As we move into Spring with blossom brightening the UNE campus we look forward to a successful end to Trimester 2 and the commencement of Trimester 3. Thank you for all you do to keep HASSE courses and units on track, and provide such fantastic support for our students.
August Graduation
A delightful graduation ceremony in terrific sunshine was held on the lawns of Bool on Saturday August 26th. Airline cancellations and the previous day’s weather event conspired to prevent the occasional speaker, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb, from being with us. Commissioner Webb graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Professional Studies. Earlier this year when I met her in her Sydney CBD office she was terrifically enthusiastic about her experience at UNE. Therefore, I recommended she be invited to graduation to share with the graduands the affordances of her UNE experience. She will come next time. The VC provided a credible alternative reminding graduates not to spend their time arguing with people who believe untruths and cannot be swayed from them, but rather to spend time with people with whom an argument is possible, and from whom one might learn something. I was inspired by the vote of thanks delivered by Chris Bounds, a graduate of the Master of History, who led us through key issues around the value of education, not as tool of the state to provide “workers” but rather an emancipating process for self, community, and society. Thank you to both Chris’s for their thoughtful commentary.
Digital Futures Research Hub
The faculty has instigated a new research hub focused on capacity building in digital research. Grant funds will be announced soon for special initiatives, and staff will be invited to submit expressions of interest to be on the advisory group. Queries to HASSE’s Associate Dean Research Professor Sue Saltmarsh adrhasse@une.edu.au
Budget – constraint, retention, unit evaluations, and leave management
We have just finished the budget planning process for 2024ff. As Dean I would like to develop more initiatives and to ensure a stronger future growth profile. This is challenging in an environment of fiscal constraint but we have great resource in HASSE and will continue to strive and achieve.
Your role? One of the greatest costs to HASSE is the many students who enrol then drop out. Please use Atrium and your own observations of the units you teach to track students who don’t seem to be engaged and follow them up well before census. That helps students, and stops the waste of time and effort that enrolling then dropping out costs UNE and our students. There is also value in providing explanation of extensions including SETs. I recently heard from a current student who previously studied two degrees with us. She only just learned of SETs which she advised has assisted her progress and mental wellbeing. I also continue to find reference to 6 credit points requiring 15 hours of study and classes per week. This would mean a full-time load is 60 hours per week – impossible! Kindly do not refer to a weekly requirement of 15 hours of study and contact when students raise concerns about their load. Please also request evaluation of all of the units you coordinate so you can learn about student experience of your teaching and the unit content and structure – they often have excellent ideas for improvements in my experience of university teaching over a quarter century.
The other action you can take individually is to ensure you have a plan for taking your annual leave, especially if you are advised you have exceeded the permitted level of accrued leave.
Universities of the future
Interesting commentary is provided here from Professor Catharine Coleborn (University of Newcastle)
From time to time I look at job advertisements and notice that few indicate a specific degree is required except for professions such as healthcare and teaching, and specialised industries such as GLAM. Mostly organisations appear to prefer someone who has relevant experience, has good team skills, and can learn. Writing skills also seem in demand.
Move to E011
Staff from the School of Education will move to E011 in due course. Hopefully, sooner than later. The logistics are quite something! EBE have provided resource in relation to improvement in some office spaces, and once this is complete the staff will move across. The building will then be shared between both Schools into the future as, at the present time, as advised multiple times there is no plan to re-open E007 as it is was damaged in the storm and will take funds the university does not have to repair and improve.
We are grateful to those not entitled to office provision who attended to the request to consider use of the offices assigned to them and have either cleaned them out already or have requested and are approved more time to achieve this. For others who requested and were approved ongoing office allocation but are not entitled, this allocation will need to be reviewed in due course.
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