University Academic Progress and Exclusion Forum Meeting 2-2007

The second biannual Academic Progress and Exclusion Forum 2007 was held on Friday 2 November 2007 from 10.00am to 11.20am in the Council Room, First Floor, Building 3a, Clayton campus.

NOTES

1. Welcome from the Chair

The Chair welcomed all participants, outlined the objective of the forum and briefly outlined the agenda.

2. Feedback from the last forum

Summer semester results:

At the last forum, a question was raised whether the progression calendars correctly included summer semester calendars. Cathryn Bunney, Enrolments Unit, informed the forum that the alignment of progression calendars is as follows:

Progression Mid-year: All teaching periods that have an end date from 1 December of the previous year through to 30 June of current year. Progression End-year: All teaching periods that have an end date from 1 December of the previous year through to 30 November of current year.

A table of the teaching periods and corresponding progression calendars are attached in Appendix A of these notes.

5 minute hearings:

At the previous forum, there was discussion about the problem that Faculties are 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.

Angelo Karamanis, Solicitor’s Office, informed the forum that there are still issues that need further discussion, before any amendments can be done to the regulations to abolish the requirement for the 5 minute hearings. The amendments will not be in place for the coming round of APC.

3. Changes to the APC Guidelines

The Chair provided a summary of the changes to the APC and EAC Guidelines, including:

Students must be given 20 working days to respond to the Notice of Referral letters;
APC referral (review) committees must meet within ten working days from the Notice of Referral response deadline;
Changed FT/PT enrolment requirements for international students;
Clarification of the use of conditions and recommendations;
When a student may withdraw from the course during the APC and appeals process.

Forum participants raised queries in relation to the 20 working days requirement and round 2 hearings, in particular when the 20 working day period starts. The query was referred to the Solicitor’s Office for advice.

4. Changes to Statute and Regulations – “inability to progress”

The Chair briefed the forum about changes to the Statute and Regulations which makes it possible to exclude students who are unable to obtain a police or other authority check of the standard necessary for the student to undertake a requirement of his or her course of study. This change will affect only a few faculties and it is expected that the number of students excluded for ‘inability to progress’ will be very small.

5. Other changes to the APC and exclusion process due to the new ESOS National Code

In addition to the changes already mentioned above, Rob Barrett informed the forum that the new ESOS National Code requires the University to be more proactive in intervening when students are at risk of not meeting progress requirements. An Intervention Strategy Procedure document has been drafted and is expected to be approved before the end of the year. The intervention strategy identifies a group of students – those who started mid-year and has completed two semesters of study – for whom faculties need to have procedures in place.

Rob Barrett offered to provide advice to Faculties in relation to the drafting of new Faculty procedures and Faculties were asked to get in contact with Rob Barrett if needed.

6. APC training 12 December 2007

The Chair informed the forum that there will be a DVD / video recording of a mock hearing available to those who are unable to attend the training session.

7. Mental Health First Aid Training

The Chair mentioned the Mental Health First Aid training that is available to all staff through the OHS Unit and recommended that that Faculties ensure that at least one person at each hearing have undergone the training.

8. Podcast for students

Coralie Ewert informed the forum that there is a podcast with information about the academic progress process which targets international students. The podcast will need some updating and should be changed to target both international and domestic students. Coralie was asked to liaise with Megan Petrass on updating the podcast and to discuss the best channels of making the podcast available to students.

Link to current podcast:
http://radio-ftp.mapa.monash.edu.au/podcasts/international/international_progress.mp3

9. Re-applications and academic rehabilitation

Gill Read, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, asked what process other Faculties follow for excluded students re-applying for admission and what criteria are used to demonstrate ‘academic rehabilitation’. Responses from participants include:

Students make submissions directly to the Faculty for re-admission, which are assessed by the APC Chair;
Application for re-admission is via VTAC only;
Students need to have passed 1-2 units at another Go8 university to show academic rehabilitation. Course coordinators provide advise to excluded students what units they would be able to get credit for;
Students need to have completed at least two units at another university at the level of credit or better to demonstrate academic rehabilitation;
No formal criteria for academic rehabilitation, students are assessed individually based on their submission for re-admission.

10. Other Business

10.1 Selection of APC Chairs

Sally Joy, Faculty of Business and Economics, raised the question how other faculties select APC Chairs.

10.2 APC schedule of dates

Andrea Waller, Faculty of Engineering, suggested that a schedule of relevant dates be set up and circulated to faculties. It was suggested that the proforma for reporting of APC data be made available to Faculties early in the year and that this be included in the schedule of dates.

11. Next forum

May 2008 (to be confirmed).