The Response - UWA Staff - The University of Western Australia

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specifically (inter)nationalising our research training. For example, cooperative research training is something our partners in China are keen on (though it brings with it certain difficulties yet to be overcome); small discipline groups in Australian Universities could well be encouraged to take a national approach to PhD training. Cooperative research training need not be restricted to postgraduate study of course.’ ‘I suggest that there should be more collaboration with universities in our region in addition to China, such as Singapore, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan as I believe that such collaboration would likely be in line with Ken Henry’s forthcoming Asian Century document.’ 4. Community ‘We tend to be tolerated by the local community rather than embraced, supported and celebrated. We should be aiming at a generally accepted view that “Nedlands is UWA”, rather than seeing “UWA in Nedlands” ’. Proposal 11: That the University review its scholarship and bursary schemes in light of possible funding and market changes to the Australian higher education sector to ensure they will continue to support the equity and access goals of the University. ‘As a student from regional WA, I know how distant a concept a tertiary education is for the majority of country students….For every success story, a beacon is lit for dozens of others. It is both a State and local responsibility to foster talent.’ ‘I am delighted with Proposal 11 and hope the review looks into the following areas: ÌÌ Establishment of scholarships: The current twenty-five step process for the establishment of scholarships is both time consuming and inefficient. ÌÌ Timely payment of scholarship funds to scholarship recipients: I am aware that some of the scholarship recipients did not receive their scholarship funds until early to mid- May. For some of these scholarships, the selection criterion was financial hardship. If a student is experiencing financial hardship, then that student will require the funds at the start of the semester rather than towards the end of it. ÌÌ ÌÌ ÌÌ ÌÌ Timely selection of scholarship recipients: I am aware that the Undergraduate Scholarships Committee is meeting only on 12 September to endorse the selection for scholarships which closed on 3 August 2012…. To ensure timely payments of scholarship funds, perhaps UWA could consider advertising scholarships earlier than they are now…. There also need to be more regular meetings of the various scholarship committees which have responsibility for endorsing successful scholarship applicants. The standardisation of scholarship conditions: Staff at the Development and Alumni Relations Office can find themselves in a difficult position at times because donors wish to look at the conditions of a proposed scholarship before committing to funding. However the view of the Scholarships Office and Academic Policy Services is that scholarship conditions are between the University and the scholarship recipient…. One way ahead would be to have a number of standard scholarship conditions to suit various scenarios with the donor selecting the one which is most appropriate. Annual reports to scholarship donors: Reports should include a reconciliation of the funds received and spent, to ensure transparency and accountability. The need to advertise the value of scholarships: An effort should be made to give an approximation of the value of the scholarship as guidance to applicants, especially for scholarships where financial hardship is a criterion. Statements such as “The value of the scholarship is the annual income on the fund after capitalisation in accordance with Senate policy” are unhelpful for students. 18 | www.uwa.edu.au
ÌÌ The need for all offices involved in the establishment of scholarship to embrace privately-funded scholarships: If the University wishes to increase the number of privately-funded scholarships, it needs to do more to address this basic administrative issue.’ ‘One aspect of ensuring equity and access is that non-profits should be able to afford to hire our graduates. Perhaps we could establish a scheme whereby a student who chooses to work for a non-profit/charity for (say) 3 years after graduation has his/her fees refunded at the end of that time. This would allow the student to accept a job at a lower salary without having a HECS debt to repay. This could be fine-tuned in various ways (eg, if they go to a non-profit in a remote area, or that is addressing some pressing social problem). Making the refund contingent on them doing the three years obviously aligns the incentives.’ Proposal 12: That the University encourage further research engagement with business and government by providing more support for staff to develop research relationships, and by giving explicit recognition to research impact in the evaluation of individual and unit performance. ‘I strongly support the University’s desire to engage more closely with the community. This is vital, not only for new funding opportunities, but also for the development of “independent third party” endorsement of UWA.’ ‘By explicit recognition I assume you also mean budgetary recognition?’ ‘I think that while it is hinted at, more explicit statements about the improving the impact as well as quality and quantity of our research is important.’ ‘We support the increased recognition of research impact in the evaluation of individual and unit performance, noting that research output takes many forms and research translation into policy and practice, although hard to quantify, needs to be valued as well as publications.’ ‘Research engagement with business and government is central to shape research that will have on-the-ground impacts…. The problem with such research engagements is the often low publishability of the research, and subsequently very little recognition from UWA. I have heard many colleagues comment on community/business/ policy engagement projects as useless – because although our research may reach the ‘real world’, such engagement produces little to no tangible output in the academic world. Since only academic outputs appear to be counted, setting up (time-consuming) engagement may be seen as a waste of time by some if not many academics.’ ‘The University should not be passive in complying with outside influences imposed particularly by government… which…has resulted in an excess of line management and a growth of non-academic pursuits…. Scholarship has been diminished in favour of gaining grants and publishing in third-grade journals…. ‘The Income is the Outcome’…. The University should try to influence the total environment in which it operates and… engage with other universities in Australia to push for change.’ ‘A good way to engage with policy makers and business, make more effective use of our physical assets, and generate additional income, is to offer intensive specialist courses for businesses and government during the vacation period. Such executive courses were very much sought after at my last university (the ANU) but I have not seen any here at the UWA.’ ‘Most graduates of the university join a professional body appropriate to their profession….A numberof these professional organisations continue…to be involved with the university but a similar number do not…. UWA should 19 | www.uwa.edu.au
Page 1 and 2: Uwa Futures: The Response
Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTION ‘I concur with what
Page 5 and 6: ‘There is significant potential t
Page 7 and 8: course change and innovation ever t
Page 9 and 10: ‘UWA seems to be slow in picking
Page 11 and 12: ‘Our group believes that using re
Page 13 and 14: ‘With regard to Proposal 5, one s
Page 15 and 16: A representation of a possible acad
Page 17 and 18: ‘I wonder what this proposal mean
Page 19: ‘One of the ways the University c
Page 23 and 24: ‘The trick is not management of t
Page 25 and 26: Additional comments (which do not f

The Response - UWA Staff - The University of Western Australia

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