Bachelor of Business and Commerce
Course Advisory Group
Minutes of Meeting
Meeting 1/2013 of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group of the Faculty of
Business and Economics was held at 3.00pm on Friday 8 March 2013 via video/tele conference from Sunway,
South Africa, Berwick and Gippsland Campuses.
The Chair welcomed members to the first meeting for 2013 and advised she aimed to keep CAG meetings to
a one hour timeslot when possible.
1
ATTENDANCE
Present:
S Rachagan (Chair), F Bertoli, G Croy, N De Costa, R Dzhumashev, H Jacobs, K Kamalagaran,
P Krueger, E Satkunasingam, M Shaiban, J Tennant, J Wright
Apologies: C Coney, M Goyal, T Joiner, N Kimberley, A Kirk-Brown, HB Klopper, S Laurence, C Lee,
I Niemann-Struweg, S Pillay,B Watson, M Zaman
Secretary: K Chewe
2
STARRING OF ITEMS
In addition to items previously starred in the agenda, Items 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13 were starred for discussion. All
items on the agenda not starred were adopted without discussion, the necessary action taken and the
information noted.
3
MINUTES
3.1
Confirmation of Previous Minutes
The minutes of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group meeting 04/2012 held on 30
November 2012 were confirmed.
4
ACTION ITEMS AND ISSUES ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES

Point 12 BBusCom Review Update - Chair to provide a timeline for implementation at the next meeting
ACTION: Completed

Point 14 Faculty Recognition of Minors
ACTION: After discussing the merits and options of recognising and offering minors, the Chair will now
discuss in detail with the Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching) and the Manager, Academic Services
and report back to the next meeting.
Manager, Academic Services has previously provided a letter template for consideration.
ACTION: Completed

Point 16 QVS for Busines Law
ACTION: Completed.
5
ISSUES ARISING FROM OTHER MEETINGS
5.1
Undergraduate Studies Committee / Coursework Planning Committee

USC Chair congratulated Ms Judith Tennant on her award of a Learning and Teaching Fellowship
to develop a Bachelor of Business and Commerce capstone unit.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
Page 1 of 8

The nominee for the Head of School, Gippsland noted that the initial title of the proposed new major
should be amended to ‘Business information systems management’. USC endorsed the change
of title for the major.

USC considered the proposed course structure for the new tagged degree Bachelor of Business
and Commerce (Entrepreneurship and Marketing) and expressed significant concern regarding the
scope of the entrepreneurship component. Following discussion, USC agreed to return the proposal
to the School of Business, Gippsland and request a redevelopment of the proposed course structure.

USC Chair reported that the Course and Unit Viability Annual Review 2012 had been conducted on
Wednesday 31 October 2012. The review trialled a new format with departments and schools each
allocated individual 20 minute sessions with the panel. Feedback from the panel and participants
indicated the format worked well and allowed for a department specific focus.
The panel also agreed that a further refinement of the initial report specifications would be made for
the 2013 review such as the exclusion of Honours level unit offerings and an amended timeframe for
summer semester offered units.
Review outcomes from South Africa and the Sunway campus will be completed following further
appraisal. Of the 43 courses assessed two have been recommended for disestablishment and the
removal of a further two course offerings. Three courses were recommended for retention. The review
of 36 courses was deferred further to evaluation of AQF compliance requirements and relevant course
review outcomes.
440 unit offerings were reviewed. Of those 74 units were recommended for disestablishment and
removal of a further 17 unit offerings. 116 unit offerings were retained for strategic reasons. The
review of 233 units is also pending further to AQF compliance requirements.
A full report was tabled at the Faculty Education Committee 5/2012.
Faculty Board approved the outcomes of the 2012 Course and Unit Viability Annual Review.
5.2
Faculty Education Committee

FEC received and noted the revised Faculty Mission, Vision and Values statement approved by
Faculty Board (via circulation) October 2012, which incorporated minor amendments to some words.

