Heinz Harant Challenge Prize for General Education
Looking at Commerce Through a Telescope

Nicola Flint wins for Astronomy!

Media Release - School of Physics The University of New South Wales Wednesday 30th September 1998

Studying commerce and pondering the universe might seem an unusual mix of disciplines for study, but for UNSW student Nicola Flint the combination has proved a winning formula. The 19-year-old Bachelor of Commerce student completed Astronomy last session as a subject in the compulsory General Education component of her Commerce degree. On September 28, she was awarded UNSW's Heinz Harant Prize for innovative work she undertook in the subject - compiling a journal of media articles on astronomy and commenting on the articles from diverse perspectives.

The Heinz Harant Prize of $1,000 is awarded twice a year to a student in the UNSW General Education Program. It commemorates one of the University's earliest alumni and most devoted supporters, the late Heinz Harant (BE), a long-serving member of the University Council and board member of University Union until his death in 1992. The prize recognises challenging and original thinking in work submitted for assessment in a General Education subject because, as the prize guidelines state, "challenging orthodoxy was the driving spirit of Heinz Harant's life".

According to Nicola' supervisor in Astronomy, Dr Michael Burton, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Physics, who nominated her for the prize, Nicola's journal showed a thoughtfulness in approach that showed she was prepared to challenge accepted views with well constructed reasoning. Nicola's tasks included doing and exam on the coursework, gathering a portfolio of astronomy articles from the popular press and commenting on the articles, giving an oral presentation of her observations, and conducting some astronomical observations. "The students were required to comment on the articles they found in the print media and to give their interpretation of the subject matter and their insights into the style and aims of the journalism used in the articles. Nicola performed this exceptionally well. Her submission demonstrated the considerable effort she put into the course and the educational benefit she gained from it," Dr Burton said.

Nicola leapt at the chance to study astronomy. "I've always been interested in astronomy but never had the opportunity to study it, so this seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a try," she said. "I have always had a particular interest in the planets. When I was younger, we used to sit around the kitchen table and my dad would demonstrate the movement of the planets with oranges and the apples. We'd talk about the planets going around the sun and I was always fascinated by the way gravity seemed to keep everything in such perfect control." Nicola's early interest in astronomy was challenged by her interest in commerce which, perhaps wisely, she chose to study at university. Fortunately, she chose UNSW, which is committed to giving students another field of study outside the course they have selected, in the belief that a general education complements specialised learning and contributes to the flexibility graduates are increasingly to show during their careers.

Dr Jessica Milner Davis, President of the Alumni Association, UNSW Council member and a friend of the Harant family, said: "Heinz was a remarkable individual whose selfless contribution to the life of the university is appropriately commemorated in this prize." In her journal Nicola made links between commerce and astronomy. She examined aspects of each discipline from the vantage point of the other, asking, for example, whether some areas of astronomical research could be justified in economic terms. "I thoroughly enjoyed being able to study something just because I was interested and was not driven by career implications. This was something I could study for enjoyment. It was the chance to learn something for learning's sake," she said. Perhaps influenced by her excursion into astronomy, Nicola is now studying the marine environment. Next, she plans to study Earth's functioning as a dynamic planet. "In a practical sense all industries need commerce graduates, so I could end up working in any one of these fields," she said. Note: General Education will take another step into the outer reaches of human imagination in 1999, when Dr John Webb and other astronomers will present a course called "Are we alone?" which will explore the possibilities of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Can it exist, and if it does, would we recognise it? Would it recognise us?

Rory McGuire
Journalist, Public Affairs & Development
UNSW

Further Information

• Dr Michael Burton