Academic Board Meeting 1-2008

MINUTES

Meeting No 1/2008 of the Academic Board was held on Wednesday 27 February 2008, from 3:30pm-5:30pm, in the Council Chambers, First floor, Building 3A, Clayton campus.

There were present:
Professor Jayne Godfrey (Chair), Professors David Abramson, Sam Adeloju, David Arnott, Greg Barton, John Beardall, Ms Joan Benjamin, Drs Gideon Boas, Ross Booth, Ben Boyd, Professors Robert Brooks, Colette Browning, Dr Sue Burney, Associate Professor Ben Canny, Professor Ray Cas, Dr Des Casey, Professors Keryn Chalmers, Bill Charman, Iain Clarke, Val Clulow, Dr Sandra Cockfield, Associate Professor Brian Cooke, Professor Edwina Cornish, Mr Max Coulthard, Professor Wendy Cross, Dr Gloria Davies, Ms Nupur Desai, Professors Rodney Devenish, Richard Doherty, Merran Evans, Associate Professors Graham Farr, Julie Fisher, Professor Rae Frances, Mark Gabbott, Associate Professor Trevor Gale, Professor David Garrioch, Ms Catherine Harboe-Ree, Ms Robyn Harris, Professor Owen Hughes, Associate Professor John Hurst, Professor Christian Jakob, Ms Dash Jayasuriya, Mr Colin Jevons, Associate Professor Sally Joy, Professors Peter Kershaw, Max King, Paul Komesaroff, Kim Langfield-Smith, Steven Langford, Richard Larkins, Dr Chandani Lokuge, Professor Tony Luff, Dr Joy Lyneham, Professors Andrew Markus, Dennis Moore, Ross Mouer, David Murphy, Dr Simone Murray, Professors Robert Norris, Harmen Oppewal, Associate Professor Michael Page, Dr Annamaria Pagliaro, Ms Alexandra Phelan, Ms Phuong Dzung Pho, Professors Marilyn Pittard, Robin Pollard, Tyrone Pretorious, Ian Prince, Dr MaryLou Rasmussen, Professors John Redmond, Julian Rood, Dr Grace Rumantir, Professors Adam Shoemaker, Michael Skully Tam Sridhar, Phillip Steele, Elsdon Storey, Peter Sullivan, David Suter, Dr Wendy Sutherland-Smith, Professors On Kit Tam, Nigel Tapper, Julian Teicher, Drs Cristina Varsavsky, Sabatino Ventura, Mr David Watson, Professors Geoff Webb, Ron Weber, Rob Willis, Dr Rita Wilson, Professors William Young, Xiao-Ling Zhao, Ingrid Zukerman.

Apologies were received from:
Dr Phil Andrews, Associate Professor Jean Armstrong, Harry Ballis, Ms Becky Batagol, Professors Barbara Caine, Helen De Cieri, Tony Dingle, Peter Disler, Stephanie Fahey, Graeme Hodge, Bernard Hoffert, Arthur Lowery, Dr Susan Mayson, Mr Alan McMeekin, Dr Bronwyn Naylor, Professor Leon Piterman, Martin Rhodes, Peter Schelluch, Patrick Sexton, John Sheridan, Julian Smith, Amrik Sohal, Leone Spicca, Mr Evgeny Vizelman, Professor Mark Wallace, Associate Professor Igor Wendt, Professors Stephen Wesselingh, Bryan Williams. Special Leave: Dr Mita Bhattacharya, Professor Chris Browne, Associate Professor Maryanne Dever, Professor Donald Poskitt, Dr Jan Schapper, Professor Graham Webb. Observers: Mr Tony Calder, Ms Natalie Mitchell, Mr Robert Barrett, Ms Clare Holland, Mr Alan Peterson Professors Walter Wong, Pua Eng-Chong, Lee Poh Aun, Anuar Zaini, Ron Edwards (Malaysia)

Invited:

In attendance:
Ms R Hinds

A PROCEDURAL MATTERS

1 WELCOME

Professor Jayne Godfrey welcomed members to the meeting including members attending the meeting by teleconference from the Malaysia and South Africa campuses. A special welcome was also extended to:

• Dr Annamaria Pagliaro (Director, Prato Centre) who was attending in person. 
• Professor Rod Hill, PVC (Industry Engagement & Commercialisation), attending his first Board meeting.
• New and re-nominated Board members, including six (6) student members.

