Academic Board 20/4 | Student Rep Update

This week, the UTS Academic Board convened on Wednesday, 20 September via Zoom with its members. The Board received an update on our UTS 2027 Strategy, approval of a new learning calendar for 2021/22, received the 2019 Annual Report on Student Misconduct and Appeal matters as well as students reps delivering a major presentation on Emerging Learning Practices – including embedding Indigenous Graduate Attributes (IGA).

Report from the Vice-Chancellor

Acting Vice-Chancellor Andrew Parfitt spoke to Attila's report on topical developments.

2020 Higher School Certificate School Leavers

UTS recently announced an intention to offer slightly more places for Higher School Certificate leavers in 2021, with a focus on students whose schooling had been impacted by COVID-19 to ensure they are not disadvantaged. The Provost will consider cases of particular education disadvantage and approve unconditional offers for admission to UTS on a case by case basis.

New Access and Inclusion Plan launched

UTS’s Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion has launched a new Access and Inclusion Plan 2020-24. This plan outlines our commitment to being a university in which individuals living with a disability can actively participate and excel. It is my sincere hope that the plan, which reflects the voices of those with lived experience of disability, will strengthen our university-wide commitment and enhance our ability to deliver it.

Foreign interference

You may have seen some media around foreign interference and universities at the end of August. UTS treats all international partnerships seriously and they are a key part of our research strategy. UTS has had no need, to date, to report any potential foreign influence under relevant Australian legislation. UTS believes international academic collaboration brings multiple benefits to the people of Australia and encourages all its staff to partner with peers overseas as appropriate. In addition, UTS has commenced several initiatives to further align our policies, governance structures and systems with the guidelines.

UTS Respect.Now.Always Australian Good Design Award

Our interpretation of Universities Australia’s Respect.Now.Always initiative has been awarded Best in Class in the Social Impact category for the 2020 Australian Good Design Awards. This was a collaboration between staff, students and human-centred design expertise from the Design Innovation Research Centre, to focus the ongoing efforts of our UTS community to explore, understand and embrace the importance of respect in our everyday interactions.

Graduate Outcomes Survey Results

The results of the national Graduate Outcomes Survey have been released and the UTS data is very encouraging. UTS students who graduated in 2017 had initial full-time employment rates of 77% for undergraduates and 85% for postgraduates. By 2020, those same graduates had full-time employment rates of 92.2% for undergraduates and 87.4% for postgraduates greatly exceeding the national results.

Centre for Advanced Manufacturing

UTS has opened a new Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) to support the Australian manufacturing sector’s response to technology changes. It is led by Professor Jochen Deuse from the School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and aims to be Australia’s leading research centre in advanced manufacturing.

Partnership with Flow Systems

UTS has partnered with Flow Systems in an Australian-first to reveal how innovative water recycling projects can thrive in cities and urban settings, improving the resilience of local neighbourhoods in times of drought. UTS is tapping into water sourced from Flow Systems wastewater recycling plant, which is located across the road at the Central Park development. The water is suitable for irrigation, toilet flushing, cooling towers and other non-drinking uses. Using this recycled water will dramatically reduce our own potable water use by around 40,000 kL (or 16 Olympic swimming pools) each year.

The Student Rep for Health asked the Acting Vice-Chancellor,

Will there be adjustments, such as increasing domestic student enrolments to mitigate financial impacts?

The Acting Vice-Chancellor responded stating that UTS's perspective operates at a 'cap and structure' framework. Ths means that UTS's intention is to not reduce or dilute the student experience by increasing the cap, thereby creating examples of increased class sizes.

Annual Report on Student Misconduct and Appeal Matters

The Vice-Chancellor is required to report annually to Academic Board and Council on all student misconduct and appeal matters.

The 2019 Annual Report on Student Misconduct and Appeal Matters provides detailed information on the number of student misconduct matters including appeals dealt with during 2019. The data includes a breakdown of misconduct types and year to year comparisons. Information is provided on the cases considered by the University Student Conduct Committee and the Student Misconduct Appeals Committee.

Table 1 shows the annual comparison of total case numbers. It should be noted that the student population has increased from 37,673 in 2013 to 46,259 in 2019, an increase of 8,586 students.

Table 2 shows in 2019 there were 1,163 cases whereas in 2018 there were 793 cases, an increase of 370 cases. 62 cases of the 1,163 cases were dismissed due to insufficient evidence or the others involved in the misconduct made an admission or inaccurate information on UTSOnline. The number of student misconduct cases of 1,163 represents 2.51 per cent of our 2019 student population of 46,259.

In 2018, there were 74 centrally conducted examination misconduct cases. In 2019, this figure reduced to 63 cases, with 49 of these cases were students having unauthorised material in the centrally conducted examinations. The 63 cases, represents a percentage of 0.048 per cent of the total number of centrally conducted examination sittings of 130,210 in 2019.

The reduction in the number of centrally conducted examination misconduct cases is likely attributable to the work of the Teaching and Learning Committee’s Coursework Assessment Policy Implementation Working Group where on their advice a number of centrally conducted examinations are now open book or restricted open book examinations (where appropriate).

Table 3: From 2018 to 2019 there has been an increase in both undergraduate and postgraduate student misconduct cases. The academic board is currently implementing the new approach to academic integrity which deals holistically with culture, learning methodologies as well as processes and policies aimed at creating an environment and expectation of academic integrity.

