ACADEMIC BOARD - 16 MARCH 1994

[A very quick report today. I had to leave the Board meeting at 4pm
to take a prac class. At that stage it was only half-way through item 4.
(The VC's report), having also made a quick excursion to item 13 on Gender
Representation. Perhaps one of the other FCIT people can fill in.]

Virtually the whole of the first 100 minutes was taken up with two items:

A. The Quality Assurance Report

Extracts from the report were tabled, along with a lengthy document
endorsed by the new Education Committee of Academic Board which effectively
states an Education Policy and strategy for Monash.

There was quite a "why was this done to us", "how could they have got us
so wrong", etc. debate.  Mal kept drawing attention to the criterion in
the Group 2 set: "systematic quality assurance processes less
well-developed" as the the area on which Monash should focus. Ian Chubb
was not saying much, but it was obvious that he supported the
interpretation.

Anyway, a long Education Policy document has been referred to Deans for
comment within a week. Copies are being printed for distribution to all
academic staff. Much of it is good. The points I quibble with are the
over-emphasized role of HEARU, far too much put on student surveys as a
feedback mechanism, and a inadequately explained "Masters Degree in Higher
Education" proposal.

B. Gender Representation.

There was a long document from a sub-Committee headed by Maria Neave on
this topic. After quite a few misgivings were aired it was endorsed by he
Board, and it has many recommendations which are aimed at encouraging a
better gender balance in most of the Board's committees, and on the Board
itself. The one that tickled me was the recommendation that the proportion
of the Board elected by Professors be reduced, on the grounds that most of
the Professors were male, and this was making it harder to get gender
balance on the Board itself. I suspect this aspect will be comprehensively
white-anted in Council.

One other item of considerable interest to FCIT was the proposal to place
all the marketing and administrative aspects of international students in
the hands of a wholly-owned company. This company would, inter alia,
collect the fees and pass them on to "relevant budgetary units." In this,
Monash is adopting the same approach as UNSW and RMIT.

[I hope I can get someone to kickstart my prac class, so I can attend for
more of the next meeting.]

Jim Breen