Archive for March, 2009

As UNE enters a new phase in its governance and operations, I think it’s timely that we consider the imperatives that have driven decision-making at UNE over the past few years, as well as the imperatives we would like to see driving decision-making in years to come.

I believe history will show that the experiment of ‘economic rationalism’has been a failure, as measured by its impact on the environment, its failure to close the gap between the rich and poor, the ill-health of the economy, and the kind of social relationships it has established between people, which are characterised by disengagement, individualism and consumerism.

U.S. philosopher Susan Anderson does an excellent job of explaining how big business has contributed to the current economic crisis in her essay “The Current Crisis in American Morality: How Big Business Has Contributed to, and Ought to Address, the Crisis” (available online at http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/anderson.html). It is her contention that ‘the business model’ may not be the best model to guide decision making or our lives. One only has to look at the Enron and Wall Street disasters to see that she has a point.

As people turn away from the values of Big Business, we see more and more support for a ’social inclusion’ agenda. This agenda is about addressing issues of humanity, cleaning up our battered environment, reducing the gap between rich and poor, and investing in social and human capital, and not just economic capital. UNE, I believe, has been waiting to embrace this agenda.

Of course, I am not saying that we should throw away financial accountability and good business practices. That would be foolish. No household or organization can operate without respecting its bottom line. And no one can afford to go on a shopping spree until they drop. Caring only for today and worrying about how to pay for it tomorrow is what has created the culture of individualism we see around us.

So how does this apply to UNE? Let me pose the following questions: Does creating an environment where schools are largely assessed on their efficiency as cost centres foster collaboration? How will we invest in social and human capital as a long-term objective? How does UNE position itself within this new and exciting context?

I am concerned that asking schools to be economically viable cost centres may have some unintended consequences. Such as creating an environment where the only concern is maximising a school’s income through its EFTSL load (our currency), instead of making curriculum decisions based on solid academic and innovative grounds, sharing the income, and using the available expertise in the organisation — and beyond — to foster the very best that interdisciplinary knowledge has to offer to the future generations of our nation.

What does it mean to invest in social capital programs, when the social inclusion agenda is about helping the disempowered, disadvantaged, impoverished? These people are not likely to be in a position to pay for our courses. Rather, we’ll need to tap into the government agenda and other sponsors in a way not seen before. This will require a language, a way of thinking, and a way of connecting that is radically different from the past. But if UNE values social inclusion equally or even more than the almighty dollar, might we not emerge as an innovator in the current environment?

One of the most exciting concepts I have heard in a long time is that of repositioning UNE as a leader in distance education via the ‘e-university and using the social technologies and expertise of our academic staff to extend our reach globally, thereby influencing the knowledge and lives of many people around the world. By embracing the social inclusion agenda in this context, I believe we can achieve regional relevance and make a global impact, demonstrate innovation in the way we communicate, make our on-campus experience a truly five-star one, and create partnerships based on real, positive outcomes for all concerned.

Will a social and human capital agenda capture the UNE imagination? I hope so — but I’d like to know what you think. You’ll notice a link to ‘comments’ at the end of this blog post (if you’re reading this in The UNE Voice, click ‘read more’ to go to the blog). I’d like very much to read yours and gather your ideas on this important topic.

The Voice slots have provided the opportunity for valuable updates on news and activities in the various UNE portfolios, including some recent developments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.  I would like to take this opportunity to broaden the discussion, and address the more global topic of the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education. 

The Bradley Review is a significant document in terms of the breadth of treatment, and the choice of Denise Bradley as a champion of social inclusion.  Not surprisingly this emphasis comes through in the report.  Disappointingly the treatment of rural and regional provision is less well developed.  In retrospect this is not surprising as Professor Bradley was honest about the fact that, as a city-based former VC, rural and regional universities were not on her radar until the submissions to the draft paper were received.  If nothing else, this reinforces that UNE must be active in making submissions to such reviews when invited.

The report makes some very important points in identifying anomalies of the current spread of tertiary provision across regional and rural Australia that is based on historical and political drivers rather than access requirements for the future.  I agree that many campuses are no longer relevant and support the report in exhorting ‘further consideration of current problems with regional provision’.  I would further suggest, however, that this ‘consideration’ should have been a recommendation in itself.  There is lack of clarity in the report in the distinction between outer metropolitan, regional and rural.  All have different characteristics and needs in terms of student access, economic drivers, community needs and profile of employment requirements and opportunities.  All of these should form an important part of the ‘consideration’.  The point is made that a key driver for regional and rural universities should be student access including low SES and indigenous students.

The proposed solution to the problem in the report is consideration of a ‘new national university for regional areas’.  I suggest that this proposal may be simplistic, and further reinforces the need for the ‘further consideration of current problems with regional provision’.

While the much hoped for increases in sector funding appear to have been sidelined by the current economic crisis, perhaps we can hope that some follow up consideration of regional and rural provision may be a less expensive way for the Government to act upon the outcomes of the report.  So far this has not been a focus of the government response.

It is encouraging nevertheless that Julia Gillard has responded to the Review by emphasising the link between education and the well being of the nation and its economy, and also the importance of regional delivery.  It is important that UNE takes an active role in the forthcoming debate.

Welcome to those of you who read through the blog each week. It is intended to add to the information flowing through the University and I would encourage anyone interested to also take the time to express interest in providing information using this technology. My intention is to add to the information already provided, clarify the scope of my role and responsibilities and identify some of the projects I am currently involved in.

