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Ancora Imparo, December 2006

As another year draws to a close, I will devote my final column for the year to my perceptions of the highlights and the lowlights and the challenges ahead.

I will start by congratulating the whole Monash community on a year of great achievement in a difficult external environment. I will pick out a few examples.

We have come through the AUQA Audit with flying colours. Our research performance has improved markedly (research income increased from $145m to over $170m). All the indicators of our performance in teaching and learning have shown significant improvement. Our planning processes are now all in place. We are likely to meet our budget targets. We have obtained a grant of $35m from the State Government towards the cost of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute and hitherto unparalleled philanthropic support for our Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation and a number of other large donations and bequests.

Tenders have been let for construction of STRIP 2 and 3 and planning approval given for the redevelopment of the western precinct of the Caulfield campus, a huge, externally-funded project costing around $250m and providing student accommodation and academic space as well as greatly enhanced retail and catering outlets. The new Pharmacy building is progressing well. A definitive proposal for extensive refurbishment of the Menzies Building has been agreed.

Health sciences and education are thriving on the Peninsula campus. Medical school places and capital funding have been provided to start a graduate entry medical school at Gippsland and extra medical school places and capital funding to develop the enhanced rural clinical school with the University of Melbourne in Northern Victoria. The process of devolving the budget and line management responsibility to the Gippsland campus has been completed.

A stunning new campus has almost been completed for our Malaysian branch and our Malaysian Medical School has been accredited by the Australian Medical Council until 2012, the first time the AMC has accredited a medical school outside Australia and New Zealand. Our South African branch is growing rapidly (40% increase in student numbers since 2005 and 120% increase since 2004). It has met its budget target. Preliminary funding and a business plan have been achieved for the joint research academy with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and negotiations are proceeding for extensive research collaborations with leading universities in China and Israel. We were successful in being awarded one of three European Centres by the EU Commission and have recruited an outstanding academic to head it.

Many of our staff have won significant awards and I will not list them, but will emphasise that for the second time in three years one of our scientists was awarded the Science Minister's Prize for Life Sciences.

So what were the lowlights? The most significant is that we have had to offer separation packages to a large number of academic and general staff to prepare ourselves for still more challenging times ahead. The Faculty of IT was the most severely affected as the persistent downturn in student interest in IT courses meant that the Faculty could no longer support the number of general and academic staff that it had needed at the peak of the boom. There has also been a significant reduction in staff numbers in a number of central service divisions, partly necessitated by the so-called VSU legislation and partly by a continued need for belt-tightening as Government funding fails to keep up with the increase in true costs. I commiserate with all who are leaving Monash University prematurely, thank them very much for their loyal service, and wish them well in their future careers or retirement.

Next year will be another challenging year as we prepare for the RQF and endeavour to maintain student services in the face of the "VSU" legislation. We must maintain our research momentum if we are to achieve our long term objectives and it is just as important for us to improve the educational experience for our students. We have taken some tough steps this year to prepare us for the challenging budget targets we must meet, but we will require vigilance and care to achieve them. Our fund-raising must rise to another level if we are to provide the facilities we need to be competitive in research at the highest level and to provide the services and experiences our students deserve. We have shown by our achievements of the last three years that we are capable of meeting these challenges.

I would like to conclude by congratulating you all on your achievements this year and wish everyone a peaceful and restorative holiday season. I particularly thank my senior colleagues who will be leaving Monash or stepping down from their important roles at the end of this year or early next. This includes three deans -- Homer LeGrand (Arts), Colin Chapman (Pharmacy) and Ed Byrne (Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences).

Finally, I congratulate our Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker on his appointment as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Canberra and thank him for his wonderful contributions to Monash University, first as Dean of Law and over the last three years as the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor. He will be acknowledged elsewhere for his many achievements, but I would like in the context of this report on Monash's achievements for 2006 to acknowledge particularly his leadership of the preparations for the AUQA audit, his oversight of our planning processes and his stewardship and improvements in the Education portfolio. We all wish him well at the University of Canberra.

Professor Richard Larkins
Vice-Chancellor