I intended this final newsletter for 2023 to provide an opportunity to review the Universities Accord report. No such luck.

In lieu, I perused the transcript of the 2023 Bradley Oration delivered by Professor Peter Høj AC, in honour of the late Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley, AC – yes, she of the 2008 Bradley report. Høj’s speech moved swiftly between current day aspirations as to the role of the Australian higher education system with reference to the interim Accord report, and the key points of the Bradley report delivered some 15 years prior. I sought it out to leave more about the merger that will result in the new Adelaide University. I am inclined to agree with his view that the merger provides an opportunity to realise aspirations to support many more Australians to attain university degrees. However, coming from what are known as the Group of Eight universities in both my higher education and my early years as an academic, I perceive my fellow HASSE Deans in high-performing metro universities are not always aware of the size and needs of the sector they do not currently serve. We at UNE surely have much wisdom to share with them in due course.

What’s in a name?
Keen-eyed colleagues will notice a change to Deans’ titles at UNE. We are now Executive Deans in recognition that we serve on the UNE Executive Committee. This required some tweaking of our position descriptions, and a review of Key Performance Indicators. The Faulty executive exhort me to ensure this change permits full use of existing delegations. Discussions with the Vice Chancellor are ongoing but there is goodwill and positive intentions, especially with regards financial delegations.
The new Executive Dean status requires that the incumbent hold the research status of a Level E Professor. Therefore, I am delighted to be recently appointed to an Honorary Professorship at The University of Queensland in the School of Music.

2023 – what happened?
This year was awash with change, in particular a new VC and many further personnel changes at the executive level, though the senior UNE Council members stayed in place. A number of our nearest and dearest in UNE’s senior team departed, with the interim DVC, the PVCI and the Director of Library Services relocating to positions at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
HASSE continued to reduce student numbers and load across most of our courses, though opening more courses in T3 helped us again this year to come in on budget. We have much more to do to manage our courses and units so that we have an attractive offering for the widest range of applicants possible, and to manage resources so we are investing to attain the likely highest result. I need your support and help to do that.

We appointed five new academic staff across HASSE this year (welcome!), and two current academic staff applied for advertised positions and attained them. Almost 50% of successful promotion applications in the 2023 round are academics in HASSE. Sincere congratulations to all of you. However, university-wide discussions are underway to consider whether there are any structural factors as to why women applicants were significantly less successful than men in this promotion round.

School of Education staff moved to E011 resulting in most HASSE staff now working under the same roof. There are many to thank for tireless work through this process including the EBE project team and our professional staff, especially Eilish, Anne and Shirley. Thank you to all for your co-operation and care. Across the university consolidation of spaces continues.

The final major change impacting HASSE for 2023 is the move of professional staff back to the faculties, with further dismantling of the centralised services initiated in the Time for Change restructure. Welcome back – we look forward to ongoing productive and enjoyable working relationships with you all.
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