Committee of Deans Meeting 5-2004

Meeting 5/2004 of the Committee of Deans was held at 4.00pm on Tuesday, 3 August 2004 in the Hugh Williamson Room, Level 7, The Victorian Arts Centre.

Professor R Larkins AO, Vice-Chancellor

Professor A Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Professor E Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

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 R Weber, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology

Associate Professor A Monotti, Acting Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor E Byrne, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Professor P Stewart, Acting Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Professor R Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science

Professor M King, Director, Research Graduate School

Ms A Birmingham, Manager, Workplace Policy

Ms M Blackwell, Quality Adviser, Service Level Agreements, Centre for Higher Education Quality

Professor S Parker, Deputy Vice-Chancellor

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

Professor B Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland

Professor M Liddell, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Malaysia

Professor J Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, South Africa

Professor A Freiberg, Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor C Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Mr T Calder, Director, Executive Services

Minutes of meeting 4/2004 of the Committee of Deans held on 22 June 2004 were approved.

Ms Melany Blackwell was in attendance for this item.

A document, Marketing and Public Affairs Service Statements was tabled at the meeting.

Ms Blackwell informed members that this matter had originated from meeting 5/2004 of the Senior Management Committee where members were advised that amended MAPA Service Level Agreements would be distributed to members for their information/comment.

Members were informed that two SLA’s –

• Manage the Monash University Identity and Reputation (Corporate Image); and

• Recruitment of Australian and International On-Campus and Off-Campus Students

had been amended and were included with the agenda papers for consideration by Deans. The SLA, Provide a Visual and Performing Arts service to the university and to external communities was still under consideration.

During discussion the following suggestions were made:

• noting the importance of emphasising that the recruitment of students is a partnership between faculties and MAPA, it was suggested that the service description be amended to include a statement to that effect;

• that a new KPI be introduced referring to the top 5% of students applying to study at Monash; and

• that reference to ‘postgraduate’ be replaced with the previously approved nomenclature of Graduate/Postgraduate (GPG).

Concluding the discussion, the Vice-Chancellor informed members that further consideration could be given to any outstanding issues relating to MAPA Service Level Agreements.

The Vice-Chancellor introduced the item and advised members that the matrix had been revised with the intention of clarifying some of the issues that had previously been raised.

Members provided the following comments on the matrix:

• referring to the role of the Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor in the academic promotion process, it was suggested that this was a role for the Head of School and that the procedure should also remain consistent with promotion rounds managed by faculties;

• in response to the observation that new course approvals needed early input from the Deans, it was suggested that normal course approval procedures would include early consultation with Deans;

• a member noted that subsidisation of some courses and units at Gippsland Campus already occurred; and

• in response to the observation that the table was silent on the matter of HDR supervision, Professor King was requested to provide recommendations for future consideration including the issue of HDR supervision.

The Vice-Chancellor thanked members for their comments and informed them that a revised version of the matrix would be considered at a later meeting of Committee of Deans or Senior Management Committee.

Ms Amanda Birmingham was in attendance for this item.

Professor Lindsay advised members that the review of professorial appointments had focussed on the key issues of the nature of professorial appointments, the need to simplify the number of categories of professor, streamlining procedures, the need (or otherwise) to introduce a promotion to professor process and the hierarchy of professorial appointments.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that he supported a reduction of the categories of professor and that "professor" was an academic title and that academic staff appointed to an administrative role should receive a salary loading rather than appointed to a professorial level.

During discussion, the following suggestions were made:

• use of "professorial fellow" category introduced a notion of "second tier" professors;

• funding requirements for sponsored chairs needed to be more explicitly stated;

• as a general approach, accelerated appointments, in some cases, lead to poor appointments. In situations where this was necessary, a better approach was to more appropriately remunerate the staff member. It was noted that the introduction of an annual promotion to professor round would ease this situation. Further, it was suggested that, in special circumstances, an "out of session" meeting of promotion panels could be convened;

• in response to a suggestion that "named chairs" be for a fixed term, it was suggested that, in such cases, the appointment be for five years and renewal subject to outstanding performance (similar criteria for renewal of Sir John Monash Distinguished Professorships);

• as promotion to professor would be based on academic merit, the weighting of teaching and research should be 80% - not 50% as detailed on page 25 of Attachment Three – Policy on Promotion to Professor;

• during the discussion on the promotion process, Professor Lindsay advised members that the criteria for promotion and guidelines would be brought back to a future meeting of the Committee of Deans;

• the need to suitably reward professorial fellows was raised along with the difficulty of recruiting suitable staff in some disciplines and at some outer campuses;

• future appointments at the level of professor/director would need to be worthy of appointment at professorial level; and

• other matters raised included emphasising research beyond academic leadership in the criteria for research professors, that faculties should rank applicants for promotion to professor and the use of the category of Honorary Professorial Fellow.

The Vice-Chancellor concluded the discussion and thanked members for their valuable contribution.

During discussion, members provided the following input:

• Malaysia – the Faculty of Engineering currently completed all primary marking and the capacity to recoup costs should be facilitated by Boss Note 132;

• Professor Palmer advised that she would forward further information of issues relating to her faculty and suggested that the development stages for the South Africa Campus required clarification as did the role of the Office of International Development; and

• at least one reference to an incorrect campus occurred within Boss Note 132.

Concluding the discussion, members were requested to forward any further comments to Ms Crook.

Members noted the information provided.

Following an introduction from the Vice-Chancellor, members provided the following suggestions relating to the compliance certification:

• whereas most of the compliance certification statements were set at the "cost centre" level, it was suggested that the wording be amended to "administrative area of responsibility" as this would better target the certification at an appropriate operational level;

• Section 1.2 – phrasing of this section and others could be improved by qualifying words such as "monitor" and "appropriate education and training" (Section 3.6);

• a member suggested that Section 3.3 be revised to identification and assessment of risks on a best endeavours basis; and

• it was suggested that an approach of spot audits, similar to the OH & S Policy, be adopted.

The Vice-Chancellor thanked members for their input and advised that a revised policy would be considered at a future meeting.

Members discussed a range of issues including:

• scholarships and the drivers used for charging them out to faculties;

• HECS and summer semester; and

• discussion of the process for assessing applications to the Learning and Teaching Fund.

The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 3.00 pm on Tuesday, 21 September 2004 in the Sir George Lush Room, Administration Building 3a, Clayton Campus.

Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans

Director, Research Graduate School