Give us your feedback on Taskforce 20/21+ initiatives

We want staff to provide thoughts on Taskforce 20/21+ and how UNSW can emerge from the COVID-19 crisis as a strong and focused organisation.

Last month, UNSW formed the 20/21+ Taskforce to help shape the University’s post-COVID-19 response.

The Taskforce has four working groups:

• Faculties – Chaired by Professor George Williams (Law) and Professor Emma Johnston (Science)

• Divisions – Chaired by Professor Eliathamby Ambikairajah (Enterprise) and Deena Amorelli (HR)

• Horizons – Chaired by Professor Chris Styles (Business) and Professor Claire Annesley (Arts & Social Sciences) 

• Recovery – Chaired by Fiona Docherty (External Relations) and Jeff Peers (Estate Management) 

We want to give an opportunity for staff to provide thoughts on these initiatives – and how UNSW can emerge from the COVID-19 crisis as a strong and focused organisation while still staying true to the values and principles in the 2025 Strategy.

Specifically, we would like your input on the following key themes that encapsulate the challenges and opportunities that have so far been identified.

• Faculties – What considerations, values or goals should drive how UNSW structures its faculties and academic teams?

• Divisions – What priorities, in terms of either functions or principles, should drive how UNSW structures its Divisions and professional staff?

• Horizons – How can UNSW be best positioned to become a leader in lifelong learning?

• Recovery – a. What digital tools and capabilities best support effective collaboration, learning and research? b. How can we best utilise our campus and create flexible and progressive workplace practices to facilitate productive and satisfying lives for all?

We would value your feedback via this link, by Friday 29 May.

The Taskforce work will be completed by late June – and we will share its findings and how they will be implemented in July. The aim will be to implement any changes in 2020, so that we commence 2021 with a structure well suited for the new learning, teaching and research environments.

Some of the working group’s findings will need to take immediate effect. This is particularly the case in the Recovery stream where detailed planning is well advanced on how, when and under what circumstances students and staff can return to campus. We know some of you may be apprehensive about this prospect. Equally, many of you are eager to return to campus as soon as possible. To make sure we are considering all perspectives, we will soon seek your views on what we can learn from our recent experiences – and whether we should retain some of the things we have been obliged to do because of personal distancing requirements. Not everything we have undertaken during these past few months has been a negative experience – and we want to capture this thinking as best as possible.
 
You will receive an update from the President and Vice-Chancellor and the Provost later this week on a staff survey we would like you to participate in to help shape our recovery plans.

We look forward to your ideas and will provide further COVID-19 updates next week. Thank you once again for your ongoing hard work and professionalism.