FEC Chair sought member views on the introduction of minor study sequences into undergraduate
Faculty degrees noting that this had arisen in the context of the recent Bachelor of Business Course
Review and as part of discussions in relation to the options for the Berwick campus. It was noted that
both the Faculties of Arts and Science include minors in course structures and that the Department of
Econometrics and Business Statistics had offered a minor study sequence for some years.
Members agreed in principle with the introduction of minors acknowledging that the Faculty would
need to adopt a definition consistent with the University definition which stated that ‘A Bachelor
degree minor consists of 24 credit points in a field of study or discipline, of which no more than 12
credit points should be at level 1’.
FEC Chair thanked members for their comments and advised that this matter would be progressed
through the Bachelor of Business Course Review Improvement Plan implementation process and the
Bachelor of Business Administration, pending its approval. Systems for recording minors would be
investigated.
5.3
Faculty Board

Faculty Board congratulated Ms Judy Tennant and Mr Andrew West on achieving Learning and
Teaching Fellowships, to undertake the development of an internationalisation-themed capstone unit
to be offered at Gippsland, Sunway and South Africa campuses.

Faculty Board received a Memorandum which outlined the requirement for the Dean to executively
approve the disestablishment of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce and Bachelor of
Visual and Media Arts (3832), in order that the relevant VTAC deadlines could be met. Faculty
Board endorsed the executive action taken.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
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
Faculty Board endorsed the in-principle direction outlined for the Bachelor of Business
Administration at the Berwick campus, noting that proposal development would be informed in early
2013 by the relevant data.

Accreditation update - The Deputy Dean Education reiterated the importance of the upcoming
AACSB events, including the mock audit, scheduled for 18–19 February 2013, and the Peer Review
Team (PRT) visit, scheduled for 21–24 April 2013. The DDE also expressed his gratitude to all staff
who had worked hard on Assurance of Learning throughout the year. It was noted that the final
Assurance of Learning (AoL) Reference Group would take place in the near future, before the AoL
process would be subsumed into the Terms of Reference for the Education Innovation and Quality
Committee.
Subsequent reporting on accreditation would be presented by the Deputy Dean External
and International at Faculty Board meeting 1/2013 on 20 March 2013.

Faculty Board endorsed new course proposal Bachelor of Business and Commerce (Finance and
Investment) for submission to Academic Board via University Education Committee. This new
course proposal was subsequently approved at Academic Board 1/13.

Faculty Board endorsed the proposed major course amendment for Bachelor of Business and
Commerce to add a new major – Business information systems management – following
identification of demand for business students with higher levels of business information skills in the
recent Bachelor of Business and Commerce review. This proposal was subsequently approved at
Academic Board 1/13.

The Bachelor of Business and Commerce programs were reviewed in 2011. The Course
Improvement Plan was endorsed by Faculty Education Committee 5/2012.
6
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
6.1
Course and Unit Proposals –Future

Bachelor of Business Science (Accounting)
Request to amend units:
o
o
BTW3302 South African Taxation B
BTW3303 South African Taxation C
BTW3302 Unit
Amendment_DoM PAN_Proforma-1.docx
BTW3303 Unit
Amendment_DoM PAN_Proforma-2.docx

Bachelor of Business Science
o
o
Request to offer new MSA unit: ETSXXXX Quantitative methods for business
Request to offer an existing MU unit: ETW3410 Applied Econometrics - new code ETS3410
New unit proposal
Quantitative methods for business (1).docx
6.2
Course and Unit Proposals – Current
Extract from USC 5/12 minutes – course and unit approvals.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
Page 3 of 8
Extract
5-12-usc-minutes_v2 for CAGs.docx
Curriculum Development Report 1/13 as ratified at CPC 1/13 on 14 February 2013.
1-13-curric-dev-rpt-r
atified-cpc-1-13.docx
7
ACADEMIC PROGRAMS OFFERED FROM MULTIPLE CAMPUSES
Completed end of semester checklists have been collated from multi campus unit CEs.
that no serious issues have been identified in the completed checklists.
The Chair reported
The Chair reported concern with outstanding (not completed or returned) checklists. The Chair has advised
requests for future multi-campus checklists are sent to HoDs for them to follow up with relevant Chief
Examiners. The Chair also suggested DCDs should get involved if checklists are outstanding by their due
date.
The outcomes of 2013 end of semester checklists will be discussed at the Education Innovation and Quality
Committee (EIQC).
8
ACCREDITATION AND ASSURANCE OF LEARNING (AOL) UPDATE
The Chair advised of three important points identified at the mock audit –
I.
Examples of improvements need to be identified and documented. The Chair confirmed many
quality improvements have been made, but advised it is important staff now identify specific
examples of these improvements, as these will provide important evidence for AOL.
II.
The proposed capstone unit is an excellent example coming out of AOL and should continued to
progress for endorsement at CPC 2/13.
III.
Chair asked what do we do if we have 90-95%.ongoing testing as far as AOL exercise concerned.
The Manager, Academic Services advised she was involved in the mock review on the first day, discussing
academic programs. An important outcome of this session was to ensure accreditation documentation was
presented in a way that auditors could gain a clear understanding of the Faculty’s various course structures.
Manager, Academic Services will continue to work with the Faculty.
9
BBusCom REVIEW UPDATE
The Chair asked members to view the timelines in the document below.
BBCom_Course_Revi
ew_Improvement_Plan_9_Nov_2012v2[1].doc
ACTION: Any concerns with meeting these timelines should be discussed with the Chair.
ACTION: Committee Secretary to send this document to Student Services and all other concerned parties.
10
BBusCom UPDATE
DCD written reports from –
10.1

