Murdoch University Senate

1.       MEMBERSHIP

Attached is a list of all current Senators. There are two new Senators at this meeting: Associate Professor Stuart Bradley and Mr John Gillam. Their photographs and profiles appear below.

Ms Janice Bowra has been elected to Senate by Convocation. Her term commences on 1 January. Ms Alisha Ryans-Taylor has been re-elected to Senate for a third term, this time as a member elected by the students. The two new student members next year are the incoming President of the Guild of Students (Mr Mal Bradley) and Mr Mat Menzel.

This is the last meeting for Candice Heedes, Mariyon Slany and Kevin White, whose terms expire on 31 December.

Stuart Bradley is a graduate of Liverpool University. He completed a post-doc at the Animal Breeding Research Organisation, University of Edinburgh, and joined Murdoch's staff in 1976. He has been President and Vice-President of the Academic Staff Association, and was the inaugural President of the State Division of the National Tertiary Education Union. He has also served a previous term as a Senator in the early nineties. Currently, Stuart is the Head of the School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, and completed a period as acting Executive Dean of the Division of Science and Engineering before the appointment of the current Dean. He is an active researcher in the area of Wildlife and Conservation Biology, and supervises students working on seabirds, dolphins, marine turtles and mammals. For relaxation, Stuart enjoys reading, travelling and ballroom dancing.

John Gillam is Managing Director of Wesfarmers CSBP. He joined the Wesfarmers Group in 1997 and has had commercial roles in Wesfarmers' Business Development area and the Bunnings business before being appointed Company Secretary of Wesfarmers Limited, a role he left in April 2002 to move to CSBP. Prior to Wesfarmers, Mr Gillam was General Manager of Medical Corporation Australasia Limited and worked previously at KPMG in the corporate finance and corporate recovery areas.  He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Western Australia, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Chartered Accountant. He has served on the University's Resources Committee since July 2002. Mr Gillam is also a director of the Australian Institute of Management (WA) and the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association.

2.       APOLOGIES AND LEAVE OF ABSENCE

Sir William Heseltine has leave of absence approved for this meeting. 

Ms Allen, Ms Banks and Judge O’Brien have recorded their apologies for this meeting. Any apologies received after circulation of the agenda will be reported to the meeting.

3.      DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 

The Chancellor will ask whether any Senators have an interest to declare concerning any items on this agenda. Senate has adopted the following statement on conflict of interest:

Senators have a duty to place the interests of the University before their own personal advantage (financial or otherwise) and the advantage of any other person or organisation (including the group that elected or appointed the Senator). Possible conflicts of interest include:

v       employment by, shareholding in or directorship of a company dealing with the University

v       membership of a body that is in competition or conflict with Murdoch University

v       for Murdoch staff members, out-sourcing or restructuring of their work sections

v       any matter under discussion that would result in personal financial advantage 

v       government officials who are responsible for an aspect of policy or operations which affects a matter under consideration by the University

A matter which arises from membership of the group qualifying the Senator for election to Senate, and which is not otherwise special or personal to the Senator, is not a conflict of interest. (Examples could include students voting on assessment policy, or staff voting on a salary increase for all staff.) 

At the start of each meeting of Senate and its committees, Senators must declare the nature, character and extent of any conflict of interest. In case of doubt, it is best to acknowledge possible conflict of interest. When conflict of interest is identified the Chair  (subject to the views of the meeting) may ask the Senator to leave while the item of business is discussed; to participate in the discussion but withdraw from the meeting before the vote; to stay but not participate in the debate; or to stay with full rights to debate and vote. Where there is a significant conflict of interest, future papers on this matter might not be made available to the Senator concerned.

All declarations of interest shall be minuted, along with any ensuing action.

In addition, if any member of staff presenting a proposal to Senate or one of its committees has a conflict of interest, the person must declare that interest at the meeting.

part a - major issues

4.      REVIEW OF ACADEMIC COUNCIL

In February Senate and Academic Council established a joint working party to review Academic Council. This was chaired by Dr Mike Partis, and included four Senators (Ms Allen, Mr Buxton, Ms Gaines and Ms Ryans-Taylor).

Attached is the report of the working party. This was considered by Academic Council on 6 October. As outlined in the attached extract from its minutes, Council supported recommendation 1; made three amendments to recommendation 2 (removing the immediate past President of Council, retaining elected academic staff at 12 rather than having 3 of these positions filled by co-option, and reworking the basis of election of a Rockingham staff member); and did not support recommendation 3.

As background information, attached is a paper on the role of Academic Boards that was presented to the National Conference on University Governance on 10 November. 

Dr Partis will introduce the report. 

5.        UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE

The Chancellor will report on his meeting with the Chancellors of other WA universities on 1 November, and on the AVCC National Conference on University Governance, which was held in Adelaide on 10-11 November. 

The Governance Conference was attended by 114 people, including 16 Chancellors and 10 Vice Chancellors. This University was represented by the Chancellor, Pro Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and University Secretary. Attached is a summary of the keynote address given by Dr Peter Shergold, Secretary, Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training.

part B - OTHER issues FOR DEBATE

6.         ROCKINGHAM CAMPUS AND MANDURAH DEVELOPMENTS

As this is the annual meeting at the Rockingham Campus, the Pro Vice Chancellor (Regional Development), Professor Kateryna Longley, will give a presentation on university developments at Mandurah, and on developments at the Rockingham Campus since Senate was there last November. Attached are some background papers. 

The presentation will take 10-15 minutes, and will be followed by the opportunity for discussion of any issues related to University activities at Mandurah and Rockingham.

7.         VICE CHANCELLOR'S REPORT

8.1        Ongoing Activities

8.2        University Strategic Plan

The current Strategic Plan will expire at the end of this year. A progress report on the development of the new Plan was discussed at the February meeting of Senate. At the August meeting of Senate, the Vice Chancellor gave a presentation outlining the draft University Strategic Plan for 2003-7. After discussion, Senate

Attached are the draft Strategic Plan, and a summary of the process since August. The Deputy Vice Chancellor and Director of Strategic Planning and Quality Assurance (Assoc Prof Stephen Thurgate) will give Senate a brief oral summary of the key points.

The Vice Chancellor recommends that Senate approve the following motion:

(a)     that Senate approve the Draft Strategic Plan 2003-2007 in principle,

(b)     that final approval of the plan be postponed until the February meeting of Senate, when the outcome of the Commonwealth Review of Higher Education (Crossroads) will be known.

8.         CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT

The terms of reference of the Environment Committee include “to report annually to Senate on the state of the campus environment”. Attached is the first such report from the Committee. The report will be introduced by the Chair of the Committee, Dr Michael McCall.

9.       STATUTE CHANGES

At its meeting on 21 October, Senate approved the attached amendments to Statute No. 17 – Guild of Students and Statute No. 22 – Fees.

Notice of the proposed Statute changes has been displayed within the University in accordance with the provisions of section 25 of the Murdoch University Act.  At the time of the preparation of this agenda the University Secretary has received no objection to the amendments.

Subject to no objection being received prior to the meeting, the Senate will be asked to ratify the Statute changes. In accordance with s.25 of the Murdoch University Act, this requires an absolute majority (13 members)

10        PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES FOR THE VICE CHANCELLOR

The meeting will move into committee for this item.

In September 2001, Senate resolved that the performance objectives of the Vice Chancellor be developed by the Chancellor’s Committee and submitted to Senate for approval. It also resolved that the Chancellor’s Committee shall review the Vice Chancellor’s performance each year against these objectives. At its 7 October 2002 meeting, Senate discussed the process for approving the performance objectives of the Vice Chancellor. The Chancellor summarised the views of Senate as being that full Senate should determine the Vice Chancellor’s performance objectives, while the assessment of performance should rest with the Chancellor’s Committee. 

