Macquarie U wants to have “the leading science and engineering faculty” in the country. To help make it happen dean Barbara Messerle has a plan for technical services.

That distant rumble you heard 3.30pm Friday was faculty staff wailing at the prospect of another review but Professor Messerle assures them this one is different; “Previous review projects have given us invaluable insights … however, recommendations arising from the reviews have not addressed our fundamental need to work smarter and more flexibly within a positive and constructive work culture.” But Project Catalyst is intended to create clear reporting lines, flexible resourcing and “superior experiences.”

Work starts this month with a “core team” establishing “clarity of strategy and vision” and “sprint teams,” looking at particular issues. A management team will “steward” the whole show.

Perhaps a first task for the project is to set out specific outcomes, “I have read it twice, and cannot make head nor tail of what they are aiming to do,” a learned reader laments.