Comment by Professor Jane Edwards

 

Congratulations to UNE alumnus Premier-elect Minns!

I was delighted to learn that Premier-elect Chris Minns is a UNE graduate, successfully completing the Bachelor of Arts.   

Still banging on about the budget 

Many of you will have read of Monash University’s woes regards budget after two difficult years. Our struggles are small fry in comparison. However, we still have a lot to do to make sure we have the right balance of units and courses to fit HASSE’s staffing profile and capacity.  

360 review of units and courses at UNE 

The 360 review of all courses and units has started and will continue throughout this year. We need to manage our income to spend ratio much more effectively. If you consider how many casuals we use across our offering, and how much we spend on casuals, we have a wide margin available in rationalising and consolidating the units we offer. We also have far too many low enrolment units we do not need. I have seen nothing in the review so far that should worry anyone. I have urged the Heads of Department to focus on low enrolment non-core units, and to remove them from the offering for the trimester when they are not viable. This is business as usual at UNE and other places I have worked. Also, we will no longer offer repeated units, especially where there are low enrolments. Alongside these tasks we also will continue to try to open enrolment to as many courses as possible for all three trimesters. Again, BAU. Student retention is key to our sustainability. 

Faculty Forum 

The next Faculty Forum will be on April 4th. Please come along to celebrate the good work of your colleagues, and our future as a faculty.  

Annual leave 

I encourage you to take the Monday April 24th as an annual leave day. Enjoy a four-day weekend with your family and friends. 

PPDR 

The 2023 PPDR form is now available. Please book a time with your supervisor to undertake your first PPDR for 2023 with the aim to complete 2-3 over the year. This is great way to ensure you have support for your activities, especially around workload and research. 

Better news about applications for Trimester 2 

HASSE is one of the faculties where applications are a good indicator of EFTSL. T1 was OK but T2 is better. There are a few courses where applications are down but the quantum is higher. Things that make Deans happy.   

New course proposals 

Thank you to all the people putting shoulders to wheels for new course proposals. All ideas to Heads of School in the first instance please.  

Universities Accord (Higher Education Review) 

UNE is hosting the Universities Accord panel towards the end of April in Armidale. 

Otherwise, it’s all pretty quiet at the moment. The most recent action is brief commentary from Professor Andrew Norton https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=16210  

If you missed my prior overview https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord