2013 Review of the Department of Accounting, Finance & Economics, Griffith Business School, Griffith University. 18 Month Progress Report

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1 2013 Review of the Department of Accounting, Finance & Economics, Griffith Business School, Griffith University 18 Month Progress Report (February, 2015) correlate with Recommendation 1: (ToR 2, 6) Facilitate innovation in teaching by developing incentives, building capacity and providing resources to encourage experimentation in design and delivery. Given the demand for more flexible and interactive education, innovation is required to engage and retain students. The Department will work with the new BLA to gradually increase the number of courses offered in Blended Learning Model 3 and/or in dual mode (online and on campus) following the model already provided in two undergraduate courses at Logan: Accounting Principles and Economics for Decision Making 1. Incentives will be provided to staff to undertake online course development work. For Blended Learning Mode 3 courses, the Department will seek to vary the standard delivery model of 2 hour lecture plus 1 hour tutorial. The Department of AFE will hold an annual Blended Learning Symposium to highlight, share and celebrate achievements in this area among its academic staff. Head, Department, Economics; Dean (Learning and Teaching), Griffith Business School; Heads of Discipline 6 months and on-going [End of May 2014] Progress Recommendation 1: The GBS is exploring rolling out a new reward and incentive scheme, designated SPLAT (Scholarship and Performance in Learning And Teaching), to all academic staff in Blended Learning Mode: Alternative delivery modes have been introduced in a number of courses. For instance, some courses (e.g. 2303AFE in Summer , 6304AFE and 6305AFE) have been run using blocks of 3 hours with alternating delivery modes (e.g. traditional lecture, seminar, class discussions and other forms of active learning). In addition 1203AFE runs in intensive mode over summer as does the MBA Finance course and several courses in the Master of Accounting with four hour blocks. Other courses such as 3285AFE also rebalance teaching towards the front of the semester using a guest speaker model with the balance of time being for the development of a major group assignment. At the program level AFE are contributing to the BBus (Online OUA), the MBA (Online and Pearson Online), rolling out the Master of Financial Planning (oncampus and online) and have recently had the MFIn/MFI approved for development in the Pearson Online model. Thus AFE is building capacity and expertise in a range of delivery methods. AFE is actively contributing to the discussion on alternative delivery models led by the Dean (T&L)..). AFE saff are being actively encouraged to take part in the pilot initiative of the Dean (T&L) in this area.

2 correlate with Blended Learning Symposium (BLS): BLS have taken the form of BL Teaching and Learning retreats. In 2014, AFE organised a retreat on online/dual mode delivery. The retreat was facilitated by the Deputy Head (T&L) with contributions from the GBS curriculum consultant, the Dean (T&L), the Blended Learning Advisor, and active participation of AFE staff. In 2015, AFE will hold a new retreat (originally scheduled for February then postponed to April) on innovative approaches to assessment. This retreat, which again will benefit from external contributions, aims at discussing new ways to conduct assessment in the blended learning context. Blended Learning Fellowships (BLF): AFE has also instituted a BLF scheme co funded with the Dean (T&L) to support the development of blended learning initiatives by staff. Up to $3000 is available per project and there are currently 11 ongoing projects. This, we believe, will provide further incentives and capacity for staff to innovate and generate knowledge and skills across AFE. Recommendation 2: (ToR 2) Increase the level of cross-campus consistency particularly in relation to course information and course materials e.g. ensure a better level of consistency across campuses regarding course information, Learning@Griffith websites and materials. Advice and directives will be provided to staff regarding consistency in course profiles and website content for courses offered at more than one campus or more than one mode. Consistency refers to common learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment items including advice provided to students about assessment. (It does not extend to identical visual or audio presentations in classes.) In addition to advice and directives to staff, course websites will be monitored to ensure consistency. Head, Department, Economics; Heads of Discipline 6 months and on-going [End of May 2014] Progress Recommendation 2: Consistency in learning outcomes, activities and assessment items is being increased through the moderation process, which extends from the preparation of the course profile to the design of assessment and marking. Course profiles are further checked by Discipline Heads before being signed off by the Head of Department. This provides an additional layer of crosscampus quality and consistency checking. Every course that is delivered on two campuses has a primary course convenor and a campus course convenor. The primary course convenor monitors consistency in web-site contents, especially with respect to announcements and information delivered to students. Primary course convenors and campus course convenors closely work on the design and delivery of learning activities. AFE also has an active Student Success and Retention Team (SSRT) which operates as the departments teaching and learning committee. Membership of this includes Program Directors, FYC s, SSA s, PSO, BLA s and the Director T&L AFE. This group advises the Director T&L on a range of issues including items pertinent to this recommendation, particularly through the Assurance of Learning (AOL) process. AOL was introduced as part of the AACSB accreditation of GBS and aims at ensuring the achievement of learning objectives for programmes and courses. As part of the process, all course convenors meet twice a year to discuss students performance and to review assessment items in the various courses.

