Committee of Deans Meeting 13/98

Meeting 13/98 of the Committee of Deans was held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 13 October 1998 in the Sir George Lush Room, ground floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

Tony Calder
Secretary

MINUTES

1. Attendance and apologies

An apology was received from Professor L Waller, Acting Dean - Faculty of Law and Professor J Redmond, Dean - Faculty of Art & Design.

In attendance as Acting Deans were : Professor Marcia Neave (Law) and Mr Karen Bensley (Art & Design).

Ms Sue Wales, Manager Client Services and Systems Branch - Personnel Services was in attendance for items 3.1, 3.2 & 4.5.1. Mr Greg Connell, Director - Audit and Risk Management was in attendance for item 3.2 and Ms Katherine Lock, Manager, Performance Development and Training Branch - Personnel Services was in attendance for item 4.5.1.

Associate Professor John Hurst, Associate Dean Teaching - Faculty of Information Technology and Ms J Chandler, Executive Director - University Marketing & Development were in attendance for item 3.3.

The minutes of meeting 12/98 were confirmed.

3.     Matters arising from the minutes not dealt with elsewhere in the agenda

Ms Sue Wales, Manager Client Services and Systems Branch - Personnel Services was in attendance for this item.

Document (D44/98) was distributed prior to the meeting.

Members were advised that following discussion of this matter at meeting 12/98, the following amendments had been included in document D44/98:

• The period of probation for ongoing academic staff at levels A-D had been reduced to three years with the option of confirming appointments after one year.
• The inclusion of a mandatory 6 month probationary period for all new general staff.
• The period of probation for fixed term academic appointments, excluding Level E, to be determined by the length and level of the appointment.

Members were requested to contact Ms Sue Wales if they had any further comment or queries relating to the matter.

Ms Sue Wales, Manager Client Services and Systems Branch - Personnel Services and Mr Greg Connell, Director - Audit and Risk Management were in attendance for this item.

Document (D45/98) was distributed prior to the meeting.

Mr Connell advised members that following consultation with Deans and others, amendments to the draft policy had been made and were identified in the current document in italics. Deans were requested to give further consideration to the draft policy and submit any further comments to Ms Wales and Mr Connell as soon as practical.

The Committee was advised that a final draft version of the document would be submitted to the next meeting.

Assoc. Professor John Hurst, Associate Dean Teaching - Faculty of Information Technology and Ms J Chandler, Executive Director - University Marketing & Development were in attendance for this item.

Ms Chandler introduced the matter by advising the Committee that a survey of prospective students had revealed that the current handbook set was not seen as a major source of information by VCE students and that course and subject information on the World Wide Web would be preferred.

Additional factors impinging on the utility of the current handbook set was that an increasing number of students were undertaking double degrees or cross faculty subjects, some information would be better located in the existing Student Resource Guide, existing timelines to publish detailed course and subject matter in hardcopy were onerous on staff and electronic publication of material would result in more up to date information being available to existing and prospective students.

Following development of a proposal by Ms Chandler and others and a review of that proposal by a Working Party of Education Committee, the Committee of Deans was advised that, from the year 2000, it was proposed that:

• All course and subject information, as published in the existing handbook set, be published via the World Wide Web. This information would become the official version of course structures and subjects.
• The University would publish an Undergraduate Catalogue and Postgraduate Catalogue containing abbreviated course and subject information with the Distance Education and Student Resource Guide continuing in their current format.

The Committee noted the proposal and expressed its thanks to Ms Chandler, Associate Professor Hurst, and members of the Education Committee Working Party for the work undertaken to date.

Following further discussion of this matter it was proposed that:

• to meet existing legislative requirements, Deans would provide a two page annual report to Academic Board broadly focusing on the major themes articulated in the Monash Plan; and
• Deans be invited to address Council on future directions and current issues affecting their faculty.

Professor Darvall advised the Committee that Monash was a partner in thirteen (13) CRC applications, five (5) of them for new Centres.

4.3   Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International and Public Affairs)

Professor Maloney advised the Committee that a small group was looking into Monash's presence in Southern Africa and that Monash was receiving strong support from all countries in the region.

With respect to China, Professor Maloney advised that the Global Group was to develop a vision and model for involvement in China possibly focusing on:

• one-to-one staff and student exchanges;
• access programs and twinning programs including working with TMC (Singapore); and
• professional development and training comprising short courses, courses within corporate bodies, the MBA and Executive MBA programs.

Document D46/98 was distributed with the agenda.

Ms Katherine Lock, Manager, Performance Development and Training Branch - Personnel Services and Ms Sue Wales, Manager, Client Services and Systems Branch - Personnel Services were in attendance for this item.

Ms Lock introduced the matter and sought Dean's advice on the draft documents. During discussion the following advice was offered:

• the draft folio documents should been seen as outlining the minimum requirements and that staff should be encouraged to supply other pertinent information;
• the draft folio documents require a better balance between quantitative measures and qualitative measures;
• inclusion of some explicit measures such as the results of student evaluations of teaching should be included;
• the Achievement Report column where a staff member can respond Yes/No was seen as limiting. Staff members should be encouraged to detail the methods and innovations that enabled the staff member to meet/exceed the requirements of their Engagement Profile;
• it was noted that Flexible Learning was not mentioned in the draft documentation;
• the third dot point on page three of the introductory memorandum should include Heads of Schools after Heads of Departments;
• Document B - Research, Summary of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities be amended to include DEETYA and Non-DEETYA categories for publications; and
• the number of pages in the Annual Portfolio was considered excessive and members requested that Ms Lock attempt to limit the size of the Annual Portfolio document to nine (9) pages.

In summarising the discussion, Deans were requested give further consideration to this matter and provide a critical commentary on the draft documents to Ms Lock.

Following advice that 787 fixed term contract positions were due to expire by 31^st December 1998, Deans were requested to notify Personnel Services on the status of these positions by 12 November. This would enable Personnel Services to give five weeks notice to the incumbent as required by the provisions of the HECE Award.

During discussion it was noted that a careful and thorough evaluation of each position would be required to ascertain whether the existing position is to be retained, and if so, translated to the appropriate category in accordance with the HECE Award. In addition, where a position is translated to continuing, it was noted that the selection criteria and process would need to ensure that the most appropriately qualified applicant is appointed to the position and that gender issues are suitably addressed during the selection process.

To facilitate the initial evaluation process, Personnel Services was requested to provide each Dean with a schedule of expiring contract positions for general and academic staff across all funding sources.

The next scheduled Committee of Deans meeting will be held on 3 November 1998 at 2.15pm in the Sir George Lush Room.

Vice-Chancellor
Deputy Vice-Chancellors
Deans
General Manager