ACADEMIC BOARD REPORT #2 - 19 April 2000 [Sorry about the lack of report from the last meeting. It was held in the week before the start of Semester, which is not a great time to be writing extra reports.] The meeting this time was chaired by Peter Darvall. Professors Robinson and Lindsay were off in Sith Effrika turning the odd sod, so we who were left behind had to make do. As ever I'll just report on the things that actually got discussed. For those who are interested, the specific items relating to our Faculty in the Faculty Board report and the Education Committee report were approved en masse as usual. The "starred items", some of which weren't actually discussed after all, included: - a pat on the back for us on the Science Lectureships Initiative. - revised academic promotion guidelines, for those interested. - a quick report on the state of play getting a licence to run a medical course in Malaysia. Apparently there is quite a lot of interest, and the potential to have as large a student body as at Clayton. Awaiting a government licence. Fees are expected to be the same as other private medical schools in Malaysia. - enrolments for 2000 seemed pretty much on target overall. - David de Kretser reported on the Institute of Reproduction and Development, which Peter Darvall told us (twice) was a jewel in Monash's crown. Much of his report was on money, and the effort it takes to get it, and the difficulty caused when several different people from Monash knock on the same door. - Peter D. reported briefly that the Board of Monash Mt. Eliza had agreed to separation, with effect 31 December 2000. So at last we have our MBA back, and there is no longer an "academic unit" at Monash which bypasses the Academic Board. Is this the last Chubb legacy to go? - Graeme Davison (History) reported briefly from the General Library Committee, as did Gary Bouma (Sociology) from the Standing Committee on Ethics in Research Involving Humans. A report and recommendations from a UEC Working Party on Unsatisfactory Academic Progress, which had been convened by John Hurst, was in the agenda papers. It was starred and picked over by one of the Law people, who complained that it was not treating students in double degrees fairly. This seemed slightly absurd, as it the recommended handling of double-degree students is a lot fairer than it is at present. John brushed off her grizzles, and she was told by Darvall to talk to the Law rep on the WP. Darvall starred the report of the PhD and Scholarships Committee to highlight the poor completion rates for higher degrees, with 49% of students taking up scholarships in 1995 not completed at the end of 1999, and 19% having lapsed completely. He singled out Arts as the least satisfactory performer in completions. On a lighter note, newish DVC Alison Crook starred an item about the "Bachelor of Business and Commerce" course in Malaysia for the purposes of asking what was the difference between "Business" and "Commerce", because her dictionary said they were the same thing. (laughter) (BusEco acting Dean) Allen Russell attempted to explain the difference: ("well they, er, have different, um, entry standards, and, er, the expectations are not the same, and, er, they have different histories, etc. etc. etc.) (more laughter). What he didn't say was that the Bachelor of Commerce was rushed into existence in late 1989 by the then Faculty of Economics and Politics in order to have a product to compete with the brutish Bachelor of Business at Caulfield. Still, it's good that we can laugh about BusEco's foibles now, whereas 7 years ago when they were separate Faculties it was blood on the floor at every second Board meeting. [In a dull moment, of which there were several, I noted that of the 65 Board members present, 12 were female and only 5 were noticeably non-European.] Jim Breen 28 April 2000