3 correlate with Recommendation 3: (ToR 4) Establish a functional External Advisory Board, develop further engagement externally including with employers and alumni and make the engagement activities more formalised and structured so that they are more visible to students and staff. Progress Recommendation 3: An Advisory Board will be established and the first meeting will be held in Semester 1, In ensuring the effective operation of the Advisory Board, the HOD will be assisted by one of the Heads of Discipline who will be assigned the role of Deputy Head of Department responsible for External Engagement from 2014 onwards. Head, Department of Economics 3 months [End of February 2014] An Advisory Board was established in The Board consists of professionals from the various AFE disciplines Simon Grant (CAANZ), John Halliday (BDO), Richard Chapman (CPA), Paul Simshauser (AGL), Steve Williams (Qld Treasury), Michael Know (Morgans Financial), Troy Rieck (Diceros Capital), Neil Kendall (Tupicoffs), Nicky Lonergan (SV Partners), Louise Cox (Chesterfield Group), Karen Waldon-White (Superannuation Compliance Services). The Board met twice in The Board is chaired by Karen Bullock (Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association). The Deputy Head and Director of External Engagement assists the HOD in ensuring the operation of the Board. The role of the Board will be crucial in 2015 as AFE will need to identify new strategic directions in line with the Griffith University Model. The first meeting for 2015 is scheduled for 22 April. The focus will be on developing an industry engagement strategy, and ensuring our programs are market led. Another meeting will be held in semester 2. Recommendation 4: (ToR 3) Increase research performance, particularly in grants and publications in order to facilitate reducing the current loss from the research performance fund, by: a) making sure the incentives through the Research and Conference Support Scheme (RACS)and necessary tools such as databases are available; (a) Incentives will continue to be provided through the GBS RACS scheme for enhancement of both quality and quantity of publications and HDR supervisions. The Department will provide support for both developing researchers and high achieving researchers through a Departmental Fellowship scheme. Pro Vice Chancellor (Business); Dean (Research), Griffith Business School; Dean (Academic), Griffith Business School; Head, Department of Economics; Discipline Heads, Department of Economics. 8 months and on-going [End of July 2014]

4 b) allowing greater flexibility in the semester teaching allocations to ensure blocks of time for research; (b) Flexibility will be provided in allocating the required annual teaching hours between semesters in order to allow blocks of time for research. correlate with c) allowing the current annual allowance of $3000 of research funding to be accumulated and carried forward for a more extended period to cover the cost of attending an International conference. (c) The policy on carry-forward of GBS research funds will be revisited by the Dean, Research (GBS) and the outcome of this review communicated to staff. Progress Recommendation 4: (a) The GBS has continued to provide incentives through the RACS scheme. In 2014, the AFE Deputy Head (Research) in consultation with an advisory team consisting of one representative per discipline - launched the following initiatives to support research in AFE under the Research Portfolio : - A Professional Development Scheme to provide staff with financial support to undertake activities such as Summer Schools and Research Training Workshop. The Scheme was aimed at supporting junior staff (level B and C) in particular - A mentoring programme to provide staff with the opportunity to discuss their research/grant applications with colleagues other than their formal supervisors. - Seminars and workshops that addressed cross-disciplinary issues in research: Engagement with the media workshop (19 August 2014), Academic job market for PhD candidates (22 August 2014), STATA Workshops (September 2014), Research Integrity and Research Ethics (23 October 2014). The activities of the Research Portfolio will continue in 2015, with the HOD also being Director of Research, assisted by an academic staff member who responded to a call for expression of interests issued in February Topics of seminars include: consulting and commercial research, external funding, professional engagement, updating research information available on the internet, and a new run of the STATA workshops. The Research Portfolio will also try to promote a cross-disciplinary discussion to increase the effectiveness of our seminar s programme and to revamp the discussion paper series. The advisory team constituted in 2014 worked as an informal group that provided general advice on the key initiatives of the portfolio. In 2015, a more formal committee will be set in place. This committee will include: (i) the HOD as Director of Research, (ii) the academic staff who supports the Research portfolio, (iii) one representative from each discipline, nominated by the Discipline Head, and (iv) the seminar co-ordinators of each discipline. (b) Academic staff who are on a balanced work profile generally teach in semester 1 and 2, but not in the summer. Those who teach in the summer normally have one of the other two semesters off. Also, the teaching allocation model provides flexibility for staff to take one semester of ASP when eligible. With the new teaching allocation model

