The Birth of Information Systems - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 207

Currently (2010) there are more than 63,000 enrolled students, including 21,000 in-
ternational students representing more than 100 countries. The heritage of starting as a
union supported college for working men has seen the university orientate itself in
such a way where curriculum and applied research are heavily influenced by current
industrial practice.
The clear industrial orientation and interest in applied rather than pure research
provides an interesting beginning and backdrop to the history of the creation of in-
formation systems programs. The story of curriculum development presented in this
narrative involves academics who were recruited to the University because of their
industrial experience rather than because of their traditional academic experiences
such as research, publications and grant success.
1.2 Method
This history was constructed from original documents such as brochures, Faculty of
Business handbooks, course guides and internal university documents. Face to face
interviews were also conducted with Cliff Forester, Audra Lukaitis and Stasys (Stas)
Lukaitis. Cliff Forester was employed by the University after leaving Caulfield Insti-
tute in 1965 to help teach in the courses set up by Brian O'Donoghue as part of the
then accounting degree. Audra Lukaitis and Stasys Lukaitis worked for different parts
of the University, and were brought together by the formation of the new department
of business information systems, on the centenary of RMIT's opening, 1987. This
means that they were able to observe the evolution of existing courses into degree
programs in information systems first hand.
1.3 Setting the Scene - Before the Department
RMIT was considered to be a college of advanced education (CAE) (the same mission
as a polytechnic) headed by director Brian W. Smith and associate director David
Beanland who subsequently became the vice Chancellor when University status is
achieved in 1992 along with the amalgamation with Philip Institute of Technology
(PIT).
The history of computing at RMIT commences in 1962 with the lease of an Elliot
803 computer [2]. In 1986 the “Faculty of Business” (subsequently the Business Port-
folio and now College of Business) was composed of the Department of accountancy,
the Department of administrative studies and the Department of applied economics. In
the first instance the Department of accountancy employed some people from industry
to deal with the problem of students, particularly postgraduate students, wanting to be
able to manage, oversight, implement or participate in the introduction of data proc-
essing equipment and systems into their organisations.
Eventually there were enough people to create a data processing group and for a
leader of that group to the employed. The first leader was Cliff Forester who became
so disenchanted with administrative tasks that he applied for leave to undertake a
Masters in computing at the University of Texas. His replacement, Brian
O'Donaghue, took the data processing group, now considerably enlarged because of
the demand for courses, into the newly created Department of administrative studies.