On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to bring you this edition of our newsletter for the period January to June 2025. It has been a busy few months, and the Board would like to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work of all our staff and share some key updates.

Policies and procedures approved

• Revised Agents Appointment Monitoring Management and Termination Policy and Procedure
• Revised Marketing Policy and Procedure
• Revised Social Media Policy and Procedure
• Staff Health and Wellbeing Policy and Procedure
• Revised Domestic Student Agreement
• Revised HDR Supervision Policy and Procedure

Strategic Discussion

This year the Board introduced, as a standing item on the Board’s agenda, a Strategic Discussion. Each Board meeting the Board invites a different guest to present on their topic of experience or area of responsibility, the Board then follows this with discussion. The Board has hosted several special presenters including:

• Mr Sean Ryan, TEQSA Director on MIT’ Self-Accrediting Authority Status application and insights into the University College category;
• Professor Mohini Singh, MIT Research Director on research at MIT;
• Professor Savitri Bevinakoppa, MIT Head of School (SITE)  on Leading Academic Initiatives by SITE 2025-2027
• The Hon. Phil Honeywood, CEO International Education Association Australia, on current developments in international higher education

MIT Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and Strategic Implementation Plan

• Noted reports on progress against the Strategic Implementation Plan at its April meeting.

MIT Student Accommodation

• Considered and approved the business case for MIT’s strategic investment into Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) at 2-8 Spencer Street Melbourne including a strategic refurbishment investment of up to $20M to develop 190 plus beds for the PBSA facility and tasked the Executive Management Committee with its implementation. Given the pressing need for student accommodation in the CBD, this is an exciting project.

Appointment of Directors

• Following the retirement of Emeritus Prof. Wayne Robinson from the MIT Board of Directors and as Chair, the Board, sitting as the Nominations Committee unanimously appoint Dr Rowena Coutts the Chair of the Board of Directors effective 1 January 2025.

• Appointed Emeritus Professor John Yearwood as an Independent Director for a term of 2 years.  Prof.  Yearwood commenced his term on 1 April 2025.

Academic Board

• Accepted the Learning & Teaching Plan 2024-2027 Annual Progress Report 2024
• Endorsed the Research and Scholarship Plan [2025-2028]
• Noted the 2024 Annual Self-assessment of the Academic Board’s Performance
• Accepted the Academic Appeals Committee Annual Report 2024
• Approved the revised membership composition of the Academic Board Executive (ABEX)
• Accepted the Final Report on Academic Board’s response to the recommendations from the 2023 Loxton External Review of the Academic Board

• Approved the following appointments to the membership of the Academic Board:
  • Ms Sherine Soliman as Industry Representative (IT and Engineering) for a term of 2 years
  • Prof. Adel Al-Jumaily as an Academic Staff Representative – SITE (Sydney) for a term of 20 months
  • Mr Rupesh KC as Student Representative (SITE)

Student Experience Committee

• Accepted the Annual Review of MIT relative performance on QILT indicators 2023 International Students Report
• Accepted the Annual Student Counselling and Advocacy Services Report 2024 for both Melbourne and Sydney campuses
• Considered the draft report on the External Review of the Student Experience at MIT by Emeritus Professor Andrew Smith
• Accepted the Progress Report on the Student Experience Implementation Plan 2023-2027
• Accepted the Student Feedback Report 2024 and endorsed the recommendations in the report.
• Approved the following appointments to the membership of the Student Experience Committee:
  • Mr Navid Shahriar Sami as a Student Representative (Sydney campus) 

Financials and FY26 Budget

• Considered the quarterly financials at its February (Quarter 2, FY25) and April (Quarter 3,FY25) meetings.

• The Board approved the FY2026 Budget at its June meeting. 

Risk and Risk Management

• Reviewed and approved changes to the Risk Register regularly throughout the first half of the year, based on recommendations from the Audit and Risk Management Committee.  Notable changes to the Risk Register included creation of a new risk category 15 (c) relating to research supervisory academic staff. 

Discontinuation and teach-out of the Master of Engineering (Telecommunications) and the Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Telecommunications)

• Noting the Academic Board’s approval of the recommendation from the Executive Management Committee for the discontinuance of the Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Telecommunications) and the Master of Engineering (Telecommunications) degrees and to teach out these courses for existing students, the Board approved the discontinuance of the Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Telecommunication) and Master of Engineering (Telecommunications) degrees.

Rowena Coutts
Chair, Board of Directors