Berwick – Mr Manir Zaman
No enrolment in BBusCom this year as Berwick campus is no longer offering this degree. 2013 is the last
year of offering BBusCom core units.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
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

10.2

The undergraduate degree positioning working party, set up by the Faculty to examine the offering of a
new degree programme at Berwick Campus has completed its review. The Berwick campus will be
proceeding with a new degree, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), which is planned to start in
2014. Accounting, Economics & Finance, and Marketing will be the three majors on offer. This new
degree would probably adopt a blended learning approach. All the units will have a separate Berwick
code. This change would mean no further intake into the BBus degree at Berwick campus and effectively
means that in 2014, the campus will have two degrees in teach out mode (BBusCom & BBus).
Disposed of the students’ applications relating to overload in Sem 1, 2013. Completed most of the
learning contracts with the students arising out of unsatisfactory progress in studies.
Gippsland – Ms Judy Tennant
Enrolments Semester 1 2013
The year started off very well. Our overall numbers are up on last year which is very good. I have
included a breakdown below
VTAC - ONCAMPUS
DIRECT OFFER ONCAMPUS
ELBP
DOTS
MONASH COLLEGE
INTERNATIONAL
SINGLE SUBJECT ONCAMPUS
OFFCAMPUS DE UNDERGRAD
OFFCAMPUS DE POSTGRAD
SINGLE SUBJECT DE
CROSS INSTITUTIONAL STUDY DE
TOTAL
Student numbers
45
3
11
12
9
22
1
58
49
5
5
220

Orientation went smoothly with very good attendance numbers from our on-campus students.

Capstone Unit
Andrew West and I had very successful meetings in February this year in Malaysia with Elsa
Satkunasingam, Hannelize Jacobs, Nell Kimberly (by teleconference) and Jennifer Williams. At the
meetings we were able to make good headway in determining:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Unit Objectives and the alignment of these to the Graduate Attributes of the Bachelor of
Business and Commerce
Content , including skills we wish to develop/refine during the course of the unit including:
cultural diversity/sensitivity
communication (group/team work and reflective writing)\
citizenship
What is globalisation
Assessment
We have a long way to go as yet, but have a strong foundation to build upon. Our sincere thanks to all
participants in our exciting project.

Changes to the Gippsland Campus
As you would probably be aware, there is a proposal that the Gippsland Campus will in some way ‘join’
with the University of Ballarat. There is not much I can add at this point. More information can be found
at: http://www.monash.edu.au/gippsland-future/
The Chair expressed concerns from both Sunway and South African campuses as the BBusCom offering
at Gippsland is seen as a pathway for their students. DCDs indicated that student numbers do not
necessarily indicate the added value of this option when marketing the course to international campuses.
Suggested that the proposed Bachelor of Business Administration at Berwick campus, should have
equivalent units so this could be an option for Sunway and SA students.
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
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It was also suggested that Sunway and SA students could come to an Australian campus to complete a
minor.
ACTION: The Chair to follow-up the concerns of Sunway and South Africa if the proposed changes to
Gippsland campus go ahead for 2014.
10.3




