Committee of Deans Meeting 15-1991

Meeting No. 15/91 of the Committee of Deans was held on Tuesday, 29 October 1991, in the James McNeill Room, University Offices, at the Clayton campus, at 2.15 pm.

There were present:

Professor M.I. Logan, Vice-Chancellor, in the Chair

Professor G.N. Vaughan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Professor T. Kennedy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor

Professor D.N. Aspin, Dean, Faculty of Education

Professor C.J. Bellamy, Dean, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology

Professor P.C. Chandler, Dean, David Syme Faculty of Business

Professor P.LeP. Darvall, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor R.J. Pargetter, Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor R. Porter, Dean, Faculty of Medicine

Professor I.D. Rachinger, Associate Dean, Faculty of Science

Professor W.A. Sinclair, Dean, Faculty of Economics Commerce and Management

Professor R.J. Snedden, Faculty of Professional Studies

Professor C.R. Williams, Dean, Faculty of Law

In attendance were:

Mr J.R. Leicester, Acting Registrar

Mr P.B. Wade, Comptroller

Ms E. Anderson, Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor

Mr J. White, Associate Comptroller

Mr G.F. Neat, Communications Director

Mr I.C. Gregory, Secretary

Apologies were received from:

Professor J.A. Hay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Professor I.D. Rae, Dean, Faculty of Science

M I N U T E S

134. Minutes

The minutes of Meeting No. 14/91, held on 8 October, copies of which had previously been circulated, were confirmed and signed subject to an amendment to minute 128.1 - Finn Report. The second sentence was changed to read as follows: "He anticipated that the response would be available for a meeting of the AEC to be held on 16 November."

ICG

135. Matters Arising from the Minutes

135.1 Work of the Committee of Deans

Consideration of this matter was deferred on the suggestion of the Vice- Chancellor.

ICG

136. Report of the Vice-Chancellor

136.1 IDP Report on Education Opportunities in Malaysia

The Committee received the attached paper comprising two memoranda from Dr D.G. Blight, Executive Director of IDP and the text of a cable from the Australian High Commission, Malaysia, entitled `Malaysia : Education Policy : Australian Education Exports" (D85/91).

In speaking to the papers, Professor Logan informed the meeting that the change in policy of the Malaysian Government to encourage the development of campuses in Malaysia by foreign universities had been widely and well accepted in Malaysia. Amendments would be necessary to the Malaysian Education Act but the details of the changes and the detailed requirements for the establishment of campuses had not yet been determined. IDP had proposed the concept of a consortium of Australian universities to establish a University of Australia in Malaysia, however, Professor Logan had informed IDP that Monash would prefer other options. The Committee noted that a number of universities were planning to establish campuses in Malaysia and two British and one Japanese University had already applied for permission. A number of approaches had been made to Monash University by several groups including one interested in establishing a medical school with a group of universities comprising Dundee, Glasgow, Liverpool and the University of Ottawa. The proposal from this group had been considered at previous meetings of the Committee and the Vice-Chancellor informed the meeting that he had indicated that Monash was not prepared to make a commitment to this proposal at the present time.

Monash had also been approached to take part in establishing a campus in Thailand. A group had proposed renting a building in Bangkok and renting separate floors in the building to various universities. It was understood that the University of Sydney had agreed to this proposal with a view to teaching Mechanical Engineering and the Australian National University to teach English. Monash had been approached with a view to offering education in Nursing and the University of New South Wales to offer Business courses.

An Austrade education mission would be held in Malaysia towards the end of November, and the Vice-Chancellor intended to visit Malaysia at that time and would arrange to meet representatives of the Ministry of Education to discuss possibilities for Monash. It was noted that the majority of full-fee students attending Monash were from Malaysia and these students were contributing approximately $17 million per annum in fees.

Professor Bellamy informed the Committee that he understood there was a very large unmet demand in Malaysia from students in the lower/middle income socio-economic group who could not afford to come to Australia or pay the fees currently charged by the institutions in Malaysia with which Monash currently had twinning arrangements. He considered that it could be appropriate to target such a niche market and endeavour to achieve a balance between the flow of students to Australia and students completing courses in Malaysia. He mentioned the David Syme arrangement and that there was finance available in Malaysia to start a venture which could offer courses in Business, Computing and aspects of Engineering such as Telecommunications and Computer Engineering. Such a venture should become profitable after about three years.

Several Deans expressed concern about the extent to which Monash had become dependent upon full-fee income, particularly from Malaysian students, and the necessity to preserve the Malaysian market but, on the other hand, being aware of the dangers involved. Care needed to be taken to ensure that by establishing courses overseas, there was not a redirection of students to those courses at the expense of students coming to Australia. It was noted that the demand for courses currently exceeded the number of places available in Malaysia by about four times and it was likely that many students would go abroad for an education for some time to come. The Vice-Chancellor referred to a proposal from Singh . . . who would provide the funding and Monash would monitor standards and teaching.

