Associate Deans

We welcome this month Assoc. Prof. Sarah Lawrence, who commenced in July as the Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Strategy and Quality. Assoc. Prof. Tristan S. Taylor continues as Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning Governance.

Strategy and Quality Updates – Sarah

I’m joining Tristan Taylor in the ADT&L position, with a specific focus on quality, strategy, and equity. Right now I’m concentrating on improving our communication with students who have encountered difficulties in their studies and looking at how we can make our units as inclusive as possible across the Faculty. I am also working with various teams in the University to try to recruit international students. In the next Faculty Teaching and Learning forum, I’d like to invite staff from Education and HASS who have a teaching strategy that they have found particularly useful and/or enjoyable to share it with their colleagues. If you’d be willing to speak for a few minutes on something you’ve done – big or small – please contact me on ADTLSQHASSE@une.edu.au.

Governance Updates – Tristan

Load and Student Engagement

The picture for load in the Faculty is overall positive, with 1383.72 EFTSL post-census in T2 the Faculty is 1.4% up on last year, and 3% up on budget. Education is doing much of the heavy lifting at 6.3% up on last year, and 12% up on budget. HASS post census is unfortunately more  negative. Post census the School’s load for trimester 2 stands at 637.66 EFTSL, 24 EFTSL below last year, and 39 EFTSL below budget. The one bright spot is that T2 commencing data continues the trend that started in T3 2024, and is up 19 EFTSL on last year in T2 in HASS. T3 load remains soft across the institution.

Pre-census engagement is up slightly on last year across the Faculty, but down on T1

• HASS Engagement: (93.2% T2 to 96.4% T1); pre-census withdrawal is up slightly on T1 (10.1% T2 to 9.7% T1).
• Education Engagement (97.51% T2 to 98.67% T1); Pre-census withdrawal is also up slightly on T1 (6.8% T2 to 5.7% T1).

Assurance of Program Integrity

It is becoming increasingly clear that we will need to provide assurance at program level (Course/Major as appropriate) as to the integrity of student attainment – ie, that students have achieved the course learning outcomes, particularly where the use of generative AI puts that into question (e.g., course learning outcomes relating to knowledge or written communication). It is unclear exactly what format university policy will take (although such policy is, I think, a certainty), but a preliminary assessment of where we stand in our courses is a necessary precursor to any action we might need to take in the future. Reading the tea leaves, the most likely outcome is a requirement that, at several key points in a program, students are required to pass hurdle units and assessments within those units, mapped to course learning outcomes. Establishing our baseline will require a body of work at course/discipline level. In Education, core units in programs here will play a key role and in HASS the work already done instituting capstone units in certain courses and majors will help. It is likely that an audit driven through Course Coordinators will be needed between now and the end of the year to establish what units are suitable for assurance exercises across each program – bearing in mind wrinkles such as, e.g., exit pathways and awards.