Faculty of Business and Economics
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group.
Meeting 4/2010 of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group of
the Faculty of Business and Economics was held at 3.00pm on Friday 8th October
2010 at the Berwick campus
BBusCom Twiki: https://wiki.monash.edu/bbuscom/bin/view/Bbuscom/WebHome
Minutes of Meeting
Item
1. Attendance
1.1
Present
Dr Shanthy Rachagan (Chair), Professor Val Clulow, Mr Peter Krueger, Dr Glen
Croy, Ms Elizabeth Jose, Professor Rob Brooks, Dr Mahendra Goyal, Dr Ratbek
Dzhumashev, Dr Jill Wright, Kaye Robertson (for Ms Sandra Laurence), Ms Judy
Tennant, Ms Fiona Bertoli, Ms Loree Ambrose, Dr Andrea Kirk-Brown, Dr Stephen
Saunders, Associate Professor Hannelize Jacobs, Dr Andrea Howell
1.2
Apologies
Dr Ilse Niemann-Struweg,
1.3
In Attendance
Jenni Williams (Secretary)
2. Approval of all unstarred items
Members had the opportunity to star additional items for discussion. Items 1, 2, 3, 4,
5 and 8 were starred.
The Chair moved that all items on the agenda not starred to be adopted without
discussion and the necessary action be taken or the information therein be noted.
3. Minutes
The minutes of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group
Meeting 02/2010 held on Friday 11th June 2010 were confirmed.
4. Issues arising from previous minutes – Action Sheet
4.1 Item 7.2 (3/08) Guidelines for health and safety during student and staff
placement
The Occupational Health and Safety Committee in Sunway are having difficulty
getting this document through the appropriate committees as the policy is required
for the whole campus.
Malaysian students are covered under the current guidelines and insurance when
doing placements, but international students are not able to undertake placements if
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 1 of 6
studying at the campus.
The item is to be removed from the action sheet and will be revisited when a campus
level policy is approved.
4.2 Item 8.7 (1/10) Examination paper requirements form and delivery notification
Following further discussions with the Examinations Branch it has been agreed an
additional document (see attachment 4.1 in agenda) can be added to the
Examination Paper Requirements Form and Delivery Notification for Australian
campuses.
4.3 Item 8.3 (2/10) Plagiarism
No further action required at this time as the LMS design is being completed.
4.4 Item 8.4 (2/10) Honours presentations in August
The Honours presentations took place at all campuses during August as per the
course requirements. It was reported as a positive event for all.
5
Issues arising from other meetings
5.1 Update from Faculty Education Committee

Pass rates on outer metropolitan campuses
Pass rates at Berwick and Peninsula have been of concern for some time and a
working party has been formed to look into the fail rates particularly for
Accounting and Finance units at these campuses.
The data collected by the working party shows that performance varies based on
where students live. Issues involving engagement have been identified and are
being addressed currently. Students on the working party have also raised
issues about space on the campuses.
Berwick recently held a workshop to look at campus based initiative that could
address these issues and the working party will continue to investigate the
reasons for disengagement.
5.2 Berwick Working Party Update
Faculty Board have approved the option of a Bachelor of Business being offered at
Berwick campus from 2012, making the Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of
Business the business degrees for metropolitan Melbourne.
The Bachelor of Business at Berwick will be unique in major offerings and proposals
for these will go to the Undergraduate Studies Committee in October.
Discussions have taken place with the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Information
Technology to offer cross faculty majors. It is expected that Business and
Economics will offer a major into a Social Sciences degree, run by the Faculty of
Arts.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 2 of 6
The Gippsland campus will be involved in the development of a major in the Finance
and Economics area, to ensure there is no competitive disadvantage to the Finance
and Macroeconomics major that is currently offered at both campuses.
6
Course Amendments
All course amendments being considered at Faculty Board were noted.
7
Unit Amendments
8
Unit amendments noted
.
Other Business
8.1 Course Completion Business Process
According to the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 it is a prerequisite
for all Malaysian students to pass the Malaysian National Subjects; National
Language, Malaysian Studies and Islamic Studies (for Muslim students) or Moral
Studies (for non Muslim students) to graduate.
The processes outlined in attachment 8.1 (see agenda) outline the course
completion process which is in place to ensure these conditions are met.
8.2 Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Review 2011
It has been five years since the last course review and the next review will
commence in July 2011. The review will start in the week of 11th July with the
international campuses meeting in Malaysia. The external review will take place in
October 2011.
The internal review will address four key areas:
 Bachelor of Business and Commerce going forward
 Teach out of the degree at various campuses
 Academic standards
 Configuration and performance within the Multi campus policy
The review process will be lead by the secretariat and Bachelor of Business and
Commerce Honours and Bachelor of Business and Commerce (Global) will be
included in the process.
