Committee of Deans Meeting 9-1992

Meeting No. 9/92 of the Committee of Deans was held on Tuesday, 14 July 1992, in the Clayfield Room, Boykett Building, at the Caulfield campus, between 2.15 and 4.00 pm.

There were present:

Professor R. Porter, Acting Vice-Chancellor, in the Chair

Professor R.J. Pargetter, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts

Professor L.H.T. West, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Internat'l Programs and Development)

Professor J.O. Miller, Acting Dean, David Syme Faculty of Business

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

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

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

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

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

Professor R.J. Snedden, Dean, Faculty of Professional Studies

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

Professor C.B. Chapman, Dean, Victorian College of Pharmacy

Apologies were received from Professor M.I. Logan and Professor T. Kennedy

In attendance were:

Mr J.R. Leicester, Acting Registrar

Mr J.S. White, Acting Comptroller

Ms C.E. Anderson, Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor

Mr M.D. Watson, Secretary

M I N U T E S

66. Membership

In opening the meeting, Professor Porter welcomed Professor Colin Chapman, Dean of the Victorian College of Pharmacy, as a member of the Committee.

67. Minutes

The Minutes of Meeting No. 7/92 held on 23 June and the Special MDW Meeting held on 2 July, copies of which had been circulated, were confirmed and signed, subject to the substitution of `1995' for `1992' in line 3, paragraph 2 of minute 65.

68. Matters Arising From the Minutes

68.1 Clinical Nursing

As foreshadowed at Meeting No. 7/92, Minute 57.2, Professor RP Porter tabled papers relating to a proposal to establish a Centre for Clinical Nursing and Chair of Clinical Nursing that had been approved by the Board of the Faculty of Medicine and which the Academic Board was to be asked to approve on the following day subject to the endorsement of the Committee of Deans. Such endorsement was given after Professor Snedden had reiterated his view that the initiative would not preempt the development of graduate programs by the University's two existing Schools of Nursing, and after the meeting accepted that exceptional circumstances had determined the somewhat precipitate nature of the approval process.

68.2 Outside Earnings Levy

In response to a question from Professor Darvall, Mr White JSW said a firm proposal on a revised collection procedure for the outside earnings levy, as foreshadowed at Meeting No. 7/92, Minute 56.1, was not yet ready for submission to the Committee. He noted the firm view of Deans that fees income from continuing education short courses and funds put through the University's books for purely `housekeeping' purposes should quite properly be exempt from the levy.

68.3 Student Load

Professor Darvall said he was still awaiting budgetary redress in JSW regard to the situation discussed at Meeting No. 7/92, Minute 56.3, for the overenrolment of returning students in his faculty. Mr White took note of a call for a paper to be submitted for prior consideration to a later meeting addressing the whole question of discrepancies between centrally formulated planning targets and actual commencing and continuing load. Mr White also took note of requests from Deans for earlier JSW assessments and disbursement of overseas student fees income. He undertook to have a paper prepared for consideration at a later meeting of the Committee. 69. Vice-Chancellor's Report In his absence, the Committee received and noted a report from RJP Professor Logan that was tabled at the meeting covering Superannuation, Open Learning Initiative, and Competencies etc. On this latter issue, it was agreed that Professor Pargetter should discuss with Professor Logan the best way for the University to proceed in developing a firm position and action strategy.

70. Urgent Matters

70.1 VPSEC Report on Business

Professor Miller drew attention to and corrected recent inaccurate reporting in the press on the range of first-year programs offered by the David Syme Faculty of Business. He said steps had been taken which he hoped would set the public record straight.

70.2 New Course Proposals

In response to a question from Professor Miller, the Committee discussed the debate that had occurred at the previous meeting of Council about the presentation of new course proposals, and about the academic rigour of one new Masters program in particular. The general view of Deans was that, given the documentation before it, Council's concerns were not without substance and that it was proper that the Academic Board would be addressing them on the following day.

70.3 Continuing Education

Professor Aspin gave notice that he would be submitting a paper to a DNA later meeting as a means of initiating the review of the current administration of continuing education in the University as provided for in the EURACE report.

70.4 Property Acquisitions

Mr White informed the meeting that, despite some rather unfortunate recent publicity, the acquisition by the University of the Bushells factory and the old drive-in theatre site on the periphery of the Clayton campus were not yet `sewn up' and, as such, should be regarded as commercial in confidence.

70.5 Gippsland Integration Project

Professor Pargetter reported that the Gippsland integration project was close to completion and that he expected a full package of constituent agreements to be submitted to the August meeting of the Academic Board.

70.6 Art and Design Review

Professor Pargetter gave notice that an interim report of the Art and Design Review Committee was now complete with its final report expected to be submitted to the August meeting of the Academic Board.

71. Heads of Department

The Committee considered the attached discussion paper, RJP D45/92, submitted by Professor Pargetter and arrived at the initial view that it favoured a slight moderation of the existing provisions governing headship of departments with a clarification of the discretionary role of Deans and the Vice-Chancellor that would allow more flexibility to be adopted by individual faculties as they chose. It was agreed that Professor Pargetter should bring a paper to this effect to a later meeting.

72. Research Performance Indicators

The Committee discussed the attached correspondence between RP Professor Larkins of the University of Melbourne and Professor Porter, D46/92, and identified numerous difficulties - principally definitional - in proceeding as proposed. It was agreed that Professor Porter should, in guardedly positive fashion, inform Professor Larkins of the Deans' initial response and invite him to present his proposal in more detail in due course.

Matters Pending

The Committee was advised that the following matter was not yet ready for attention:

Meeting Minute Paper Action

Appraisal of Deans 1/92 4.9 MIL

Next Meeting

Members were reminded that the next ordinary meeting of the Committee was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 4 August 1992, in Room 272 on the second floor of the Humanities Building, at Clayton, commencing at 2.15 pm.