Meeting No 6/2004 of the Academic Board was held on Wednesday, 24 November 2004, in the Art & Design Lecturer Theatre, Art & Design Building, Caulfield campus, between 2:00pm and 5.30 pm.

There were present: Professors C Browne, Dr G Acquaah-Gaisie, Professor R Alfredson, Mr C Avram, Dr H Ballis, Professor B Caine, Dr D Casey, Professors C Chapman, M Clayton, Dr S Cockfield, Professor G Coleman, Dr B Cooke, Ms A Crook, Ms R Dhillon, Associate Professors A De Bono, T Dix, Dr B Doecke, Professors R Doherty, G Egan, M Evans, Associate Professor A Farley, Professor A Freiberg, Associate Professor L Frost, Professor J Godfrey, Ms C Harboe-Ree, Mr B Harding, Dr M Hau, Professors G Hodge, B Hoffert, Ms C Holgate, Professors K Hourigan, O Hughes, Associate Professor J Hurst, Ms K Jones, Mr M Josem, Professors S Joy, M King, K Langfield-Smith, R Larkins, M Liddell, Associate Professor M Lindorff, Professors C Lipsig-Mumme, A Lindsay, Dr J Lyneham, Professors MacFarlane, A Markus, Dr L McCall, Professor S McKemmish, Mr A McMeekin, Professor P Nagley, Dr R Nelson, Professors On Kit Tam, H Oppewal, Associate Professor M Page, Professors G Palmer, S Parker, Associate Professor S Petrovic-Lazarevic, Professors I Prince, J Redmond, Associate Professor P Reed, Dr G Romeo, Professors T Sridhar, B Srinivasan, P Steele, P Stewart, Ms K Styles, Dr G Taylor, Professors J Teicher, N Thomson, Dr S Ventura, Mr M Vincent, Professors P Von Nessen, M Wallace, J Walter, Mr D Watson, Professors G Webb, R Weber, B Williams, R Willis, S Willis, Mr T Wilson, Professor Xiao Ling Zhao.

Apologies were received from: Associate Professor H Abachi, Professor D Abramson, Dr O Akindemowo, Professors J Anderson, W Anderson, J Bertram, Mr P Bradley, Mr L Bull, Professors K Burridge, E Bryne, Associate Professor B Canney, Dr J Choate, Professors E Cornish, D de Kretser, M Fleer, P Gronn, Dr S Joseph, Professors Kendall, J Kenway, D Kirkpatrick, H Le Grand, Dr R Lisner, Professor B Mackenzie, Dr G Martin, Mr K Murray, Professors Norris, M O’Connor, Dr M Osborn, Professor L Piterman, Associate Professor C Porter, Professor D Poskitt, Associate Professor G Sanson, Professors J Sheridan, M Skully, J Smith, K Smith, Dr K Stewart, Professor E Storey, Professor B Tonge

Present by invitation: Mr R Dias, Mr J Levine and Ms P Sanderson

In attendance: Ms C Chatterton, Ms S Chong and Ms S Rose

The Chair, Professor Chris Browne welcomed those in attendance via teleconference from the Malaysia and South Africa campuses, new casual members of Academic Board, observers and those invited to attend. The Chair drew attention to tabled papers for items 4.2 and 4.7.2 and replacement pages 103 and 121 against item 18.1.

Members noted that some items had been starred in the agenda for discussion. No further items were starred at the meeting.

There were no confidential items on the agenda for this meeting.

Professor C Browne extended the congratulations of the Board to Ms Farnaz Sabet, 6^th year medical student who was named 2005 Victorian Rhodes Scholar and the fourth successive Monash student to win this award. Professor Browne thanked the outgoing student members and Professor Chris Cocklin, whose membership would cease at end 2004.

A paper was attached. (p 163-164)

Professor R Larkins spoke to his paper and informed the Board that the Vice-Chancellor’s Leadership Program had its genesis in discussions with the Vice-Chancellor’s Group (VCG) and the Committee of Deans. An advisory group had been set up to run the program which would commence with a small scale program to assist identified students to develop their leadership skills.

