Dean’s Welcome Letter for 2008 10 January 2008
Welcome to the New Year in Humanities at Macquarie. As I said at the end of year party, we all worked extraordinarily hard over 2007, and 2008 will be at least as demanding.
Let me just rehearse our achievements. First Learning and Teaching. With the money from the LTPF Marnie Hughes Warrington has established a program of mentoring and peer assessment across the Division, Xinni Du has been appointed to support e-learning and has developed an online learning template. The Division is home to one discipline based Carrick award examining historical thinking, led by Marnie and Jill Roe; I am on the steering committee of another examining the BA across Australia. Marnie leads an important university funded project on student engagement; and with Marcelle Freiman, Michelle Arrow and Antonina Harbus, we have had an unprecedented 3 successful university teaching awards. At another level, our examination process was smooth and thorough, for which I thank Michael Roberts and Rosemary Colmer, as well as all the staff. We have had fewer appeals than ever, evidence of a good teaching process. And enrolments have increased at a slow but steady rate in Commonwealth funded places and much faster in OUA and non award.
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Dean’s Report
1 August 2007
The last month has been one of absences. Many of you have been away at conferences while others – far too many- have been unwell. We particularly miss Terry. In the way of the modern university, however, we have been very busy. Michael and Carlene and the DA team did a sterling job with the examination results for which I thank all of you. We came through the Senate meeting without a whisper, and I suspect that in future results will be managed at Divisional level. I am grateful to Michael for managing the process, and delighted that Rosemary Colmer has agreed to take on the role of Chair of the Standing Committee of Examinations. Sue Wills sadly will be leaving us: Alison Holland has kindly agreed to take over her role on Ethics Committee. This is a particularly important role for us – we in Humanities sometimes forget that we need ethics clearance for interviews.
TEDS results for last semester have been delivered to my office. Under the Enterprise Bargain, these are not for distribution, although I will share the overall figures, which are very good. The major issues are feedback, and a perception of excessive workload in some areas (languages of course, but we need to explain that languages do require constant work). I do think we need to remind staff to explain to students what they are doing – sometimes they do not recognize the feedback they are receiving.
Marnie Hughes-Warrington will give her report as Associate Dean Learning and Teaching, but I must commend her extraordinary work on student centred and student led learning. Murray Goot as Associate Dean Research has also produced what I think is a benchmark report comparing Research active figures as determined under the RQF regime and under a new humanities and social science sensitive model. Given staff changes we will achieve 80% research active staff under the latter by the end of the year. Murray will be more involved with research management across the university, and Andrew Gillett has kindly agreed to take on the role of Associate Dean Research.
I have been concerned about OSP issues. I have a very clear directive from Senior Management that 10% of RA staff only can take OSP per semester. I will achieve that for next year, but at a cost. We need to think of ways of releasing staff for shorter periods to complete research.
I urge you all to attend the Town Hall meetings dealing with the restructure. The process has led to uncertainty, but I think we can be proud that Humanities comes out well in learning and teaching, research and outreach. We are also excellent financial managers, for which I must thank not just Terry but also the heads of department and all of you, who take our financial constraints seriously.
Report from the Dean
20 May 2007
Last week was a very busy week for Humanities; I was on tenterhooks here in the Netherlands. Last Monday, Terry and Peter in person and I on the phone (at 7am local time) defended our budget predictions for the next three years. Very few faculties which teach languages are in good financial shape. We in Humanities are, at least for the next year. For this I have to thank you all – heads of department and Terry in particular. The bottom line is just that, a bottom line; we have improved research and teaching while staying in respectable financial shape.
Peter reports that the visit of the Vice Chancellor and Provost went extremely well. I gather that the showcasing of students was a success and the VC noted how good the atmosphere in the Division was. I must congratulate you all and Peter, Carlene, Stephanie and Martina in particular on the event.
I have been preoccupied with EU matters here, preparing a bid for the so called Framework 7 round with 5 EU partner universities (an even longer shot than ARC); teaching a master level course and preparing the ‘summer’ school in Global Citizenship to be held here in February. The importance of internationalization has hit the continental European universities. Utrecht, like the other EU partner universities I am working with, are focusing on quality and international courses, just as we have tried to in Humanities. I will be in Brussels at the end of the month discussing some of these issues. Before that I will be giving 3 papers in San Francisco, where it is my last year as Chair of the Philosophy of Communication division of the International Communication Association. Something of a relief.
Christie
Message from the Dean, Re: Audit Office of NSW 16 March 2007
The Audit Office of NSW is currently investigating the University’s official record keeping practices. As part of this audit, they are requesting access to official records, including: flex-timesheets, leave forms, etc, and the mechanisms that are in place to monitor such leave.
As a result, it is possible that an auditor may request to see random individuals to ensure that timesheets (e.g. Form 11.01a Variable Working Hours Program) are maintained and any flex leave taken is appropriately monitored. It will be greatly appreciated if staff members who are approached can cooperate fully.
