CHANGE PROPOSAL
Faculty General Staff Structure
JUNE 2008
1. Overview
On 2 May 2007 the Provost launched a review of Academic Structure. Following extensive consultation with various groups of staff, the Senior
Management Group and Council the University developed a formal change proposal for a new 4 Faculty structure which was finalised on the 5th of
December 2007. There have been a number of subsequent revisions and a current Academic Structure is presented in Figure 1.
Changing the Academic structure necessarily means we need to change the General staff structures to ensure effective support to the new Faculties.
Work could not realistically start on a new Faculty based General staff structure until the Academic structure was finalized. The University is now
ready to present a change proposal in relation to General staff in the new Faculties. The details of the proposal are in Section 7 and in Appendix 1-4.
Very broadly we propose that :
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in the vast majority of cases, General staff in Departments will stay in their current Department or in a new combined Department.
in the vast majority of cases, General staff in Divisional Offices will move into Faculty Offices
a number of new Faculty management positions will be created which will provide greater support to the needs of the Faculty and greater
career progression opportunities for General staff based in Faculties.
staff entitlements to HEW Level, incremental step progression and Enterprise Agreement salary increases, based on the staff members grade
as at 1 January 2009 will be maintained.
in the case of Executive and Personal Assistants to current Deans we have a greater number of incumbents than positions in the new structure.
Therefore, we will need to conduct a competitive selection process for these positions. Following this process, we anticipate that there may
be a small number of displaced staff. In this regard we have identified a number of possible redeployment opportunities in a range of areas,
which will be discussed with affected staff.
While we cannot guarantee that no staff members will be displaced by this process, we are hopeful that the change can be achieved with no
forced redundancies.
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2. Rationale: Why was the review of academic structure necessary?
All organisations need to review their structures periodically to ensure they remain effective in supporting changing strategies for a changing
environment. Academic structure is central to the way a university carries out its activities, so structural review forms a natural part of the continuous
review/quality process.
In Macquarie@50, Macquarie set itself ambitious targets for achieving excellence in teaching and research and it needed to ensure its structure
would facilitate the strategies outlined in the plan. Macquarie has also grown rapidly in the last 40 years, and academic units have been developed to
meet challenges arising or seize opportunities. Despite some structural adaptations in the past, the most recent of which occurred in’97-99, the
previous Academic structure lacked coherence and a self-explanatory logic for those outside the University. The sheer number of units created
barriers to communication internally and externally. Many of the units were too small to provide budgetary and staffing flexibility, or sustain
professional administration. The environment Macquarie found itself in demanded cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches to learning
and problem-solving, teaching and research and Macquarie needed a new structure that could better meet these demands.
3. Academic Review Goals
The Academic Review identified the following key goals
To develop:
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An academic structure that will allow the university to strengthen and develop teaching and research in areas of focus
Strong leadership of viable academic units with improved administrative support
A logically coherent structure that is easily understood externally
A simpler structure with fewer barriers to communication
A more flexible structure with fewer barriers to cross-disciplinary teaching and research
4. Guiding Principles
When the review of academic structure was launched on 2 May 2007 it also had a number of overarching principles.
A new structure must serve to strengthen and develop teaching and research in areas of focus.
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To do that it must:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Build on strengths
Develop clear synergies between areas with logical links and remove barriers to interdisciplinary and collaborative effort
Contain disciplinary units with critical academic mass and appropriate administrative support
Strengthen the research-teaching nexus
Increase capacity through increased options for graduate education
Contain units that are easily understood in the wider community, nationally and internationally, providing the basis for a more cohesive
profile and Improved visibility for the university
7. While there can be diversity in the size and form of the basic academic unit, there will be an agreed set of principles to be applied in the
formation of a unit. The new structure must:
8. Increase flexibility in delivery
9. Increase flexibility in use of resources
10. Be simple in character and support ease of communication across the university
5. History /Background of Academic Review change process
Following the launch of the review in May 2007, there was an iterative period of consultation and development of structural models. This involved
consultation and discussion with various groups of staff, the Senior Management Group and Council over the following months.
Once the Four Faculty model was finalised the University commenced a formal managing change process which included further consultation. At
Staff Forums held on Monday 29 October and Tuesday 30 October, staff were informed of the change proposal which presented a new four Faculty
Academic Structure. Between these forums and the close of feedback on Friday 16 November 2007, we received feedback from staff, the NTEU and
from number of additional meetings to clarify specific issues around the configuration of a few Departments. We then reviewed the feedback and
adjusted the final proposal. The decision to proceed with the Academic Restructure was made on 5 December 2007 and the new Academic structure
was communicated to the University community. Since that time there has been some further consultation on a small number of Departments and
there has been some revision to the naming of Faculties. The current version of the proposed academic structure is presented in Figure 1. Through
the consultation we made it clear that once the overarching academic structure was finalised we would have to work on the design of the supporting
General staff structures.
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6. Rationale for the changes to the General staff structure
The current 9 Divisions take a diverse approach to the delivery of support to academic staff and students. At present no two Divisions approach their
service delivery in the same way. One of the key recommendations of the change proposal is to move to a more standardised approach to the
provision of support to Faculties. In some cases this will mean moving staff who currently undertake multi-faceted roles into units that specialise in
one function.
More importantly, the General staff structures in the Faculties need to support the research and teaching goals of the University. In developing the
new Faculty General Staff structure we have applied the following principles.
The new Faculty General Staff structure should:
1. Effectively underpin the University’s new Academic structure and support the University’s learning and teaching, research and community
engagement goals.
2. Align with the University’s central administrative groups to provide a high level of service to its internal and external clients
3. Ensure a greater level of consistency in the way services are delivered through Faculties and allow for the sharing of information between like
roles and functions in each Faculty
4. Provide a management structure that supports the Executive Dean
5. Recognise the need for some flexibility to cater to the unique requirements of individual Faculties.
6. Create greater career development opportunities for staff and greater opportunity for succession planning
7. Resolve anomalies and inconsistencies that exist between current Divisions
8. Have the lowest impact on staff while meeting the abovementioned organisational needs.
7. Proposed Changes
It is proposed that effective from 1st January 2009 the existing 9 Divisions will be disestablished and restructured as Four Faculties as identified in the
Four Faculty Option outlined below.
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FIGURE 1
Four Faculty Option revised as at 2 May 2008
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Faculty of Business &
Economics
Dept. of Accounting &
Finance
Dept. of Actuarial
Studies
Dept of Business
 Labour
Management
Studies Foundation
Dept. of Business Law
Dept. of Economics
Applied Finance
Centre
Macquarie Graduate
School of
Management
(Italics for units which are research-only & bold italics for postgraduate schools or centres)
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Human Sciences
Faculty of Science
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

