Enterprise25

On Monday 28 October 2019, the Final Change Plan was released to staff which presented the new internal academic structure, timelines for transition, employment principles, and processes. A high-level summary of this paper is available to download below.

To start our transition to a new academic structure, a series of implementation plans were released to staff to help guide and support us through the transition process. Our aim with our change implementation approach was to minimise the impact on staff and to the extent we are able, provide all Division and School staff with as much clarity as we can concerning the University’s direction and approach to transition to the new Academic Unit structures.

 On Monday 16 September, a Change Proposal Paper was released to staff, marking the commencement of the formal change process. This proposal outlined a future academic structure that has been refined through extensive engagement and feedback with the University community. A high-level summary of the Change Proposal Paper is available to read below. 

Staff were encouraged to provide their feedback on the proposal by Friday 4 October 2019 and as a result, more than 180 written submissions were received. The University’s senior management has reviewed each submission and has used this valuable input to refine the final new academic structure for the organisation.

The Discussion Paper formed the first stage of the academic transformation process providing initial details about the proposed academic organisational structure, composition and titles of the proposed new Academic Units, and outlines the transition approach. A series of discussion questions were also provided for consideration and feedback.

Feedback on the Discussion Paper closed on Friday 19 July. More than 150 submissions were received from staff, students, external advisory boards, alumni and industry and government representatives and a summary of the feedback is available to download below.

This feedback has been used to inform the academic structures and other aspects of the transformation reflected in the Change Proposal Paper and the Final Change Plan.

Professorial Leads will contribute to senior governance within and between the Academic Units in teaching, research and external engagement. Each Academic Unit will require between five and ten Professorial Leads who will take supervisory responsibility for academic staff. 

An internal expression of interest process for the Professorial Lead positions is currently open for eligible staff, with a view to progressing appointments through the transition phase. All those who take up this opportunity will be provided with appropriate leadership and management programs to support their induction. 

All feedback has been considered by the Enterprise25 Sponsoring Group, led by the Provost & Chief Academic Officer, Professor Allan Evans. This feedback helped to inform the Final Change Plan for our academic organisational transformation and the changes we need to make to our service delivery models, systems, policies and procedures.

Under Enterprise25, the University has ambitions to grow overall student and staff numbers, with a view to improving our student-academic staff ratio and through that our student experience and outcomes. Any reductions in expenditure on management positions achieved through this transition process will be reinvested in teaching and student-facing positions.

The organisational transformation program is focused on creating a program-focused structure, through creating new Academic Units. It is intended that the structures and service delivery arrangements for the University’s central administrative units will be reviewed as a later phase of activity, to ensure that our professional services appropriately align with and support the teaching, research and external engagement activities of our Academic Units.

It is not anticipated that current students should be subject to any disruption to their study and the change program will be designed to ensure minimum inconvenience. However, it is recognised that some reseearch degree students may experience minor changes as a result of the transition. Drop-in sessions have been offered to ensure they are fully supported throughout the transition.

An Associate Dean (Research Education) reporting to the Dean of Research, in each Academic Unit will have the responsibility for supporting research degree candidates. There will also be ongoing support for research degree candidates from the Program Services Teams and academic staff who are Research Degree Coordinators or Research Education: Portfolio Leaders (REPLs) will continue.

While we do envisage consolidating our metropolitan campuses over the life of Enterprise25 there are no plans for students to relocate between campuses as an outcome of the academic organisational transformation process. If there are future changes in the campus location of academic programs, changes will be in line with current processes of informing students well ahead of such changes.

Similarly, we do not envisage the requirement for the relocation of significant numbers of professional and academic staff. Nevertheless, some relocations between campuses will be inevitable (for example for staff who transition to a position that is based in a different location).

The transformation is expected to have minimal impact on the staff and students based in the regions. Academic staff will continue to be part of the program that they currently support, even though that program will transition to a newly formed Academic Unit. Students will continue to receive support from their regional campus as well as professional staff within the relevant Academic Unit and central units.