5 correlate with introduced in 2015, the teaching of academic staff is generally concentrated in one or two days (the GBS teaching allocation model also provides a transparent framework for the computation of associated hours), which leaves a block of at least two days free of contact hours every week. As Griffith University moves towards three semesters, the teaching allocation model will be used to ensure that academic staff teach in only two semesters out of three. (c) Due to the University moving to an accrual-based accounting system in 2016, transitional arrangements have been put in place for the RACS funding scheme. The University accrual-based accounting system will be operational from calendar year 1 January Because RACS funding has been allocated mid-year, there is a six month funding 'gap' to fill. As a transitional arrangement, supplementary RACS funding have been allocated to fill this gap. Funding is the equivalent of 50% of staff s July 2014 RACS allocation and has been distributed to individual staff RACS ( staff training and development) in March All RACS funds (2014 allocation plus 2015 supplementary funding and HDR transitional funds) will be available for research related expenditure with approval from the HOD (per current RACS guidelines) until end The June 2015 RACS expenditure cut-off will not apply. The Dean Research has also informed departments that looking ahead from 2016, RACS funding will be allocated to individual staff RACS accounts for expenditure from early in the calendar year. In effect, RACS funding for each calendar year will be consistent with how RACS has operated for the past few years except for a 6 month adjustment (see above) to synchronise with the change to the University accounting system. The research outputs used to compute RACS funding allocations will be: - RACS 2016 (2013 plus 2014 outputs divided by two). - RACS 2017 (2014 plus 2015 outputs divided by two). The situation with carry forwards of RACS funding is yet to be clarified by the University. It is expected that there will be changes due to the implementation of an accrual-based accounting system. Advice will be provided in a follow-up when there is certainty about how surplus / unspent RACS funds will be handled. correlate with Recommendation 5: (ToR 3) Standardise research student (HDR and Honours) processes and where appropriate co-ordinate departmental induction with University HDR induction. The role of HDR Convenors could be reconsidered and strengthened. One of the Heads of Discipline will take on the additional role of Deputy Head of Department responsible for coordination of Research Student Support from 2015 onwards, working with Discipline based HDR and Honours Convenors. In this role the DHOD will promote a consistent and effective HDR induction process, HDR skill development and a positive cohort experience for HDR students. The University is moving to 4 intakes of HDR students per year. This will mean that HDR students arrive in cohorts which will facilitate their induction and promote a cohort experience. Head, Department of Economics; Discipline HDR and Honours Convenors, Department of Economics, GBS HDR Program Director 8 months [End of July 2014]

6 Progress Recommendation 5: correlate with AFE has maintained an HDR Portfolio since January The Discipline Head of Business Law was in charge of this portfolio in 2014, with the title of Director of Research Training. The purpose of the Research Training portfolio is to create a research-friendly environment to support PhD students and to ensure that they are provided with adequate resources and information to conduct their activities. To achieve this goal, the portfolio works in close cooperation with the Research Portfolio as well as the AFE s Research Student Society (GUAFERSS), which was formally registered in 2014 with Campus Life to enable access to funding and infrastructure for activities. The activities/initiatives of the Research Training Portfolio include: - Seminars/workshops: Academic Job Market (22 August 2014); My experience with an overseas PhD scholarship (25 August 2014); Using Excel for Modelling (2 September 2014); Research integrity and Research ethics (23 October 2014); Panel Data Estimation (29 September 2014); and How to choose a good PhD topic: with extension to post-phd research (8 August 2014); AGM (November 2014); a 3-day STATA workshop (December 2014); - Financial support to PhD students to attend and present at conference. In 2014 conference funding amounted to $1000 for each discipline in AFE. Students were selected on a competitive basis within each discipline, with some disciplines providing a top-up to successful students. - Regular Information s to AFE s PhD supervisors and PhD students, including: how to use the GBS PhD Learning@Griffith site known as GBS HDR Students and Supervisors ; compliance with University travel reimbursements; and publication requirements. - Update/Welcome Morning Tea to welcome new commencing PhD students, as well as celebrate PhD student successes (such as confirmation, submission of thesis, award of thesis, and competition prizes (such as the 3MT by Dianne Johnson (Group award); - End of Year Celebration (11 December 2014). - A poster with important contacts and photos was collated and distributed to AFE PhD students Following changes in the composition of AFE Management Committee, the Discipline Head of Economics is now the Director of HDR training. Activities in 2015 will continue in line with those started in In 2015, the Department will continue to provide support to the HDR training activities coordinated by GUAFERSS, provide induction sessions for the new students during the 4 intake periods, work with the supervisors to encourage HDR students to actively participate in research enhancement activities such as participating in the poster competition, 3-minute thesis competition, presenting papers at academic conferences and writing journal articles, and have HDR students and supervisors get-together functions which will not only allow them to meet their peers, but also academic staff in AFE and also celebrate their achievements during their PhD journey. Recommendation 6: (ToR 6) The incoming Head consider the current executive structure to focus on portfolios in research and L&T, and consider spreading responsibilities across locations. Each of the four discipline heads will be assigned a DHOD portfolio responsibility from The four portfolios will be: research, research training, learning and teaching, and external engagement. The DHODs will report to the HOD and will engage with GBS Committees for the corresponding portfolios. Head, Department of Economics; Dean Academic 6 months [End of May 2014]

7 correlate with Progress Recommendation 6: The following portfolios have been established since 2014: Research, Teaching and Learning, Research training, and Engagement. Each portfolio has been assigned to a Discipline Head. In 2015, due to personal circumstances, one of the Discipline Heads is unable to be in charge of a portfolio. So, one of the portfolios is kept by the HOD, with the support of an AFE academic staff specifically allocated to this service role (see below). The role of the portfolios is to design, coordinate, and support activities of cross-disciplinary relevance. Each portfolio is provided with a small budget: in 2014 the allocations were $10K each for Research, Teaching and Learning and HDR, $5K for Engagement; these allocations have been confirmed in 2015; in 2014 the Teaching and Learning portfolio also received extra contributions from the Dean (T&L). From an institutional perspective, Discipline Heads manage portfolios with the support of advisory groups. These groups can take different forms and have different scope, depending on the portfolio. In T&L, the advisory group is a formal Student Success and Retention Team (SSRT), chaired by the Deputy Head (T&L) and includes Programme Directors, First Year Coordinators, BLA, and Student Success Advisors. In Research, the Deputy Head (Research) established a more informal advisory team consisting of one representative from each discipline. The Director of Engagement chairs the Engagement Advisory Team, which again includes representatives from all AFE disciplines. Finally, the Research Training director is supported by the group of HDR convenors. In 2015, the HOD has kept the role of Director of Research, while the Discipline Head of Economics has become Director of Research Training. The Discipline Head of Finance and Financial Planning has maintained his role as Deputy Head and Director of T&L. The Discipline Head of Accounting is now Deputy Head and Director of Engagement. The support teams have the same structure as described above. However, the plan for 2015 is to strengthen the role of the support team for the Research Portfolio. This will be achieved through two complementary actions: (i) nominate an AFE academic staff to support the HOD in his role as Director of Research (this position will be formally recognised as part of the service role of the academic staff) and (ii) proceed to the creation of a formal group of discipline representatives for research. Directors of the various portfolios sit in the relevant GBS-level committees. Recommendation 7: (ToR 6) Distinguish between time allowances and incentives in the workload model, and: i. Consider changes to workload allocation such as better recognition for HDR supervision, mentoring staff, editing journals, major external engagements. The Department will introduce a points model for Service activities in This will allow better identification and recognition of variations among staff in the quantum and quality of performance of Service activities. In some cases service activities may be reallocated among staff and/or staff may have their teaching loads adjusted up or down. Incentives are currently provided for HDR supervision and completions. GBS will continue to provide such incentives. Dean (Academic), Griffith Business School; Head, Department, Accounting, Finance and Economics. 6 months [End of May 2014]

8 ii. Continue to provide incentives to encourage HDR supervision and completions. correlate with Progress Recommendation 7: In 2014, the Management Committee asked two Discipline Heads (Economics and Business Law) to prepare a draft point model for Service. This model was submitted to the Management Committee and trialled on three or four academic staff in each discipline. After further discussion and consultation with the Department committee, it was decided not to go ahead with the model, but to use the information collected through the preparatory work and the trial to guide the allocation of service roles during the ASRP process. This discussion led to a more equitable distribution of service tasks among academic staff in each discipline. In addition, a reduced teaching load has been agreed with the Dean (Academic) for those academic staff who undertake particularly time consuming service duties, such as programme directors. These reductions in the teaching load are formalised through a change of academic profile and hence they are fully accounted for in the teaching allocation model. Incentives for PhD supervision and completion are established by the GBS workload model. Until the end of 2014, supervisors were given the option to choose between RACS payment and teaching credits in a pre-determined amount at the time of (i) enrolment of a new student, (ii) achievement of a milestone, and (iii) completion of a degree. With the introduction of the new teaching allocation model, academic staff are now given supervision hours for each student they supervise from the time of commencement until completion.