Archive for April, 2009

It is post census date and I thought it useful to comment on a number of aspects of our enrolment picture. There’s also been further media comment during the week, and it was of interest to me to see the juxtaposition of UNE against UNSW in Wednesday’s Higher Education.  

By Semester 1, this year, UNE had increased its on campus share as mentioned publically this week, our NSW University Admissions Centre proportionate share rose very slightly (though we’re coming from a low base), and Distance Education didn’t do as well as other segments, so we’ve got more work to do there.  I have made some comments on marketing, sales and branding below.    The main course affecting growth overall so far this year has been Education, long a stalwart of our enrolments, due in part to tougher Maths entry and a lengthening of course structure by 33% required by NSW Institute of Teachers. This may well be a deterrent to many students.  That said, I note other Universities have addressed this challenge by offering tri-semester solutions so a possible option for the School is to consider a tri-semester option.

On the upside, Nursing enrolments have grown considerably, the Medical School met targets, the new Social Work course made a good start and other courses continuing to contribute strongly are the 2008 new courses in Criminology, Psychological Science, and Commerce (Accounting).  Of the top 100 courses, the growth was being led by 23 new or revitalized ones contributing 28% of the commencing load.  Ah, the old Pareto rule in play.

As a sidenote, I recently chaired 2 University Project Management Panel committee meetings and we reviewed 900 pages of submissions.  Amongst the paperwork, there was excitement and opportunity.  UPMP approved two new Lighthouse courses consistent with the Discipline Clusters recommend in 2007 to UNE; namely Sports and Exercise Science and most likely Pharmacy, subject to a few final, albeit major costings; all to commence in 2010.  The Committee ‘battled’ through the papers of Rome of the Caesars, ‘cut through the haze’ of pages 222 to 238 where the Swinging Sixties unit was ’splayed’, but frankly, as a student of Left Realist criminology in an earlier life, I personally found myself contemplating enrolling in Jenny Wise’s proposed unit for CRIM 304, Forensic Science and Criminal Justice; though I’m sure I’d have to critique it!….but I digress (-:

And now back to our scheduled broadcast:  other embers of good news that isn’t reaching some people in the broader community include the reality that donations to UNE have grown 24% year on year, and donors themselves have increased 44% in that same period.  Entrepreneurial Committee also met this week and reviewed the final draft IPM 2008 annual report, and that report shows UNE is at the nadir of a range of projects (last I checked business goes in cycles) with the evidence showing a very strong governance and project structure (”Integrated Project Management”, or IPM) that works, multi-million dollar revenue on budget, and a profit margin twice as much as budgeted.  The TOP “PPP” (our teaching partner in Sydney) launched in semester 1 with more than 70 students, and we have submitted our application to operate with our partner, “ISBT”, in Victoria for later this year to capture the international student market in that State.

Mirrored in the granular detail of the individual course and unit development, we also need to focus on a broader theme and strategy of “relevance”.  Rebranding, repositioning, “DE”, international, the e-university, online, and increased targeting of metropolitan markets - these are just a few important growth opportunities for UNE. 

What’s evident to me, thus, is the need for a proactive three to five year Marketing Strategy (”Plan”) to underpin a comprehensive, aggressive and targeted marketing campaign with an emphasis domestically on metropolitan market expansion*.  To this end, I have submitted a Request for Tender to secure commercial proposals for bringing the revitalized UNE “Brand to Life” and to invest heavily over a (e.g.) three year period.  The aim is to increase market penetration and share through an informed, costed and targeted marketing and sales campaign, but in time for Semester 1, 2010.  Central to this will be a profiling and bringing-to-the-fore, UNE’s academic endeavours across teaching and learning that resonate with and are exemplary manifestations of the Brand.  Now, who wants to be involved?!

This Plan will build on UNE Brand Review findings (those who attended the Brand Review All Staff Forum last year will remember the UNE Brand Values and Personality being “Knowledgeable, Flexible, Contemporary, Authentic” and “Smart, Engaging, Confident and Genuine” respectively).   A preferred logo to reflect our new strategic direction has been developed and is currently being market tested through Nielsen. Some of you will have already participated in that market-testing process. The concept is being presented to the UNE Council in May and potentially to the wider UNE community directly thereafter should Council agree to progress it. 

