Dean's Report

Last week Education Deans from around the world met virtually as part of the Universitas 21 Deans of Education Group. This group has been meeting for more than 20 years and was previously led by the late Professor David Clarke. Alongside colleagues from Scotland, South Africa, the U.S, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, Mexico and Sweden we discussed how we can transform education for a post-pandemic future, and how we can ensure that the lessons we have learnt through COVID-19 are not lost in the quest to return to ‘normal’. These issues are occupying many of us across educational institutions and will be addressed in detail by Professor Emeritus Fazal Rizvi in his upcoming Dean’s Lecture next Wednesday evening.

Advancing Melbourne Roundtable

The University is holding a series of virtual roundtables to discuss with staff how we can achieve the vision and goals outlined in the Advancing Melbourne 2030 strategy. The strategy was released last May at a time of great upheaval as we were all adjusting to the realities of COVID-19.  The roundtables are an initiative of the Future State Taskforce and designed to allow for cross campus discussions on the actions we need to take in order to deliver the Advancing Melbourne strategy. The insights and suggestions from the roundtables will inform the University’s strategic priorities. The first roundtable will focus on education, one of the five pillars of the strategy, looking specifically at:

  • What is the role of campus in teaching and learning at Melbourne? April 19
  • What programs should the University move to online delivery? April 20
  • How can the University increase diversity among our student cohorts? April 21

The Advancing Melbourne web page will continue to provide more information about this initiative, and I encourage you all to participate in these discussions.

MGSE Executive Board

The MGSE Executive Board has been expanded to include more voices from around MGSE including Academic Group leaders, a Research Centre Director (both to be announced shortly) and representatives from the early and mid-career committees. To this end I was pleased to welcome Sarah Truman and Peggy Kern to their first Executive Board meeting yesterday.

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at MGSE-Talks tomorrow where I will give an MGSE update, and we will also hear from Lindsay Oades and Melitta Hogarth with time allocated for some Q & A’s, followed by a light lunch.

Jim