External review of academic senate
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Ensuring quality academic governance

Academic Senate is externally reviewed on a regular basis as required by the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 to evaluate its effectiveness in discharging its responsibilities.

In 2019, the Academic Senate Standing Committee appointed Emeritus Professor Richard Henry AM as the external reviewer for the External Review of Academic Senate (Resolution ASSC 19/02).

A biography of Emeritus Professor Henry AM can be found on the website of the Board of the Children's Cancer Institute and a select list of his publications can be found on his UNSW researcher profile.

The Academic Senate is committed to embedding a culture of continual cycle of review, quality assurance and enhancement into the academic governance of learning teaching and higher degree research and research training.

This commitment has been demonstrated in recent years by advising on the development of the University’s Delegations of Authority Register (2013), leading a comprehensive review of the University’s academic rules, including:

  • the Academic Senate rules (2013)
  • reviewing Committee Terms of Reference (2015)
  • the establishment of the Research and Research Training Committee (2017)
  • contributing to the review of the Delegations of Authority Register (2016)
  • reviewing the purpose and composition of Academic Senate in 2018.

In 2019, Academic Senate was externally reviewed to evaluate its effectiveness in discharging its responsibilities.

The review assessed Academic Senate’s effectiveness in providing academic governance and oversight of academic standards and quality, and academic leadership. It examined the effectiveness of Academic Senate’s approach, including the role of its committees in assisting Academic Senate to discharge its responsibilities.

The review delivered recommendations for improvements to the functions, composition, and management of Academic Senate as appropriate.

Specifically, the review considered:

  1. The appropriateness of the purpose, function, and composition of Academic Senate as specified in the Academic Senate rules.
  2. The effectiveness of Academic Senate in discharging its obligations as specified in the Academic Senate rules.
  3. The appropriateness of the purpose, function, and composition of Academic Senate’s committees and their effectiveness in assisting Academic Senate in discharging its responsibilities.
  4. The effectiveness of Academic Senate and its committees as consultative and advisory bodies.
  5. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the relationships between Academic Senate, the faculties and academic staff.
  6. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the relationships between Academic Senate, the University’s executive and council.

The review also considered the effectiveness of Academic Senate in meeting the requirements of the Higher Education Standards Framework relating to academic governance and institutional quality and standards, specifically the provision of:

  1. Oversight of the academic quality of learning, teaching, and higher degree research and research training, including:
    a. developing, monitoring, and reviewing academic policies and their effectiveness
    b. maintaining oversight of academic and research integrity, including monitoring of potential risks
    c. monitoring and initiating action to improve performance against institutional benchmarks for academic quality and outcomes
    d. evaluating the effectiveness of institutional monitoring, review, and improvement of academic activities.
  2. Institutional academic leadership, appropriate for an Australian University.

The review was guided by the Higher Education Standards Framework 2015 (Cth) relating to institutional quality assurance and academic governance.

The review report was received by Academic Senate at its meeting in February 2020, with Senate establishing a working group to review the report and its recommendations and to draft a response to these (Res AS20/11). The working group presented the draft response to the following meeting in April 2020 which was accepted by Academic Senate (Res AS20/31).

At the May 2020 meeting of Academic Senate, the working group presented a report with a response and implementation plan for actions related to the recommendations (Res AS20/51).

On 20 October 2020, Academic Senate received a further update report and agreed to approve amendments to the Standing Orders of Academic Senate and the Standing Orders of the Committees of Academic Senate (Res AS20/110). A final report confirming implementation of all remaining recommendations was received at the Academic Senate meeting of 6 April 2021 (Res AS21/25).