Dept. of Ancient History

Ancient History

Ancient Cultures (CORE)
Dept of Asian Studies
Dept of International Studies

Asian Studies

European Languages & Cultures
Dept. of Media, Music, & Cultural
Studies

Cultural Studies

Media

Contemporary Music
Dept. of Law

Law

Environmental Law

Comparative Law History &
Governance (MQRC)
Dept. of Modern History
Dept. of Sociology
Dept. of Anthropology
Dept. of Philosophy
Dept. of English
Dept. of Indigenous Studies –
Warawara
Dept. of International
Communication, Politics & Security

Politics & International
Relations

Centre for International
Communication

Policing, Intelligence &
Counter Terrorism (PICT)
20. Dept. of Education

Education

Macquarie ICT
Innovations Centre

Macquarie E-Learning
Centre of Excellence
(MELCOE)
21. Institute of Early Childhood
22. Dept. of Linguistics

Linguistics

Centre for Language
Sciences (MQRC)

NCELTR (research
component)
23. Dept. of Psychology

Psychology

Centre for Emotional
Health (MQRC)
24. Institute of Human Cognition &
Brain Science
 MU Special Education
Centre (MQRC)
 Cognitive Science (CORE)
25. School of Advanced Medicine

School of Advanced
Medicine
Social Inclusion (CRSI)
(CORE) (MQRC)
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26. Dept. of Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences

Earth System Science Network (ARC)

Genes to Geoscience Research Centre (MQRC)
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Ecology & Evolution (CORE)
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Vegetation Function Network (ARC-NZ)
27. Dept. of Brain Behaviour & Evolution
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CISAB (MQRC)

Animal Behaviour (CORE))
28. Dept. of Chiropractic
29. Dept. of Environment & Geography

Human Geography)

Health Studies

Environmental Science (previously Physical Geography including
Risk Frontiers)

Environment (Graduate School)

ARIES

Climate Risk (CORE)
30. Department of Geosciences

Earth & Planetary Sciences (and GEMOC & Earth & Planetary
Evolution CORE)
31. Dept. of Mathematics
 Mathematics
 Centre of Australian Category Theory (CoACT)
32. Physics & Engineering
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Physics
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Electronics
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Lasers & Photonics (CORE) (MQRC)
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Quantum Information & Security (CORE)

Research Network in Florescence Applications in Biotechnology
& Life Sciences (ARC/NHMRC)
33. Dept. of Computing

Computing
34. Dept. of Statistics
35. Dept. of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences
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Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences

Biomolecular Frontiers (CORE) (MQRC)(includes the former
Research Institute for Biotechnology)

Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF)
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT UNITS
As a result, we propose that each Faculty will have the following functional units:
Units
Research Support
Administration
Executive Assistant
Higher Degree Research
Finance
Front Office
Human Resources
Information Technology
Learning & Teaching
Marketing
Post Graduate Studies Support
Under Graduate Studies Support
These functional units will be made up of the existing Divisional staff who will perform, for the most part, the same fundamental roles for their new
Faculty as they have been for their current Division. For example, those staff supporting undergraduate students in Linguistics and Psych and those
in Education will form a team who will support undergraduate students in the Faculty of Human Sciences.
It is recognised that the proposed changes will have a greater impact for some staff who are currently working in cross functional teams eg ELS. In
these cases discussions have already commenced with the Manager HR and Student Administration and the proposed moves to units have been based
on the greatest match in skills.
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SPECIALIST IT AND TECHNICAL AREAS
IT in Arts
Humanities currently has its Desktop Support functions provided by a combination of support from IT Services and in house support. Law is fully
supported by ITS, and SCMP has its IT support provided in house.
It is proposed that the budget and reporting line for the IT staff in SCMP and Humanities will move to IT Services while the staff will remain
physically located in the Faculty.
Technical and Facilities roles in Science
In addition to the units that will be common to all the Faculties there is a need for Faculty Technical and Facilities staff to deal with the significant
lab and field work carried out in the Faculty of Science. It is therefore proposed that in this Faculty we will establish a unit to meet these needs
reporting into the Faculty General Manger.
Schools
The General staff structures in the two schools – MGSM and ASAM, will remain unchanged.
FACULTY MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
It is proposed that each Faculty will have the following management roles:
POSITION TITLE
Associate Dean Learning & Teaching
Associate Dean Research
Associate Dean Higher Degree Research
Faculty General Manager
Faculty HR Manager
Faculty Marketing Manager
Faculty IT Manager
Faculty Research Manager
Faculty Learning & Teaching Manager
Student Administration Manager
HDR Administration Coordinator
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These roles will be organised in the following structure:
FIGURE 2
Executive
Dean
Faculty
General Manager
Associate Dean
Research
Faculty
HR Manager
Associate Dean
Higher Degree Research
Faculty
Research Manager
Manager
Higher Degree Research
Faculty
Marketing Manager
Heads of Department
Manager
Teaching & Learning
Manager
Student Administration
Faculty
IT Manager
Faculty
Technical Manager
Science Only
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Associate Dean
Teaching & Learning
8
A number of these roles do not exist in all Divisions, for example most Divisions do not have a Divisional Research Manager. Where there are
people in the existing structure who are doing work at the same level we propose to move these people into the new management roles.
In one new Faculty we have 2 Divisional Managers and only one position and on this basis we propose to move one of the current Divisional
Managers, following consultation with the affected staff member to a vacant Faculty General Manager position in another Faculty.
Where there are no staff in comparable positions at the equivalent level with the requisite skills required for the position, a competitive selection
process will be conducted. In this regard we anticipate that the following management positions will be subject to a competitive selection process:
POSITION
Manager – HDR
Faculty Research Manager
HR Manager
Learning & Teaching Manager
Marketing Manager
Student Administration Manager
Faculty
All Faculties
Arts, Business, Science
Arts
All Faculties
Arts, Human Sciences and Science
All Faculties
8. Implications for Staff
The following section outlines the key implications for staff resulting from the proposed changes.
Continuing Staff
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The vast majority of staff will move directly from the current Divisions and Departments to the new Faculties and Departments.
The proposed changes in roles for each individual staff member are listed in Appendices 1-4
In the vast majority of cases staff in Departmental roles will move into the same or substantially similar roles in the new Department.
Staff in Divisional offices will move into the new Faculty offices. As staff will be coming into the Faculties from a number of Divisions to
one Faculty, there will need to be some adjustment in the allocation of work. For example, the officers responsible for student enquiries in
Humanities, SCMP and Law will become the Student Services Team in Arts.
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The exception at a unit level is IT in Arts. Currently desktop support for Humanities and Law is being provided in the Division, it is
