Meeting 5/2001 of the Deans Discussion Group was held between 4.00 pm and 9.00 pm on Tuesday, 17 July 2001 in the Monash City Office, Level 11, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Phillip Siggins

Secretary

In opening the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor advised that additional agenda items would be discussed; these included:

The Vice-Chancellor also advised that item 3 Policy on Ownership of Space was deferred until the next ordinary meeting of the Committee of Deans (meeting 6/01 – 21 August).

Professor D A Robinson, Vice-Chancellor and President, Presiding

Professor P LeP Darvall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President, (Research and Development)

Ms A Crook AO, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Resources)

Professor B Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland Campus

Professor J K Redmond, Dean, Faculty of Art and Design

Professor H Le Grand, Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor G Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor S Willis, Dean, Faculty of Education

Professor M Brisk, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor S Parker, Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor N Saunders, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Professor C B Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Professor R Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science

An apology was received from Professor Alan Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic and Planning) and Professor John Rosenberg, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology.

Professor John Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Monash South Africa

Mr David Phillips, Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor

Mr Tony Pollock, Executive Director, Office of International Affairs

The Notes of meeting 4/2001 held on 5 June 2001 were received and noted.

This item was deferred until meeting 6/01 of the Committee of Deans (21 August 2001).

Professor Peter Darvall introduced the Benchmarking Status Report and took members through the Report. Professor Darvall noted that the summary table headed Performance Indicators for Research showed Monash mainly ranked 4^th/5^th , but also in one instance ranked 8^th and in another 10^th, against research indicators and this reflected variable research performance across the University.

Professor Darvall noted that figures 1 to 7 provided a valuable tool to assess departmental performance for each Faculty and he advised that he had had discussions with all Deans. Professor Darvall commended the Report to the Group.

Discussion focussed on the purposes to which the Report might be put. Professor Gill Palmer noted that the Report provided useful information, but there was a need for improvements to be made and she acknowledged, that a modest improvement in research performance in the Faculty of Business and Economics would boost the University’s overall ranking. The Vice-Chancellor responded observing that strategic decisions should be made as to which specific aspects of research should be targeted for strengthening. Professor Darvall confirmed that by the end of the year, the Faculties would be provided with updated information and that these charts would aid in the discussion. The Vice-Chancellor advised that the Benchmarking Report would go to Academic Board meeting 5/2001 (5 September) and then to Council 6/2001 (1 October).

Professor John Anderson presented an oral progress report on the South Africa Campus.

Professor Anderson informed members that a working campus in South Africa was now in place and that it was well built, impressive and that the message about it was reaching the South African community. He reported that business and community interest in the campus was strong and was increasing, as the campus became better known.

A good atmosphere of safety and security on campus had been established. Relations with relevant government departments had improved. Student enrolments were small, but the campus had opened a year ahead of the planned timetable and there had been a small number of additional enrolments in the past week.

Professor Anderson advised that an Advisory Council for the campus was being established. He also advised on a proposal to establish a law research centre at the campus. Professor Parker contributed at this point advising that the name of the centre would be the Centre for Law and Reconstruction in South Africa.

Discussion focussed on the timetable for applications, selection and enrolments for 2002, on student and staff accommodation and on accreditation of courses by external bodies.

The Vice-Chancellor thanked Professor Anderson for his report and noted that Professor Anderson would be in attendance at the Council meeting to be held 13 August 2001.

Professor Norris spoke to this item and advised that Dr Kristina Macrae had prepared the paper, Relationships between Monash University and Universitët Ulm. Members noted the successful outcomes from this link.

The Vice-Chancellor thanked Professor Norris for the report.

Professor Nick Saunders, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, spoke to this item. The Committee endorsed the proposal to establish and fill the position of Professor of Psychiatry at The Alfred Hospital.

Professor Nick Saunders, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, spoke to this item. The Committee endorsed the proposal to establish and fill the position of Professor of Nursing.

Professor Gill Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics, spoke to this item. The Committee endorsed the proposal to appoint three Professors in Accounting and Finance.

