Murdoch University Senate

Last July Senate resolved to endorse the resolutions of Academic Council on the academic profile. This included the requirement that Executive Deans report to the Vice Chancellor by 30 April 2001 on progress in negotiations with other universities on academic collaborations (Resolution 48/00(f)). A summary of the reports from the Divisions is included below. The full reports are available from the Vice Chancellor's Office.

Commerce - Agreement has been reached with Curtin to allow students in the MBA from each university to take elective units at the other institution.

Law - Discussions regarding the participation of a number of Murdoch staff in the Postgraduate Program of the Sam Ratulangi University Manado are well advanced.

Information Technology - The Division Board has given initial approval to a proposal for a full-fee Masters of Medical Engineering taught across UWA, Murdoch, Curtin and ECU. The course structure includes a core unit from each university, four electives, and a project unit chosen from a list supplied by each university. UWA and Curtin will provide Engineering content, Medical content will come from UWA and ECU, and Murdoch's contribution will be in the area of IT.

Politics and International Studies - Two joint programmes are currently offered with the University of Hong Kong, the BA in Public Policy Management and the Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management. Murdoch University grants the degree and provides teaching staff on two to three units each year.

Marine Science - A proposal for a full-fee Masters of Marine Science offered jointly by UWA, Murdoch, Curtin and ECU is being developed. It is envisaged that most units would be offered individually for professional development (to be administered by UWA Extension) but able to be built into a full Masters programme. The course would focus on physical and biological processes relevant to the marine environment with Murdoch's contribution most likely to include Fish and Fisheries Biology, Mariculture Production Technologies, Greenhouse Science and Policy and Air Pollution Meteorology. A link with the CRC in Coastal Zones, Estuaries and Waterway Management is also proposed.

The Resources Institute (Murdoch, UWA, Curtin) has been working towards rationalising undergraduate mining education in WA. To date their work has focussed on process control and extractive metallurgy with UWA. The Mining Tertiary Education Committee (MTEC), has funded Murdoch, through the Resources Institute, to develop national modules in hydrometallurgy and mineralogy for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Energy Studies

Murdoch International is currently considering a draft MOU from Massey University (NZ) to use Murdoch's course material in their undergraduate teaching programme. Similar discussions have commenced with ANU, and teaching institutions in India and Iran.

General

Specific arrangements for the sharing of course material and teaching are currently in place with the University of New England, Curtin and UWA. A formal agreement is in place with UNE for 2001 and 2002 to share several physics units (by distance). Agreements with UWA and Curtin are at the heads-of-discipline level.

UWA and Curtin have supported a Murdoch proposal for a Joint Honours Symposium to be sponsored by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. We have also jointly purchased scientific equipment.

Discussions regarding possible collaborative arrangements with the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Curtin University are ongoing. Agreement has been reached that collaboration at the honours and research levels should commence as soon as possible. Honours units on offer at both institutions have been made available to all students this year.

A formal agreement is in place for the common offering of units in the Bachelor of Engineering in Photovoltaics and Solar Energy at the University of New South Wales and the Bachelor of Engineering (Renewable Energy Engineering) at Murdoch. Students will be able to access course material via the Internet.

Through offering mathematics and statistics, physics and energy studies units externally, Murdoch has begun to attract students from other Australian universities where similar courses are not offered. Recent inquiries include students from UWA (energy studies) and JCU (physics and maths).

The Inter-University Collaboration on Asian Studies (IUCAS) incorporates all four WA public universities with a brief to address the problem of falling enrolments in Asian Studies. IUCAS agreed in broad principle to developing the model following model:

	Curtin will take leading responsibility for Chinese Studies.
	Murdoch will take leading responsibility for Indonesian Studies.
	Japanese Studies will stand alone on each campus.
	All WA universities will be able to submit proposals to the Curtin-Murdoch Management Team within this collaborative structure.
	The two collaborative partners will jointly determine all appointments in Asian studies and some positions will be shared between the two universities.
	Murdoch Asian Studies Program has established a working relationship with ECU on the teaching of Chinese and Indonesian which allows ECU students to cross-enrol in Murdoch units.

HTML last modified: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Modified by: Helen Yeoman, Secretary, University Secretariat, Vice-Chancellor's Office
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