Executive Projects Office - Current Projects

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Executive Projects Office - Current Projects

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The following projects are current:

Review of Timetabling Processes across UWS

The School Administration Review Phase 2 recommended that Executive establish, through the Executive Projects Office, a full review of the University’s timetabling processes. This Review has now commenced and an invitation is extended to all staff to provide comment directly addressing the terms of reference.

Feedback should be provided to schooladminreviewfeedback@uws.edu.au by 29 July 2011.

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School Administration Review Phase 3: Implementation

In 2010 the School Administration Review Phase 2 resulted in a recommendation on the most appropriate mode of student service delivery at UWS and a recommended minimum (baseline) level of support of academic activities.  In December 2010, the University's Executive endorsed the recommendations of that review.  The implementation of the recommendations is Phase 3.  Further information is available below:

School Administration Review Phase 2

Following the School Administration Realignment Project conducted through the Executive Projects Office in 2009 and feedback received to the final review report, a further review has been commissioned by Executive to:

  • map the current levels of administrative support provided to academics in each School, College and Division and define the scope of the appropriate level of administration support to academics (acknowledging that one size does not fit all);
  • map the current administrative practices in Schools and identify lead practice initiatives in operation across individual Schools, as well as explore whether such initiatives could be introduced across all Schools or in those Schools that could accommodate such initiatives; and
  • provide a report, addressing the terms of reference, to the Project Sponsor within six months.

Key documents underpinning this review include:

The review commenced on 7 June 2010, with a final report due at the end of 2010. The review will be coordinated through the Executive Projects Office. All enquiries regarding the review should be directed in the first instance to Jenny Purcell in the Executive Projects Office or via email to schooladminreviewfeedback@uws.edu.au.

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Visiting and Adjunct Appointment Policy Review

The University values the experience and knowledge of its academic staff and of those academic and professional people external to UWS who contribute to the UWS community. As such, the University must consider strategies to enable these staff to contribute to the many aspects of academic work UWS is involved with. 

It is important for UWS to attract adjunct staff from other institutions in order to create a vibrant and inclusive intellectual community that is connected locally, nationally and internationally. It is envisioned that enhancements to the policy would reflect lead practice in the sector and result in a contemporary approach to adjunct appointments at UWS.

It is also important to recognise the valuable contributions academic staff members make post retirement. The University wishes to consider transitioning to new relationships with academic staff once they have retired. Adjunct appointments are beneficial to those transitioning to retirement and also beneficial to the University as experience and knowledge is retained.

This project has 5 objectives as listed below:

  1. Benchmark the UWS Visiting and Adjunct Appointments Policy against that of seven other universities (Curtin University of Technology, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, University of New South Wales, University of South Australia, University of Wollongong and University of Sydney).
  2. Critique each policy and provide a summary of their content.
  3. Provide an outline of the similarities and differences across the eight universities and identify any innovative practices.
  4. Provide a summary of all policies as benchmarked against UWS Policy.
  5. Provide recommendations for policy revision (if required).

This project will be completed by mid-November 2010. Milestones are listed below:

  1. Collect Policy information from external universities - by end-May, 2010
  2. Meet with stakeholders, data collection - by end-June, 2010
  3. Data Analysis - by end July, 2010
  4. Follow up any areas of further enquiry - by end-August, 2010
  5. Write up report and recommendations - by end-September
  6. Report finalised - by mid-November

Current Status

The report on the Visiting and Adjunct Appointment Policy Review has been submitted to the Academic Career Lifecycle Steering Committee and will be considered at their December 2010 meeting.

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Academic Promotions Policy Review

The University recognises the crucial role of academic staff to enable achievement of its goals and objectives, and aims to attract, develop and retain a diverse, talented and committed academic workforce. A key component of the Our People 2015 staffing strategy is to improve and strengthen the University’s organisational capability and the competencies of its people. The Our People 2015 project includes the strategic initiative to ‘improve the academic promotion process.’

A benchmarking activity was conducted in August 2007 by Jeanette Deitch of Staffing Strategies titled ‘Benchmarking the Academic Promotions Policies of the University of Western Sydney with that of Curtin University of Technology, Griffith University, QLD University of Technology, University of NSW, University of South Australia and University of Wollongong’. This analysis was document-based and although it provided an analysis of UWS policy benchmarked against other university policies, it did not provide an in-depth analysis of each university’s specific criteria for promotion or applicant information templates, booklets or guidelines. A further in depth review is therefore planned through this project.

This project has 8 objectives as listed below:

  1. Benchmark the current UWS Promotion to Lecturer or Senior Lecturer Policy, Promotion to Associate Professor Policy and Promotion to Professor Policy against the seven benchmark partners listed in the Deitch report, as well as The University of Sydney.
  2. Critique each policy and provide a summary of their content, utilising the work already completed by the Deitch report.
  3. Identify any changes made to benchmark partner policies following the Deitch report in 2007.
  4. Identify those benchmark partners that link the promotions process to the career planning and development process.
  5. Benchmark the UWS criteria for promotion, levels of attainment, applicant templates, guidelines and any associated information against that of our benchmark partners.
  6. Review UWS Promotion Committee recommendations and comments from the past 4 years and identify the actions taken in respect of these recommendations/comments
  7. Provide a summary of all policies and documentation as benchmarked against UWS policy, outlining similarities and differences across the eight universities.
  8. Provide recommendations for policy revision (if required).

This project will be completed by mid-November 2010. Milestones are listed below:

  1. Collect information from benchmark partners - by end-May, 2010
  2. Meet with stakeholders, data collection - by end-June, 2010
  3. Data Analysis - by end July, 2010
  4. Follow up any areas of further enquiry - by end-August, 2010
  5. Write up report and recommendations - by end-September
  6. Report finalised - by mid-November

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eRecruit Business User Experience Analysis

The e-Recruit system was delivered by the Recruitment and Selection project, one of nine projects in the 2015 Our People staffing strategy.  The system (provided by NGA) was delivered through a rolling implementation from late 2008 after significant research into available web-based recruitment management technologies.

The objective of e-Recruit for both hiring managers and HR’s Recruitment Unit was to deliver a streamlined end-to-end process and provide one place for all related documentation such as approvals, applications and appointment information whilst also maintaining UWS Delegations standards and other requirements. The implementation of an e-Recruit system was meant to automate tasks such as paper-based “Request to Fill” forms, receipt of hard copy applications and short listing by selection committees. These tasks were all meant to be completed online using the NGA system. There was also an expectation that the recruitment and selection timeframe would be significantly reduced through implementation of the e-Recruit system.

This project has 4 objectives as listed below:

  1. Consult with stakeholders regarding their experience using the e-Recruit system according to specific components of the system and gain feedback for analysis.
  2. Establish positive and negative experiences users have with the e-Recruit system (including examples) in order to find solutions to improve the user experience and highlight lead practice where identified.
  3. Consult with NGA (suppliers of the e-Recruit system) on possible solutions to any issues identified.
  4. Identify solutions to any problems identified by stakeholders and make recommendations to UWS Executive.

This project will be completed by mid-November 2010. Milestones are listed below:

  1. Meet with stakeholders, data collection - by end-July, 2010
  2. Consultation with HR to clarify any issues - by mid-August, 2010
  3. Consult with NGA - by end August, 2010
  4. Data Analysis - by end September, 2010
  5. Follow up any areas of further enquiry - by mid-October, 2010
  6. Write up report and recommendations - by end-October, 2010
  7. Report finalised - by mid-November, 2010

Current Status

The report has been submitted to the Our People 2015 Steering Committee who have endorsed the recommendations contained therein to be discussed or actioned by the Office of Human Resources.  A working group will be formed by staff from Human Resources and the Executive Projects Office to progress the actions.

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