Earlier this year, the University began consulting with staff and students from the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) to explore the future development of business and management education and research at Macquarie.

Academic and non-academic staff, corporate leaders, industry partners, students, alumni, and external academic experts have all contributed to the process, which has helped inform a concurrent project looking at how to better align the Faculty and the School to provide improved student outcomes that meet industry and business expectations of graduates, and to develop more impactful research.

A representative group of staff from the Faculty and School formed an Alignment Working Party, with taskforces dedicated to learning and teaching and research convened to lead processes in those areas and provide input and feedback. This work has helped formulate the direction of the project internally, and allowed us to better examine matters pertaining to engagement of both MGSM and FBE outside the University at the same time.

The consultation and subsequent analysis indicated that, like similar entities across Australia, the Faculty and the School face pressures to respond to changes in the global business education market over the past decade. It also indicated that there are many areas of overlap where greater synergy and increased performance could be realised.

In response to these findings, the Vice-Chancellor has approved a proposal for MGSM to become a school within the Faculty of Business and Economics from January 2017.

The Dean of MGSM will remain as the head of the School and report to the Executive Dean of the Faculty. The name and brand of MGSM will be protected, preserved and enhanced within the overall context of the University.

Leaders from the Faculty and the School are working with Human Resources to implement the necessary changes for MGSM staff who will transition to the University over the coming months. The work of the taskforces will continue and expand, with a recently formed Engagement Taskforce, chaired by Professor David Wilkinson, exploring how best to work with corporate and external partners in the future.

Students of both MGSM and FBE will not experience any changes to their enrolments or study. Nonetheless, the Vice-Chancellor will write to affected staff, students and alumni shortly to advise them of the new structure.

There will be much work undertaken before the end of the year, and this will continue well into 2017 under the leadership of the incoming Executive Dean, Professor Stephen Brammer, in order to provide a refreshed, cohesive and world-leading approach to business and management education as a result.