There was general agreement that the twinning arrangements with Sunway and the David Syme arrangements had been successful and that the students were of a high standard. Whilst there were initial doubts about the availability of suitable staff in Malaysia, this had not proved to be a problem.

Professor Logan expressed the view that a discussion paper should be prepared to facilitate further consideration by the Committee of Deans and mentioned that Mr Michael Yau from Malaysia had offered to assist.

136.2 Senior Administration of the University

Professor Logan reminded the Committee that the resignation of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) would take effect from the end of December. There was not sufficient time to fill the vacancy prior to the departure of Professor Hay and he proposed to invite Professors Porter and Pargetter to work half time as Deputy Vice-Chancellors for 1992. This would provide sufficient time for the senior administrative structure of the University to be reviewed and that such a review should also include the Monash Deanship system. He further considered that the appointment of two Deans as part time Deputy Vice-Chancellors would provide the opportunity for additional academic input into the central decision making of the University. He gave an assurance to the Committee that the two Deans concerned would be operating at a University level and there would be no conflict of interest with their faculties. Similar arrangements in the past had been made which had been successful.

After discussing the matter at some length, the Committee agreed unanimously to endorse the Vice-Chancellor's proposal and noted that discussions would take place with the two Deans concerned to consider what arrangements might be necessary to provide the two persons concerned with support to facilitate their continuation with their Deanship as well as the part time Deputy Vice-Chancellorship positions. The Vice-Chancellor informed the Committee that he wished Professor Porter to become concerned with research activities of the University and Professor Pargetter with academic matters and staffing.

136.3 Campus Coordinators

The Vice-Chancellor proposed to the meeting the necessity to make some changes to the arrangements for the Campus Coordinators at Caulfield and Frankston campuses. He proposed that the positions should be upgraded and the title changed to Campus Director, that additional administrative support was required at Caulfield campus and some funds should be made available to the two Directors for campus based activities. The role and duties of the Directors should be more clearly specified. As a result of the retirement of Professor Williams, the Committee agreed to the appointment of Professor Chandler as Director of Caulfield campus in addition to remaining Dean of the David Syme Faculty of Business. A central office should also be maintained on each campus as the focus of campus based activities.

137. Urgent Matters

There were no urgent matters raised.

138. Budget for 1992

138.1 Budget Formula - Faculty of Law

The Committee received the attached paper from Professor Williams (D86/91).

This matter was dealt with in conjunction with the following item.

138.2 Progress Report on the 1992 Budget

Each Dean had received a letter from the Comptroller containing indicative budgets for 1992. Since the last meeting of the Committee of Deans, discussions had taken place with the Dean of the Faculty of Law with a view to reducing the intake of students into the Law Faculty in view of the new Law Schools to be opened at Deakin and La Trobe Universities. It was proposed to reduce the Law intake by about 100 students over a period beginning in 1992. Subsequent to these discussions, negotiations had taken place with other Deans to take an additional student load. It was intended that the reduction in the Law intake would mainly come about through decreasing inter-faculty transfers and, as a result, estimates had been made of the increased load that would result for those faculties where it was anticipated the students would remain if they were unable to transfer to Law, usually to a combined degree. The nett result of a reduction of 100 students was likely to result in about 54 EFTSU less in the Faculty of Law and a similar increase spread over a number of other faculties, mainly Arts and Economics Commerce and Management.

In the recent discussions with DEET regarding profiles, agreement had been reached for an additional funded teaching load of forty EFTSU spread across a number of faculties and it was proposed that these would be those faculties which were below last year's budget figure and this would have the effect of reducing the underwriting of those faculties. The saving of $201,000 could be used to would provide additional funds for Monash graduate scholarships (it had been agreed to provide approximately this amount for additional scholarships at the previous meeting), rather than funds for the additional scholarships being transferred from the Development Fund.

The Comptroller informed the Committee that as a result of the development of a new budget model this year and the enormous volume of work involved, the budget timetable was approximately one month late. The Central Budgets Committee had not yet considered the budget for areas in the University other than faculties, including the Distance Education Centre at MUCG. The Committee also noted the decision made earlier in the year that the Library, Computer Centre, and the Registrar and Comptroller's budgets should be subject to the same type of scrutiny as those for the faculties and the suggestion that the Central Budgets Committee should have a member from the Committee of Deans for this purpose. The Comptroller informed the Committee that the budgets for the other areas of the University did not exist at the present time as all resources had been devoted to developing the budgets for the faculties. Some preliminary discussions had taken place with the Librarian and the Director of the Computer Centre but work was still at the preliminary stage. The Comptroller suggested that two Deans be added to the Central Budgets Committee when the latter budgets were being discussed.

The Committee, after discussing the matter at length, agreed that two Deans, Professors Pargetter and Darvall, should be added to the Central Budgets Committee for the meeting which would consider the budget for the areas of the University other than faculties and that the budget should be the first item on the agenda for the next meeting of the Committee of Deans to be held on 19 November. A detailed paper needed to be distributed prior to the next meeting to allow informed discussion at the meeting.

The Committee noted that each Dean would have the opportunity to discuss the indicative budget for their faculty with the Central Budgets Committee and agreed that it was important that the Vice-Chancellor be available for those meetings. The Deans could be accompanied at the meeting by an Associate Dean or other appropriate person from their faculty. It was also agreed that the Budgets Officer, Mr J. Harris, could attend the meeting as an observer.

The Deans also discussed the prediction of the extent of growth in the income from full-fee overseas students in 1992 and queried what would be the effect if the target was not met. The Committee was informed that the estimated growth was based on predictions from the Deputy Registrar and the overseas marketing group and the Comptroller reminded the Committee that there was a contingency fund for shortfalls in income or for over- expenditure. The view was expressed by a number of Deans that obtaining additional overseas full-fee students was not a problem, the major difficulty was overcrowding of facilities, particularly lecture theatres.

The Comptroller asked that if any Deans had queries about the projected target for full-fee student load they should contact either himself or the Associate Comptroller.

The question was raised as to how the University would respond to the DEET dispensation in regard to a reduction in commencing student numbers in 1992. It was noted that for Monash this resulted in a reduction of approximately 360 students. The Comptroller informed the Committee that this had been allowed for in the development of the budget.

A further query was raised in respect of the loading of 3.75% for long service leave at Caulfield and Frankston campuses and whether this would continue in 1992. A number of views were put and it was agreed that a decision on the matter needed to be postponed so the Deans concerned could give further consideration to the matter.

Professor Chandler queried the distribution of the additional funded 40 EFTSUs for 1992 noting that the prospect of getting additional funded load in future years was unlikely and that consideration should be given to the long term planning of the University such as the development of a Monash presence at Berwick. The Comptroller informed the Committee that during discussions with DEET, it had been mentioned that DEET had agreed to a change of policy insofar as, for example, if graduate load was transferred to a full-fee basis, the rules had been relaxed insofar as full-fee graduate courses were no longer confined to professional training areas, the institution concerned could retain the load and reallocate it to other areas.

Professor Chandler considered that some load needed to be allocated at the Vice-Chancellor level for strategic moves to provide flexibility rather than load needing to be clawed back from faculties should future developments occur.

The Vice-Chancellor informed the Committee that VPSEC (which had recently been retitled) had indicated to DEET that a development at Berwick should be the number one priority for the University's capital programme although the University had informed DEET that capital works at the existing campuses was more important given the extent of the current overcrowding. The University had taken the view that the State Government should provide funds, particularly for the acquisition of land, if they wished a proposal to go ahead at Berwick. A discussion ensued as to the desirability of Monash remaining the sole provider of higher education in the corridor between Clayton and Gippsland and noted that several other institutions had indicated an interest in the area. It was noted that the area had the largest projected growth for Melbourne and currently had a low participation rate in higher education. It was further noted that Victoria College was currently teaching the first year of a number of courses in rented premises at Lilydale and that Deakin University was likely to target the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne for its distance education courses.

The Committee noted that a TAFE conference would be held soon which would also consider the implications of the Finn Report and these matters could be considered further at that time. The Committee also queried whether further expansion in the outer eastern suburbs would result in additional attention being needed to be given to equity and access considerations. It was reported that the various groups in the area with an interest in higher education had all expressed a preference for a Monash development rather than for any other university.

139. Research Matters

Professor Vaughan referred to the ARC funding statistics which had been reported in the minutes of the Academic Board. He also mentioned the results of the NH&MRC allocations and that Monash had performed well. Although the number of grants was less than last year this could be attributed to fewer applications. The Committee also noted that there had been a drop in small ARC grants and that attention needed to be paid to this area.

141. Late Payment of Fees - Overseas Students

The Committee received the attached paper from the Registrar (D87/91). In peaking to the paper, Mr Leicester informed the meeting that Monash was the only institution without penalties for the late payment of fees and that the proposal contained in the paper followed similar procedures to that adopted by other universities. Provision would be made for special consideration to be given to individual cases. The Comptroller informed the Committee that there was a substantial difference between funds paid to the University and estimates of what should have been received and this had taken substantial work to ascertain. Deans expressed concern at the late receipt of revenue from full- fee students. It was also noted that under the current arrangements, students would not receive examination results if there were fees outstanding.

The Committee of Deans agreed to the proposal for the introduction of late fees for the payment of fees as provided for in the attached paper.

Next Meeting

The next ordinary meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held on Tuesday, 19 November, commencing at 2.15 pm in the James McNeill Room, University Offices, Clayton campus.