Professor Palmer agreed to provide further information when these appointments were submitted to Academic Board. A separate proposal for each Chair would be provided together with the table, Teaching Staff (Full Time Equivalence) by Classification Level (as at 31 March 2000) as presented by Professor Palmer at this meeting.

Mr David Phillips, Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor, and Mr Tony Pollock, Executive Director, Office of International Affairs, were in attendance for this item.

A paper, Global Development Plan 2001-2005 (Draft outline 29/06/01) had been distributed.

The Vice-Chancellor introduced Mr Phillips, Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor. He reminded members that towards the end of 1999, the Global Development Framework had been approved. It was now timely to come forward with a more detailed plan.

Mr Phillips advised that current objectives were to:

(For action or noting by: Council Secretary.)

Mr Phillips then took members through the document highlighting where the division between the public document and the information for internal Monash consumption might be drawn.

Discussion focussed inter alia on the following issues:

At the conclusion of discussions, Mr Phillips advised that the Plan would be considered at meeting 8/01 of Council (17 December). Accordingly, the document would have to be finalised by 5^th December. To reach Council, the Plan would be submitted via meeting 6/01 of Academic Board (24 October) and considered at an ‘Advance’ on 7 August. It was recommended that it be considered by faculties over August-September. The Vice-Chancellor closed discussion and advised that comments could be forwarded immediately to Mr Phillips at the following e-mail address: david@phillipscurran.com.au

Professor Parker provided an update on developments concerning the Institutional Self-Review which would take place in the second half of this year. Professor Parker had attended a seminar at VUT in which Dr David Woodhouse, Executive Director, Australian Universities Quality Agency, provided information on the audit processes. Key points noted were that:

Professor Parker also noted that central to the review was the question of the universities’ ownership of their plans and the extent to which these plans permeated the policies and processes of the universities.

The review team was also very interested about workload allocations and the rationale/policies underpinning such allocations. Professor Parker noted that Dr Woodhouse would release further information shortly.

The Vice-Chancellor advised that the Chancellor had invited senior business people to a gathering to which they would be informed about current Monash activities. Members were invited to advise Ms Hayes of senior business people associated with their faculties by the following day (18 July).

Professor Brisk advised that an aviation company had entered into a joint venture and negotiations were underway to purchase a parcel of land in Gippsland. Professor Brisk indicated that this enterprise had attracted media attention.

In the context of this discussion, Professor Saunders observed that the University was moving into a very different operating environment, than that experienced in the past. There were expectations from government that the University would produce commercial outcomes from investment. The University was experiencing an environment of growing accountability and there were imperatives to join with business partners and with other Universities in order to receive funds.

Members agreed that this topic would be discussed at the next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group and Professor Saunders agreed to provide a list of key points to the Secretary for the next agenda.

The Vice-Chancellor suggested consideration should be given to a broad topic that would draw on the resources of five humanities faculties of the University – Arts, Art and Design, Business and Economics, Education and Law.

The Vice-Chancellor suggested as a working title ‘the Institute for the Study of Global Movements’ within which these faculties could contribute. Putting this notion in context, the Vice-Chancellor noted that for example, there was a wealth of knowledge in the University about globalisation and movements against globalisation and that to consolidate this might provide a useful resource. In the course of discussion, it was suggested that Professors Willis and Redmond be appointed joint convenors of the five humanities deans with a view to producing a proposal for the Vice-Chancellor’s Group within 2/3 weeks with the financial frame of up to $2 M per annum for five years.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research and Development) advised that Ms Meredith Jackson would take up the appointment of Executive Director, Marketing and Public Affairs in mid October 2001.

The Vice-Chancellor advised that Mr Siggins would retire on 27 July and he thanked Mr Siggins for his work as secretary to the Deans Discussion Group.

The next ordinary meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 2.15pm on Tuesday, 21 August 2001 in the Sir George Lush Room.

The next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group will be held at 4.00pm on Tuesday, 4 September 2001 in the City Office.

Vice-Chancellor and President
Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Vice-Presidents

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans