Fed: education awards for Monash shooting heroes

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Fed: education awards for Monash shooting heroes

CANBERRA, Dec 3 AAP - Monash University lecturer Lee Gordon-Brown and tutor AlastairBoast were today presented with special education awards for their bravery during tragicshootings at their university in October.

The special awards were handed out by Education Minister Brendan Nelson at the AustralianAwards for University Teaching.

They were among eight special awards traditionally bestowed for excellence in teaching.

Two students were killed and five injured on October 21 in the Monash University lectureroom shooting, which ended when econometrics lecturer Dr Gordon-Brown and Mr Boast subduedthe gunman.

They also accepted awards on behalf of four others: Brett Inder, Andrew Swann, ColinThornby and Bradley Thompson.

Dr Nelson said Associate Professor Inder and a student, Bradley Thompson, also actedwith great courage, assisting Dr Gordon-Brown and Mr Boast until police arrived.

Another student, Andrew Swann, and university administrator Colin Thornby administeredlife-saving first aid at the scene.

"Today's recognition is a small mark of our gratitude on behalf of Australia's educationsector," Dr Nelson said in a statement.

Today's event also introduced a new award for 2002 to recognise outstanding work byan indigenous university teacher.

"Although the numbers are slowly rising, there are too few indigenous lecturers inour universities," Dr Nelson said.

"Of the 33,400 university academics only around 240 are indigenous.

"I support the calls by the National Tertiary Education Union and others for more tobe done to encourage increasing numbers of indigenous academics."

A new award, the Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Teacher of the Year, carryinga prize of $40,000, was presented for the first time.

The award was presented to joint winners - Larissa Behrendt of the Law and IndigenousStudies faculty at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Marcia Langton, foundationprofessor in Indigenous Australian Studies at Melbourne University.

Each receives a $40,000 grant.

The top honour is the Prime Minister's Award for University Teacher of the Year andthis also attracted joint winners - Peter O'Donoghue from Queensland University and LynneHunt from Edith Cowan University.

They each received a grant of $75,000 to continue work in their fields.

AAP dep/sw/jmd/bwl

KEYWORD: CAMPUS AWARDS