More than a quarter of students training at the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia have a rural background, the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia, Professor Alan Robson, said today.

“It is significant in that not only are we attracting some of the State’s top medical students to The University of Western Australia but, we are also ensuring that students who’ve grown up in regional WA are keen to go back and study there,” Professor Robson said.

Australian political history expert David McKnight will discuss progressive politics in Australia in the University Club Theatre Auditorium, at 6pm next Tuesday, July 24, 2007, as part of the inaugural New Critic Lecture Series.

An Associate Professor in Humanities at the University of Technology, Sydney, he will argue that progressive Australians can and should develop a new social and political vision.

A new approach to fertiliser management that investigates how different wheat and canola genotypes respond to fertilisers will help graingrowers develop better nutrient management practices and reduce the financial and environmental costs of wasted fertiliser.

The University of Western Australia will host one of the world’s leading mathematical physicists for a fascinating exploration of what happened before the Big Bang.

Sir Roger Penrose was knighted in 1994 for his extraordinary service to science and is the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University.

A new Perth production of Oscar Wilde’s beloved play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ features a remarkable family connection to the original 1895 London production.

Peter Clark, who will play Jack Worthing in the Graduate Dramatic Society production at The University of Western Australia’s Dolphin Theatre from July 27-28 and August 1-4 and 8-11, is the great, great nephew of Allan Aynesworth, who played Algernon in the original production at the St James Theatre more than a century ago.

Challenges associated with climate change will require diverse and strategic approaches to ensure both long and short term goals can be met, according to Professor Alistar Robertson, Dean of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at The University of Western Australia.

“Understanding the complexity and impact of climate change requires a cross disciplinary approach from all the sciences and even the professions. At UWA, our academics and researchers are keen to assist in that process of understanding,” Professor Robertson said.

Professor Susan Prescott, whose research at The University of Western Australia is helping to unravel the causes of allergic diseases in children attending her clinics, will pay tribute to an intrepid grandmother, Lady Monica Prescott – a medical missionary in war-torn China in the 1930s – at a fund-raising function at UWA later this month.

A stellar line-up of local, national and international speakers will gather at The University of Western Australia next month to focus on the complex and sometimes vexed issue of Muslim inclusion in the Western world.

UWA’s Centre for Muslim States and Societies, in conjunction with the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), is hosting the three-day 2007 Fulbright Symposium ‘Muslim Citizens in the West: Promoting Social Inclusion’, at The University Club from August 1 to August 3.