The Chair welcomed all participants and outlined the objective of the forum. The forum provides an opportunity to review the academic progress, exclusion and appeals process and to discuss any issues arising. Issues raised at the forum will be considered by the Exclusion Procedures Advisory Committee for further action.

In relation to the notes from last year’s forum, the Chair noted that the newly formed ‘Learning Skills Unit’ within the Library had taken over responsibility from CALT for providing learning support services to students.

The unconfirmed minutes from EPAC meeting 1/2007 held 31 May 2007 had been distributed to participants for information.

The Chair provided a summary of feedback received through the survey at the APC training in December 2006.

A participant mentioned that some APC student representatives find it difficult to cope with some of the issues that may be brought up at hearings. It was suggested that the training program could include a session to help APC members deal with difficult cases and their own reaction to these cases.

A participant from the Gippsland Campus raised the issue of attendance from campuses other than Clayton. For participants from Gippsland in particular there is significant amount of travel time involved. It was suggested that a short version of the training could be offered at other campuses.

Ms Megan Petrass, MSA Student Rights, handed out a report summarising the experience of advocates in this year’s APC process (attached). Ms Petrass invited Faculties to provide feedback to the Students Rights Office.

A number of issues were raised by student rights officers and Faculty representatives during the discussion:

• The timing of the Notice of Referral response forms.
• Timeline for notifying students of the outcome of appeals to the Dean.
• Provision of exit support is seen as very important and should be provided in some form at all hearings. Scheduling hearings late in the afternoon and in particular on Fridays is seen as a problem as support services are not available in the evenings and during weekends. Good practice adopted by some Faculties is to try to schedule hearings for ‘at risk’ students early in the day. If hearings have to be scheduled late in the day, it would be preferable if the counseling service could have extended opening hours on those days.
• Faculties were reminded that students attending via teleconference should be informed that student rights officers are available.
• Resources for more student rights officers are needed.
• It was seen as a problem that many student rights officers are on short term contracts.

Ms Cathryn Bunney, Enrolments Manager, briefed the forum of the new ESOS National Code being introduced from 1 July 2007. Monash already fulfill many of the requirements in relation to academic progress and exclusion as set out in the National Code. Changes that will affect the current academic progress process include:

• Requirement that education providers are proactive in monitoring progress, including the development of an "Intervention Strategy".
• The "Intervention Strategy" is to be invoked when a student has failed 50% or more of their enrolment.
• The ‘Intervention Strategy" will include additional steps to be taken in the first 12 months for students commencing mid-year, including the provision of mandatory counseling sessions.
• Academic progress must be monitored twice a year; however, this does not mean that APC hearings must be held twice per year.
• Advice from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is that DIAC will proceed to cancel visas of students who are reported for unsatisfactory progress, without discretion.
• Review Committees will be required to meet to consider notice of referral responses within ten working days from receipt, according to advice from the Solicitor’s Office.

Ms Kelly Tsagournos raised the issue of whether Summer semester A results should be included in the APC Callista reports.

Ms Bunney will look further at the Callista reports and report back to the Exclusion Procedures Advisory Committee.

Dr Kate Brown raised the issue of Faculties being required to schedule hearings for students who do not respond to the notice of referral, without knowing whether a student intends to show up or not. When students unexpectedly turn up at these hearings, the Committee is often pushed for time which may result in an unfair outcome.

Advice from the Solicitor’s Office is that APCs are required to meet to consider each case on its merits before making the decision to exclude, regardless of whether the student has responded to the notice of referral or attended the hearing. No response / no show does not mean ‘automatic’ exclusion. The regulations further states that the student must be notified of the date of the hearing.

The Exclusion Procedures Advisory Committee in liaison with the Solicitor’s Office will look further at the possibility of amending the regulations. Whether an amendment to this section of the regulations will affect the appeals process will be taken into consideration.

A summary of the exclusion appeals data had been sent out with the agenda for information.

One participant raised a question in relation to the notice of referral listing all reasons for referral to APC i.e. passed less than 50% of enrolment; failed the same compulsory subject twice; or failed to comply with terms or conditions imposed by previous APC. Would the notice need to specify the breach of conditions or would a generic statement be sufficient?

EPAC will consider the issue and updates will be made to the notice of referral template if necessary.

The Exclusion Procedures Advisory Committee has discussed the issue of whether students are allowed to withdraw during the appeals process. The Solicitor’s Office advised that students should be allowed to withdraw and this will be incorporated into the APC Functions and Procedures document.

The Chair thanked Ms Amanda Lazar, Deputy University Solicitor, for her contribution to the academic progress and exclusion process over the years. Mr Angelo Karamanis and Dr Jason Taliadoros will be looking after the academic progress and exclusion issues from the Solicitor’s Office when Ms Lazar leaves the University.

The next forum will be held in October 2007.