Committee of Deans Meeting 8/2002

Meeting 8/2002 of the Committee of Deans was held between 2.15pm and 3.45pm on Tuesday, 19 November, 2002 in the Sir George Lush Room, ground floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

The Vice-Chancellor recognised the occasion of the final meeting of the Committee of Deans for Professor Mike Brisk, Dean, Faculty of Engineering.

Professor Peter Darvall, Vice-Chancellor

Professor Alan Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & Planning)

Ms Alison Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Professor Gary Bouma, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development)

Professor Brian Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland Campus

Professor John Redmond, Dean, Faculty of Art and Design

Professor Homer Le Grand, Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor Michael Brisk, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor John Rosenberg, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology

Professor Stephen Parker, Dean, Faculty of Law

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

Professor Rob Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science

Professor Max King, Director, Research Graduate School

Professor Alan Farley, Associate Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics for Professor Gill Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor Graham Webb, Director, Centre for Higher Education Quality for item 4.3.1

Ms Jill Dixon, Quality Advisor, Centre for Higher Education Quality for item 4.3.1

Mrs Marijana Gec, as Secretary, in the absence of Mr Tony Calder

Apologies were received from Professor Gill Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics, Professor Sue Willis, Dean, Faculty of Education and Professor Colin Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Order of agenda – item 4.3.1 was discussed first

The minutes of meeting 7/2002 of the Committee of Deans held on 9 October, 2002 were confirmed.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that most Deans responded positively to Professor Mackenzie’s email regarding the issue of communication between his office and faculty executives.

Professor Brian Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland informed Deans that he was pleased to see such a positive response from Deans and noted that the intention of the communication was not solely for information but also to enable meaningful input into discussion.

During discussion, the following comments were offered:

• noting the advantages of conducting regular meetings between the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Schools at the Gippsland campus – Professor Mackenzie indicated that he currently held successful informal sessions which were modelled on meetings of the Deans Discussion Group;

• recognition of the need to adopt the ‘commonsense’ approach when dealing with people;

• advantages/disadvantages of formal dotted-line reporting relationships; and

• the lack of communication in some faculties, particularly in relation to regional and overseas campuses and the need to ensure that the right level of consultation and reporting takes place.

Professor Gary Bouma, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) advised Council that 52 applications for Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence were made across Australia and 16 of these had survived the first cull. Professor Bouma informed members that Monash had 3 bids and he agreed to circulate to Deans the names of the 3 Monash applications.

A member raised the issue of scientific misconduct and compliance with the provisions of enterprise bargaining and the Whistleblowers’ policy and requested that this matter be considered and a clarifying statement produced.

Professor Graham Webb, Director, Centre for Higher Education Quality and Ms Jill Dixon, Quality Advisor, Centre for Higher Education Quality were in attendance for this item.

Professor Webb advised members that the need for a Monash Experience Questionnaire was an outcome of Monash’s self review and pursuant to Recommendation 18 - that the University develop such a questionnaire. Further, Professor Webb advised that the questionnaire had been endorsed by the Vice-Chancellor’s Group following extensive comment and review from staff across the university and from student focus groups.

Professor Webb explained to members the four sections of the questionnaire, namely:

• Personal and course details

• Study experience

• Support services/administration

• General Monash experience

Professor Webb confirmed that the questionnaire would be further refined prior to its administration in 2003. It was proposed that administration of the survey in the first year would be to a large sample of the student body, following which it would be administered to courses involved in reviews to create an annual sample of approximately 20% of courses.

Comments included:

• the danger of survey fatigue. It was confirmed that students supported the survey but continued support for all surveys relied on improvement action and the communication of this to students. Professor Webb undertook to look into the question of the number of surveys which a "typical" student had to fill out;

• central and faculty support services/administration being treated as a single level and the confusion this might cause. Ms Dixon advised that students tended not to make this distinction in relation to the service they experienced. She further commented on a support services survey that central and faculty support services were developing with CHEQ to provide specific operational level data; and

• timeline for completion of the questionnaire taking into account workload issues and commencement date. The proposed distribution of the questionnaire in April or May was considered too early and that the timeline needed to be reconsidered.

Professor Alan Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Planning, informed members that the accumulated balance of funds in the teaching and learning pool would be distributed to faculties to support special faculty initiatives relating to the updated Learning and Teaching Plan.

After considering various parameters that could be used in the allocation of funds, Professor Lindsay proposed an allocation involving two groups of faculties.

Professor Lindsay sought members’ endorsement of the approach or an agreement on some alternative mechanism. Following discussion of the issue, the members approved Professor Lindsay’s distribution and noted that to minimise overheads in accessing the allocation, Deans would submit a brief proposal indicating how the funds would be expended no later than 31 March 2003.

Ms Alison Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Resources advised members that the report was created as a result of Monash’s self-review in which a recommendation was made to develop leadership and management at all levels of the institution.

As a result, focus groups, held by Professor D Terry, Head of Psychology, University of Queensland, were conducted to explore the issues surrounding the role of head of school/department. Further, Deans were advised that the report had been distributed to Committee of Deans, VCG and circulated to all participants in the focus group discussions.

Ms Crook spoke to a tabled paper which detailed the recommendations and the Committee’s responses to them as follows:

Ms Crook advised that the position description alluded to in recommendation 1 was not yet available as it needed to be considered by the Vice-Chancellor’s Group. Further, members were informed that further consideration needed to be given to the major differentiators and the use of consistent language as detailed in the tabled paper. Discussion followed with the following comments raised:

• the difficulty of establishing a single generic document considering the different levels of complexity

• if adopting a generic document, there would be a need to add additional elements

• introduction of performance based contract similar to deans

The Committee agreed to a term of between 3 to 5 years. A member commented that 3 years was too short a time to do the job and Ms Crook advised that it was commonly 5, but that an option for a further term, at the Dean’s discretion, be built in. The matter of termination of appointment was discussed and a member advised that the online staff handbook required updating to reflect changes to the statutes.

In response to the recommendation regarding provision of remuneration and support for heads, Ms Crook advised that the level of remuneration should not be related to the ability of the department/faculty to pay. Discussion was held in relation to the inequities which might be created if based on ability of the department/faculty to pay.

As the remainder of the discussion revolved around the clarification of the position description, it was recommended that further discussion of this matter be suspended until the Committee of Deans was provided with the relevant document.

The members confirmed the revised meeting dates for 2003 as detailed in the attached document.

The first meeting of the Committee of Deans for 2003 will be held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 28 January 2003 in the Sir George Lush Room.

The next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group will be held at 4.00pm on Tuesday 3 December 2002 in the City Office.

*****************************************************

Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellors

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans

Professor Max King, Director, Research Graduate School

Professor Alan Farley, Associate Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor Graham Webb, Director, Centre for Higher Education Quality

Ms Jill Dixon, Quality Advisor, Centre for Higher Education Quality