Meeting 15/98 of the Committee of Deans was held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 1^st December 1998 in the Sir George Lush Room, ground floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

Apologies were received from Professor F Rizvi, Acting Dean – Faculty of Education and Professor M Quartly – Faculty of Arts.

In attendance as Acting Deans were Professor Richard Gunstone (Education) and Professor B Jacobs (Arts).

Professor M Evans and Dr G Ellis were in attendance for item 4.4.1.

The minutes of meeting 14/98 were approved.

The Committee was advised that the draft University Practice Policy was still under review. During discussion of this matter, the following points were emphasised:

the relationship between the Intellectual Property Statute and the draft University Practice Policy was a major issue still under review;

several members noted the University Practice Policy was integral to the successful conduct of the first round of Engagement Profiles; and

once the draft University Practice Policy was endorsed by all the appropriate areas, the policy would then the subject of discussions with the NTEU.

The Vice-Chancellor advised the Committee that he had prepared a letter addressed to Mr Kennett requesting that consideration be given to further recognising the considerable achievements of Sir John Monash by renaming the South Eastern Freeway, Sir John Monash Way.

The Vice-Chancellor requested members to support and reinforce the suggestion if the opportunity arose.

Professor Darvall tabled a document providing an overview of the 1999 ARC and NH&MRC results. Summarising the results, Professor Davall noted the following:

of the 216 applications submitted by Monash, 46 were successful. A success rate of 21.3% compared to a system wide average of 20.7%;

Monash was ranked fifth behind the Universities of Melbourne, NSW, Sydney and Queensland;

members congratulated the Faculty of Science on its improved success rate which culminated in the faculty receiving 19 grants compared to 15 in 1998.

of the 144 applications submitted, 26 were successful with an additional 5 grants being subsumed into a program grant (Professor I Kola). A program grant was also awarded within the Faculty of Education. Numerically Monash was ranked fifth in 1999 (second in 1998) but second on a $ value basis.

During a discussion on the funding basis of research within the University sector, the committee was advised that the Group of 8 Universities had commissioned Mr D Phillips to assist the DVC’s-Research in responding to the anticipated Green Paper on research.

Professor Maloney provided an overview of the recent Offshore Quality Assurance Round where courses in Hong Kong were extensively reviewed in all areas relating to content, entry standards, evaluations and marketing.

Noting that a detailed report on the outcomes of the review process would be submitted to Education Committee and Academic Board, Professor Maloney advised the Committee that:

While most courses were delivered by high standard teachers from three of the best Universities in Hong Kong, Professor Maloney noted that one or two courses could be further improved and would be the subject of further discussions with the relevant faculties.

Faculties needed to continue reinforcing the importance of the interaction between students and supervisors in offshore research programs.

Documents titled Learning and Teaching Operational Plan – 1999 (D51/98) and Learning and Teaching Operational Plan – 1999 Overview and Context (D52/98) were attached.

Professor Merran Evans – Associate Chair of Academic Board and Dr Gail Ellis – Planning Advisor (Academic Planning Support Unit) were in attendance.

Introducing the matter, the Committee was advised that:

Following the release of the Learning and Teaching Operational Plan – Operational Draft 1998 in March, a large number of working parties and individuals had consulted widely across all sections of the University. This consultation had culminated in the preparation of the two documents presented to this meeting.

Referring to the two documents, Professor Evans advised the Committee that draft Key Performance Indicators (KPI) had been included for the first time. Members were advised that the KPI’s would be further refined overtime.

During discussion of the documents, members expressed overall acceptance and support for the LTOP strategy. To further enhance the utility of the Learning and Teaching Operational Plan – 1999, the following matters/suggestions were made:

Some faculty staff were concerned about the amount of detail in the plan and suggested that the plan highlight key priorities.

Noting that the plan placed a wide range of requirements on faculties, DEC and CHED, members were advised that each faculty could progress through the LTOP targets at a pace appropriate to their resources and draw on the resources of the DEC and CHED at a time appropriate to their needs. This would spread the load on DEC and CHED and enable them to undertake the tasks requested by faculties.

Members requested that progress reports at faculty level be retained but that consideration be given to reducing the amount of reporting to central committees. This would enable key staff to spend more time implementing the plan.

Further suggestions to improve the utility of LTOP – 1999 included breaking the documentation onto discrete, targetted sections and reviewing some of the target dates.

Noting the need to carefully manage the ongoing implementation of LTOP, Professor Evans was requested to redevelop those sections of the plan relating to the faculties so that the Learning and Teaching Operational Plan – 1999 recognised that within the overarching framework of LTOP, faculties would include within their Faculty Operational Plans a section on faculty specific LTOP objectives, targets and achievements.

As this request involved revisions to the documents presented, it was agreed that a further brief meeting of the Committee of Deans be held before the end of the year in order to agree final revisions to the LTOP strategy.

Mr Wade advised the Committee that Mr Terry Masocco was continuing to consult with faculties regarding the development of a coherent policy for the setting of both domestic and international fees. A report on the matter would be available for consideration by Deans in the New Year.

Noting the importance of being able to promptly respond to competitive economic circumstances, Mr Wade advised the Committee that the Resources and Finance Committee had recently approved the following recommendations:

that the Vice-Chancellor present to Resources and Finance Committee a set of principles to apply when setting new fees for University courses and the ranges within which new course fees will be set;

upon approval by Resources and Finance Committee of the principles and ranges proposed by the Vice-Chancellor, Resources and Finance Committee will recommend their acceptance to Council.

that the Vice-Chancellor be delegated authority to approve adjustments to existing fees within a range of plus or minus 10% of the approved fee.

Mr Wade advised the Committee that recommendations supporting this proposal for 1999 fees and 2000 International course fees were being forwarded to the Council meeting on 14^th December 1999.

Additional matters relating to the financial management of the university discussed by Mr Wade included:

the continuation of the arrangements to collect outstanding fees;

following a successful trial on Clayton campus permitting the use of credit cards to pay fees up to $500.00, the system will now be implemented on the Clayton, Caulfield and Gippsland campuses with the $500.00 limit removed;

alternative methods of fee payment other than full payment a semester in advance are still being investigated and a report to the Committee of Deans will be prepared as soon as practicable.

Professor Redmond distributed a brochure describing the artwork selected by the Mr Rogers and his wife as a gift from the Deans to the retiring Chancellor in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Monash University.

The Vice-Chancellor advised the Committee that Mr Neil Bradley, formerly DVC-Resources at the University of South Australia, was assisting the faculty three-day per week until the end of March 1999 in implementing the processes and structural changes recommended in the Blueprint.

The next scheduled Committee of Deans meeting will be held on 2^nd February 1999 at 2.15pm in the Sir George Lush Room.