A presentation on the establishment of a UQ Jakarta office was made by Acting DVC (International), Andrew Everett. UQ is the most engaged Australian university in Indonesia and there is seen to be substantial potential for student recruitment and research collaboration.
This being the first meeting of a new Senate, the filling of a number of vacancies was dealt with.
Senate appoints three members itself. There is a Membership & Nominations Committee of Senate which met in January and came up with three names. Senate members were then provided with summary biographies/CVs of the three. The meeting approved the nominations, all women, bringing a better gender balance to the Senate.
With the retirement from the last Senate of the Deputy Chancellor, Mary Mahoney, Senate needed to elect a new Deputy Chancellor. Dr Jane Wilson was flagged to members ahead of the meeting as a suitable candidate. There being no other nominations, Jane was elected.
Ahead of the meeting, vacancies on the various committees of Senate had been sorted, mainly by approaches to individual members (or prospective members in the case of the Senate appointees) by the Senate Executive Officer on behalf of the Chancellor. I was approached to serve again on the Student Appeals Committee, but after 8 years of service, asked to be put on the Buildings & Grounds Committee instead, which was approved.
A Senate member was appointed to each Faculty Board. Nominees (not necessarily Senate members) were proposed as Senate's representatives on College Boards and approved. A resolution in appreciation from the Grace College Board for Denis Brosnan, who retired from Senate last year, was noted.
It is fair to say the the process of filling all of these vacancies is largely pre-determined with some backroom negotiations, in contrast to a process of declaring all positions vacant and calling for expressions of interest. However appointments are made with the skills and experience of members well taken account of.
Declaration of interests, statements by the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor on recent UQ achievements; reports of Senate sub-committees and Academic Board; Faculty Restructure progress update; gifts and grants report; review of draft 2013 Annual Report and Financial Statement; report of implemenation of faculties restructure; progress report against 2013-17 Learning, Discovery and Engagement Plans; graduation ceremonies survey 2013 (no real areas of dissatisfaction from graduates or guests, exept the cost of dress hire); student integrity and misconduct report 2013.
Interestingly, the page in the financial statements dealing with senior executives remuneration had not been ready to circulate with the agenda papers. Members were invited to ask the Chancellor after the meeting if they wanted to see it. He told the meeting that the pays were comparable to previous years, but recognised that 2013 had been "a good year". It will in due course be published.
The V-C recounted the problem that had arisen in December/January with the administrative error that had caused ineligible applicants to receive scholarship offers and the subsequent advice to those applicants that there had been an error and they would not be receiving the scholarships. Timing of the QTAC deadline for change of preferences appeared to play a part in what transpired after the error was detected. Discussion ensued on how a repeat of the scenario would be avoided in the future.
The University ended 2013 financially better off than forecast. The $20m improvement was about half due to unforeseen income such as donations and royalties, and half due to cost restraint and timing (some 2013 expenses will end up occurring in 2014 instead). A fairly positive outlook for the next couple of years depends on sustained income growth and expenditure control. The university sector's exposure to market variations as Australia's fourth largest export industry and its exposure to changes in Federal Government policy and funding makes it difficult to predict the future.
One area where there will again be discretion in my view is how much is invested in bricks and mortar and how much in the remuneration of employees, given UQ is ranked about number 3 in Australia on performance but about number 29 on what it pays its workers to deliver that performance.
The Chief Operating Officer's comprehensive and enlightening report into the election of three alumni to the Senate and the low level of alumni engagement in the election was discussed. In a nutshell, there were no anomalies, but it was agreed that in moving to an electronic ballot, engagement with alumni about the election should have started earlier than it did. Notwithstanding, low partcipation rates are not unusual when compared with other Go8 universities, even where a postal ballot remains.
A key finding was that a lot of alumni just don't know what the relevance and role of Senate is. The report noted that a communications plan to broaden the role of the Senate could be useful.
The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor flagged the idea of eliminating elected alumni positions altogether, arguing that plenty of the appointed members end up being alumni anyway and that a further downsizing of the size of Senate might be in the wind, with a view to having something more akin to a "skills-based board". And so the threat to stakeholder involvement continues dear reader.
An elections code of conduct for candidates (all elected candidates, not just alumni) will be introduced (this is a good thing in my view), updated elections software will be introduced, candidate statements will be presented in more user-friendly way, and efforts to clean up the alumni database will be lifted.
These PPL entries came to Senate after an extensive consultation process. They are an improvement on what we have had to-date and establish a firmer link to the Public Sector Ethics Act (Qld) which universities are subject to. I suggested that a hyperlink to the Crime and Misconduct Act (Qld) also be provided, as it is important for staff to realise that they are also subject to this very serious piece of legislation. The suggestion was endorsed.
The six sub-groups of the Working Group to plan for a more constructive workplace culture at UQ have recently proposed actions relevant to their theme for the Working Group to endorse the "most effective initiatives". We await the outcomes.
The V-C is conducting a road-show for all staff in May and there will be a number of open sessions where the V-C will engage with staff on the strategic plan, Mission/Vision/Values, culture change goals and the UQ leadership capability framework.
With respect to the latter, I asked what the progress was on implementing 360 degree appraisals to the lower levels of management. The system to be used is at the beta development stage.
Following a review of TEDI, CEIT and CIPL, a restructuring Issues Paper is out. It proposes that CIPL be disbanded. The Centre fo Innovation in Professional Learning had helped Schools and Centres to develop Continuing Professional Development activities. Given the UQ push to increase engagement with industry, the professions and alumni, I asked whether this was seen to be a strategically positive move. The review recommended that the functions of CIPL rest with the Faculties. I asked if additional resources would be provided to the Faculties.
The DVC(Academic) Joanne Wright responded that CIPL had been an experiment that had failed because the level of support sought by clients had been unable to be met. The resourcing issue was not answered, but the review report recommends investment in UQ-wide systems like online enrolment and payment and simple access to the UQ Learning Management System as a way to support Schools and Faculties undertaking CPD activities.
One positive for professional staff is that an accepted recommendation of the review is that the new structure for TEDI/CEIT includes a small group of academic leaders supported by a larger group of professional staff.