I am sending this to you from Canberra where I am chairing the Public Lending Right Committee for the federal government. The role of this Committee is to distribute government funds to authors, illustrators and publishers whose works are available through public and educational libraries. As a number of UNE staff are also authors I would encourage you to register and receive the compensation available for your works (http://www.arts.gov.au/literature/lending_rights). This is one of the very pleasant duties I currently include in my working life.

As PVC (A) my responsibilities include policy development, program delivery, quality assurance of the academic programs and student support. What this means is that I chair a large number of university committees. Most important of these is the Academic Board Teaching and Learning Committee which has an agenda of policy development reform to support the academic endeavours of the university, an example of this is the recent development of a new Assessment Policy, consideration of information flowing from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) and how this research can be implemented at UNE. The work of this Committee will ensure the policy framework of the learning and teaching environment supports the strategic directions of the university, currently a project is underway to develop a Flexible Delivery Policy Framework which will underpin the proposed e-University strategy. The Committee makes use of Working Parties on specific issues to ensure academic inclusion in the development of policies and has a focus on consultation using une-official and circulation of documents to the Schools. I would encourage everyone to take the opportunity to provide constructive feedback.

The other major focus is that of student support. This ranges from responsibility for Student Administration including the admission, enrolment, examination, progression and graduation processes to the personal and professional support of students to assist them in successfully completing their studies. The recent increase in International students on campus has led to the formation of a group led by the International precinct to identify and provide a range of support services tailored to the requirements of International students which will assist them to integrate more readily into the university community.

As my portfolio responsibilities include University Library, Teaching and Learning Centre and Oorala Centre I have strong and abiding interest in the provision of information and academic support for students both face to face and on-line. The Library and the Teaching and Learning Centre have for many years had a focus on providing on-line resources and information to service the extensive external student population and assist these students at time of need whether it be at 2am or lunchtime on Saturday. These resources and services will underpin further developments in the e-University context.

There are many other aspects of my position including management of School Reviews, development of a framework for Directorate reviews, and support for projects such as the Student Relationship Management project which underpins AskUNE which I will expand on in future blogs.

Well, folks, I have been in the role of Acting PVC (Research) for just four weeks now and it has been quite a ride.  The learning curve is very steep but the work is challenging and interesting.  I am really enjoying working at the university level and have good colleagues to learn from and support me.  I am excited and optimistic that UNE can make some great strides forward this year.  The relationship between Council and senior management has turned around 180 degrees with good will and enthusiasm evident on all sides.  We are building a strategic sense of where we want to head as Australia’s e-University - a direction we will need focus and resources to pursue.

Where is research in all this?  First of all, we need to acknowledge that our position could be strengthened considerably.  However, I don’t want to dwell on where and how UNE keeps ‘falling short’ in terms of its research.  Rather I want to focus on where we can build and achieve a unique position amongst Australia’s regional universities.  I highlight ‘regional’ university because I think that our regionality is a research asset that we need to showcase more widely.  We are not a metropolitan or large city university.  We are located in a region where we encounter/intersect a diverse range of perspectives and needs, much more diverse, I think, than our larger metropolitan counterparts.  Additionally, we are increasing our capabilities to develop research that is multi-disciplinary and relevant to multiple beneficiaries.  We can and are increasingly using these contextual features to our advantage.  We ought to leverage them even more actively.  I don’t see this as simply increasing our publication rates and focusing on higher quality publication outlets (although, for some external stakeholders, this will be important; for example, in the upcoming Excellence in Research in Australia exercise).  Rather I see the challenge is to further enrich our research agenda, wherever possible, with an increased focus on achieving demonstrable impacts: outcomes of benefit to the community, to businesses and to the environment; outcomes that influence other researchers and scholars nationally and internationally; outcomes that influence practitioners and professionals where they work; innovations that are taken up because potential adopters have been involved in the innovation process from early days and the innovations are therefore meaningful to them; and so on.

Enough of the strategic stuff.  At a more concrete level, there are some things on the immediate boil in the research area.  This week 27 ARC Discovery grant applications were submitted by UNE, a number of which involved international collaborations as well as collaborations across disciplines, Faculties, etc.  UNE will be investing in two CRC rebids: the Poultry CRC and the Spatial Information CRC.  UNE has also submitted two Education Investment Fund bids for infrastructure: The Newholme Project (from the Faculty of Arts & Sciences - submitted in the Research category) and the Intellinode Building Project (from the Faculty of the Professions, submitted in the Higher Education category). 

Next Tuesday, March 10, we are running a Research Forum with the Faculty Research Directors, Heads of Schools and staff nominated from each of the Schools and staff from Research Services.  The main purpose of this Forum is to begin gathering feedback on how research support services can be improved at UNE.  Specifically, the Forum will focus on two broad themes:

1. Research Performance including Outputs and Funding - quality and impact, encouragement, data capture, processes, storage and reporting.
2. Capacity building - future proofing Research @UNE

and will involve facilitated brain storming under each theme to address:

• Issues, both positive and negative, with current research support.
• Requirements of a support system and potential opportunities for growth.

We will be canvassing for input more broadly at a later stage.  The information generated at this Forum will provide one source of  input into a review of Research Services (and its associated linkages with other Directorates) later this year.

All in all, an exciting first four weeks in the job!