At the Vice-Chancellor’s Mid-Year Town Hall on 25 June, Professor S Bruce Dowton welcomed questions from staff. He received an overwhelming response and appreciates colleagues’ engagement and interest.

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1. In what ways will the University invest in responding to systemic issues affecting student satisfaction? These are evident in student feedback, complaints and appeals where we see issues repeating without being addressed.

As the Student Success Strategic Framework (SSSF) is operationalised, we will begin to see systemic issues tackled. For example, the Beacon Program of work, whilst supporting the curriculum transformation, also includes an upgrade of the Student Management System. This will provide a range of new functionality for the first time in more than 10 years and will support the review of associated process and policy as well as making it easier for students to find out key information quickly. Additionally, from 2020 our students will have a greatly improved eStudent experience with a much more streamlined sign-on process. Another focus is around our international students who will soon have access to MyLegalMate – a newly developed app to assist students in negotiating common legal issues associated with tenancy, work, visas and the like. The SSSF also places the student experience at the centre of everything we do, and this will continue to be the case as feedback is received and reviews of practice occur.

2. Improving student experience requires greater focus and investment in Learning and Teaching. What are the University’s plans in that regard?

With the release of our Student Success Strategic Framework earlier this year, this is the right time to refresh our Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework: 2015-2020 with a re-energised focus on student success. The core of the refresh will be on understanding and meeting current students’ needs within the Learning and Teaching space at Macquarie and the promotion of a future-focused educational enterprise.

Off the back of the Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework refresh, the concerted design and development of our Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy will then take shape. The priority in the Digital Learning and Teaching space will be to deliver a connected, creative and engaged learning experience for students, embrace innovation in both curriculum and pedagogy, and better meet the needs of our students.

Additionally, we recently commenced a University-wide process to further improve learning and teaching support for both staff and students. The work is keenly focussed on student success in their coursework, and successful student career paths upon completion. We have just finished the initial consultation stage with staff and students to understand what’s working well, what can be improved, and what more we can be doing to set our students up for success in the future.

3. Will the VC commit to allowing the re-establishment of the undergraduate and postgraduate student unions, with real power and mandatory membership of all students, to support students and build the community the VC has been speaking about?

We are committed to active, authentic and broadly based student voice and student representation. The form of that representation should evolve with needs and circumstances. However, student membership of unions was made voluntary by Commonwealth legislation in 2005 so students cannot be compelled to join a student union. The reality is that this resulted in many students moving to a position of complete non-engagement in the historic approach to student unionism that was present with compulsory financial commitments by students that had prevailed in Australia for a long while. The current version was implemented some years ago to re-invigorate a broader representation and engagement of students in issues of importance to the student body.

In 2019, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) is undertaking a review of the approach to the management and distribution of funds from the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) to ensure that expenditure is more directly aligned with the outcomes of student consultation and engagement with the Student Representative Committee (SRC). A new Chair has recently been appointed to the SRC by the Student Experience Committee and a new SRC was elected in May. Matters relating to the future of student representation may be raised through the Chair or through members of the SRC.

4. When can we expect more clarity regarding the transitioning or teaching out of students?

All teach out and migration decisions are proposed by Faculties and then approved by the Registrar in consultation with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Chair of Academic Senate. The proposals have been submitted for review and are in the final stages of approval. Additionally, we have engaged with specific student cohorts who are re-enrolling in Session 2 2019, with information around making enrolment choices that will ease their transition to the new curriculum in 2020.

5. We want to deliver an engaging student experience, with some areas understaffed and being overworked (which may lead to burn out). There are also budget cuts to staff. How do we overcome this?

Overall, our net staff numbers have increased year-on-year over the past three years:

2016	2017	2018
3,351	3,543	3,657

I acknowledge the significant work being done by our staff and thank you for your continued effort during this time.

The University takes a number of steps to ensure there are no disproportionate resourcing impacts on our people and their ability to deliver. This includes workplace planning and strategic prioritisation decisions at Faculty and Portfolio levels, including review of resourcing impacts during annual budget builds. The Enterprise Technology and Process Transformation work focuses on delivering more efficient and integrated systems and processes, which will have better outcomes for our staff.

6. Could a version of this Town Hall be delivered to students in O Week, or a condensed student facing video produced? I think many would be interested in the bigger picture – e.g. global megatrends, history of universities, rankings – and glad to know their University is thinking strategically.

There are several opportunities within the Orientation program in which this type of information can be delivered. The Director, Student Life has undertaken to include relevant aspects of the presentation in the upcoming Program of events for Session 2, which I will consider. For each year of my term, I have held welcome sessions to new students at the start of semester. These have been well attended by students and families. I am always happy to be engaged in O-week activities. We need also to be mindful that many of our students also prefer to receive communications using a diversity of technologies and platforms in which the University is engaged.

