Deans Discussion Group Meeting 8-2003
Meeting 8/2003 of the Deans Discussion Group was held at 4.00 pm on
Tuesday, 7 October 2003 in the Monash City Office, Level 11, 30 Collins
Street, Melbourne.
NOTES
1. Attendance and apologies
There were present:
Professor R Larkins AO,
Vice-Chancellor
Professor A Lindsay, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Planning)
Mr P Marshall, Divisional
Director, Student and Staff Services
Professor G Bouma, Acting
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development)
Professor S Parker, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor and Dean, Faculty of Law
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 T Sridhar Dean,
Faculty of Engineering
Professor G Gupta, Acting
Dean, Faculty of Information Technology
Professor L Piterman, Acting
Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Professor C Chapman, Dean,
Faculty of Pharmacy
Associate Professor M Page,
Acting Dean, Faculty of Science
Professor M King, Director,
Research Graduate School
Mr T Pollock, Vice-President,
International
Ms M Jackson, Executive
Director, Marketing and Public Affairs
Apologies:
Professor N Saunders, Dean,
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Professor R Norris, Dean,
Faculty of Science
Ms A Crook AO, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor (Resources)
Secretary:
Mr T Calder, Director, Secretariat and Executive Services
2. Notes
Notes of meeting 7/2003 held on 23 September 2003 were received and
noted.
3. Matters arising from the Notes of meeting 7/2003
3.1 Performance Management and the Evaluation of Teaching
Mr Peter Marshall was in attendance.
At meeting 7/2003 during discussion of Performance Management and the
Evaluation of Teaching, members raised a number of queries in relation
to the confirmation of appointment processes following a probationary
period. These queries were referred to Mr Marshall who supplied
the following advice to members:
The delineation of current responsibilities in relation to the
probationary period.
On completion of the selection process, Student and Staff Services
prepare and send to the successful candidate an Offer of Employment
incorporating employment conditions and, where known, the name of the
supervisor. A copy of the offer document is sent to the faculty
for their information.
At the commencement of employment, supervision, including supervision
of probationary requirements, is the responsibility of the academic
supervisor.
What actions are currently permissible/advisable during the
probationary period?
Mr Marshall informed members that clause 69 of the Enterprise
Bargaining Agreement provided the framework for appropriate actions and
noted that any requirements outside the agreement must be specified in
the employment contract. Further, members were advised that any
proposal to convert a fixed term appointment to a continuing appointment
would need to be submitted to the Special Professorial Appointments
Committee for consideration.
In response to the issue of SAP generated reports for probationary
end-dates, members were informed that the end-dates currently not held
in the SAP system were currently to be entered and once the end-dates
and the leave-on-line systems were on-line, periodic reporting, similar
to contract expiry reports, would be able to be generated.
What data was available to faculty staff to facilitate
administration of the probationary period?
During discussion, members suggested a number of processes whereby
greater rigor could be built into the confirmation of appointment
following a probationary period.
Noting that the Performance Management System was designed assuming a
singular link between a staff member and their supervisor, members were
advised that any other confirmation process may result in a need to
change the current agreement.
As a number of issues and suggestions were raised during discussion,
the Vice-Chancellor approved the proposal that Professor Webb and Mr
Marshall be requested to revisit the document titled Performance
Management and the Evaluation of Teaching in light of the discussion
and resubmit the document to a future meeting of the Committee of Deans.
4 Strategy discussions
4.1 Leading the Way - Professor Richard Larkins and Professor
Stephen Parker
Introducing the item, Professor Larkins informed Deans that the
Chancellor, on behalf of Council, had requested that he prepare a
document for submission to Council that provided a general framework to
guide the university's direction over the next five years.
Professor Parker, noting that the Strategic Management Project had
evolved from the outcomes of the Cape Schanck discussions, informed
members that the December meeting of Deans Discussion Group would focus
on a "stocktake" of progress to date with meetings in early 2004
beginning to shape the architecture of the plans - including the March
meeting where senior faculty and support service staff would be invited
to participate. Completion of campus vision statements was
targeted for June 2004.
Following a discussion of the mind-mapping processing relating to the
Strategic Management Project, members were invited to comment on the
document Strategic Framework 2003-2008. During the discussion,
members provided a range of suggested inclusions and refinements to the
document following which the Vice-Chancellor thanked members for their
contributions and advised that he would revise the document in light of
the discussion and bring it back for further discussion at the next
meeting of the Deans Discussion Group.
Secretarial note: discussion of Leading the Way:
Monash 2020 was deferred to the next meeting of Deans Discussion Group.
5. Advisory Group to the Equal Opportunity Committee - Professor
Richard Larkins
In response to the request from Professor Colin Bourke, Chair, Equal
Opportunity Committee, Professor Palmer accepted the Vice-Chancellor's
invitation to be the nominee from the Committee of Deans to participate
in an Advisory Group to the Equal Opportunity Committee.
6 Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Deans Discussion Group will be held at 4 pm
on Tuesday, 4 November 2003 in the City Office.
The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 2.15 pm on
Tuesday, 25 November 2003 in the Sir George Lush Room.
Distribution
Vice-Chancellor
Deputy Vice-Chancellors
Pro Vice-Chancellors
Deans/Acting Deans
Director, Research Graduate
School
Vice-President
(International)
Executive Director, Marketing
and Public Affairs
Divisional Director, Student
and Staff Services |