On behalf of the Board, Professor Godfrey wished Ms Robyn Harris well in her new appointment at Victoria University and thanked her for her contribution to Quality at Monash, including preparations for the AUQA, South African and Malaysian audits.

1.1 Alterations to the Agenda and Starring of Items

Professor Godfrey informed members of the following alterations:

• Item 3.1 (Priorities 2009-2013) – a document had been sent to members with the second set of papers last week.
• Item 4.1 (Vice-Chancellor’s Report) a paper had been emailed to members last week and hard copies were available at the meeting.
• Item 4.2.1 (Education Portfolio) – members had been provided with a tabled paper and copy of slide. 
• There was a new item 4.2.3 (Shanghai Jiao Tong Field Rankings) – members had been provided with a tabled paper.
• An amendment was foreshadowed to Item 4.5 (Academic Promotions - Professorial Promotions Committees), Section 7.1.2 (agenda papers page 107).
• Professor Chris Browne (Gippsland Medical School - Meeting 1/2008); Dr Jan Schapper (BusEco, Meetings 1-3/2008) were to be added to the list of members applying for – Special Leave (Item 7.1). 
• Professor Xiao-Ling Zhao (Engineering - to 30/6/2008) was to be added to the list of new members (Item 7.2).

1.2 Approval of Non-Starred Items

Items 9.2, 9.3 and 9.4 (Policy Development and Review) were starred.

The recommendations of the Steering Committee were adopted without discussion for all items other than those starred. C 1.3 Confidential Items There were no confidential items.

2 MINUTES

2.1 Minutes of Academic Board Meeting 7/2007

The Minutes of Academic Board Meeting 6/2007, held on 21 November 2007, were confirmed.

B STARRED ITEMS

3 PRESIDENT'S BUSINESS

3.1 President's Report

Academic Board

The President addressed the Board on her vision for 2008-2009, contextualising the presentation within the rapidly changing field of higher education, Monash’s history and status, and reaffirming her commitment to ensuring a strong, pro-active Board, one which addressed important academic issues in a timely fashion and made significant contribution to driving the strategies of the University.

Emphasising the importance of member input, the President outlined a range of initiatives that would be implemented during 2008, including:

• Debate on high-level "hot topics".
• A program of guest speakers on matters of academic significance.
• Environmental scanning, to ensure members were informed of the broader context in which the Board conducts its business.
• Restructuring the way in which the business of the Board was conducted, with a view to improving focus and accountability.

Priorities for the coming year would include:

• Working collaboratively with key standing committees/portfolios to ensure the highest standards of quality, impact and recognition of Monash’s educational and research offerings.
• Improving communication and reporting to and from the Board, not only in terms of formal reporting structures, but also within the wider Monash community.
• A review of the Board’s composition – a small working party would be constituted to develop an options paper for further consideration by the Board – and a contiguous review of the Board‘s committee structures.

Monash University Priorities for 2009-2013

Introducing the University Priorities previously approved by Council at its Meeting 1/2008, the President emphasised that these should not be regarded as separate from the University’s vision or values, but rather as a set of priorities designed to facilitate progress towards the University’s aims over the next five years.