But isn’t Branding and logos “just” window dressing, you might say, and a fussing about the bow when the box has no wrapping on it? 

Yes and no.  If readers consider change and re-branding just about changing the logo, then this misses the point.  This is not about a logo change.  A critical missing component at UNE is an overarching marketing strategy that harnesses and projects UNE’s story, presents a focussed series of messages, a clear value proposition to students, staff and the community and subsequently increases our relevance and our profile amongst stakeholders.  And quickly!  A new logo symbolizes an opportunity to re-launch UNE, mirroring an invigorated strategic vision and plan.

Finally, I have also recently received a commissioned report from JWT Education defining UNE’s global opportunities for projecting our DE and online capabilities.  We have scanned markets across the Middle East, India, Hong Kong and China.  We know that the greatest demand for transnational education will likely come from sub-saharan Africa in the future, we know today that there is greater private consumer contribution to education compared to government in China and India, and we now know where precisely we should focus our overseas DE activity in two major markets.  I will speak more on this later when we have further information.

So, from where I’m sitting, the future’s looking pretty bright even though there’s a lot to do.  Tune in next time where I’ll have more to say on Advancement and the university Residential System.  

* the following map illustrates our current DE sales footprint in Australia.

I had an interesting conversation today with a person visiting UNE from a Group of Eight University.   He wanted to talk about academic standards.  His perspective was that UAIs ensure that student standards are maintained.  The Group of Eight obviously have high academic standards as they attract and graduate students with high UAIs. 

My perspective was that UAIs only predict a part of subsequent academic performance - higher in some areas such as maths and science - but probably only about 50% overall.  Also, most UNE students do not come directly from school anyway so UAIs are of even less use for them.  He said, quite rightly, there is no doubt that post Bradley there will be pressure on Universities to demonstrate academic standards, so if not through UAIs how will we do it?

My response was firstly that looking at internal systems by time series is of limited use.  We can see how many students passed exams in the past, how many achieved distinctions etc but there are issues with such comparisons, not least of which is that virtually nothing has been held constant: not curriculum content, teaching approach, assessment rules, assessment tasks, teaching staff and so on.  Also, if the rest of the world has experienced grade drift or grade inflation, is holding out against drift doing a service or disservice to students?

My second response was that I think the answer lies in peer review and to do this we will need to modernise, make more efficient and apply something approaching an external examiner system.  Interestingly, while most parts of the Commonwealth developed systems of externals in line with the mother ship (and that includes New Zealand) Australia didn’t to any great extent at undergraduate level.  I could see us piloting a small sample of units in differing academic areas and at differing levels, and doing blind comparisons of assessment standards.  We would need to have a sign off on which institutions and which people would be approved for this, but with a small number of externally referenced points for standards comparison, it would then be easier to then tie the bulk of our internal processes to these.  While not assessing students against an ‘absolute’ or ‘gold standard’ this would at least lend some validity to our assertions that the academic judgments we are making by discipline area and level - ie the knowledge, skills and attitudes the students have demonstrated - are shared with colleagues from equally reputable Universities.

Any comments?

I wish to take this opportunity to voice my appreciation to staff for their service to UNE during what has proven to be a very busy start to the year.  I wish everyone a happy and safe Easter break. 

Approximately 2,500 students graduated during the Autumn Graduation ceremonies.   I wish to thank all of the occasional address speakers for their outstanding contribution toward graduation: Dr Ed McAlister AO, former Assistant Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia (Dr McAllister’s graduation address can be found at  http://alumni.une.edu.au/?daa2008mcalister); Ms Debra Kelliher, Head of School at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Armidale; Mr Tony Windsor MP, Member for New England; and Emeritus Professor Peter Sheehan AO, who retired in January 2008 as Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University after serving in that role for 10 years.  Professor Sheehan’s address will be available soon.