proposed that in future all IT staff in the Arts Faculty will be managed by IT services. In the other Faculties desktop support officers will
form Faculty IT teams.
We propose the creation of a number of senior Faculty Management positions for general staff as outlined in Table 1. In a number of cases
we do not have staff who hold comparable positions so this will mean that these positions will be subject to a competitive selection process.
This represents a range of new career opportunities for some staff.
Fixed Term Staff
These staff will continue to be employed until the end of their fixed term appointment. Where this period extends beyond 1 January 2009, they will
move into the appropriate Departmental or Faculty role. Fixed term employees are eligible to apply for continuing positions advertised internally,
subject to meeting general University requirements.
Impacts on Executive Assistants/Personal Assistants to Deans
In moving from the current 9 Division structure to the 4 Faculty structure it has been identified that we will have more staff members currently
undertaking the function of Executive Assistant/Personal Assistant than roles in the new structure.
This means that the staff in these categories may need to compete through a merit based process for the available positions. If a staff member is
unsuccessful in securing a position through a competitive process, the University will take all reasonable steps to redeploy the staff member into a
suitable alternative position. In the lead up to the Faculty General Staff change process we have only allowed areas to appoint to General Staff
vacancies on a fixed term basis in order to preserve these opportunities for potential displaced staff. Consequently we currently have a number of
positions which may represent suitable redeployment opportunities.
If these avenues are exhausted it may be necessary in some circumstances for staff to be offered Voluntary Redundancy (VR) in accordance with
Clause 6.2 of the Macquarie University Enterprise Agreement 2006 –2009.
It is our hope that as a result of HR working closely with displaced staff on suitable redeployment options no general staff will need to be
compulsorily retrenched.
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Employment issues
Continuity of employment:
General staff members with continuing appointments who are placed in new Faculty and Department roles will remain continuing employees.
Salary:
All general staff in current Divisions will retain the salary of their current grade on translation to the new Faculty structure.
Grading:
The grading of newly created roles will occur in the implementation phase of the change process. If a review of current roles is required as a result
of changes to position descriptions, positions will be subjected to a formal evaluation process after staff have moved into the new Faculties.
Salary Maintenance:
In the event that a staff member moves to a position that is later graded at a lower level following an evaluation process, the current incumbent will
be entitled to ongoing salary maintenance. The current Enterprise Agreement (EA) provides for maintenance of salary payments from the date of
transfer for a period of 12 months. We have taken the decision to go beyond the EA provisions and propose that salary maintenance will continue
until:
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the staff member moves into a new job, or
their job is reclassified to a higher HEW level
a subsequent workplace change affects the role.
Staff receiving salary maintenance will continue to receive incremental progression (subject to performance) and increases in accordance with the
EA. In the event that the position falls vacant, the position will be advertised at the new classification level.
10. Financial Implications of Proposed Change
As a result of a successful application, Macquarie University has secured $1.58 million in Workplace Productivity Programme. The major grant was
awarded for Review of Academic Structure - $1.35 million. We have Commonwealth Government funding to cover the bulk of administrative issues
associated with the restructure. The complete costings for restructure cannot be completed until the staffing structure is finalised. Initial estimates
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involve weighing the savings made by the reduction in costs by discontinuing roles such as Divisional Deans and General Manager roles against
redundancy costs and the cost of newly created Faculty management positions. These estimates indicate that the savings against the old Divisional
model compared to the ongoing administrative cost of the new Faculty structure (including the costs of setup) will produce a positive return within 3
years. In other words, the restructure will pay for itself within 3 years.
11. Consultation on this proposal
Consultation on the proposed changes is an important aspect of the change process. It is important to note that the consultation related to the
Academic Review and subsequent change resulted in a number of significant changes to the proposed structure. We therefore propose that
consultation and feedback will occur through the following mechanisms.

