Meeting 3/2003 of the Committee of Deans was held between 2.15pm and 3.45pm on Tuesday, 15 April, 2003 in the Sir George Lush Room, ground floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

Members having a direct commercial or financial interest in any item before this meeting must declare that interest to the Chair via the Committee Secretary prior to consideration of the item, and must not take part in a vote on any matter concerning it.

Professor Peter Darvall, Vice-Chancellor

Ms Alison Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

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

Professor John Redmond, Dean, Faculty of Art and Design

Associate Professor Harry Ballis, Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor Alan Farley, Associate Dean – Teaching, Faculty of Business & Economics

Professor Sue Willis, Dean, Faculty of Education

Professor Tam Sridhar, 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 & Health Sciences

Professor Colin Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Associate Professor Michael Page, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Science

Professor Max King, Director, Research Graduate School

Professor Merran Evans, Director, Planning and Academic Affairs, for item 3.2

Ms Melany Blackwell, Quality Advisor, Service Level Agreements, CHEQ for item 4.3.1

Mr Peter Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services for item 4.3.2

Mr Jacques Nayna, Manager, Applications Development and Security for item 4.3.2

Ms Stephanie Loo, Human Resources Applications Development Officer for item 4.3.2

Apologies were received from Professor Alan Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Planning), Professor Homer Le Grand, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Professor Gill Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business & Economics, Professor Rob Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science and Professor Brian Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland Campus.

The minutes of meeting 1/2003 held on 28 January 2003 were confirmed.

Professor Darvall informed members that Professor Anderson had agreed to a further one year appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor, Monash South Africa and that a recommended appointment to the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor, Monash Malaysia, would be forwarded to the next meeting of Council.

Members requested further information on the proposed "clawback" of DEST planned load and residual non-pipeline load.

Professor Evans, Director, Planning and Academic Affairs was invited to attend the meeting.

Professor Evans informed Deans that letters detailing the outcome of the proposed 1% clawback and allocation of residual non-pipeline load (103 EFTSC) would be distributed from the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Planning).

Outlining the process for determining the successful bids, Professor Evans informed members that all bids were assessed against the "clawback" guidelines and recommended outcome considered by the Vice-Chancellor’s Group.

Members were provided with the following tabled documents:

The Vice-Chancellor spoke to this item.

Documentation was distributed. (Attachment 2)

Ms Melany Blackwell, Quality Advisor, Service Level Agreements, CHEQ was in attendance.

Ms Alison Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources) introduced the item noting that the agenda papers consisted of the following:

Ms Crook informed members that the SLAs were the result of wide consultation with service providers, faculty feedback teams and faculty managers.

Ms Blackwell informed members that she had met with most Deans to discuss the Service Level Agreement progress. Further, members were informed that areas for improvement had been identified, including:

Ms Blackwell also noted that further opportunities to improve the process and documentation would arise during the implementation phase.

Opening the matter up for discussion, the Vice-Chancellor informed members that discussions on the cost and quality of support services would be held during July to August 2003.

During discussion members noted that some service level agreements, such as laboratory animal services, were yet to be established, that the current SLA reflected the current service levels delivered by central support services – not necessarily the required service levels and the column headed "Faculty Responsibilities" included a range of statements including pre-conditions, rules and set criteria.

In response, members were informed that SLAs for areas yet to develop service statements (as listed on page 171 of "Service Level Agreement Between Monash Support Services and Monash Faculties") would be developed as soon as practicable, discussions on service levels and cost would occur in July to August 2003 and further refinement and discussion of KPIs would take place during 2003.

Noting Deans’ general endorsement of the process, Professor Darvall informed Deans that opportunities to review the process and documentation were available.

Professor Darvall thanked Ms Blackwell for her presentation.

In attendance were Mr Peter Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services, Mr Jacques Nayna, Manager, Applications Development and Security and Ms Stephanie Loo, Human Resources Applications Development Officer.

Mr Marshall informed members that a new on-line web-based leave application and approval process was currently being piloted and would be implemented in most areas of the university later in 2003, subject to successful completion of the pilot phase.

Ms Loo, Employee Self Service (ESS) Project Officer, demonstrated the system. Highlights of the new process include a multiple step on-line approval process involving applicants, supervisors and authorisers, a range of reports, the ability for the supervisor to delegate approval/rejection function when the supervisor is absent from the workplace, on-line notification of the status of leave applications and escalation of leave requests if the designated supervisor did not action the request within three days.

In response to questions, members were informed of the following:

Concluding the discussion, Professor Darvall thanked Mr Marshall, Mr Nayna and Ms Loo for the presentation.

Documentation was attached. RMO2002/0167

Members approved the proposal to establish the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences on the Malaysia campus to replace the current School of Engineering and Science.

Documentation was attached. RMO2002/0167

The Committee of Deans approved the proposal to establish and fill a Chair of Biotechnology in the School of Arts and Sciences, Monash Malaysia.

Documentation was attached. RMO1997/0768

The Committee of Deans approved the proposal to establish and fill a Chair of Archival Systems in the Faculty of Information Technology.

Members noted the change of venue for the next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group to:

Monash University Law Chambers

Ground Floor

472 Bourke Street

Melbourne

A member, referring to recent media reports, requested information/analysis of changes in the public university entrance selection process in Malaysia and the possible effects this may have on Private Higher Education Institutions enrolments in Malaysia.

Professor Darvall informed members that he would arrange for the Secretary to forward a confidential briefing paper on the matter.

Secretarial note: the briefing paper "Route to Public Universities" was emailed to members on 16 April 2003.

International students studying at rural campuses: Professor Darvall advised that he would request Mr Tony Pollock to provide members with an update on the matter.

Travel warnings: members were advised that any matter that involved travel warnings was an issue of risk management and that any staff member intending to travel overseas should be suitably informed and heed official advice.

The next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group will be held at 4.00pm on Tuesday 13 May 2003 in the Monash University Law Chambers, Ground Floor, 472 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 2.15pm on Tuesday 3 June 2003 in the Sir George Lush Room.