Meeting 2/2005 of the Committee of Deans was held at 4.00pm on Tuesday, 22 March 2005 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)

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

Professor B Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland

Professor M Liddell, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Malaysia

Professor J 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 J Sheridan, Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor R Weber, Dean, Faculty of Information Technology

Professor A Freiberg, Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor W Anderson, Acting Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Professor C Chapman, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy

Professor R Norris, Dean, Faculty of Science

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

Professor L Piterman, Chair, Internationalisation of the Curriculum Subcommittee of Education Committee

Mr C Vernon, Senior Manager, Business Development, Office of International Development

Mr R Newham, Acting Manager, Protocol and Special Events

Professor J Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, South Africa

Professor T Sridhar, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

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

Mr T Calder, Director, Executive Services

Minutes of meeting 1/2005 of the Committee of Deans held on Tuesday, 8 February 2005 were confirmed subject to the following amendments:

Following an introduction by Professor D Kirkpatrick of proposed changes to the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, members provided a range of suggestions for further consideration.

Members participated in an extensive discussion on the relative roles of the Committee of Deans and Senior Management Committee, membership and effectiveness of agenda items and the role of the Committee. Following advice that the role of the Senior Management Committee was also under review, members noted the suggestion of Professor Larkins that operational matters should, under normal circumstances, be included on the Senior Management Committee agenda.

During discussion of this item at meeting 1/2005, it was noted that a review of the probationary period be initiated in order to identify any systemic weaknesses and ensure that the probationary period focussed on enhancing performance.

Professor Parker advised the meeting that Ms Sonya McKeown had been seconded to his office to assist with progressing the matter.

Mr Roger Newham, Acting Manager, Protocol and Special Events, was in attendance for this item.

Members noted the advice of the Vice-Chancellor and Mr Newham on the purpose of the dinner and the role of table hosts.

Members noted the advice of the Vice-Chancellor and Professor Parker on the purpose and expected outcomes of the meetings.

Noting the advice of Professor Parker on the need to formalise a view on the matter, Professors Rob Norris and Sue Willis agreed to participate in the Academic Workload Committee.

Members noted the advice of the Vice-Chancellor on the name of the student leadership program and that program co-ordinators would seek approximately forty nominations during second semester.

Following an overview of the proposed legislation, members noted the advice of the Vice-Chancellor that Monash would continue to work through the issues with student organisations and attempt to ensure that a vibrant campus environment continued to have a positive impact on the student experience.

Discussion of this item was deferred to a future meeting.

Mr Clive Vernon, Senior Manager, Business Development, Office of International Development was in attendance for this item.

Following some introductory comments, Professor Parker outlined four areas for discussion:

• the vision – what are "we" about in 2006 to 2010?;

• forms of worldwide development – campuses and/or centres?

• structures and governance – how we organise?; and

• students and staff – what should they get out of internationalisation?

Comments provided during discussion included:

overseas campuses, not partnerships, were crucial due to our brand name and control of standards – offshore campuses also clearly differentiate Monash;

• noting that the North Asia Steering Group was looking at several partnerships, not a campus, it was suggested that greater review of available data and trends was required to ensure appropriate strategies were adopted;

• consolidation in South Africa was required including the participation of another faculty – Malaysia’s new campus would also need to be bedded down;

• flexibility of strategy and planning should be retained as exemplified by the Sharjah initiatives;

• given resourcing constraints, it may be necessary to decide on whether to broaden the activities of existing offshore campuses or develop a new campus;

• the activities of campuses needed to be clearly articulated particularly in the area of research, research intensity and whether a new centre/campus, based on research activity, could/should be established;

• the high "transaction cost" was noted in relation to offshore campuses as was the need to ensure the ongoing quality of programs;

• research collaborations across continents were increasing as were proposals to offer joint-badged doctoral programs;

• research nodes needed to be established at both Malaysia and South Africa;

• to establish "Partnerships" in North America, where contact was currently so intermittent, it may be necessary to establish a one person office to consolidate partnerships;

• partnerships should be based on both teaching and research to ensure that should one activity collapse the partnership/relationship did not;

• China – Monash needed to work with prestigious universities;

• on advice that enrolment numbers in some teaching partnerships were no longer trending-up due to a market shift, there was a need to undertake a strategic analysis of this type of activity;

• teaching partnerships, centres, campuses and other international exchange opportunities were important to student mobility;

• the role and location of Monash College activities was raised;

• steering groups – while noting that some steering groups were still developing their agenda, members were advised that steering groups were advisory bodies to the Chair while the Vice-Chancellor’s Group met as Vice-Chancellor’s Group (International) to ensure that Vice-Chancellor’s Group dedicated time to considering international issues; and

• in relation to "diversification of risk" it was suggested that Monash needed to diversify the major source countries of international students.

Members noted the advice of Professor Parker, supported by the Vice-Chancellor, that the Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for academic matters in partnership with faculties, needed to co-ordinate the development of a set of guidelines/code of practice to ensure that the issue of feedback to students was progressed.

Professor Leon Piterman, Chair, Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IOC) Subcommittee of Education Committee, provided a PowerPoint presentation to members. A copy of the slides used by Professor Piterman is attached. (Attachment 1). Following the presentation, Professor Piterman informed members that the IOC Working Group would be responsible for introducing the policy and procedures to senior faculty staff and each faculty’s Associate Dean (Teaching) would be responsible for implementation aspects in association with course co-ordinators.

Members discussed a range of issues including the option of introducing a minor sequence of international subjects, the need to get staff to "buy in", the possibility of a distinctive Monash approach by leveraging Monash’s offshore campuses/centres and international student cohort, the necessity of ensuring that Monash’s approach to IOC was seen as comprehensive and in no way tokenistic, and noted the advice of Professor Lindsay that some grants for innovation in this area would be available.

Following an introduction, Professor Edwina Cornish requested that deans provide comment on the report.

The following observations or comments were provided:

• recommendation 1.5 - it was suggested that the term of appointment for Associate Deans (Research) remain a decision for each individual faculty as five years may be too long and setting a minimum (two years?) may be a preferred option. It was suggested that the involvement of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in the appointment process and annual performance assessment should be optional rather than mandated. During discussion of the third dot point, it was suggested that the Associate Deans (Research) be given "some authority" to take the steps necessary to achieve quality research while another view expressed was that Associate Deans (Research) should be seen as more accountable for research performance;

• it was suggested that while the majority of recommendations were welcomed and supported, many of the recommendations raised important human resource management issues, which may vary across faculties, and the human resource strategies that would deliver the required outcomes should be further discussed;

• the capacity to attract top ranking staff could be affected by work load issues;

• Committee of Associate Deans (Research) – both the Vice-Chancellor and Professor Cornish noted the need to ensure that the role of the Committee was clearly defined;

• a query was raised as to whether the primary role of the Associate Deans (Research) was to participate in the development and implementation of research related policies or to focus on improving the research output at the faculty level;

• members noted the importance of suitable research infrastructure in improving Monash’s research standing; and

• South Africa and Malaysia campuses need a local campus based research strategy.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that Professors Willis, Freiberg and Norris had agreed to undertake a co-ordinating role in the development of agenda items for each meeting.

The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 10 May 2005 in the Dean’s (BusEco) Meeting Room, Level 9, Building S, Caulfield Campus.

Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans/Acting Deans