Status and Details

This page contains information about the status, approval and a summary of the changes from the previous version of the document. Please note that the Unit Head listed on this page is the current owner of this policy and may not reflect the University position/staff member who owned this policy at the time of publication.

Academic Governance Policy

Show Field Notes

Status	Historic	Indicates if this version of the document is in effect (Current), yet to come into effect (Future), or expired (Historic).
Effective Date	18th January 2013	This is the date on which this version of the document came into effect.
Review Date	18th September 2015	The next review of this document is scheduled to commence on this date.
Approval Authority	Board of Trustees	The noted authority approved this is version of the document.
Approval Date	17th January 2013	This is the date on which this version of the document was approved by the authorised authority.
Expiry Date	30th June 2015	This is the date on which this version expires. It may still apply, conditionally, after this date.
Unit Head	Sophie Buck Director, Governance Services 45701415	This is the officer generally responsible for day to day administrative matters.
Author	Gillian Brown 46203098	This is the author of record for this version of the document.
Enquiries Contact	Sophie Buck Director, Governance Services 45701415	General enquiries should be directed to the officer/area listed.

Summary of Changes from Previous Version

10 February 2015 - Amended policy to reflect change of position title from 'Vice-Chancellor' to 'Vice-Chancellor and President', change of position title from 'Pro Vice-Chancellor, Strategy and Engagement' to 'Pro Vice-Chancellor, Strategy and Performance',change of position title from 'Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic' to 'Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Academic', change of position title from 'Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Development' to 'Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Research and Development'.

6 August 2014 - Removed references to the redundant position title PVC (Students and International) and replace with PVC (Students).

2 July 2014 - The policy was amended to reflect the correct renamed position titles of DVC (Research) to DVC (Research and Development)and PVC (Engagement, Strategy and Quality) to PVC (Strategy and Engagement).

The revisions to the Academic Governance Policy are in relation to delegations, membership of Senate, limits on the terms of office of elected and appointed members and the conduct of Senate elections, as well as a number of administrative amendments.

need for late approvals of graduands.

The delegation to approve the conferral of degrees, diplomas and certificates for

undergraduate, honours and postgraduate coursework programs has been extended to include the Executive Committees of the School Academic Committees, in cases where it is

not practicable for the School Academic Committees to meet (clauses 7-9).

The current membership of Senate does not include representation from the

UWS Research Institutes despite the Research Institutes having a significant number

of academic staff, comparable to a small School. This has been varied to include one elected academic staff member from a UWS Research Institute as a member of

Senate (clause 15e).

Provisions currently place a limit of two consecutive two year terms on elected and appointed members of Senate. This was considered with reference to the Voluntary Code of Best Practice for the Governance of Australian Universities, which recommends a ceiling of twelve years. While continuity was valued, turnover also provides fresh perspectives, therefore there is an increase in the limit on the terms of office for elected and appointed members to four consecutive two-year terms (clause 17).

A new University Elections Policy has been published and provides a general set of principles and procedures for UWS elections in the context of contemporary electronic voting. Reference to this policy have been included (clauses 21 and 22)

The following administrative amendments have also been included:

- Changing the manner of presentation of the Senate Standing Committees membership (clauses 10-12). Instead of being presented in the Academic Senate Standing Committees Policy, the role, terms of reference and membership of committees would be amended and approved by Senate on an individual basis and published on the Senate website (consistent with the approach for Board Committees).

- Combining the provisions related to the elected school academic staff members to clarify that these members are to be elected by all of the academic staff of the school (clause 15c).

- Separating the electoral cohorts of postgraduate coursework and postgraduate higher degree by research students (clause 15g).

- Including standard provisions dealing with vacancies and casual vacancies (clauses 18-19).

- Including provisions to call for expressions of interest to fill student positions which remain vacant after elections (clause 22).

- Allowing conduct of meetings and/or participation in meeting by electronic means at the discretion of the chair (clause 23).

- Title changes to reflect the interim leadership structure (clause 14 b,c,d)

- Deletion of unnecessary provisions relating to persons acting in positions that are designated as official members of Senate.

- Deletion of unnecessary reference to guidelines.

- Re-ordering of the provisions into a more logical sequence.

Clauses Amended

Policy: 7-12, 15-19, 21-23, 27

Procedure: 29

Guidelines: 30