Governance Services Quality Assurance and Compliance Officer Bonnie Liu discusses her love for music and the creative arts.

Work stuff
I’ve been at Macquarie for…
Ten years. My first job at Macquarie was as a casual part-timer in postgraduate student completions.

In a nutshell, my job is to…
Engage in and support an array of Quality Assurance and Compliance (QA&C) activities of the University, ranging from ESOS (Education Services for Overseas Students Act) compliance monitoring and reporting, CRICOS (Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students) registration, WWCC (Working with Children Check) verification, to QA&C related reviews of ASQC/Academic Senate.

The question I hear most often in my work is…
“Has the course got a CRICOS code yet?”

The top three things on my to-do list today are…
1. Finalise WWCC verifications for 800+ students.
2. Prepare a CRICOS application for a new course.
3. Catch up on missed episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale.

If I could do any other job at Macquarie (with instant qualifications/knowledge) it would be…
I have always been fascinated by ancient history and it would be unreal to have the opportunity to get my hands dirty in an international archaeological excavation expedition.

A Macquarie staff member who impressed me last week…
Retiring Associate Professor Pamela Coutts (Associate Dean, Curriculum Quality Assurance, Faculty of Human Sciences) for her incredible contribution to Macquarie and the many lives she had inspired, over her long association with Macquarie. We wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement.

I get my campus coffee fix from …
Taste Baguettes at the Campus Common, a pre-requisite to starting a new day at work.

If you were given $50 million to create or build something at Macquarie, what would you do with it?
A creative arts centre with professional working and rehearsal spaces, and performance venues and facilities.

Personal life
My ethnic heritage is…
I was born in Hong Kong and moved to Sydney with my family as a teenager.

My favourite subject at school was…
Equal favourites: maths and music

Outside work, you’ll often find me…
Chatting to the young people at my church’s Friday night youth group, being their mentor, advisor and friend. Yes, face-to-face as opposed to virtually!

I’m really looking forward to…
Our 20th wedding anniversary next year. Maybe a trip somewhere, without the kids, to celebrate the milestone.

The most amazing place I’ve ever visited is…
Milford Sound in New Zealand, simply beautiful with its breathtaking scenery of mountains and water.

If I could have dinner with anyone (living or dead) it would be…
Frédéric Chopin, one of my favourite composers from the Romantic period, and I would invite him to play one of his nocturnes after dinner if there’s a piano nearby.

The last great book I read was…
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, although the musical based on the book is still my favourite. I’ve watched it three times, twice in Sydney and once in London.

In 10 years from now, I hope to be…
Happy, healthy, wise and thankful.