Attached, as a strictly confidential attachment for Senators only, are the performance objectives that the Chancellor’s Committee recommends be approved for the Vice Chancellor for 2002-3

part C - OTHER ITEMS

11.       MINUTES

 12.1     Confirmation of Minutes

            Senate is asked to confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 19 August 2002. 

            12.2      Action on Resolutions of the Last Meeting

The attached action sheet records the resolutions of the previous meeting and action that had been taken to implement them. It also updates Senate on outstanding action items from previous meetings.

12.        SENATE COMMITTEE CHAIRS

The July meeting of Senate approved the following policy: "The Chancellor, Pro Chancellor and Vice Chancellor shall bring forward recommendations to the November Senate meeting on who to appoint as the committee Chairs. The individual Chairs shall then recommend who should be the members of their committees, taking account of the knowledge and skills needed."

The new policy on membership of Senate committees also says "All committee membership is for terms of up to three years (i.e. it may be less than three years in some cases, such as where a Senator’s term expires before then, or a person is added to a Committee for a period when it has a particular focus), with staggered terms." Committee Chair terms therefore should also be for three years.

Senate has eight committees: 

•      Audit and Risk Management Committee

•      Chancellor’s Committee

•     Environmental Committee

•     Equity and Equal Opportunity Committee

•     Honorary Awards and Ceremonials Committee

•     Legislation Committee

•     Nominating Committee

•     Resources Committee 

Three are chaired by the Chancellor ex officio: Chancellor’s Committee, Honorary Awards and Ceremonials Committee, and Nominating Committee. With respect to the other five committee, the Chancellor, Pro Chancellor and Vice Chancellor recommend that Senate make the following appointments:

13.       ACADEMIC COUNCIL

Attached are the minutes of the meeting of Academic Council held on 16 November 2002. These include the following recommendations to Senate:

AC/161-165/2002    Review of Academic Council

AC/172/2002           Bachelor Degree Regulations

 Legislation Committee has endorsed the form of the above regulation change, by circulation. The recommendations on Academic Council are listed for discussion under agenda item 4 above. 

14.        RESOURCES COMMITTEE 

            Attached are the minutes of the meeting of the Resources Committee held on 18 November 2002. These include the following recommendations to Senate: 

RC/29/2002         Whole of University Budget 2003 

15.        ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE

Attached are the minutes of the meeting of Environmental Committee held on 9 October 2002. There are no recommendations to Senate.

16.        HONORARY AWARDS AND CEREMONIAL COMMITTEE

Attached are the minutes of the meeting of Honorary Awards and Ceremonial Committee held on 7 November 2002. There are no recommendations to Senate.

17.      LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

 The November meeting of Legislation Committee was cancelled due to lack of sufficient business. Two matters were considered by circulation, summarised in the attached minute. There is one recommendation to Senate:

LC/17/2002     Fees Regulations

18.    AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Attached are the minutes of the meeting of Audit and Risk Management Committee held on 6 November 2002. These include the following recommendation to Senate:

ARMC/15/2002  Implementation of Risk Management Plans

19.        OFFICIAL SEAL

            Report on the Use of the Official Seal

           In accordance with resolution 90/85, the Official Seal of the University has been applied to the following documents since the last meeting of Senate –

·         Variation of Agreement with Curtin University of Technology for provision of counselling services

·         Deed of license with Andrew Franks concerning intellectual property in his research project

·         Deed of license with Nari Michelle Anderson concerning intellectual property in her research project

FUTURE MEETING DATE	AGENDA PAPERS DEADLINE
Monday 24 February 2003	Thursday 13 February 2003
Monday 14 April 2003	Thursday 3 April 2003
Monday 26 May 2003	Thursday 15 May 2003
Monday 7 July 2003	Thursday 26 June 2003
Monday 18 August 2003	Thursday 7 August 2003
Monday 6 October 2003	Thursday 25 September 2003
Monday 24 November 2003	Thursday 13 November 2003