More than 3000 staff joined an All-staff Town Hall on 12 August to hear members of the University Leadership Team speak about key projects and initiatives.
The Town Hall was hosted by Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement Professor Verity Firth, Provost Professor Vlado Perkovic and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education & Student Experience Professor Sarah Maddison.
The panel shared updates on the development of UNSW’s new UNSW Strategy: Progress for All, Student Belonging and Student Experience, and the University’s Academic Calendar. The Town Hall included time for questions from staff on a broad range of issues.
A University-wide update
Prof. Brungs opened the forum, thanking staff for joining via Teams. He shared an update on the University’s current operating environment, the exceptional people doing extraordinary things at our campuses, our 2024 Operational Plan and the development of the new UNSW Strategy: Progress for All.
The VC noted the University’s ongoing engagement and advocacy with federal and state governments in a range of critical policy areas, including international students, research funding and needs-based funding.
He also shared information on Project Phoenix and the University’s work to ensure staff are paid fairly and accurately, noting that our people are our greatest asset.
“One of the great things about being VC is I get to see extraordinary things across the University. Our people are doing incredible things, day in, day out. As I've said before, it's the people that make UNSW,” he said.
Developing our new UNSW Strategy: Progress for All
Prof. Firth presented an overview of the development process to date for the University’s new strategy.
She noted that this 10-year strategy will equip the University for the next 25-plus years. The strategy will be grounded in four principles – Ambition for all, Distinctiveness, Societal Impact Amplified, and Setting our Next Foundations – and delivered through education, research and engagement. It will also directly link to the University’s Societal Impact Framework.
“We’re striving for Progress for All through transformative education, innovative research and meaningful engagement with society,” Prof. Firth said.
The strategy development process is building on a significant amount of work started earlier this year. This work included Project Symphony, the development of the Societal Impact Framework, our 75th anniversary celebrations, an international environment scan, SWOT analysis and substantial engagement and consultation.
The next stage of the strategy development will focus on themes and objectives, drawing on societal impact focus areas.
Prof. Firth reported that consultation for the strategy has included 370 staff in nine consultation sessions, more than 1900 responses to student surveys, more than 1200 staff in strategy-specific sessions, and 90 alumni in two sessions.
Consultation is ongoing, with online consultations taking place in the coming weeks. Prof. Firth encouraged staff to join these sessions to share their ideas.
Academic Calendar review update
Prof. Perkovic updated staff on progress in the University’s Academic Calendar review, which is considering alternatives to the current 3+ model. He noted the considerable work undertaken to understand the different aspects of our education model and calendar.
“We’re working to find solutions to effectively cater to the diverse needs of our UNSW community,” he said. “Our goal is to make decisions that achieve the most beneficial outcomes overall, for the future.”
Prof. Perkovic reported that the review to date has focused on ideation and calendar design, testing a range of improvement ideas and consulting with advisory groups and subject matter experts to understand the impact of options.
“We’re hearing different feedback themes from different groups and are balancing this information to achieve the most beneficial outcome overall,” he said.
The review is currently undertaking modelling to assess the feasibility of the options and evaluating what would be most beneficial. It’s considering how the calendar intersects with many different elements, including space and capacity, workload, course delivery, financial viability, term intakes, downtimes and breaks between study periods, along with many other factors.
Prof. Perkovic told staff that next steps will include significant engagement with students, staff and other stakeholders to explore options. He encouraged staff to participate and collaborate in the upcoming consultation on the options being considered, noting that the project is working towards the launch of a new academic calendar from 2027.
Student Belonging and Onboarding
Prof. Maddison spoke about the Student Experience (SX) Program, which has been responding to student feedback in recent years.
This work has focused on five workstreams – assessment and feedback; belonging and onboarding; the Course Design Institute; program simplification; and the student lifecycle process. The focus of the Town Hall update was the Belonging and Onboarding workstream.
Prof. Maddison reported that the workstream has engaged with thousands of students via focus groups, online forums, video diaries and a community-wide survey.
“A sense of belonging can seem like such an intangible feeling to measure, but it's not,” she said.
“When you spend time within the community of students, understanding directly from them what improves and what impedes their sense of belonging, you can begin to see really clearly how we can positively shape and influence their sense of belonging.
"This is what the Belonging and Onboarding project team did. Over a period of four months, they connected with more than 2,500 current students to gather their feedback and input on belonging. This work has resulted in some clear tangible changes we can make to improve a student's connection to our community, ensuring that they feel like we care about them, and that they belong.”
Four personas emerged from the research, and these were mapped against choice model results to reveal opportunities for improved engagement to drive belonging.
Prof Maddison encouraged staff to contact the Belonging & Onboarding Project Manager Natalie Nickson to learn more about this ongoing work.
Q&A
The Town Hall closed with an opportunity for staff to ask questions. Staff submitted approximately 60 questions, which covered topics including international student numbers, the UNSW Strategy, global issues including the Middle East, psychosocial safety, research, the academic calendar, student issues, campus life and graduates.
Unanswered questions will be responded to in writing over the coming weeks, and we’ll provide further updates in Inside UNSW.
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