Affected staff may respond to the proposed changes through written submissions to the Deputy Director HR – Phil Hagan by 30 June 2008.

Staff on extended leave will be provided with a copy of the Change Proposal and will be given the opportunity to provide feedback.

Meetings will be held through June to provide further opportunities for individual or group discussion about the proposals. These meetings
will be scheduled in response to Faculty based needs. In addition, affected staff are welcome to contact Phil Hagan in Human Resources for
further information and advice on the consultation process.

From June 30 there will be a 2 week period to 14 July 2008 in which the University will consider feedback from staff, submissions and any
alternate proposals. Staff will be provided with a summary of the feedback at the conclusion of this period and the details of any amendments
that have been made to the proposal as a consequence of the feedback.
12. Proposed Timelines for Implementation
If, after it has considered the submissions and feedback, the University decides to proceed to implement the proposed change or some modified
version of the change, the University will inform affected staff. We will then follow the appropriate assessment and consultation processes regarding
implementation and then begin to plan the implementation of the new general staff structures in the lead up to January 2009.
Following this we will implement the new General staff structure. In many cases this will simply mean a move in reporting line with all changes in
place by 1 January 2009.
Staff who may be required to undergo a competitive selection process as a consequence of the change will be advised of the anticipated timeframes
in the implementation phase.
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Most components of the Academic managing change process have now been completed, we have already selected the Executive Deans for 2
Divisions and are in the process of selecting and appointing Executive Deans to the remaining Executive Dean vacancies. Where the Executive
Deans have been appointed we will soon move to appointing Associate Deans of Faculties.
13. Next Steps and implementation issues
Following the consultation process on the proposed change, and once a decision has been made to proceed with the change position descriptions will
be developed for the new management roles and standardised EA and Departmental roles. These roles will then undergo a formal evaluation process
and the selection process for any vacant positions will follow.
During the Implementation phase the Faculty General Managers will be also be working to identify possible staff training need in the lead up to the
implementation date.
14. Support Services
It is anticipated that the change process will create a number of opportunities for staff. In this regard HR will be conducting a series of information
sessions aimed at supporting staff if they are displaced or are interested in updating their CV and applying for the newly created opportunities.
Further details will be released in the Change Implementation plan.
Enquires with respect to the proposed changes should be directed to:
Phil Hagan
Deputy Director, Human Resources
Ph : 9850 9749
Email : phil.hagan@mq.edu.au
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