ARO Weekly Newsletter #38 - 27September 2016

Admissions:

A new and improved Online Response System will go live on Wednesday 28 September 2016

-As part of the Admissions System Improvement Project – Phase 2, the Admissions teams and the IT Services teams have been working diligently to make changes to the Online Response System (ORS). The ORS is the portal that:

  1. Domestic applicants use to respond to their offers (accept, defer or reject); and
  2. MIT, OUA and international students use to gain access to the MAIS password creation system.

-The new ORS has been developed and tested and is looking great. The changes made are expected to have a really positive impact on applicant experience. A few key stakeholders have been invited to view a demonstration of the new system in the McCusker Conference Centre on Tuesday 27 September, from 2:30-3:30pm. If you are interested in viewing the demonstration, come along as we are likely to have space to accommodate some extra participants. Otherwise, if you get any feedback (positive or negative) about the new system, please send an email to Kirsty Sinnott (Project Manager, Admissions System Improvement Project), with a Cc to Richard Geddes and Kirstie Robson.

Careers and Employment:

-The Careers and Employment Centre is currently promoting the following on our Facebook page - The Resilience Project - calling all filmmakers, actors and photographers!

-The Murdoch University Resilience Project is seeking students with skills in filmmaking, acting, photography and presenting to help create short films for engaging and educating our staff and students on how to be healthy, safe and secure at Murdoch. Expressions of interest are requested by Wednesday 5th October to Dan Byles at

Student Opportunities

-Department of Human Services - Social Workers, WA, NT and Queensland – further details on CareerConnect

-West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) – Outbound Sales Consultants, Perth – further details on CareerConnect

-Various positions during the Fringe World Festival and Rooftop Movies, Perth – further details on CareerConnect

Curriculum and Academic Policy:

-A reminder that the 2017 Handbook is due for public release on 1st October 2017. APCs have been working with the Schools to ensure that the curriculum information has been finalised for this release.

-There have been a number of significant changes for 2017 in a number of Schools that have had to be processed prior to the release of the handbook, amongst them are:

  • Change of title of the BA Legal Studies to the BA Law, Business and Society
  • The creation (and reintroduction of ) the BA (Psychology) and the BSc(Psychology) to replace the BA ( Social and Developmental Psychology ) and BSc (Cognitive Neuroscience and Health Psychology )
  • The creation of a new GradDip in Safety Science
  • Change of title of the BA Politics and International Studies to BA Global Politics and Policy
  • Approval of a specific entry point for Graduates into the Bachelor of Laws
  • Development of a new GradCert in Health Informatics
  • Development of a new GradDip in Safety Science
  • Revisions to the Master of Teaching to allow for accelerated learning
  • Revisions to the Master of Health Policy and Leadership and the GradCert
  • Significant revisions to the Course offerings from the Sir Walter Murdoch School
  • Change of title of the major in Molecular Biology to Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • Addition of an external option to the Executive Masters in Leadership, Strategy and Innovation

Just to name a few…

-Another big announcement from our group is that Gael Gibb has joined as the Manager, Policy Development (Learning, Teaching & Curriculum).

CUTL:

(Academic Development)

-Registrations are open to ARO staff for the following Learning and Teaching events/professional development short courses at Murdoch:

  • FLIP Curric: WA Launch and Workshop< Tuesday 4 October. A workshop designed for teams who are either reviewing a higher education learning program or developing one. Emeritus Professor Geoff Scott
  • What works< enhancing learning and the student experience for students with learning difficulties< Monday 17 October. Dr Steve Heath
  • Also, registration is now open for the 2017 WA Learning and Teaching Forum < and ARO staff are warmly encouraged to attend and consider contributing. The theme for 2017 is Innovation: Multiple Dimensions in Teaching and Learning. Submission of papers for review due 24 October, submission of abstracts and workshops due 14 November.

-Meanwhile Craig Whitsed is away at University of Groningen in the Netherlands contributing to a major initiative there on the International Classroom and running a programme of workshops at Groningen and another university in the region.

Report on Women STEMM National Symposium

-Kate Brooks participated in the inaugural National Symposium: Connecting Women in STEMM, which took place at RMIT University in Melbourne 13-14 September 2016. Over 200 women and men in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) from around Australia gathered to share and discuss best practices and policies in academia and research institutes. View the full program: Kate will present a summary of the key messages from the meeting on Friday 21st October from 12.30 to 1.30pm in Library NW 4.040 FLTR . Bring along your lunch. Everyone is welcome.

(Learning Support)

-The Learning Support Team in CUTL recently achieved a large boost from feedback from the International Student Barometer survey for 2016.

-On the ISB ranking sheet for student satisfaction for learning supportthe team was the2nd highest academic learning unit in Australia and also 1st out of the InnovativeResearchUniversities.

-Well done to all of those involved for making that extra effort for our international students!

Engagement:

(International)

Indonesia

-Fozzil is currently in Indonesia where he attended Jakarta and Denpasar’s Australia Awards Information Sessions and received a number of Master by Coursework and PhD queries from shortlisted awardees. We were lucky enough to have one of alumni members join Fozz at the Jakarta event to share her journey at Murdoch with prospective students. He will be back in the office on the 28th September.

(RiriAmandaria, Master of Arts in Community Development 2014, and Fozzil at the Jakarta AAS session)

-Fozzil also conducted the second round interviews for our Business Development Manager (in-country staff) for Indonesia and we are hoping an announcement can be made next month.

Enrolments & Fees:

Enrolments

-Several staff are taking the opportunity for leave, with Laura and Nicole overseas. The rest of the team is looking at academic progression for TM, with students in the phase of mandatory interviews and pending suspensions and exclusions; and at set up for the end of the year.