During the first Graduation Ceremony on 26 March the Hon. Richard Torbay MP, was installed as Chancellor of the University of New England.  The Management Team and I have welcomed Richard’s appointment and there are many positive changes being implemented in our governance arrangements.

I also wish to congratulate Jackie Reid, Lecturer in the School of Science and Technology for receiving the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching for her consistent “innovative approach to the teaching of statistics based on educational theory and the adoption of innovative learning technologies”.

Thanks to Professor Graham Webb, Ms Deborah Martin and Dr Jeannet van der Lee and all staff members who have also had active input into the AUQA audit process.  UNE has now completed the AUQA Self-Review Report, released the Exposure Draft of the Performance Portfolio and submitted the University’s portfolio by the 6 April deadline.  On 14 May 2009 UNE will host a preparatory visit by the panel chair and an AUQA staff member prior to visits to domestic and overseas teaching partners in June and the audit visit to the Armidale campus from 19-23 July 2009.

The Enterprise Bargaining process with the CPSU and NTEU continues with steady progress being made.  UNE is seeking one agreement for Academic Staff and another agreement for General and English Language Centre staff, both with 3 year terms and appropriate pay rises per annum.  To date, a number of clauses have been agreed in principle, and negotiations have proceeded in a largely constructive and amicable fashion, and in good faith by UNE.   The UNE negotiation principles and this log are focused on the following high level issues:

• sustainability of the University;
• growth of the University;
• a positive learning experience for students;
• attraction and retention of University staff; and
• community benefit.

A number of policy initiatives have been at the forefront of the higher education agenda since my last blog.  These include:

1.       Submission of UNE Response to the Bradley Review

On 26 February I submitted UNE’s response to the Review of Australian Higher Education conducted by the panel chaired by Professor Denise Bradley.  You can read the full response online at:

http://www.une.edu.au/vc/vcoffice/response_bradley_review.pdf

The Australian Government announced that it will move to implement key elements of the Bradley Review including:

• raising the proportion of the Australian population aged 25-34 with a bachelor level degree to 40 percent by the year 2025;
• moving to a student-demand driven model of university funding from 2012; and
• establishing a national regulatory and quality agency for higher education.

These major developments were announced by the Deputy Prime Minister at the inaugural Universities Australia Conference in Canberra in early March. The Deputy Prime Minister also indicated that no announcements on future funding for the sector would be made before the Federal Budget is presented to Parliament in May.  Interestingly, there have been some recent press reports and negative speculation on what support the Government may provide for higher education in what will no doubt be a very difficult Budget for the Government.

2.       Research: Policy Directions

At the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Conference on 9 March, Senator the Hon Kim Carr Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research gave an insight into the Australian Government’s policy directions in respect to research.  These include:

• progressively addressing the gap in funding for the indirect costs of research. In return, the Government will expect universities to provide “more meaningful data on research costs through activity-based reporting, and to meet specific performance targets to be developed in consultation with the sector”;
• introducing mission-based funding compacts;
• encouraging collaboration between universities and build on research strengths;
• increasing international collaboration in research by Australian universities;
• doubling the level of collaboration between Australian businesses, universities, and publicly funded research agencies over the next decade; and
• increasing by 25 per cent the proportion of businesses engaging in innovation over the next decade, and a continuing increase in the number of businesses investing in R&D.

Minister Carr’s comments on the introduction of ‘compacts’ is an important element that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education has not so far raised.  I regard the introduction of ‘compacts’ between universities and the government as being an important element in the future funding arrangements for UNE.  It is these ‘compacts’ that will hopefully mitigate any ‘one size fits all’ solution to the funding shortfalls for universities.

 3.       Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities and other Measures) Bill 2009

In early February the Government released the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities and other Measures) Bill 2009.  Primarily the Bill:

• requires higher education providers that receive Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding to comply with new Student Services, Amenities Representation and Advocacy Guidelines from 2010;
• introduces National Student Representation and Advocacy Protocols;
• prohibits universities from requiring a student to be a member of a student organisation. (The Bill is not a return to compulsory student unionism.); and
• provides universities with the option to implement a services fee from 1 July 2009, capped at a maximum of $250 per year. The Student Services and Amenity Fee Guidelines specifically outlines what the fee can be used to fund.