7. Will we speak here about one of the many elephants in the room… the fact that employability of our graduates is comparatively low when put up against other universities?

Employability does not have a single measure. On some measures we perform very well (for example we rank first in Australia on the QS Graduate Employment Rate), on some we are at the same level as our peers, and on others we want to improve. However, there is no question that employability of our graduates is currently a key strategic focus for us and will continue to be as we deliver our student success vision.

Under the Student Success Framework banner, and in response to survey data, we will introduce a range of new employability strategies in 2019 and 2020. The first of these will be launched in Session 2, ‘Jobs on Campus,’ aimed at providing part-time work for current students, including international students. Whilst this will support the employability of the students involved, it is just the first of a range of new approaches to boosting the employability and employment outcomes for Macquarie students and graduates.

8. The curriculum transformation deems to increase teaching engagement and quality since we are ranked low. Should there be more training with academics on how to teach an engaging lesson as well?

This issue is being specifically considered as part of the Review of support of Learning and Teaching at Macquarie. As mentioned, the review findings are currently being considered in light of ‘next steps’ so no information has been released to the University community as yet. However, a number of opportunities have been identified for our academics to up-skill around different ways to engage students with a keener focus on their success. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Executive Deans will be carefully considering how this is implemented to achieve an appropriate balance between centrally offered programs and local initiatives which respect the different disciplines and their pedagogic needs in faculties.

9. How will business as usual be maintained if staff are continually shifted from central student admin team? Furthermore, there is no transparency, fairness and equity of potential work opportunities that arise from this.

To date staff have been identified by their managers for secondment to the project, due to requirements for specific skillsets. If staff are interested in working with the Program Beacon team, I ask them to speak to their supervisors to explore opportunities. All staff seconded to the Program have been and will continue to be backfilled according to local needs.

10. What are we doing to make sure the quality of students we let into the University is high enough, both to ensure our lectures are of high quality, as well as ensure our graduates are capable to get good jobs and perform well in them?

For the past three years we have examined performance data of students coming to Macquarie via one of our various pathways. This annual report is provided to Revenue and Student Numbers Planning Group (RSNPG). It looks at three indicators – retention, students’ success (number of passed units to number failed), and grade point average (GPA). We examine this data against each pathway and then also complete cohort analysis for each course against the major pathways.

The report for 2018 shows that while our major pathways are broadening, they are successfully achieving our recruitment objectives without sacrificing quality. However, the data does speak to the importance of our continuing work around Student Success. In 2019 the Pro Vice-Chancellor Programs and Pathways is working with Business Intelligence Reporting (BIR) to build a dashboard to allow Faculties to further explore and act on this data.

11. The curriculum transformation/implementation requires more staff and resources.

The Program Beacon teams work closely with Faculties and departments to manage the workload associated with the transformation work. Significant resources have been applied to the five streams of work within Beacon in 2019 and the Program will continue to be funded in 2020. The Program Director is available to discuss requirement for additional resources. I do note that the University has added nine per cent more staff overall over the last two years. Also refer to Q5.

12. How will the VC take accountability here for ensuring the University is one that is renowned for caring about our increasingly time-poor students within the context of significant increases in student mental ill health and mental illness? Words and strategic principles are not enough.

Students’ approach to the university experience has changed over the years. Historically, most students enrolled in a full course load spent much time on campus. That is less true today and I agree that students are increasingly time poor. They juggle the course load, often outside paid work, it is sometimes sport and often social commitments of their choosing. Every student group I have discussed this with agree that this is now the norm and I encourage them to reflect on and treasure their university time as a unique time of their lives and attempt to prioritise a less pressured lifestyle.  However, as you suggest that is not the norm today. The University has responded in several ways including the streaming of many classes which facilitate a learning experience that students of today demand on their own time and location plan.

The University provides a comprehensive set of wellbeing services in response to the mental health and wellbeing of students. Given our large number of students, we are implementing a tiered service model including additional resources with mental health nursing and related skills, to boost our capacity to respond and support.

13. What were the top recommendations in the L&T review recently completed?

The work that was recently undertaken by Professor Sally Kift was the first phase of the Learning and Teaching (L&T) Support review process and involved University-wide consultation to understand views across the institution (staff and students) and importantly, where we need to prioritise our energies and efforts to ensure L&T supports our student success aspirations. We are currently working through the results of that consultation and planning next steps in the process. Refer also Q2 above.

