Minutes - Meeting No 6/05

A Meeting of the Committee of Convocation was held in the Council Chambers, Old Quadrangle , University of Melbourne , on Wednesday 17 August 2005 at 5.30pm.

PRESENT:

Mr AG Handberg in the Chair,
Ms AM Ada, Mr G Bartle, Ms LJ Boston, Dr C Close, Ms HM Cohn, Mr RE Cook, Mr BFB Dance,
Mr DM Dodd, Ms JH Elton Brown, Ms HM Fitzpatrick, Dr JK Harcourt, Mr J Humphrey, Mr GLE Israel,
Mr FAM Lees, Dr PA Lowe, Dr DA McCann, Mr RA McGauran, Dr L McKenzie, Mr JG Meehan,
Mrs AM Neal-Adam, Dr JR Nelson, Mr JF Nicholas, Dr DG Parbery, Ms E Parker, Dr NMcH Ramsey,
Dr B-A Rodan, Ms C Rollinson, Miss AS Rusden, Dr S Sahhar, Dr L Simpson,
Mr BN Southern and Dr J Stillman

IN ATTENDANCE:

Mr LN Currie, University Secretary, Mr JM Green, Assistant University Secretary and Miss HA Davies, Minute Secretary, were in attendance.

BUSINESS

Preliminary Matters

Mr Allan Handberg, Deputy President, advised that as this meeting would primarily consider and respond to the Growing Esteem discussion paper that had been prepared and circulated to the University community to invite involvement and response , routine matters would be dealt with immediately before moving on to discussion of the paper.

1. Apologies and Leave of Absence

Apologies had been received from Ms J Crowe, Mr AT Douglas, Mr P Hirst and Ms Malory Weston.

Leave of Absence previously had been granted to Mr AW Abbott, Mr RTA Hardcastle and Mr GH Thomas for this meeting, to Dr RJ Condron for this and September meetings, Ms JM Crowe, Ms HM Fitzpatrick, Ms AM Neal-Adam and Dr S Sahhar for the September meeting and Dr L McKenzie for the October meeting.

Leave of Absence was granted to Mr G Bartle and Ms JH Elton Brown for the September meeting, Dr L McKenzie for the September and October meetings, Dr JR Nelson and Mrs AM Neal Adam for the October meeting and Dr NMcH Ramsey and Dr L Simpson for the November meeting.

2. Starring of Additional Items

There were no requests for starring of additional items.

3. Minutes of Meeting 5/05 (20.7.2005)

The Minutes were adopted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

4. Matters Arising

4.1 Growing Esteem : Choices for the University of Melbourne (Minute 12.1)

Mr Allan Handberg, the Deputy President, opened discussion on this item, and invited all members to put forward their views in response to the Vice-Chancellor's discussion paper, in order for the Committee to make a submission. After various issues were identified as relevant, they were considered and debated by members. The attached report was prepared coming out of these deliberations. (Attachment A.)

5. Report 5/05 - 20 July 2005 to be submitted to September Council

The Committee received the report for information.

6. Legislation, Regulations and Standing Resolutions

None.

7. Report of Council Meeting 7/05 (8/8/05)

7.1 Vice-Chancellor's Report

7.2 Oral report on Council Meeting

As the Deputy President had not attended the August Council meeting, the University Secretary reported that the main item of business was to consider a proposal for a new student representative body following the liquidation of MUSUI. Council adopted the proposal subject to endorsement by the student body in a plebiscite to be conducted by the University Secretary.

7.3 Taking Stock 2005

Mr Handberg referred to the Taking Stock 2005 presentation give by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, following the August Council meeting. Members of the Committee of Convocation had been invited to join Council members to the presentation on this occasion, and the Vice-Chancellor was pleased with the response by members of the Committee. For those who had been unable to attend, the 2005 Taking Stock paper had been circulated for information.

8. Reports of Faculty Meetings and Committee Meetings

8.1 Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

The Committee received the report for information.

9. Alumni Relations Report

None.

10. Guest Speaker

The Deputy President reminded members that the guest speaker at dinner would be Dr Bryan Fry, Deputy Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit, and that he would speak of his research on venom, particularly snake venom, and its application in medicine.

11. Deputy President's Report

The Deputy President had nothing to report.

12. Any Other Business

12.1 The Graduate Union of the University of Melbourne

The President of the Graduate Union and member of the Committee of Convocation, Mr Frank Lees, announced that the Governor of Victoria would officially open Graduate House on Thursday, 10 November at 5.30pm. Formal invitations would be extended to members of the Committee of Convocation.

12.2 Submissions to the AOM Motion Working Group

Ms Lesley Boston, the Chair of the AOM Motion Working Group, invited those who had not already done so, to make a submission to the Working Group. Ms Boston announced that she would be pleased if everybody could make a submission, regardless of how brief.

13. Receipt of Unstarred Items

The unstarred items were received.

COMMITTEE OF CONVOCATION

SUBMISSION TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR
ON GROWING ESTEEM

The Committee of Convocation devoted most of its August meeting to discussion of the Growing Esteem paper, and agreed that the following comments should be submitted on behalf of the graduates of the University.

• The quality of the degrees and educational experience that the University offers is its most important asset: any threat or risk to that quality should be treated very carefully, and the continued growth in student numbers is considered a high risk to quality. The University needs to specifically determine an optimum size for its student body and the appropriate proportions of its components to further improve quality, rather than have these emerge as a consequence of other decisions. We need to protect and enhance the student experience on campus, deal with growing student disengagement, and find ways to better integrate our local and non-local student groups
• The University needs to improve its outreach to its immediate communities:  our actions do not adequately reflect our words regarding the interdependency of great universities and great cities. The finest universities in the world have a stronger emphasis on their external relationships. Our strategies need to ensure that we continue to meet the needs in our immediate community for graduate professionals, especially in those disciplines where we are the sole supplier.
• The University should be the intellectual leader of public discourse in Australia .
• We should continue to strive for the highest level of excellence, but possibly in a reduced number of fields. identifying our strengths and consolidating on those, while retaining the capacity for an increasingly multidisciplinary approach. The finest universities in the world don't try to do everything. A focus on excellence is the best counter-measure to the risks the University faces.
• The University should obtain maximum benefit from its resources by extending the period of utilisation of existing infrastructure.
• In coping with the reductions in government funding, the strategies of other Australian universities should be monitored and any opportunities for collaborative action (including systematic lobbying) taken up. For example, how is Sydney managing to fund its salary levels, facilities, student numbers, etc?
• The Melbourne Business School was substantially funded by the business world, Trinity alumni are funding its capital works - what aren't we doing, given our pre-eminent situation, history, etc?
• Whatever the outcome of the Commonwealth Government's VSU legislative program, the activity of planning student services in a scenario of no Amenities and Services Fees has been very instructive: the Committee wonders if there would be benefits in looking at how the University would cope if there were no Commonwealth funding for tertiary education.
• It is regrettable that there is scant mention of alumni or graduates in the Growing Esteem document.

Whilst supporting the openly inclusive collegial process of ‘Growing Esteem', the Committee of Convocation believes it would have been more productive for the University to have tabled a ‘possible strategy' plus an examination of its ‘pros and cons' and also those of alternatives considered.

The document reads relatively negatively in that it raises a vast range of problems and only a lesser number of positives.

The Committee found that these factors made it very difficult to constructively focus on practical potential strategies.