A paper was attached. (p 165 – 168)

Professor R Larkins informed the Board that this paper was prepared in response to a request from Council to develop a philosophy with regard to broad approaches to admissions for its Australian campuses. The basic philosophy would be to admit students of outstanding academic merit regardless of their financial or socio-economic background. The paper has been discussed at VCG.

A member of the Board noted that a group of students that make applications to transfer to Monash from other tertiary institutions did not seem to be represented in the paper.

The Vice-Chancellor also informed the Board that Federal Minister Brendan Nelson has been re-appointed as Minister for Education and Science. At a recent AVCC meeting, Dr Nelson expressed a willingness to take guidance and negotiate with the AVCC. The Vice-Chancellor advised that Dr Nelson made the distinction in regard to voluntary student unionism, that students would still be expected to contribute a sum of money to cater for essential student amenities, which was not a direct responsibility of universities. The Minister made reference to the Victorian model as a desirable type of outcome and emphasised a greater degree of accountability for the components of the amenities fee.

On the issue of industrial relations, the Minister had indicated a desire to give every worker an option of a workplace agreement, to enact a prohibition of bans on return of results and reaffirmed the right of individual staff members to have union representation.

In regard to any shift to the commonwealth from the states of direct legislative control of universities, the agreement of all states would be needed. The Minister also indicated that current universities would not be stopped from doing research but that new universities could be established as teaching-only universities.

The Vice-Chancellor updated the Board on the visit of Dr Jon Dellandrea, Vice-President and Chief Advancement Officer, University of Toronto, under whose leadership the University of Toronto had reached a $1 billion fundraising milestone over a period of 10 years. Dr Dellandrea felt that Monash could achieve similar results over a similar time period.

Professor Larkins was present at a well-attended alumni event in Malaysia and observed that the international policy that Monash had adopted had garnered a good result.

In relation to enterprise bargaining, the Vice-Chancellor informed the Board that every effort was being made to reach a resolution before the examination results were due to be released so that the students were not adversely affected. In the event that the matter was not resolved by the results release date, a global email would be circulated to confirm the arrangements that would be put in place.

Documentation was tabled at the meeting.

Mr J Levine, Divisional Director, Financial Resources Management and Mr R Dias, Deputy Director, Financial Resources Management, were in attendance.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources), Ms A Crook, spoke to a presentation and noted that the budget had been through the Resources and Finance Committee and was due to proceed to Council on 13 December. The Board noted that the 2005 budget had been prepared in a context of uncertainty in relation to:

• the availability of teaching and research funds;

• the impact of student demand with the introduction of fees;

• the increased competition; and

• a softening of demand from international students.

The current enterprise bargaining offer had been factored into the budget. Ms Crook outlined that the key challenges were to maintain enrolments and improve research standing in terms of revenue, expenditure and physical infrastructure.

Ms Crook drew attention to further integration of the budget with the planning process. An overall target for the university had been introduced which faculties could utilise for planning. Issues taken into account in budget preparation included the higher education reforms, additional scholarships and access pathways, a clear process for managing strategic initiatives and transparency around Monash’s controlled entities. For the first time there was an overall consolidated budget.

Ms Crook advised that in 2005 new steps linking central services with faculties would need to be taken. During the planning process, agreement on strategic initiatives would be reached with the faculties and time would be spent with each faculty to determine how strategic cost management was implemented within the faculty.

Ms Crook acknowledged the work of Mr John Levine and Mr Reynold Dias on the 2005 budget.

Members discussed issues in relation to the budget, including the timeline for identifying faculty strategic initiatives, identifying income by faculty and the Monash South Africa budget.

A paper was attached. (p 177 – 180)

Professor S Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, informed the Board that he has been working with Professor Merran Evans and Ms Michelle King on replacing Leading the Way and the Global Development Framework with the document Monash Directions 2025. The document is part-way through the debating and approval process. The process commenced in November 2003 at Committee of Deans, followed by 11 specialist workshops and was discussed at campus planning meetings, international self-review and research review forums. It would proceed to the Senior Management Committee, Administrative Heads Group and to Council in February 2005.

