Academic board - October 2004
By Peter Cardwell
Division of Business and Enterprise – name changes and restructure
Academic Board approved the change of name of the Division of Business and Enterprise to ‘the Division of Business‘, effective from January 2005. The Board also approved the names ‘School of Commerce,‘ ‘School of Management‘, as well as the change from International Graduate School of Management to ‘International Graduate School of Business‘.
The changes follow a review of the Division undertaken in 2003 by Prof Peter Booth from the University of Technology, Sydney. The review report was circulated throughout the Division in January 2004, and was followed by the release of a draft structure for the Division.
The Pro Vice Chancellor (Business and Enterprise), Prof Gerry Griffin, then met with discipline groups and staff to discuss the proposals and a final proposal was drawn up. Divisional Board and Senior Management Group (SMG) have endorsed the proposed new structure, and it was noted by University Council at its August meeting.
Prof Griffin reported that the main objectives of the restructure are greater discipline coherence and the creation of a solid foundation on which to build the Division‘s future teaching and research activities.
Besides the name changes and the disestablishment of the Schools of Accounting and Information Systems and International Business, the new structure will involve the Information Systems discipline becoming part of the School of Computer and Information Science in the Division of IT, Engineering and the Environment. There will be no redundancies as a result of the restructure.
Revised Program Approval Manual
A revised Program Approval Manual was approved. The revised manual comes in response to the review of the former Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) in 2002, recommendations arising from the AUQA Audit in 2004, as well as reflection on the existing program development processes by the recently established Academic Policy and Program Review Committee (APPRC).
The revisions were the subject of an extensive consultation process, and have in principle endorsement from SMG.
The manual provides a consistent framework for the development of programs within the University‘s policy framework, the most significant change being the approach underpinning program development and amendment. The current manual is essentially concerned with documentation and it is assumed that the developmental processes occur elsewhere. The new approach is fundamentally developmental – it assumes little specialist knowledge by staff undertaking program development since the curriculum and business aspects are built into the sequence of tasks required by the documentation.
Other major changes in the manual include – separation of the curriculum development and business case; strengthening of the business case and a requirement for similar processes for both onshore and transnational programs; refocusing of curriculum development around Graduate Qualities; a requirement for a number of priority curriculum areas (work-related learning, Indigenous perspectives, international perspectives and lifelong learning); greater involvement of stakeholders; budget sign-off by the relevant Pro Vice Chancellor; inclusion of a budget proforma for consideration by APPRC; changes to the amendment process; responsibility for quality assurance processes for coursework and research Professional Doctorates has been separated and now rests with APPRC and Research Degrees Committee respectively.
In order to support the development process, the Flexible Learning Centre is developing a five-phase project management process.
A website is also being developed to ensure all resources associated with program development are easily accessible, and an induction process for Divisional staff is being organised.
Revised Student Fees Policy
A revised Student Fees Policy and Guidelines were approved. The Student Fees Policy was introduced in 2003 and consolidated a range of policies relating to student fees and charges. The policy has now been amended to incorporate the legislative requirements of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and general feedback from the University community.