An email went out yesterday from RMIT DVC E Belinda Tynan, detailing discussions in the university executive and listing issues needing attention. (Everybody who needs to do something now knows all about it). Fortunately for whoever hit the wrong send, sensation and scandal are absent from the message which was widely, very widely, distributed, to thousands of people. Professor Tynan copped it sweet, a few hours later emailing recipients; “I’m sure we’ve all experienced that feeling of dread when something has gone to the wrong person – imagine that feeling several thousand times! They were rough notes and can easily be misread, so please disregard.” Neatly done.

ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans will continue at the university for two more years. He became chancellor in January 2010, when Ian Chub was vice chancellor and will now stay on to December 31 2019. “The council was united in its decision for him to remain in the role and greatly values his experience, judgement and vision for the University,” Pro-Chancellor Naomi Flutter says.

The Department of Industry celebrates the second anniversary of the National Innovation and Science Agenda with a “selection of success stories … making a difference across the economy, from boosting investment in Australian businesses to helping young people get the skills they need.” Good-o, but guess what was missing? A mention of the Ferris, Finkel, Fraser review of the research and development tax concession is what. The Brotherhood of the Three Fs delivered their report to the industry minister, before the one before last. Supporters say the existing concession helps innovative start-ups invest, critics claim that it costs hundreds of millions that could be better spent in research labs. Realists just wish the government would decide which lobby it is least worried about offending and announce a decision. Unless not responding is it.

Four Coursera courses on how to Excel start Monday. They are taught by Yvonne Breyer, Director of teaching and learning in Macquarie University’s Buseco faculty.

Steve Wesselingh is the president elect of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. Professor Wesselingh is foundation ED of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. He was also chair of the expert advisory group on the National Health and Medical Research Council review of grant allocations.

Australia is light-on for cyber security skills so Victoria’s Box Hill Institute is offering a certificate IV and advanced diploma developed in “close partnership with industry.”  A national training approach is set to follow. with the TAFE systems in NSW, Queensland and Canberra joining the Vics.

Good to see VET on the case. Back in August a paper by Adam P Henry, at UNSW in Canberra reported “only modest alignment” between masters programmes in cyber security offered by Australian universities and the knowledge, skills and ability the US Government sets out in work standards (CMM August 25).

As part of establishing a new grant scheme, the National Health and Medical Research Council asked for assessments of its peer review process. Peak lobby, the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes does not like all that it found.

According to the AAMRI, existing peer review has a few failings; two first-stage assessors is too few, different outcomes from different grant review panels indicate “poor reproducibility of current peer review processes”, there are inexperienced members of grant review panels, and an over-reliance on the two “spokespersons” for a grant.

AAMRI proposes substantial changes including; full applications, with no expressions of interest stage, a single pool of reviewers, ending the existing split between assigners and assessment panels, assessors ranking projects on basis of scores. The top 25 per cent projects, at most, should be considered by panels of one to 12 “non-conflicted” members focusing on a project’s proposed budget. Applicants should receive qualitative feedback, with near-misses allowed to re-apply in the next round.

“The outcome of an application is too heavily influenced by the view of the primary and secondary spokespersons. An increased number of reviews would reduce an over-reliance on the primary spokesperson’s assessment of a grant application. The more times a grant application is reviewed the greater the confidence we can have in the outcome,” AAMRI asserts.

The association proposes saving resources by abolishing rebuttals from applicants and expanding the expert pool by making participation in peer reviewing compulsory for everybody holding an NHMRC grant.

Achievements of the working week

 The Australian New Zealand Student Services Association has appointed a new executive; Christie White (USQ), president, Jordi Austin (UniSydney) immediate past president, VP Aus Mark Young (La Trobe U), VP NZ Karen Davis (Victoria Uni of Wellington), treasurer, Dorinda Harvey-Bravo (Griffith U) and secretary, Andrea Strachan (UoQ).

***

The University of Canberra VC’s excellence awards are announced:

Educator of the year: Disa Smee (sport and exercise science)

Early career educator: Catherine Galvin (clinical biomechanics)

Early career researcher: Richard Keegan (sport and exercise psychology)

Research excellence: John Dryzek (governance and political analysis)

Diversity: Peter O’Brien (Collaborative Indigenous Research Initiative)

Innovation and creativity: Daniel Murphy (digital content publisher)

Professional individual: Shubhra Roy (research services)

Professional team:  Creativity and Social Change team in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research

 

***

Hung Nguyen will start in February as PVC of Swinburne U’s faculty of science, engineering and technology. He joins from UTS.

***

Monash University has announced the vice chancellor’s education and research awards.

Early Career Researchers:

Humanities and Social Sciences: Jennifer Windt (Arts), Selby Coxon (Art Design and Architecture).

Science and Technology: Eric Chow (Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences)

Research enterprise: Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing

Research Impact: Graham Currie, Dr Alexa Delbosc

Research impact and enterprise: Monash University Accident Research Centre

Postgraduate supervision: Tony Patti (Science)

Citations for outstanding contributions to student learning: Adam Clulow (Arts), Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway, Thu-Ha (Hannah) Nguyen (Monash Business School), Erica Sloan (Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences)

Early career citation winner: Nick Parkin (Arts)

Teaching excellence award: James Roffee (Arts), Alistair Thomson (Arts), Dana Wong (Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences)

Priority area: Simone Gibson (Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences0

Honours supervision: Peter Howard (Arts)

Programs that enhance learning: Postgraduate Industry Experience Program, Information Technology, Gail Bourne, Chris Gonsalvez, Livia Mammarella, Peter O’Donnell, Harnam Thandi and Yiwei Zhong.

Excellence in postgraduate coursework teaching: Charanjit Kaur (Monash Business School)

Monash honour roll: John McNeill (Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences)

***

The Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Awards for Excellence in Teaching are out: Howard Fallowfield, Kirstin Ross and Harriet Whiley from the College of Science and Engineering win for Zombie Apocalypse, a course in environmental health which teaches students food and water safety, and how to test for poisonous gas (such a problem at Bedford Park).

Other winners, which do not involve taking The Walking Dead seriously are:

Amanda Müller, College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Up The Hill Project: Fiona Rillotta, Lorraine Lindsay, Jenny Widdop, College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Global Workplace Teaching Team: Susanne Schech, Maryanne Kelton, Verity Kingsmill, David Willis, Colleges of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences/ Business, Government and Law

Lisa Bennett and Erin Sebo, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

 

Is CMM. In yesterday’s email edition Monash University was omitted from the  partners in the CRC P for smart lining for pipes and infrastructure.