The process produced a number of key messages:

• sentiments of optimism and goodwill towards Monash from staff and students;

• lack of a single descriptor for its mission;

• questions raised about spreading itself too thin;

• the strategy heading in contradictory directions;

• staff dissatisfaction with the way the international aspirations were expressed;

• Monash, with its offshore campuses, lacked a global orientation; and

• a shorter document that defines Monash was essential.

In light of these messages, a document that was monothematic and could be similarly interpreted by any Monash community member was needed.

Professor Parker noted that the aspiration that now defined the character of Monash was, not to become a global university but, to be the very best in Australia, South Africa and Malaysia; to strengthen research; and to commit to admitting the very best students irrespective of their circumstances or means.

The Board noted the document includes a planning pyramid of the university with Monash Directions 2025 situated at the tip followed by the urban plans and the academic plans, including chapters for teaching and research and a campus planning document with chapters for each campus. Beneath this would be the supporting plans and at the base of the pyramid, annual plans and operational plans. There would be a cycle of review and revision to the plans.

Members discussed related matters, including:

• a lack of emphasis on teaching;

• use of the words "produces" and "who will do the same" in the ‘Aims’ statements;

• further emphasis on the nexus between teaching and research;

• replace "100% conformity by 2008" on page 189 with the words "100% are research engaged";

• the second paragraphs under each of the aims did not read well;

• the phrase "one of the best universities" in the ‘Aims’ statement; and

• ‘high quality campus experience’ in relation to off-campus learning students supported by other institutions.

A copy of the presentation was attached. (p 1 - 4)

Ms A Crook, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Resources), introduced this item, informing the Board that this was a 20-30 year vision for the development of the campus.

Ms P Sanderson, Chief Executive Officer, Monash Property Management, spoke to her presentation and highlighted current deficiencies including a second-rate uninviting entrance, mixed quality of buildings, cars mixed with pedestrians, lacklustre activities in the evening and on weekends, an unattractive western end of the campus, and limited greenery and landscaping. The initiatives of the urban plan included a new entrance off Dandenong Road, landscaping of the two courtyards, a multi-storey car-park, and expanded and upgraded buildings. A key feature included the re-development of the western end to incorporate commercial space, retail outlets, student accommodation and other residences for staff and visitors.

Responding to a query about access to the multi-storey car-park which is due to be operational in 2005, Ms Sanderson advised that permission has been obtained to access the car-park from Dandenong Road. More detailed information could be obtained from Ms Sanderson or Mr S Davey.

The Monash University Annual Plan 2005 was attached. (p 181 – 194)

Professor S Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, spoke to this item and informed the Board that this item arose in response to a request from Council for a snapshot of the university’s plans for the coming year and following comments by the auditor-general for universities’ lack of an annual plan.

The development of an annual plan would commence with the annual planning conference in February at which three to five priorities for the following calendar year would be identified. This would take into consideration existing plans, such as the Learning and Teaching Plan, which prescribed certain imperatives. New circumstances such as a new Act, audits etc would also be considered in devising the annual plan.

Members were concerned that there was insufficient opportunity for discussion of the annual plan and proposed a forum be held in 2005 for discussion.

Responding to a concern that the timeline from the Planning Conference in February till the meeting of the Vice-Chancellor’s Group with faculties in March/April was too close to allow consultation within faculties, Professor Parker indicated that faculties were welcome to submit proposals before the planning conference. Faculties would also receive a document in early 2005, outlining the nature of the visit of VCG to the faculties with a detailed timeline.

In response to a comment that the 10 values, 7 directions and 4 priorities in the various plans do not match up exactly, Professor Parker indicated that over the next few years an alignment between the documents would be achieved.

