Deans Discussion Group Meeting 7-2001
Meeting 7/2001 of the Deans Discussion Group was held at
5.30 pm on Tuesday, 6 November 2001 in the Monash City Office,
Level 11, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.
NOTES
1. There were present:
Professor D A
Robinson, Vice-Chancellor and President, Presiding
Professor P LeP
Darvall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President, (Research and
Development)
Professor A W
Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic and
Planning)
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 J
Rosenberg, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology
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
In attendance were:
Ms Meredith
Jackson, Executive Director, Marketing and Public Affairs
Ms Adele Gaylard,
Deputy Manager, Staff Development
Professor Graham
Webb, Director, Centre for Higher Education Quality
Ms Melany
Blackwell, Quality Adviser, Centre for Higher Education Quality
Pre-dinner discussion
2. Notes
Notes of meeting 6/2001 held on 4 September 2001 were
received and noted.
3. Matters arising from the Notes of meeting 6/2001
3.1 University Operating Environment
The Vice-Chancellor informed members that a paper
detailing Monash’s participation in Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)
would be considered at the next meeting of the Academic Board. Further,
it was noted that Activity Based Costing, a component of the strategic
cost management process, would assist in identifying the true cost of
research activities and that the development of a kit to guide and
assist staff when undertaking negotiations on collaborative ventures was
being considered.
4. Performance Management Scheme
Ms Adele Gaylard, Deputy Manager, Staff Development
advised that following receipt of feedback from a series of meetings
with Deans and Faculty Managers, a revised structure and format,
including an instruction booklet, had been developed for the Performance
Management Scheme.
Members were advised that there had been little change
to the content of the documents but that the documents had been
redesigned to incorporate the existing three components into one
document supported by a separate instruction booklet. Other matters
raised included the greater emphasis on qualitative goals, the
importance of the role of supervisors in the process and the
introduction of a stronger self-assessment component.
During discussion, the following issues were raised:
-
the need for explicit targets - targets
were noted as an integral component of future discussions between
staff and supervisors;
-
the need to include occupational health
and safety issues;
-
the process must be flexible enough to
allow inclusion of new/changed objectives that arose after the initial
completion of the document;
-
that supervisors need to obtain all
pertinent information to the review process. This may include seeking
feedback from other colleagues where appropriate;
-
in a number of areas, supervised
students publish in their own name but a category to record the
contribution of supervisor should be included; and
-
to assist supervisors, a series of
checklists and "Frequently Asked Questions" were being developed for
publication via the Web.
In concluding the discussion, the Vice-Chancellor
requested Ms Gaylard to distribute the existing documentation with a
summary of the major points raised during discussion to Deans for
further consideration.
5. Service Level Agreements
Ms Alison Crook introduced the topic and noted the
contribution Service Level Agreements (SLAs) would make to the strategic
objectives of Monash, the strategic cost management initiative and to
the quality assurance processes at Monash. Members were advised that Ms
Melany Blackwell had been employed by the Centre for Higher Education
Quality to manage the planning and implementation phase of the project.
Ms Blackwell introduced the tabled paper Developing
Service Level Agreements at Monash noting that the proposed
methodology included four phases with the first phase involving three
support service areas developing a service statement for a single
service. An important component of this first phase would include
consultation and feedback from faculty representatives.
Discussion followed on the level of detail to be
included in SLAs, the availability of comparisons between the current
budget model versus the new financial management process and the need
for consistency in SLAs between service providers and customers.
6. Update on Research Developments
Professor Peter Darvall reported on the outcomes of the
recent ARC and NHMRC rounds and invited Deans to provide their views on
ways Monash could improve its research performance.
Matters discussed included:
-
the importance of providing good
nominees for membership of review panels;
-
the importance of submitting only those
applications that are considered to be of a sufficiently high quality;
-
the important role performed by the
reviewer and the expert services provided by staff in the Research
Grants and Ethics Branch; and
-
that activity based costing would
assist in identifying the true cost of research activities.
Members were advised that a document on strengthening
research at Monash would be considered at Academic Board on 28 November.
Further, Professor Darvall informed Deans that a global email detailing
the process for the 2002 application round would follow.
7. Certificate of Higher Education
Professor Sue Willis advised members that she would
submit a paper outlining options for addressing the concerns of Deans at
the next meeting of the Committee of Deans.
Dinner
8. Marketing and Public Affairs: Issues and Strategies
Ms Meredith Jackson, Executive Director, Marketing and
Public Affairs briefed members on the major elements of the document
titled Marketing Monash Effectively. Matters discussed included:
-
the need to put some order into the
Monash brand that had a high level of organisational endorsement which
might then lead to the establishment of marketing templates that
accommodate the needs of all;
-
the role of visual identity in the
activities of Monash and the need to reconstruct internal
communication vehicles; and
-
the importance of brand impact advice
when planning new initiatives and/or reviewing existing partnerships.
Members were advised that a Brand Leadership Project,
chaired by Ms Jackson, had been established to review the brand
architecture of Monash and link identity to strategies and objectives.
9. Other Business
10. Next Meeting
The final meeting of the Deans Discussion Group for 2001
will be held at 4 pm on Tuesday, 4 December 2001 in the City Office.
The final meeting of the Committee of Deans for 2001
will be held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 20 November 2001 in the Sir George
Lush Room.
Distribution
Vice-Chancellor and President
Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Vice-Presidents
Pro Vice-Chancellors
Deans
Executive Director, Marketing and Public Affairs
Director, Centre for Higher Education Quality
Quality Adviser, Centre for Higher Education Quality
Deputy Manager, Staff Development
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