14. The Student Success framework mentions M-Power, a sustainability program that has been cut due to down-sizing and restructuring. How can we deliver student success without appropriate resources?

Part of the process of operationalising the Student Success Strategic Framework is considering the range of activities that contribute to the positive experience of our students. The University should always be examining in a recurrent way each of its programs and making adjustments as needed. The University’s engagement of the students in sustainability issues is now under the executive sponsorship of Professor Stephen Brammer. The Student Success Network (formerly Converged Services) has been formed with representation from across the University to consider the current range of services and opportunities available to students and to undertake gap analyses, and to identify new opportunities. Through this body, consideration can be given to the availability of essential programs.

15. Will there be candid conversation here about how much work the curriculum transformation involves, and how far the capacity of professional staff is being stretched with the very ambitious timelines and the top-down pressure to operationalise quickly and with minimal risk to individual and organisation?

Taking into account the nature and timing of implementation of the curriculum transformation project, the Executive considered a range of options including the potential to stage the implementation and run essentially two curricular designs (old and new) in parallel.  Reflecting on these options, including the experience of other universities which have done that, as well as the prevailing market circumstances for recruitment of students to needed new programs, the decision was taken for the style and timing of the current project.

Feedback from staff working on curriculum transformation is regularly sought, especially regarding wellbeing. The Program Beacon Board (comprised of Executive Group members) is aware of the ambitious nature of Program Beacon timelines and routinely conducts health and morale checks within the project teams. We have supported various strategies to address pain points. This is an ongoing discussion and the governance and management streams of the Program are happy to receive feedback from impacted staff.

16. Can you give some examples of a transformational curriculum that we are offering? What is it about that curriculum that is transformational?

The new Curriculum Architecture is transformative on a number of levels:

• The simplification of the structure of our courses will make it easier for students and staff to navigate their courses and greatly assist with improving the efficiency and simplicity of our current systems;
• The new majors, specialisations and courses provide a range of new and exciting opportunities for students. The new designated minors provide new transdisciplinary opportunities across our courses;
• The flexible zone and the new approach to double degrees allow students to become true co-creators in their learning;
• The new combined degrees provide new opportunities for students to pursue a study option with immediate employability prospects;
• The continuing work around the Indigenous connected curriculum will transform our engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge across our programs; and
• The work Macquarie is currently doing around micro-credentials will transform the way students engage with study and provide new opportunities, especially in postgraduate study.

There is still further work to be done on transforming our curriculum. Pedagogical considerations will be an important conversation point going forward.

17. Recent changes to Student Wellbeing, while made with good intentions, have significantly interrupted the quality of service to students and has left staff feeling demoralised, vulnerable and disrespected. What are the University’s plans for Student Support?

This comment has been investigated within the Student Wellbeing team and relates to the concern of an individual. The concerns are being addressed directly.

18. We’re not doing anything near the curriculum transformation that’s needed to deal with all of those trends. We haven’t yet transformed the curriculum, only its structure. So far.

The change to the curriculum architecture is a start of our transformation in this space, and not a finish. Without tackling this important element first, we believe the implementation would have been even more complex and pressured.  It is true that we started our transformation with the structure of our courses, and the finalisation of this work has already been transformative as noted in response to Q16 above. Pedagogy is the next big theme we need to focus on.

19. What is the timeframe for release of the Review of L&T Services and Programs and implementing its recommendations?

At this stage we are reviewing the results of the consultation to work out ‘next steps’, so cannot commit to any timelines for the implementation of any plans. However, the University community will be kept updated as decisions are made, and plans are firmed up.  I anticipate the Executive will have considered a range of the issues arising and we will be in a position to discuss these with the University in the coming months. Also refer Q2.

20. How can large-scale efforts in curriculum transformation and other areas be considered business as usual if they are (1) not in the ordinary, and (2) occurring in tandem with substantial professional staff changes across the University (that are rarely communicated about)?

To clarify my comments at the Town Hall: The curriculum (and other) transformational work taking place is of course quite different to the ‘business as usual’ (BAU) work that we undertake day in day out. It is both ongoing and (largely) unchanging. At the Town Hall I referred to ‘business as usual’ in light of the ongoing nature of the transformational work taking place, noting that we have been transforming for a number of years now. I also referred to the fact that in session there would be ‘no big surprises or rollouts’ – that transformation for many of us was indeed ongoing. The reality is that modern organisations will need to be dealing with change as a constant and as part of the concept of organisational resilience that was discussed at the prior Town Hall meeting.  Part of addressing the capacity to change is to agree and implement not only new things but also to agree on what things we should stop doing.