The Board noted that:

• Behind the terminology employed by the priorities lay a range of strategies and initiatives being developed to lift Monash to a higher level in education and research.
• When faculties and departments built their operational plans, it was expected that special emphasis would be put on planning to achieve the priorities.
• It was intended that engagement with Government be incorporated within the Priority 2 descriptor (Engage more effectively with business and industry).
• Priority 3 (Develop Clayton Precinct as science, technology and innovation centre) focussed on the Clayton/South Eastern area as a whole, not just Monash’s Clayton campus.

Academic Board:

• Received and noted the report of the President.
• Endorsed the Monash University Priorities for 2009-2013.

For information: Professor J Godfrey, Professor R Larkins.

3.2 Monash Response to Parliamentary Apology

Academic Board noted that Council had resolved as follows:

For information: Professor A Shoemaker, Mr A Calder.

3.3 Academic Board Evaluation

The President introduced this item by thanking those members who had responded and encouraging a better rate of response to the next evaluation. She also noted that many of the suggestions made in the open-ended comments had been adopted and that working with the Terms of Reference would be a key issue for the Board going forward.

Academic Board received the Report of the 2007 Academic Board evaluation and noted the advice of the President.

For information: Professor J Godfrey

4 VICE-CHANCELLOR AND PORTFOLIO REPORTS

4.1 Vice Chancellor

Members had before them the Vice-Chancellor’s written report.

In addition to the matters reported therein, Professor Larkins:

• Recorded his thanks to Associate Professor Harry Ballis for his stewardship of the Gippsland campus as Acting PVC.
• Noted that his address to the Melbourne Press Club was accessible via the Monash home page.
• Referred to his recent discussion with the State Minister for Education regarding the establishment of a second select entry public school on the Berwick campus.
• Reported on a range of high-level international and State Government visitors to Monash over the past few days.

Academic Board received and noted the report of the Vice-Chancellor.

For information: Professor R Larkins

4.2 Education Portfolio

4.2.1 DVC (Education) Report

Professor Shoemaker spoke to a range of initiatives planned for the Education Portfolio, including:

• Learning Spaces Initiative, which aimed, inter alia, to facilitate the convergence of pedagogy and technology and which was already funding several projects, with further expressions of interest to be sought shortly.
• Post-Coursework Review directions, including the need to evaluate a range of units either with low enrolments/not taught in the last few years, or in those disciplines where the same content was taught by more than one campus/faculty.
• The need for the educational model going forward to articulate very clearly the distinctive nature of Monash program offerings. To this end, feedback was sought on the proposed Monash Passport Programs, which aimed to reform Honours at Monash through a range of initiatives such as bridging and enhancement programs; pro bono work and internships; cohort programs; and more flexible/individually tailored honours programs. The Education Committee would act as the Project Steering Group and Academic Board would be consulted on an ongoing basis.

The Board was supportive of the Passport concept, noting that:

• The scaleability of initiatives proposed by the project required consideration.
• The flexibility proposed by the programs was a point of differentiation.
• The PhB was an exciting prospect for students, and would provide opportunities for them to be challenged and advanced.
• There may be cases where, due to the need to protect the brand of existing, well-regarded Honours qualifications, introduction of the title “PhB” should be re-considered.
• It was not intended that the program be restricted to a few students only, but rather designed to provide a “trickle down” effect and lift the entire cohort.
• There was potential for the project to be extended to include offshore locations e.g. Prato.

For information: Professor A Shoemaker

4.2.2 Early Assessment and Feedback

Academic Board noted:

• the importance of early assessment and provision of feedback to first year undergraduate students;
• that this principle would be incorporated into a revised Coursework Assessment Policy and Procedures.

Academic Board also endorsed the recommendation that faculties consider how to best incorporate the above principles into their assessment practices for first year students.

For information: Professors A Shoemaker, M Evans

4.3 Research Portfolio

4.3.1 DVC (Research) Report

Academic Board deferred consideration of this item to Meeting 2/2008.

For information: Professor E Cornish

4.4 International Portfolio

4.4.1 DVC (International) Report

Academic Board received and noted the Report of the DVC (International).