The Report of the TQAIC Review Panel and a summary of faculty implementation proposals were attached. (p 5 – 38)

TQAIC, in line with the agreed schedule of review of cooperative delivery programs, conducted a review of the Monash – TMC partnership program during 2003 and 2004. Professor A Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), outlined the context in which the TMC review was carried out which focussed on reviewing the operation of the contract, student performance and satisfaction, and financial viability. He drew attention to the list of recommendations, which were generally endorsed by faculties and TQAIC, with the exception of Recommendation 12.

In response to a comment in regard to the justification for a continued relationship with TMC and a strategy to be considered before the contract was renewed, Professor Lindsay stated that VCG (Quality) and VCG (International) would consider this report in a general discussion in regard to offshore partnerships.

Members commented that the strategic issues were very important and Recommendation 12 should not be endorsed till a discussion of the overall issue of management of such programs occurred with representation from the faculties involved with the review. There was a suggestion to set up a Centre in Singapore similar to the London Centre.

With reference to Recommendation 13, a member commented that Single Unit Enrolments were very important as an entry pathway for professional certificates and executive certificates.

A paper was attached (p 39 – 42).

Professor G Webb, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Quality), spoke to this item and informed the Board that student evaluation of units was not implemented across the system and an AUQA audit would look for evidence of unit evaluations. In order to be eligible to access the DEST Learning and Teaching Fund in 2006, Monash must provide evidence of student evaluation of units on its website. A common set of eight questions to cover the core areas in all unit evaluations had been carefully devised and faculties could compose up to 12 questions common to the faculty, but differing between faculties, with a rating scale for responses. In discussions with students, their main concern seemed to be getting useful feedback from surveys. The paper proposes running a unit evaluation every time a unit is taught.

In response to a question whether MonQuest could be used alternatively with unit evaluations, Professor Webb commented that MonQuest was a teaching evaluation tool and should not be used as an evaluation tool to see how units were run.

Responding to a query about the types of reports that would be available, Professor Webb stated that this was still being developed. A report to course coordinators and the teachers of the units was being considered, as well as a higher level report to Heads of Departments and Deans.

In response to concerns about the frequency of evaluation as some units were taught three times a year, it was decided that units that are taught more than once a year should be evaluated only once a year.

Responding to a query about resourcing implications in processing the surveys, Professor Webb stated that the costs of setting up the surveys have already been met and on-going costs in terms of software licences would be provided centrally.

In discussing this paper Board members made the following comments:

• Student evaluation was reactive, a proactive form of evaluation such as peer review should be considered;

• Question 3 could be broken up into two questions to get unambiguous data;

• Consistency of interpretation of the word "reasonable" in Question 4;

• Communication skills were difficult to assess and in some units not applicable, it did not ask the student about the lessons learnt. A suggestion to alter the question to read, "Did this unit help me to achieve the unit objectives?" may be more appropriate;

• A question whether students felt that the content of a unit was appropriate to what was advertised or expected should be included; and

• Common questions were useful from an audit perspective but from a quality improvement perspective, more unit-specific questions would be useful.

In response to concerns from members that the core set of questions needed further discussion and refinement at Education Committee/CADeT, it was decided that Professor Webb would submit this item for consideration early next year in order to reach a consensus on the questions, before being brought back to the 1/2005 meeting of Academic Board.

A paper was tabled.

Professor S Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, spoke to this paper, updating the Board on the 2004 results of three rankings of universities. The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World Ranking had Monash ranked 33, the Shanghai University Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities had ranked Monash 202 out of 301 and the Melbourne Institute Index of International Standing of Australian Universities had ranked Monash equal 6^th among Australian universities. Within Australia, Monash is 3^rd in the THES ranking and 7^th in the Jiao Tong ranking. Despite the differences in methodologies in each of the rankings, Professor Parker advised that when research performance is adjusted for the size of the university, Monash ranks 8^th in the GO8. Members were asked to refer any questions offline to Professors Evans and Parker.

There was no question time due to a very full agenda.

