Committee of Deans Meeting 10-1993

Meeting No. 10/93 of the Committee of Deans was held on Tuesday, 31 August 1993, in the Council Room, University Offices, at the Clayton campus, between 2.15 and 4.35 pm

There were present:

Professor M.I. Logan, Vice-Chancellor, in the Chair Professor I.W. Chubb, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor R.J. Pargetter, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Projects)

Professor P.LeP. Darvall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor B. Dunstan, representing the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Gippsland)

Professor M. Quartly, Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts

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

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

Professor A.J. Duggan, Acting Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor R. Porter, Dean, Faculty of Medicine

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

Professor J. Levett, Acting Dean, Faculty of Professional Studies

Professor S.A. Crossley, Acting Dean, Faculty of Science

An apology was received from Professor L.H.T. West

In attendance were:

Mr P.B. Wade, General Manager

Professor R.McD. Anderson, Campus Director, Frankston

Mr M.D. Watson, Acting Academic Registrar

Mr G.F. Neat, Executive Director, University Development

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

M I N U T E S

74. Minutes

The minutes of Meeting No. 9/93 held on 3 August 1933, copies of which had been circulated, were confirmed and signed.

75. Matters Arising From the Minutes

75.1 Profiles

Professor Chubb outlined the strategy Monash would be adopting at the profiles discussion on 3 September. He also tabled figures received from DEET on 27 August that would form the basis for negotiations, and explained why the University would be arguing that the 1994 school leaver target was derived from a misleading 1990 base figure.

76. Report of the Vice-Chancellor

76.1 ACU Congress

Professor Logan briefed Deans on the main thrust of the Quinquennial Meeting of Executive Heads of the Association of Commonwealth Universities he had recently attended in Swansea, followed by the final meeting of the ACU Council and the ACU Congress. He said the quality issue loomed large and it was quite evident that the approach being adopted in the United Kingdom was not the way to go. Higher education in Australia, he said, seemed to be faring somewhat better than in Britain or Canada.

76.2 Executive Report

Deans received the appended listing of matters discussed at a meeting of the Vice-Chancellor's Executive earlier in the day and were briefed on a number of them, including the following.

(1) Negotiations on continuing staff appointments at level A

Professor Darvall took note of a request for figures on the PLePD number of PhD and Masters by research students currently engaged in work that could be likened to the North American teaching assistantship to supplement their incomes.

(3) Development of a new Monash research management plan

Professor Darvall tabled and asked for comment on the appended Deans draft Notes on Research Management Policy at Monash University and draft Committee of Associate Deans (Research) Statute.

(4) Future orientation of the Frankston campus A new name of Monash University Peninsula Campus, Frankston was foreshadowed, as was the establishment of an Advisory Council with a similar constitution and terms of reference to the Gippsland Campus Advisory Council.

(5) Progress of the Monash submission to the Commonwealth Quality Assurance Program It was noted that the bulk of material provided by Deans would be included in a second volume of appendices accessible by cross references from the 20-odd page principal statement comprising volume one. (6) Speakers for graduation ceremonies

It was noted that the new Chief Executive Officer of Westpac GFN might welcome an invitation for 1994.

(11) Faculty plans for pre-enrolment and re-enrolment and MUSIS capacity to deal with them

Mr Wade tabled and asked for comment on the appended paper Deans entitled Faculty Pre-Enrolment.

(12) After-hours security arrangements at the Clayton campus

A suggestion was noted that part of the savings accruing from any PBW introduction of new arrangements be directed to increasing the target evening shift strength to four.

(13) Revised guidelines to govern recruitment advertising

The appended guidelines tabled by Mr Neat were endorsed for GFN introduction on a trial basis until the end of the year, subject to the substitution of `and' for `and/or' in the first line of section 6, and consideration being given to advertise chairs in the Chronicle of Higher Education in the United States and its Canadian counterpart.

76.3 Strategic Research Foundation et al

Professor Logan informed Deans that the Strategic Research Foundation, of which he was a Director, had been reviewed by the Minister in the face of concerns that he and others had raised and would continue under revised management arrangements as the Strategic Industry Research Foundation. The way ahead now looked much better, he said, and augured well for continued support of the Monash ceramic fuel cell research. He was less certain about the future of the University's link with the Australian Computing and Communications Institute (ACCI) which was beset with problems. In the event of Monash withdrawing from ACCI, Professor Logan said he would endeavour to maintain its association with Ericsson. Another link causing concern was Monash's association with the Centre for International Research in Communication Information Technology (CIRCIT) and the situation was being monitored, he said.

76.4 The 1994-94 Federal Budget

The Committee received and noted the appended report on the budget briefing given by Professor Chubb on 18 August.

77. Urgent Matters

77.1 Faculty of Professional Studies

The Vice-Chancellor and General Manager responded to several questions from Professor Bellamy about the budgetary situation in the Faculty of Professional Studies and transitional arrangements for those faculties taking on its constituent parts. He was reminded that `inherited' deficits would be quarantined for the faculties involved.

78. Research Matters

No additional matters were raised.

79. Administrative Reports

The Committee received and noted with interest the appended operational reports from the Directors of the five new administrative Divisions as well as from the Librarian and Director of the Computer Centre (D28/93-D34/93) in response to a request from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for such reports to be submitted to the Committee of Deans on a six-weekly basis.

80. Academic Incremental Advancement

The Committee received the appended paper (D35/93) and noted the guidelines therein handed down recently by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission governing academic incremental advancement arising from the award restructuring decision of July 1991.

It was agreed to circulate with the minutes copies of a pro forma MDW used in the Faculty of Law to record the periodic assessment of performance of academic staff.

81. Appointments

81.1 Personal Chairs Committee

The Vice-Chancellor agreed to bring to the next meeting a MIL nomination of a Dean to succeed Professor Freebairn on Council's Personal Chairs Committee.

81.2 Caulfield/Frankston Branch Library User Committee

Professor P.C. Chandler was appointed as the Deans' representative MDW on the Caulfield/Frankston Branch Library User Committee.

82. 1994 Meeting Dates

The Committee deferred the approval of a proposed schedule of MIL meeting dates in 1994 pending consideration by the Vice-Chancellor of the merits of having the Committee meet on the same day as other forums so as to make the trip to Clayton more worthwhile for members travelling from other campuses. Deans also endorsed a suggestion that a meeting of the Committee in MDW late January might be useful to discuss selection and enrolment issues and other matters that may have arisen over the Christmas break.

83. Other Business

83.1 Victorian Certificate of Education

Professor Pargetter reminded Deans that he was still awaiting Deans responses from some faculties to his request for an evaluation of the first semester examination results of VCE-qualified first-year undergraduates.

Next Meeting

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 14 September, at Frank Tate House, Armadale, at the later time of 2.30 pm.