Penalties

The changes in SMA rules in 2018 introduced the concept of approved precedent penalties whereby students are advised of the proposed precedent penalty in the letter of allegation. This reform for selected misconducts provides greater clarity and reduces the turnaround time for students and academics. 

Improvements

Currently, SMA is identifying further process reforms including using the software Salesforce which could provide further improvements to the student experience within the SMA process and reducing unnecessary administrative burden and delays. These reforms will be the subject of the next phase of the SMA Rules review. Academic Board will be kept abreast of the progress through this next phase. 

*SMA = Student Misconduct and Appeals.

Approval of 2021/22 Academic Year

The following changes to the principles for setting the Main Calendar are proposed:

• Autumn Session starts on the third Monday of February (previously the fourth Monday).
• Spring Session starts on the first Monday of August (previously the second Monday).
• Summer Session starts on the first Monday of December.

The Provost has approved changes to the 2021 main calendar to allow for more effective scheduling, specifically over the summer months. Most undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be delivered using the Main Calendar. Other specific calendars will be used for courses with extensive professional placement requirements.

Student Presentation: Emerging Learning Practices – including embedding Indigenous Graduate Attributes (IGA)

Student reps delivered a presentation on Emerging Learning Practices – including embedding Indigenous Graduate Attributes (IGA). But what does this exactly mean?

A global pandemic, an agent for change?

The global pandemic has forced us to reach beyond comfort zones. Perhaps classes over a screen are not ideal, but what have we learnt? It is precisely when all the balls have been thrown up in the air that an unprecedented opportunity arises for fresh, new learning practices to emerge. Given the variety of student experiences we’ve heard, student reps suggest that new ways of doing things is not just an ‘added value’ but central to ensuring Academic Quality - which the Academic Board is tasked to ensure.

When traditional ways of working are disrupted, new norms are forced to arise. New learning practices can emerge without hindrance of ‘the ways things have always been done.’ - Wendy John, FASS.

Aboriginal knowledge is increasingly vital to our intellectual wealth and nation-building. The presentation called for members to harness the current vitality around social justice. We highlighted that a curriculum remodelling provides an ‘unprecedented’ opportunity for a renewed commitment to embedding the Indigenous Graduate Attributes (IGA).

Discussions within our student rep and consultation groups with the Centre for Advancement of Aboriginal Knowledges (CAIK) indicated that IGA embedding across UTS is patchy. Now it’s up to the faculties and individual teaching staff to be powerful agents of change.

Are Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates the future of academia?

HDR students are of great importance as we move towards the future and strive to meet our 2027 goals. After all, HDR students being both staff and student in one, are the bridge between the present and future. Currently, UTS PhD graduates have a reputation of being highly trained individuals who are able to hit the ground running and it is important that we continue to live up to this expectation in the years to come in light of financial impacts.

Solid theoretical foundations. In line with the UTS 2027 vision, a solid theoretical framework underpins our commitment to producing high-quality, globally-respected research that makes a significant economic, environmental, cultural and social impact. The shift to a more online teaching environment presents a unique opportunity for our HDR students as we are able to complement courses offered at UTS with easier access to more online courses offered by our global partners.

Teaching experience: Contributing to UTS HDR student’s ability to hit the ground running is that they have extensive experience in teaching and course administration. It is crucial that we continue to provide PhD students with the ability to gain this experience throughout their candidature. This also includes providing HDR students, but also other staff in training of emerging teaching practices.

UTS 2027: Our vision is to be a leading public university of technology recognised for our global impact.

The presentation asked the Board as the student reps for a tumultuous 2020, how will this be achieved amidst the current climate? In all of this, the question we asked the Board is ‘how will yesterday, today and tomorrow be reflected upon, acknowledged and delivered towards 2027?’.

Bias awareness within the curriculum. It is about creating professional capabilities to work with and for First Nations people.

"Aboriginal knowledge are increasingly vital to our intellectual wealth and nation building. Let’s harness the current vitality around social justice. Current curriculum remodelling provides an ‘unprecedented’ opportunity for a renewed commitment to embedding the Indigenous Graduate Attribute.”

• Student reps asked the Board for greater transparency amidst unprecedented times as we enter a recovery phase in 2021 while managing student expectations to ensure quality in their education.
• We called for the incorporation of student feedback into emergent practices through embedding IGA consistently to ensure learning delivery assists the student to achieve their potential as global citizens.
• We asked for consideration of evaluating online delivery for both undergraduate and postgraduate students into the future to suit different modes of learning.
• We introduced the mutualistic teaching practice model, such as PhD candidates provided with teaching opportunities to lessen the strain on academics and burden on students.
• Over the long-term, a greater commitment to innovation and job-ready graduates through industry partnerships as we emerge post-pandemic.

The presentation was well received by the Board and the Chair thanked student members for our annual major presentation. Michael McDaniel, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement) and Jacqui Wise, Director of Student Administration Unit (SAU) commended the presentation.

The Academic Board resolved to receive and note the presentation Emerging Learning Practices – including embedding Indigenous Graduate Attributes (IGA).

The Academic Board is due to meet for the final time in 2020 on Wednesday, 11 November 2020.

Kurt Cheng is an undergraduate student studying a Bachelor of Laws / Bachelor of Communication (Social and Political Sciences) representing the Faculty of Law on the UTS Academic Board and the Faculty Board in Law.