This item had been deferred from meeting 4/2004. A report entitled "Transforming scholarly communication: a Monash University perspective" was attached to agenda 4/2004 and re-attached to agenda 6/2004. (p 195 – 203)

Ms Cathrine Harboe-Ree, University Librarian, spoke to the report and updated the Board on developments since the paper was written in June 2004. The first two online titles, The Bible and Critical Theory and History Australia have been published in electronic press. There would be a formal launch of ePress as well as a launch of Applied GIS journal and the monograph Melbourne 2030 in March 2005. Monash is the lead institution for the DEST project known as ARROW to establish institutional repositories and citation indexing. The software has just been received and it would be going live in 2005. The Board also noted that DEST has taken a keen interest in the ARROW project. The Library recommended mandatory compulsory deposit of theses and the commencement of retrospective digitising project. The public would only be exposed to the abstract of thesis while the Monash community would retain full access rights to the entire thesis. Ms Harboe-Ree expressed her willingness to attend forums to speak in greater depth.

In response to a query about the relationship with publishers about copyright, Ms Harboe-Ree stated that the Library had written to publishers requesting blanket approval, some have granted it and some have granted approval on a case-by-case basis.

Responding to a question whether electronic journals would be available with ISI, Ms Harboe-Ree answered in the affirmative.

This item had been deferred from meeting 4/2004. The Monash University Library Annual Report 2003 was attached to agenda 4/2004. The report highlighted major achievements for the year and provided statistics on the library collection and services. Noteworthy developments in 2003 included:

This item originated from item 25 of the agenda. A paper was attached. (p 43 – 44)

Ms Rhea Dhillon, elected undergraduate student member of Academic Board, spoke to this item and informed the Board that although this is a localised issue in a school of the faculty, students have identified the role that Assistant Lecturers play as very important in their education at an undergraduate level.

A report was attached. (p 45 – 48)

A report was attached. (p 53 – 56)

A report was attached. (p 57 – 62)

A proposal was attached. ( p 65 – 66)

Reports were attached. ( p 67 – 70)

A report was attached. (p 71 – 76)

A report was attached. (p 77 – 84)

A report was attached. (p 81 – 82)

A proposal was included in the report of meeting 6/2004. (p 83 – 84)

A report was attached. ( p 85 – 92)

A report was attached. (p 93 – 102)

A proposal was attached. (p 103 – 124)

The amendments, approved by Education Committee 5/04, related to name changes, renumbering and specific changes in relation to misconduct.

A report from Professor E Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), was attached. (p 125 – 142)

A report from Professor S Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, was attached. (p 143 – 150)

A proposal from Professor C Browne, President of Academic Board, was attached. (p 151 – 152)

A document was attached. (p 153 – 154)

A document was attached. (p 205 – 208))

23 ACADEMIC BOARD MEMBERSHIP

The following casual vacancies exist on Academic Board as at meeting 6/2004:

• Ms Julie Adams Art & Design until 30 June 2006

• Dr. Geoff Romeo Education until 30 June 2006

• Professor Mark Wallace Information Technology until 30 June 2006

In accordance with Statute 2.2 – The Academic Board (section 7), a casual vacancy in the office of an elected member occurs where a member is absent from three consecutive meetings without special leave granted by the Board at or before the last of those meetings.

A request has been received for special leave from:

• Professor Elsdon Storey Medicine 6/2004 &1-4/2005

• Professor Kim Langfield-Smith Business & Economics 1-3/2005

A report was attached. (p 159 – 162)

A paper submitted by a student member of Academic Board was attached. (p 43 – 44)

This item was starred and was included under item 6.1 of the agenda.

A proposal submitted by the Board of the Faculty of Business and Economics was attached. (p 169 – 176)

27.3 Selection Committee for a Professor of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences RMO2002/0435

Academic Board nominated Professor Merran Evans to be the professorial representative of the Board on the Selection Committee for a Professor of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Academic Board nominated Professor Merran Evans to be the professorial representative of the Board on the Selection Committee for a Professor of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

The next meeting of the Academic Board will be held on Wednesday, 23 February 2005 from 2.15pm – 4:30 pm in the Council Chambers, Administration Building 3A, Clayton Campus.