Saying this, it is worth mentioning that all transformational work taking place must move into BAU to fully realise the benefits of the activity. For instance, once our transformed curriculum (and other systems and processes that are in transformation) have been delivered, maintaining and updating these, to ensure benefits are derived, will become BAU. In other words, transformation delivers the capability to derive benefits, and our BAU teams use that capability to derive the benefits.

21. On the matter of promoting safety and wellbeing for all Macquarie community members, will the VC help do this by releasing key metrics on student safety and wellbeing that are currently not publicised (e.g. SWB service uptake, prevalence of sexual assault/harassment, etc.)?

There are always issues of confidentiality and privacy associated with these matters so care around reporting is essential. Currently, de-identified information is provided to the Student Experience Committee of Council on a regular basis. The possibility of making this reporting more widely available can be considered.

22. Can we talk for a moment here about how, realistically, Macquarie will be a construction-dominated campus for the next 5-10 years? What will this mean for our continued struggles to engage students in on-campus activities outside learning, when impetus to do so is declining?

The presence of construction sites across campus are an indication of progress, that the University is upgrading its facilities for the benefit of students. Many of the projects are in response to student concerns raised over many years and to our need to provide contemporary facilities as many universities have done over the last decade or more. They generate optimism and confidence in the future. The campus is large and alternative locations are available and being used for student events and activities. For example, the Sports and Aquatic Centre has encouraged student groups to utilise their facilities for meetings, events and activities. The first stage of our new Central Courtyard is due to open towards the end of 2020, breathing new life into that part of campus. A successful example of the response to needs generated by a major construction project has been the successful planning, implementation and evolution of the Campus Commons facilities. Feedback from students about this has been very positive.

There is also work being undertaken to utilise digital tools to connect and engage students not dependent upon physical space.

23. We have student transition support in a building that has no disability access – can this be considered as part of campus development.

Accessibility Services are located on Level 2 of Macquarie University Spatial Experience (MUSE) and are accessible, as are the Student Wellbeing services that have moved to the Australian Hearing Hub (AHH). All renovations of existing buildings and construction of new buildings are done in accord with relevant Building Codes which place special emphasis on accessibility and safety.

24. It would be good to track satisfaction rates at Macquarie and at other institutions against staff:student ratios in teaching settings. As I understand it, tutorial and other small-group class sizes at Macquarie are on the increase – could we gather data on this as a variable?

It is likely that staff: student ratios play a role in student satisfaction, but the relationship is not simple, depending as it will on types and quality of pedagogy and the underlying discipline (amongst other things). Departments and Faculties are best placed to get these settings right, and monitor as a matter of course.

25. All these external, aesthetics, and structural changes are great – what systems do we have to implement internal changes – namely the quality of delivery of lessons?

As above, the transformational work we are undertaking is fundamentally designed to enable a great student experience and empower students towards success, rather than being an end in itself. We do indeed need to keep our focus on what students experience in the classroom and beyond – this is the responsibility of all of us involved in Learning and Teaching across the University. There are a number of projects underway which speak to this issue, including further development of the teaching skills of our staff, the role of digital learning and teaching, and the current review of the support both staff and students involved in learning and teaching at Macquarie.

26. Do you feel the curriculum architecture is on track and will be fully developed to proceed in 2020, this would include significant features such as the embedding of Indigenous understandings and the UN Sustainability Development Goals?

The work of moving our new architecture to the new structures and systems (notably the CMS) is on track. The work taking place around Indigenous-connected curriculum and sustainability continues but it should be noted this work was not timetabled as part of the original 2020 delivery of the new architecture. More work on these themes is required within the context of individual courses and will continue through 2019.

27. PACE is an integral part of the student experience for Undergraduate students at Macquarie University. Where do you see PACE in the future at Macquarie University?

PACE remains a flagship of our institutional approach – now and into the future. That said, we are not resting on our laurels in this space. Others have seen our success in WIL (Work Integrated Learning) and are seeking to replicate, so we adopt a ‘continuous improvement’ approach to ensure we remain a leader in WIL.

28. What do you see as the impact of 2020 Curriculum Change to Staff and Students?

The new architecture holds a number of advantages over our previous approach to the structure and nature of our curriculum.  Importantly, we now have a common language and approach across the University for talking about and designing our curriculum.  Moreover, our conversations with students have shown that the simplified structure makes it easier for them to understand their course and study path.

The changes around double degrees, the new flexible zone for stand-alone degrees, and the new combined degrees provide new ways for students to engage with their learning as co-creators at a course level. These changes served an important role, augmented by the new CMS. For colleagues, the simplification and new structures also provide a language and a shared structure that allows them to better deliver on current practice and champion innovation. Also refer Q25 and Q26 above.