Although not confirmed it is expected that part of the degree review will contribute to
the Go8 external verification which the University has agreed to participate in.
8.3 Removal of Bachelor of Psychological Science and Business at Gippsland and
Peninsula
The Group were advised of the removal of this course from the listed campuses
which has now been approved by all appropriate committees.
8.4 EQUIS Update
A draft of the self review EQUIS document has been completed and is available at
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 3 of 6
http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/esg/accreditation/report/self-assessment-reportfinal-3.pdf.
The focus of the EQUIS review will be the Bachelor of Commerce. Panel interviews
will take place with staff and students between the 16th and 18th of November.
Student contributions have been good to date, which is useful as the panel are
looking at student experience.
As EQUIS is a European panel it was noted at accreditation that links could be
strengthened with industry. This is improving, although is still minimal in Malaysia in
comparison with other public universities in the country which have government
support.
8.5 Faculty Internship and Placement Units
Faculty Board have approved faculty units for internships with 6, 12 and 24 credit
points to run in semester one, two and summer. These units will replace the Faculty
based internship or placement units on Melbourne metropolitan campuses after
semester 1 2011. The Gippsland and Sunway based BEW units and the marketing
internship units on all campuses will continue to run. The transition is currently being
considered as the units are operationally and academically different to varying
degrees.
It is not expected that Berwick or Peninsula will use the 24 credit point unit and the 6
credit point unit will not generally be required at Caulfield.
These units have been established to maintain a consistent structure for all
metropolitan campuses. Although the units will be managed academically and
professionally at the individual campuses there will be one Chief Examiner
overseeing them.
Due to visa regulations international students will not be able to undertake the 24
credit point unit, and paid work commitments will need to be taken into consideration
for any other placement units.
8.6 Monash University Withdrawal from Undergraduate Activity with Open
Universities Australia
Monash University has been involved with Open Universities Australia for
appropriately 15 years contributing both undergraduate and postgraduate units and
courses. Following ongoing discussions Monash University have decided to
withdraw from undergraduate offerings to focus on postgraduate offerings.
Units will not be offered after study period 4 2011.
8.7 Multi Campus Checklist Summary
During the data collection process of the checklists some issues with Chief
Examiners have been noted. The Faculty Academic Governance unit are looking
into methods to ensure more accurate records can be maintained.
It was agreed that the policies relevant to the multi campus policy, such as the Chief
Examiners policy and the assessment policy should be circulated on a regular basis.
(Chief Examiners policy can be found at http://cmspublic.buseco.monash.edu.au/esg/agu/policies/responsibilities-coe.html)
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 4 of 6
Monash University Sunway campus provide feedback on the multi campus policy
each semester to the University Education Committee and this seems to vary a lot to
the information received from local campuses. It was last raised at meeting 04/10
(see item 8 at http://adm.monash.edu.au/execserv/committees/othercommittees/education/meetings/index.html ), and it was “noted that the responses
from Sunway staff indicated that further improvement and consolidation was
required.”
All responses regarding the Multi campus policy will be looked at together to see
where improvements can be made, but it is agreed that ultimately communication
between staff is the key to ensure that the policy is followed.
Currently Monash University South Africa are not aware of the checklist, but are
keen to be involved.
8.8 Introduction of 12 Week Semesters in 2011
With the introduction of 12 weeks semesters there is no need for a revision week as
approved by Academic Board, so the full 12 weeks are for teaching new content. It
was also confirmed that no formal classes will take place during SWOT VAC.
It was noted during this discussion that Malaysia have been allowing students to
enrol in units up until the end of week 3. In Australia the deadline for enrolling units
has always been the end of week 2 and Malaysia are to come in line with this.
10 Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Friday 26th November at the Peninsula campus in
Block A, Room 234 (video conference room)
**South Africa will video conference into this meeting
Please see Action Sheet Below
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 5 of 6
Faculty of Business and Economics
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group
Action Sheet
MTG
3/08
01/2010
02/2010
02/2010
ITEM
No.
7.2
8.2
TOPIC
ACTION REQUIRED
RESPONSIBLE
STATUS
Guidelines for health and safety
during student and staff
placements
Approval from the relevant authorities at MUSC
Elsa Satkunasingam
Completed
Examination paper requirements
form and delivery notification
Redesign or on line version of form to be suggested to Exams
Brach
Professor Val Clulow
Completed – see above
Plagiarism
The introduction of plagiarism software is to be taken to the
Faculty for further consideration due to increase of cases
Professor Rob Brooks/Dr
Shanthy Rachagan
No further action
Honours presentation in August
Set dates for each campus presentation and conduct
Professor Val Clulow
Completed
8.3
8.4
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 02/2010
Page 6 of 6