Enterprise25

The Dean of Research will be a member of the executive team in the Academic Unit, and will work closely with the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation to implement the University’s research strategy. The Dean will also work collaboratively with the Director of RIS, Dean of Graduate Studies and Director of UniSA Ventures. The Dean will be responsible for developing research plans and reports, overseeing the research centres and groups in the Academic Unit, and supervising and mentoring academic staff as determined by the Executive Dean.

The Deans of Research in the Academic Units will work closely with the Dean of Graduate Studies to deliver the University’s research education strategy. For Academic Units where there are large numbers of higher degree by research students there may be scope to create an Associate Dean of Research Education position.

The Executive Deans will be responsible for determining the supervisory arrangements for all academic staff in the Academic Unit. Research-focused academic staff may report to the Dean of Research, an appropriate Dean of Programs, or an identified member of the professoriate.

The University’s research institutes – FII and CCB – will continue to report directly to the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation.

Workload allocations for 2020 will be set in 2019, in line with our usual practice, informed by the workload allocation guidelines. Academic staff will continue to operate within the workload allocations set for the remainder of 2020,  post the transition to the new academic organisational structure. Following the transition (which is envisaged to occur by mid-2020), we’ll embark on work towards harmonising practice across the University for future workload allocations.

The leadership support required in Academic Units may vary according to their scale and program focus. There may be scope for Executive Deans to create additional leadership roles within the Academic Unit, beyond the executive team, for example to provide additional, or specifically focused, leadership for particular activities, such as Clinical Education, Online development and delivery or Research Education.

All the feedback to the discussion paper will be considered by the Enterprise25 Sponsoring Group, led by the Provost & Chief Academic Officer, Professor Allan Evans, and will be shared with the University’s Senior Management Group.  The feedback will be summarised and the broad themes reported back to the University community. Your feedback will help to inform how we progress the next stage in planning for our academic organisational transformation and the changes we need to make to our service delivery models, systems, policies and procedures. We will undertake informal and formal consultation as we progress through this stage.

As outlined in the Discussion Paper the transition approach will occur through three phases, with sufficient time spent during the Preparation Phase to ensure we can transition to the structure with the least possible impact on the maximum number of staff and students.  It is expected that we will transition to the new academic organisational structure no later than 1 July 2020.

The Discussion Paper commences a process to consult with our people on the broad framework and timelines that we will work within to transition to the new Academic Unit structure.

Our commitment is to engage in ongoing informal and formal consultation with staff during the three phases.  During the Preparation Phase we still need to do further preparatory work and some thought has already been given to the workforce transitions as outlined in the Discussion Paper.

For the vast majority of our people there will be no change or minor changes only to their duties.  For those people whose duties will substantially change, or who are in a position that isn’t included in the new academic structure, our Enterprise Agreement and Senior Staff Collective Agreement provide clear processes, entitlements and commitments to consultation that will be adhered to throughout. The further preparatory work will help us identify the detail and potential impact and we will formally consult with those affected staff in accordance with our industrial obligations. 

Under Enterprise25 the University has ambitions to grow overall student and staff numbers, with a view to improving our student-academic staff ratio and through that our student experience and outcomes. Any reductions in expenditure on management positions achieved through this transition process will be reinvested in teaching and student-facing positions.

The organisational transformation program is focused on creating a program-focused structure, through creating new Academic Units. It is intended that the structures and service delivery arrangements for the University’s central administrative units will be reviewed as a later phase of activity, to ensure that our professional services appropriately align with and support the teaching, research and external engagement activities of our Academic Units.

The changes proposed under Enterprise25 are designed to provide for more investment in the ongoing development and enrichment of our academic programs and enhanced support services for students.  It is not anticipated that current students should be subject to any disruption to their study and the change program will be designed to ensure minimum inconvenience.

Primarily the research centres will report to the Deans of Research based in the Academic Units. Very large research concentrations may report to the Dean of Research or Executive Dean.

The Deans of Programs will also lead research active teaching staff, to ensure connections in research activity across the Academic Unit. In some cases, small research groups aligned to an academic program may report to the Dean of Programs. We anticipate that larger groups aligned to multiple programs will report to the Dean of Research.

The Sponsoring Group will continue to work closely with staff in our Divisions and Schools to seek input to the most appropriate locations for all of our program areas within the Academic Units. Staff will have opportunities to help evaluate the best alignment of our academic programs as part of ongoing communication and collaboration.

All teaching active academic staff will be aligned with a cluster of academic programs and will be based within the Academic Unit that has responsibility for that cluster of programs. Staff who teach across multiple programs will continue to do so and may provide service teaching to programs based in other Academic Units.

To inform the future professional staffing structures we need to undertake a detailed analysis of the current services provided by different areas. We will commence a process in the coming weeks to engage with staff currently employed in our Schools and Divisions to work through this.

The role of Program Director will not see any material changes. Going forward, we will see the Program Director position as an academic leadership role that provides a potential pathway to a Dean of Programs position for staff who demonstrate a strong teaching and research background, understand curricula, and engage well with students. Program Directors should feel they have more leadership support through the Deans of Programs, from people who have a strong association with their discipline than they do in our current structure.

We are not looking to make changes to the operating model at this stage. UniSA Online programs will be transferred from the current Schools to Academic Units under a relevant Dean of Programs, and will continue to be delivered by staff in the UniSA Online unit. UniSA Online will remain as a separate entity, reporting to the Provost & Chief Academic Officer, for the foreseeable future.

The transformation is expected to have minimal impact on the staff and students based in the regions. Academic staff will continue to be part of the program that they currently support, even though that program will transition to a newly formed Academic Unit. Students will continue to receive support from their regional campus as well as professional staff within the relevant Academic Unit and central units.

While we do envisage consolidating our metropolitan campuses over the life of Enterprise25 there are no plans for students to relocate between campuses as an outcome of the academic organisational transformation process. If there are future changes in the campus location of academic programs, changes will be in line with current processes of informing students well ahead of such changes.

Similarly, we do not envisage the requirement for the relocation of significant numbers of professional and academic staff. Nevertheless, some relocations between campuses will be inevitable (for example for staff who transition to a position that is based in a different location).

We have existing commitments in our Enterprise Agreement and Senior Staff Collective Agreement that, along with the key principle of minimal impact on the maximum number of people, will determine the appropriate approach to populating the new structure. We will want to involve people in how the changes that affect them are progressed and support them throughout the transition.

The new Dean of Programs positions will assume many of the responsibilities previously performed by Deans: Academic, over a focused suite of program areas. This will include leading curriculum development, the introduction of innovative pedagogies and authentic assessment, external engagement and international partnerships.

A commitment has been made to increase our overall academic staffing profile by 100 academics at levels C and D over the duration of Enterprise25. These positions will be recruited in a phased approach. This process will commence once the Academic Units are formed to enable Executive Deans to manage workforce planning.

In the first instance, it is best if you approach the leader in your area. In Schools this could be your School Manager or Head of School, in Divisions your Division Manager or Pro Vice Chancellor, and in central units your Director (or equivalent). You may also approach the People, Talent and Culture Business Partner in your area.

If you would like to have a confidential discussion about matters that are causing you personal concerns, the University also provides the services of the Employee Assistance Program.