Committee of Deans Meeting 7-2004

Meeting 7/2004 of the Committee of Deans was held at 4.00pm on Wednesday, 10 November 2004 in the Monash City Office, Level 11, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Professor R Larkins AO, Vice-Chancellor

Professor S Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Professor A Lindsay, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Professor E Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Professor B Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland

Professor M Liddell, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Malaysia

Professor J Redmond, Dean, Faculty of Art and Design

Associate Professor D Cuthbert, Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor G Palmer, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor S Willis, Dean, Faculty of Education

Professor J Sheridan, Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor R Weber, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology

Professor A Freiberg, Dean, Faculty of Law

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

Professor C Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Professor R Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science

Associate Professor R Devenish, Acting for Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research Training)

Mr P Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services

Mr N Thorburn, Executive Manager, Compliance, Audit and Risk Management

Associate Professor M Page, Associate Dean (Teaching), Faculty of Science

Associate Professor T Luff, Associate Dean (Teaching), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

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

Professor J Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, South Africa

Professor H Le Grand, Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor T Sridhar, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor M King, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Research Training

Mr T Calder, Director, Executive Services

Minutes of meeting 6/2004 of the Committee of Deans held on Tuesday, 21 September 2004 were approved.

Mr N Thorburn, Executive Manager, Compliance, Audit and Risk Management was in attendance for this item.

Mr Thorburn provided members with an overview of the revised Legal Compliance Policy, certification process and overarching compliance framework, particularly as it relates to Heads of Cost Centres and their supervisor.

Further, members were advised that implementation of the process would be assisted by the development of guidelines, f.a.q.’s, definition of terms, scheduling of campus-wide meetings to introduce the process and the development of a voluntary training program.

During discussion, a member suggested that the revised process be linked to the operational planning and performance development processes.

Mr Thorburn agreed to meet with Professor Cornish in relation to the end-of-year certification process.

Mr P Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services was in attendance for this item.

Members discussed the merits of the examples included with the agenda papers. Comments provided included:

• the developed questionnaire must be Dean-centric;

• faculty administrative functions and outcomes are part of the leadership role of the Dean;

• the Dean would select approximately 8 staff to complete the questionnaire;

• the evaluation should be 180°, not 360°; and

• the outcomes of the process would feed into professional development discussions between the Vice-Chancellor and individual Deans.

Members also suggested that some qualitative questions be included and that the process be extended to include Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Pro Vice-Chancellors.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that Professor Lindsay was continuing as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) until he commenced leave in mid 2005 and Mr Pollock, in his role as Vice-President, International, would assume his role immediately including Chairman of the VCG – International. A member suggested that Monash International be represented on VCG – International.

Deans were advised that where portfolio related matters were referred to the relevant Deputy Vice-Chancellor, there was no need for Deans to "double report" the matter to the Vice-Chancellor.

The Vice-Chancellor updated members on the outcomes of his recent visit to South Africa.

Following discussion of the draft paper, the Vice-Chancellor agreed with the suggestion that Associate Professor Denise Cuthbert participate in the working party chaired by Professor Willis.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that Professors Parker and Browne would be advising on the role and structure of academic related committees.

A report prepared by Dr Dellandrea would be circulated in due course.

Members were advised that Monash had become the first University in Australia to join the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE).

The Vice-Chancellor provided members with an overview of the outcomes of the recent meeting of the AV-CC including the contribution of Minister Nelson.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that the Faculty of Art and Design would be hosting the Design Research Society International Conference later in November.

Following a detailed presentation, members provided the following comments/suggestions:

• the vision statement should also be aligned with the strategic vision for Victoria;

• 100% research active staff would improve Monash’s research output, however, a greater contributor was research active departments with some pre-eminent researchers;

• members discussed the use of nomenclature such as research active, research leadership, research engaged and research contributors;

• international university: a member noted that this section did not mention international students, our international networks had not been mentioned and therefore, some may perceive that Monash was moving away from some of its off-shore partnerships;

• partner supported and/or distance education and on-campus teaching needed to be more clearly defined;

• issues relating to operationalising the UDF and the impact this had on faculty planning;

• a member suggested that the document did not uniquely define "Monash";

• funding issues should be addressed; and

• Monash’s relationship to Victoria and Asia could be further elaborated and the use of terms such as community and cohorts could be used in addition to the "campus".

Concluding the discussion, Professor Parker thanked members for their contributions and advised that revised versions of the document would progress through the consultation process.

Mr P Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services was in attendance for this item.

Following an overview of the status of the current round of enterprise bargaining and the introduction of bans on the release of examination results by the Monash branch of the NTEU, members discussed the ramifications the bans would have on both students and staff.

Associate Professor M Page, Associate Dean (Teaching), Faculty of Science and Associate Professor T Luff, Associate Dean (Teaching), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences were in attendance for this item.

Following an introduction and overview of the Report and Recommendations of the Biotechnology Education Review, members provided the following advice:

• following discussion of the proposed course administration and course structures, the Deans of Science and Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences were requested to liaise in order to ensure that the governance processes were appropriate before the course was submitted for approval; and

• members noted that other faculties, including Law and Engineering, had an interest in biotechnology education at Monash.

The Vice-Chancellor concluded the discussion noting that there was general support for the proposal noting the issues relating to the administering faculty – not owning faculty – and the role of the Board of Studies.

Noting that a number of faculties already had a similar framework in place, members endorsed the proposed planning framework as detailed in the document presented.

Members noted the advice of Professor Cornish that Monash had been randomly selected to pilot an institutional audit into the effectiveness of the management of research projects.

During discussion, Professor Mackenzie informed members that he intended to provide a number of recommendations on the matter to Professor Parker and subsequently to Deans of faculties.

The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 3.00 pm on Wednesday, 15 December in the City Office.

Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans