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Mon, Nov 11 2024

The Board of Directors Newsletter: January - June 2024

Melbourne Institute of Technology

Following on from previous newsletters, a brief report on the discussions and decisions made by the Institute’s Board of Directors for the period January 2024 to June 2024 is provided. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep both staff and students aware of the Board’s activities.

Policies and procedures approved

Retirement of Emeritus Professor David Battersby

  • Following a decade of outstanding service and contributions to MIT, Professor Battersby retired from the Board of Directors. The Board expressed its profound thanks, deepest gratitude and indebtedness to Professor Battersby for his distinguished and sustained service to the MIT Board of Directors.

MIT Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and Strategic Implementation Plan

  • Noted reports on progress against the Strategic Implementation Plan at its February and June meetings
  • Considered and approved the business case for the proposal to expand MIT’s operations to Perth and Adelaide and tasked the Executive Management Committee to continue to explore these opportunities reporting back on developments to each meeting of the Board.

External Review of Board of Directors

  • Continued implementation of the recommendations from the Winchester Review including revising the Terms of Reference for the MIT Board of Directors, minor amendments to the MIT Constitution, the adoption of an online management platform [Boardable] and determining the potential candidates to undertake the external review of the student experience at MIT. Further progress reports will be forthcoming in the second half of 2024.

Appointment of Directors

  • The Board, sitting as the Nominations Committee unanimously appointed Dr Rowena Coutts as an Independent Director and to the position of Deputy Chair of the MIT Board of Directors for a term of 2 years. Rowena commenced her career as a lawyer, before working in higher education. She was formerly the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Ballarat/Federation University with responsibilities that included international education and corporate governance. Rowena has most recently worked as a non-executive director, and is the current Chair of the Board of the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.

Academic Board

  • Accepted several key reports and documents from the Academic Board including:
    • The Loxton Report on the 2023 external review of MIT’s academic governance, and subject to minor modifications, accepted the recommendations and endorsed the Academic Board’s response to the recommendations from the Loxton Report.
    • 2023 Annual Report on Benchmarking
    • 2023 Annual Academic Integrity Initiatives Report
    • Final report on the previous Learning and Teaching Plan ending December 2023
    • Final report of the previous Scholarship and Research Plan ending December 2023
    • The new Learning & Teaching Plan 2024 – 2027 and the accompanying Action Plan
    • 2023 Annual Self-assessment of the Academic Board’s Performance.
  • Approved the following appointments to the membership of the Academic Board:
    • Dr Rajan Kadel as an Academic Staff Representative – School of IT & Engineering (Melbourne Campus) for a further 2-year term
    • Mr Ted Turner as Industry Representative (Business) for a term of 2 years.

Student Experience Committee

  • Accepted the 2023 SEC Annual Self-Evaluation Report and endorsed the recommendations in the Report
  • Accepted the final report on the Student Experience Plan (SEP) Implementation Plan 2020-2023
  • Approved the new Student Engagement Plan 2024-2027.

Financials and FY25 Budget

  • Considered the quarterly financials at its February (Quarter 2, FY24) and May (Quarter 3,FY24) meetings.
  • The Board approved the FY2025 Budget at its June meeting.

Risk and Risk Management

  • Reviewed and approved changes to the Risk Register, based on recommendations from the Audit and Risk Management Committee. Notable changes to the Risk Register included: the creation of a new risk for sexual harassment arising from TEQSA’s regulatory focus in this area for the whole sector; included a reference to generative AI in Risk 15(b) concerning academic fraud; and, elevated the residual risk rating for Risk 14 (b) – Cyber Security to High.
  • Accepted the 2023 Report on Compliance with the Threshold Standards, ESOS Act and National Code and endorsed the recommendations from the Report. The Board commended MIT’s Compliance Manager, Ms Andrea Wallace on the quality of the Report.

Cyber Security

  • Endorsed the Executive Management Committee’s response to the Intalock MIT-ASD Essential 8 Review including the proposed actions to implement the recommendations from the Intalock Report.

Generative AI

Performance of Education Agents

  • Accepted the annual report on Education Agents’ Performance Review for 2023 and endorsed the recommendations contained in the report. The Board commended the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing, Ms Sushma Gurung, on the quality of the report.

Board Self-evaluation of Performance 2023

  • Completed the initial aspects of 2023 Board self-evaluation;
  • Progress against proposed actions arising from the self-evaluation were considered by the Board at its May meeting in 2024.

MIT Self-Accrediting Authority (SAA) Application

  • Considered the proposed decision from TEQSA on MIT’s SAA application and provided its feedback to TEQSA on the proposed decision. No final decision from TEQSA has been received at the time of writing.

The Board of Directors

Company Secretary

  • Mr Hung Tran