty Committee of Inquiry
• The Medical School Accreditation Committee of the Australian Medical Council
• Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and Reform of the Medical Curriculum
• ImageSet
• Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne
• Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council
• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Council and Indigenous Health
• President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• Appointment at Monash University
• Early Days at Monash University
• The End of the Honeymoon – Student Riots and a Flashback to the 1960s
• Administration and Finance
• Research and Scholarship
• Education
• The Victorian Campuses of Monash University
• Monash University Malaysia, Sunway Campus
• Monash South Africa
• Monash University in Europe
• IITB-Monash Research Academy, India
• Monash University in China
• Other International Activities of Monash University
• Universities Australia
• Farewell to Monash
• Life after Monash
• Final Reflections
• Index
• BackCover