For information: Professor S Fahey

4.5 Academic Promotions 2008

The Board had before it the draft Procedures for Academic Promotions (2008), noting that a range of amendments had been made to the 2007 version as a result of feedback received during their year of operation.

Areas of debate by members on the Procedures included:

The process of consultation, in particular the need for earlier discussion with key stakeholders during the Procedures’ developmental phase.

• A number of issues relating to the composition of Promotions Committees, including the difficulty in their organisation.
• The weighting for leadership roles undertaken by applicants, especially for promotion to Professor.

The Board then:

• Approved the Academic Promotions Procedures in principle, subject to amendments relating to matters of fact or grammar.
• Approved addition of the President, Academic Board to the membership of the University professorial promotions committee.
• Affirmed that the right of the relevant authority to waive certain requirements relating to membership of promotions committees be exercised as appropriate.
• Recommended that the Procedures be analysed with a view to determining whether there were matters of policy requiring review, and that such matters be brought before the Strategy and Resources Committee for consideration, and thence to the Board.
• Directed that future Academic Promotions Procedures be considered by the Strategy and Resources Committee prior to their transmission to the Board.

For information: Professors J Godfrey, A Shoemaker, R Norris, Ms M A Gallagher, Ms J Pope.

4.6 Question Time

It was suggested that further consideration be given to the conduct of Board meetings, including the start time and time allocated to individual agenda items.

5 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

There were no matters arising from the Minutes.

6 ITEMS FROM SECTIONS C - E

6.1 HDR Candidature: Academic and Administrative Complaints Procedures (item 9.1)

This item was starred by Steering Committee.

At its Meeting 10/2007, the Research Graduate School Committee approved the amended HDR Candidature: Academic and Administrative Complaints Procedures.

Professor Rod Devenish introduced this item by noting that the document before the Board represented greatly improved procedures, including an additional avenue of appeal to the Research Graduate School Committee.

Academic Board noted the HDR Candidature: Academic and Administrative Complaints Procedures

For information: Professor R Devenish, Ms A Hussar

6.2 Course Structure Policy and Procedures (Item 9.2)

This item was starred at the commencement of the meeting.

During discussion on the draft Course Structure Policy and Procedures, members raised concern at the mix of Master’s degrees currently on offer at Monash. In particular, members expressed concern at the inclusion of undergraduate level units of study.

The Board was advised that the debate as to what constituted a Master’s degree was an issue critical for the Education Portfolio to address.

As a result of discussion, Academic Board:

• Adopted the Course Structure Policy as being largely a codification of existing practice and to enable the enrolment of students.
• Referred the issue of “what is a Masters degree?” to Education Committee for preliminary discussion, and return to the Board for debate at an appropriate stage.
• Noted the Course Structure Procedures.

For information: Professor M Evans, Ms C Holland, Ms N Mitchell, Mr K Williamson

6.3 ESOS Policies and Procedures (items 9.3, 9.4)

This item was starred at the commencement of the meeting.

At the suggestion of the PVC Sunway campus, the Board agreed to amend the draft ESOS Student under Age 18 Policy and ESOS Student Transfer between Registered Providers Policy to extend the policies’ coverage to the offshore campuses, by including in the definition of “international student”:

“a person within/outside Australia who holds a student visa as defined by the ESOS Act” and including a reference to the Migration Regulations.

Academic Board approved with amendment the:

• ESOS Student under Age 18 Policy,
• ESOS Student Transfer between Registered Providers Policy; and noted the accompanying Procedures.