To clarify the circumstances under which timesheets should be completed, HR confirms that:
Regarding leave forms, these must be completed by ALL STAFF (Academic and General at all levels) for all other forms of leave taken, including absence on duty. These are the forms found at: http://www.pers.mq.edu.au/forms/17/index.html and the policies that guide them are at: http://www.hr.mq.edu.au/PMH/17/index.html .
If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact either Raewyn Twynham (Xtn 7070, raewyn.twynham@mq.edu.au) or Carlene Kirvan (Xtn 8736, carlene.kirvan@mq.edu.au).
Message from the Dean 1 March 2007
Last weekend the Division of Humanities hosted the inaugural Macquarie-Newcastle Humanities Postgraduate Research Symposium held on campus on Saturday 24 February. The theme, designed to have broad interdisciplinary appeal, was “The Power of Perceptions.” The idea for the symposium came from Dianne Osland (Newcastle) and Marea Mitchell (Macquarie) who wanted to encourage cross-campus collaborations partly as a result of their own successful collaboration in research and publication. The intention was to generate a space for postgraduate students to work together to organize a conference run by students for students. While the presentation of papers offers opportunities for developing communication skills and intellectual exchange, the idea was also to develop related skills such as assessment of abstracts, selection of papers, co-ordination of a research event. We hoped to broaden research cultures within and across the two universities. The day was sponsored by the Division of Humanities at Macquarie, and the School of Humanities and Social Science at Newcastle and MUPRA.
Following a call for papers, 40 abstracts were received, from which eighteen were chosen, following selection criteria developed and applied by the HDR student panel. Two streams of eight papers were then presented throughout the day. Sixty-four students attended. Evaluation was carried out through a questionnaire, which provided very favourable feedback. The organizing committee consisted of Steve Townsend (Macquarie: Chair), Lazar Maric (Macquarie) and Yvette Rowe (Newcastle).
The second stage is to pursue the establishment of an online journal for referred articles, and the third stage is to host the second conference at Newcastle. Organizers may also consider developing grant applications to resource the journal and future conferences. The University of Western Sydney has also expressed interest in joining Macquarie and Newcastle in this venture.
Regards
Christie [1 March 2007]
Message from the Dean 20 February 2007
Although many of us have been in W6A through the summer, only next week does the academic year formally begin.
I want to welcome new staff: Bert Peeters and Brigitte Jandey are joining European Languages in French; and Ben Goldsmith is taking up an appointment in Politics and International Relations. Penny Griffin and Lavina Lee will also join Politics and IR over the next months. Ken Parry, Malcolm Choat and Peter Edwell, although familiar faces, are taking on new roles in Ancient History.
2007 will be a busy year. To those of you returning from research trips or leave, whether digging in Egypt or wandering cooler climes, we have had a fairly torrid period at Macquarie, and expect the pace of change to accelerate. I am sure we all look forward to the challenges. We are really delighted with the building works on Level 2 and 4 which, I am told, will be complete by Monday. The transformation is extremely impressive, as is the timeliness of the work. We all hope that the courtyard, which to our surprise is to be refitted with tables, wireless internet and power and a sail, will also soon be complete.
Twenty ARC applications were submitted by members of the Division, which is an impressive tally. As we begin to record the publications for 2006, there are some 14 monographs and edited works, dozens of refereed articles and four major international journals edited within the Division. It explains some of the activity over the summer; we have also, as for the last 20 years, had groups studying languages such as Ancient Greek and Arabic. Students have also been seeking advice over the summer: Rosemary Colmer ably coordinated the staff advisors.
At the last divisional meeting, Carlene and I promised to keep all staff abreast of what is happening in the executive. Our last executive meeting was concerned with annual reports, one of which has been sent to Senate. Another is due at the publications office on Friday – we will post it to the website as well. The new website for the Division is expected to go live for the beginning of semester. We have been occupied with our presentation for the Academic Program Committee, which took place this morning and went well, with in principle approval for all the programs we presented. Judyth Sachs indicated that the APC would be restructured and will focus in future on broad strategic issues. She has constituted a Teaching and Learning Committee on which Marnie Hughes-Warrington has agreed to serve.
We had a successful year in HDR completions in 2006, with 25 completions noted by the HDR unit. A seminar will be held on Saturday 24 February in which HDR students from Newcastle and Macquarie will present their research. In other research news, the Modern History and IUEU sponsored event on February 14 on Global Convergences was impressive. The RQF process will be very demanding this year: Macquarie is planning a trial process with Newcastle mid-year.
Finally we mention the death of Dr William Gale, who has long been associated with the Department of Ancient History, and donated the core of the coin collection of the numismatic museum. He is a great loss. We commiserate with his wife Janet, whom we hope will continue her long association with us.
Regards,
Christie [20 February 2007]
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