On 12 February 2009, the Senate referred the provisions of the Bill to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations committee for inquiry and report by 10 March 2009.  The committee recommended:

“that universities, in taking responsibility for the management of the fee levy, be required to accept the advice of student representative bodies in regard to expenditure priorities and disbursement of funds, as determined by the student bodies and insofar as student body determinations comply with the Guidelines.”

The passage of the Bill has been delayed and may not be considered again until the very brief Budget session of Parliament in May of the June winter session.  These probabilities indicate that the legislation will not be passed in time for Semester 2 implementation, hence adding pressure to the University budget.

Lastly I would like to thank both my colleagues on the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee for their input into The UNE Voice over the last two months and all students and staff who have provided feedback. To comment on any of the above, visit: http://blog.une.edu.au/seniormanagement/2009/04/09/happy-easter-from-vice-chancellor-prof-alan-pettigrew/#respond

I welcome the opportunity to update the University Community on the activities of the Academic Board and my own role as Chair of the Academic Board.  I hasten, however, to indicate that I am not a member of “Senior Management”.  I could be called a “fellow traveler” with Senior Management.   My position is not an appointed one.  I was elected to the position of Chair in October 2006 and served my first term between 5 February 2007 and 17 February 2009.  I was elected to serve a second term in November 2007, commenced that term on 17 February 2009 and will, if everything goes well serve until the morning of the meeting February 2011. 

My role is to represent the academics of this institution, both teachers and researchers.  I am answerable for the performance of my duties to the Academic Board and not to the Vice-Chancellor.

Symbolic of this relationship and of the relationship between the academic staff and management of the University is my role at graduations where I present the list of graduating students to the Chancellor on behalf of their teaching staff.  There were two graduation ceremonies last week and will be two this weekend.  Counting both students who attended for the ceremony and those who were unable to do so, a grand total of 2412 students will graduate at this time. The detailed breakdown of these numbers is below.  Speaking personally I found the delight the Chancellor obviously took in the student’s approach to their success and the attention he paid to enhancing their day very wonderful.

Ceremony 1 Health and Sciences

Attending            248              Inabsentia           234

Ceremony 2      Education

Attending            283              Inabsentia           388

Ceremony 3 Economics, Business and Law 

Attending            278              Inabsentia           466

Ceremony 4 Arts

Attending            201              Inabsentia           314

Further to my role as Chair of the Academic Board, I note that under the terms of the University of New England Act 1993 (NSW), I am one of the three ex officio members of the Council of the University of New England.   (The other two are the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor).  Under the terms of that Act, the Academic Board is responsible for advising Council on all matters of academic policy.  In providing that advice to Council I rely on the efforts of academics here at the University as focused through the meetings of the Board itself and of its five major committees.  The committees concerned are the Academic Board’s Academic Programs Committee, Teaching and Learning Committee, Research Committee, Higher Degree Research Committee and Standing Committee.  Because of that reliance, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all members of these committees to contribute fully to discussion of the policies that take place in these forums.

In my capacity as member of Council, I am delighted to note that the meetings of Council are now much more harmonious.  The change, of course, dates from 11 December 2008 when the current Chancellor took office.  There are still some needs for changes to be made to council policies governing its processes and procedures and these we have been told are in train.  It is also relevant to note that the NSW Legislative Council has an inquiry into governance in universities which is current. The Inquiry held a public sitting on campus here at the University of New England.  I was a witness at that inquiry and made a submission in which I suggested that there were five minor changes to the legislation which should be considered. My submission and those of other members of the UNE community are on the web as is the transcript of the hearing held here on Campus can be found at this web site: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/committee.nsf/0/4057D761E7A7D2EDCA2574E30000C561

Finally, following the precedent set by Prof Minichiello last week, I would like to welcome you to post your comments on any of the above on the senior management blog at: http://blog.une.edu.au/seniormanagement/2009/04/03/prof-eilis-s-magner-chair-of-the-academic-board/#respond