For information: Professors R Pollard, M Evans, Ms N Mitchell, Ms C Holland, Mr R Barrett, Mr K Williamson

C ITEMS FOR APPROVAL

7 GOVERNANCE

7.1 Special Leave

Academic Board approved requests for special leave from:

For information: Professors D Suter, Professor G Webb, D Poskitt, Assoc Prof M Dever, Drs M Bhattacharya, J Schapper, Ms R Hinds

7.2 Nominations to vacancies on Academic Board

Academic Board approved the following nominations to fill vacancies for the terms specified:

For information: Professors K Chalmers, J Keating, P Schelluch, X L Zhao, Assoc Profs J Armstrong, W Cross, K Stewart, Dr S Mayson, Ms B Batagol, Ms Dzung Pho, Ms J Benjamin, Ms R Hinds

7.3 Nominations to casual vacancies on Steering Committee of Academic Board

Academic Board approved the following nominations to fill casual vacancies on Steering Committee for the terms specified:

For information: Professor G Webb, Dr C Varsavsky, Ms R Hinds

7.4 Membership of Education Committee

Academic Board approved amendment to the membership of Education Committee to include a representative of the Academic Advisory Board, Sunway campus and a representative of the Board of Studies, Monash South Africa.

For information: Ms C Holland

8 COURSE DEVELOPMENT

This is a standing item; no submissions were received for this meeting.

9 POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND REVIEW

9.1 HDR Candidature: Academic and Administrative Complaints Procedures

Starred by Steering Committee and considered at item 6.1.

9.2 Course Structure Policy and Procedures

Starred and considered at item 6.2.

9.3 ESOS Student under Age 18 Policy and Procedures

Starred and considered at item 6.3.

9.4 ESOS Student Transfer between Registered Providers Policy and Procedures

Starred and considered at item 6.3.

9.5 Collaborative Coursework Arrangements Policy and Procedures

Academic Board:

Approved the Collaborative Coursework Arrangements Policy.

Noted the Collaborative Coursework Arrangements Procedures

9.6 Grading Scale Policy and Procedures

Academic Board:

Approved the Grading Scale Policy.

Noted the Grading Scale Procedures.

For information (all policy items): Ms C Holland, Ms N Mitchell, Mr K Williamson

10 ESTABLISHMENT AND DISESTABLISHMENT OF CENTRES

This is a standing item; no submissions were received for this meeting.

D PENDING ITEMS

E ITEMS FOR NOTING

10A ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN

Academic Board received and noted the Environmental Scan.

For information: Professor M Evans

11 REPORTS FROM STANDING COMMITTEES

11.1 Monash University Research Committee Meeting 8/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Report of Meeting 8/2007 of the Monash University Research Committee.

For information: Mr K Williamson

11.2 Education Committee Meeting 7/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Report of Meeting 7/2007 of the Education Committee.

For information: Ms C Holland

11.3 General Library Committee Meeting 4/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Report of Meeting 4/2007 of the General Library Committee.

For information: Ms M Miller

11.4 Research Graduate School Committee Meetings 10 - 11/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Reports of Meetings 10 - 11/2007 of the Research Graduate School Committee.

For information: Ms A Hussar

12 FACULTY BOARD REPORTS

12.1 Faculty of Information Technology 5/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Report of Meeting 5/2007 of the Board of the Faculty of Information Technology.

For information: Ms P Graham

12.2 Faculty of Arts 4/2007

Academic Board received and noted the Report of Meeting 4/2007 of the Board of the Faculty of Arts.

For information: Ms A Lyubomirsky

12.3 Faculty of Business and Economics 6/2007

Academic Board:

1. Received and noted the Report of Meeting 4/2007 of the Board of the Faculty of Business and Economics.

2. Noted the Dean’s Annual Report 2007.

3. Noted receipt of the report of the review of the Department of Accounting and Finance.

4. Noted receipt of the report of the review of the Master of Taxation.

5. Noted the appointments to the faculty’s senior management team.

6. Noted the Faculty Recognition of Excellence Policy.

7. Noted the establishment of new prizes.

For information: Ms R Bernarde

13 NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Academic Board will be held on Wednesday 16 April 2008 in the Council Chambers, 1st floor, Building 3a, Clayton Campus commencing at 3.30pm.