Meeting 3/2005 of the Committee of Deans was held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday, 10 May 2005 in the Dean’s (BusEco) Meeting Room, Level 9, Building S, Caulfield Campus.

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 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 K Hourigan, 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

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

Professor M Liddell, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Malaysia

Professor T Pretorius, Pro Vice-Chancellor, South Africa

Professor T Sridhar, Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Mr T Calder, Director, Executive Services

Minutes of meeting 2/2005 of the Committee of Deans held on Tuesday, 22 March 2005 were confirmed.

The Vice-Chancellor invited discussion on the "Performance Evaluation of Deans Guidelines" and the "Performance Evaluation Survey: Deans".

Members provided a range of comments and suggestions – these are detailed in Attachment 1.

In addition to matters detailed in Attachment 1, the following matters were discussed:

• in response to a question as to whether some of the 10 to 20 senior colleagues nominated to complete the survey could come from outside the faculty, the Vice-Chancellor resolved that for the initial survey all colleagues nominated by the dean should come from within the faculty; and

• responding to a suggestion that differentiation between faculties may be better accommodated by faculty specific surveys, the Vice-Chancellor advised that a standard content should be maintained.

The Vice-Chancellor concluded the discussion by thanking members for their contributions and noting the importance of linking the University’s planning cycle with the evaluation process.

Following consideration of members’ comments, the matter is to return to Committee of Deans for further consideration.

Professor Stephen Parker, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, introduced the item noting that it was a proposal to review what Monash taught and the range of choices offered to students – it was not proposed to review how Monash taught.

Reasons for suggesting the review and seeking the view of the members of Committee of Deans included:

• feedback from international students indicating that the "product range" looked tired;

• the question of Is Monash really broad-based;

• should some courses be via graduate entry;

• feedback that students wanted a wider choice; and

• to ensure that pre and co-requirements within course structures were academically based.

Comments of members included:

• need to take a University-wide view across disciplines to ensure that the University identified any courses that were not offered;

• need to identify what is special about Monash and drive this forward over the next few years;

• the process adopted for conducting the review would be crucial for its success – use focus groups and interviews – not just seek submissions;

• agreement on the overall criteria for the evaluation was needed at the start of the process;

• some issues the review would need to look at included 3 year Bachelor degrees and 5 year Masters, the range of diversity in environmental science units yet Monash was not taking advantage of the situation, 4^th year Honours, should faculty/executive certificates become University awards, linkages with stakeholders and was Monash meeting stakeholder needs;

• the review would need to be able to access data, via Activity Based Costings, on the resources expended per program;

• an assessment of future market requirements would be a factor;

• some degree rules prevented students from taking electives and/or constrained a student’s choice;

• there was a need to break down some barriers and encourage teaching of units into other faculties rather than duplicating effort and units;

• greater flexibility in teaching across boundaries would result in reduced costs;

• it was suggested that the review be staged; and

• need to look at an outcome that reduced time spent on administrative tasks so that more time was available for research activities.

Concluding the discussion, Professor Parker thanked members for their views and general agreement.

The proposal will be further progressed including the Terms of Reference and process and returned to Committee of Deans for further discussion.

This matter was progressed at meeting 2/2005 via the formation of a sub-group of Deans – Professors Willis, Freiberg and Norris, to assist with co-ordinating the development of agenda items for each meeting.

Following further discussion, it was decided that the Secretary was to liaise with Professors Willis, Freiberg and Norris at least two weeks prior to the preparation of each agenda in order to identify/seek matters for discussion.

Members were advised that Mr Peter Marshall, Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services and Mr Stephen Pollard, Director, Resources and Planning, were continuing to meet with student groups (excluding Caulfield and Peninsula who had declined the offer to participate) to categorise and assess services that would be affected by the legislation.

Members were informed that the outcomes would have an effect on the 2006 budget.

Following an outline of the major requirements of the proposed reforms, members noted that the need to achieve a compliant certified agreement might result in some industrial unrest.

A member queried whether letters of offer to recently employed staff were being generated and posted.

Following an outline of ramifications of the above on the University’s budget, members were advised to be prudent whenever filling staff vacancies and to begin now to look at ways to reduce costs while not undermining the capacity to attract students.

Chief Financial Officer – an offer had been made.

Mr Tony Pollock – Mr Pollock had taken up the position of CEO at IDP. A process to appoint a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) would commence shortly.

The Vice-Chancellor advised that this had been a helpful process and that he would provide feedback via a brief summary shortly.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that during a recent visit to the Malaysia Campus, he had been advised that staff in Malaysia were experiencing a high level of bureaucracy in Australia particularly in the areas of appointments and policies.

Professor Parker advised that an International Staffing Advisory Group had been established to assist in streamlining appointment processes.

During discussion, it was noted that:

• dysfunctional and/or under performing staff must be moved on before they adversely affected other staff and students (members were advised that Student and Staff Services would assist faculties in this matter);

• it was noted that some long term staff were no longer productive - the Vice-Chancellor advised that there were mechanisms for resolving this; and

• issues relating to probation were raised but the matter was still under discussion with the NTEU.

Professor Parker confirmed the following:

• audit in Australia would occur in mid September 2006;

• audit in South Africa would occur in August 2006;

• some members of the panel were likely to visit the Malaysia campus; and

• preparation of the portfolio was underway.

Members were informed that an announcement relating to the fund may be released by the end of May.

Members were informed that application levels for ARC linkage grants had remained stable. Further, Professor Max King, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Research Training would attend the National Stakeholder Forum – Research Quality Framework on 2 June.

Members were informed that the Minister for Education and Training, the Honourable Lynne Kosky MP, indicated during a recent visit that:

• approval for the redevelopment of the Parkville Campus would be granted; and

• additional information on the redevelopment of the Berwick Campus had been requested.

Additional matters advised to members included the commencement of the new Malaysia Campus and that planning funds had been received for the secondary school project in the STRIP.

The next meeting of the Committee of Deans will be held at 4.00 pm on Wednesday, 22 June 2005 in the Monash City Office, Level 11, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Pro Vice-Chancellors

Deans/Acting Deans