Fees

-Fees is also relatively quiet on the student side, with follow up of outstanding fees and payment plans. The Fee Review and set-up for 2017 are, however, areas that still require a lot of work.

Graduations & Results:

Graduations

-We have started preparation for Singapore graduation ceremonies

-Singapore graduands have until Friday 7 October to confirm their attendance via MyInfo. Late Confirmation of Attendance are accepted up to one week before the ceremony subject to a late fee and capacity at the venue

-Graduation documents for graduands that requested their documents be sent by mail went out on Monday 27 September 2016

Results

-Follow up of outstanding results is underway

MU Health:

(Medical)

First Aid Training

-Final First Aid Course for the year scheduled for 27th October

-Application form attached, places are limited to 25 participants

-1 Day Training, theory and hands on skills, nationally certified HLTA1D003 Apply First Aid- formerly senior first aid

OSQA:

Analytics

-Revisions to 2015 student data were submitted last week. The next task is 2016 revisions to student, OS-HELP and SA-HELP data as we progress through the Semester 1 data verification process.

-OSQA is also finishing up the process of vetting changes to field of education data for almost 600 units of study for 2017. This dictates the amount of income Murdoch receives per unit enrolment, so this is important work that will benefit many across the University.

The Student Centre:

-From 3rd October, building abbreviations (e.g. ECL, LB) will no longer be used. When you look at the 2017 draft timetable, the new naming convention will consist of a 3 digit building number, 1 digit floor number and then room number.

Building Abbreviations vs Building numbers Cheat sheet
Pre 2017 / 2017 + / Pre 2017 / 2017 + / Pre 2017 / 2017 + / Pre 2017 / 2017 +
AMEN / 490 / GCL1 / 351 / LL / 513 / SP / 706
BS / 240 / GYM / 415 / MC / 128 / SRC / 412
DRAMA WS / 411 / HRC / 390 / Nexus / 351 / SS / 440
ECL / 460 / KEBLT / 351 / PS / 340 / TB / 436
EH / 450 / LAW / 465 / REF / 430 / VBS / 250
ES / 335 / LB / 235 / SC / 245 / VCS / 260
ETC TUTE / 882 / LibN / 350 / SENATE / 425

Student Support:

Special Programs

-Following up to see that Australia Awards fees charged by Murdoch match their records in OASIS (DFAT database that Murdoch uses)

-Processing new applications for the elite athlete program

-Starting to process flight requests for Australia Awards students going home for end of year break and/or returning home after graduation

Transition and Retention

-StudyPerth have advised that will extend the operating weeks for the Welcome Desk and have added an extra week in Semester 1 and 2 to assist some late arrivals. The desk will be in operation for 7 weeks in Semester 1 and 6 weeks in Semester 2. Outside of these dates, international students will still be able to pick up a welcome pack from the airport information desk. The new dates are as follow:

  • SEMESTER 1: 11 January to 1 March
  • SEMESTER 2: 21 June to 2 August

-Excitement is brewing for the new look and feel Transition Program that is being designed and planned in consultation with Student Support, SAN and the Guild. More details to follow.

Scholarships

New Murdoch First Scholarships 2017 OPEN NOW!!

-Students who apply through TISC and have Murdoch as their First preference will receive the scholarship in the following categories:

Raw ATAR : 80.00-89.95 $2,000

Raw ATAR : *90+ $3,000 These students will be awarded the MUAEA Scholarship

*Please note: the above categories will not require an application form but will be offered through a TISC report which will capture the First Preference cohort to Murdoch and the ATAR range

-Communication will be made from the Student Financial Support Office of their scholarship award once report are made available to us from Admissions.

-Students who have an ATAR but are not coming through TISC can still receive the scholarship however, they would need to fill in an MUAEA Application form to be eligible. What this means is we would be able to capture all those students who are mature age who aren’t coming through TISC but including them on this offer but an application form would be required to be considered.

-The Scholarships Team are putting together a reference on the scholarships we offer. Like a cheat sheet 

-We are also gearing up to offer some 1-1/team, show and tell sessions about the new scholarship and others as part of our education to our fellow staff members on what we have on offer.

Student Retention Program

-Romy Lawson (DVC Education) has confirmed her attendance the next working group scheduled for 4 October, 2016

TNE:

Week 4 September Trimester

-The window to view exam scripts from the TM2016 teaching period has now closed. 150 students at Kaplan, requested to see their paper, this is quite a reduction in requests compared to the previous trimester, which saw 304 students request to view. Over the past year, the TNE Liaison Team has worked closely with Kaplan to improve the communication to students on this matter and the process by developing an application form. The form includes details that highlights those students who need to see their script prior to sitting a supplementary exam. We are very pleased with these results, it has meant a workload reduction for our UC’s and admin staff at both Murdoch and Kaplan.

-Mid-Term Test Schedules for September have been confirmed by Schools and partners are preparing for the tests, many of which commence over the next couple weeks. The TNE Liaison Team have improved security of the test papers and the exam scripts uploaded for viewing, by adding secured folders to the external engagement common drive. Very few partner staff have access to the folders which is a huge improvement on how this has been done in the past. School staff can upload to the common drive with ease which is quite the opposite to using the ftp partner servers, which have been quite problematic. We will monitor this and tweak as required.

-The September trimester class groupings have now been confirmed by the LMS staff. All units that have more than one class, have now been grouped accordingly, this will assist affiliates, UC’s and students as we progress further along the September trimester, helping with group work and communication between affiliate staff and students.

-Affiliate Pre-Approvals are a priority for the Schools at present, we hope to have pre-approvals for TJ2017 to Kaplan by the 3rd Oct.

-Unit Resources for Kaplan TJ2017 are also being confirmed over the next couple weeks. Kaplan require the software requirements and other text details, so they can prepare for the January trimester.

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