There was a meeting between Judy Tennant, Andrew West, Hannelize Jacobs, Jenni Williams and Elsa
Satkunasingam at the Sunway campus on Feb 4 and 5, 2013 to discuss a new capstone unit. Judy and
Andrew were awarded a Learning and Teaching Fellowship to develop the unit. The first round of
discussions was quite successful.
The School of Business had a transition program meeting for all lecturers teaching first year core units to
help first year students achieve a smooth transition to university learning methods. The topics covered
were proper referencing, plagiarism, use of software and developing writing skills.
The Sessional Teachers Training Program comprising several modules will be held on 26 th February to
prepare new sessional staff members for teaching at Monash.
The Chief Examiners briefing will be conducted on 28 February to ensure that all staff are fully prepared to
coordinate their units. All Chief Examiners have been reminded to upload their unit guides.
10.4
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
South Africa – Associate Professor Hannelize Jacobs
A process is underway to strategically renew the Monash South African campus. The Strategic Business
Plan will be announced to staff later this month. Currently heavy resource restrictions are in place to
enable the campus to achieve the financial targets it has set for itself.
The student enrolments in our school are higher than in 2012 at the same time. On 5 March 831 students
were enrolled for the BBusSci program and 199 students for the BBusSci (Accounting) degree.
The School of Business and Economics is investigating the introduction of a new governance structure to
better align it to campus and faculty structures.
A decision was taken that each BBusSci major will devise a plan to incorporate community engagement
practices, e.g. in the form of service learning or WIL. The school will work closely with the campus’s
department of Community Engagement on this.
The school recently participated in some of the mock AACSB accreditation processes. We realise that
more preparation is needed for when the actual process takes place in April 2013. The Heads of
Department has been tasked to prepare the staff in their departments. The chair of the review panel will
visit our campus and school on 19 April.
The campus has given the school the green light to introduce more Summer School units. The unit
AFW1000 Principles of Accounting and Finance was successfully offered in the 2013 Summer School. 21
of the 27 students passed the unit.
The school supports in principle the inclusion of a compulsory capstone unit in the BBusSci degree and
wants to fully participate in this multi-campus unit. The timeframe of its introduction on our campus will
depend on the availability of resources at that stage. It seems possible to incorporate this unit in all our
BBusSci course maps.
A new 'Quantitative methods for Business' unit has been developed for introduction as a BBusSci elective
in Semester 2, 2014 if it is approved on campus and faculty level. This unit is to be a Monash South Africa
unit and aims to develop the mathematical capability of our business students (especially our Economics
major students).
The Economics major wants to add the existing ETW3410 Advanced Econometrics unit to their unit
offerings as from 2014 (if approved). The application also includes the change of the code to ETS3410.
The change of units to campus specific units poses a practical and academic quality assurance problem
for the offering of the program on our campus. Since we are experiencing high levels of staff shortages we
do not have enough full-time academics to act in CE roles (a high number of our units are presented by
sessional staff only). A solution needs to be found for this problem.
The Chair advised that not all units will be affected, but this issues requires further discussion.
ACTION: Chair to discuss with BBus Course Director and HoDs.
10.5

Sunway – Dr Elsa Satkunasingam
Peninsula – Dr Glen Croy
Classes are getting smaller as the BBusCom teach-out continues. As always there are ongoing concerns
that some Departments may want to reduce offerings prior to the teach-out plan. At this stage there are
two units of concern:
o
o
BTW3221 (S2 2013)
ECW2451 (S2 2013)
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
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
It appears that some of these communications and decisions are being made without inclusion of
Peninsula campus Deputy Course Director, Faculty Student Services, and consideration of students in the
course. Rather they are being made by staff members’ lack of desire to teach at the campus and or
student numbers (always going to be low student numbers in a teach-out plan). Need to make sure that
no units are withdrawn prior to stated teach-out offering (first reference point). All communication in
regards to any deviation from the teach-out plan also needs to include the Deputy Course Director and
Faculty Student Services.
To assist students leaving university, in partnership with Employment and Career Development, we will be
running a ‘Transition into Employment’ (two half-day workshops) again this year in early March to coincide
with graduate application processes.
Chair requested information on transition to employment ideas be shared with CAG members.
ACTION: DCD Peninsula to inform via DCDs.

At a campus level, we are also running a transition into university programme, involving an online and
face-to-face programme = Planning for Graduate Success. This is to get our new students thinking about,
planning for and actually implementing their plans for success after university. The programme involves a
Moodle based-programme, and then a selection of workshops running in the first six weeks of semester.
You can check the Moodle site here – self-enrol. If you have any feedback please do provide it. You may
also distribute the Moodle site to your own students if appropriate.
o http://moodle.vle.monash.edu/course/view.php?id=10264

In the BBus, Assoc. Prof. Colin Jevons is the new course director.
We have had another two days of PBL staff training.
We ran a two day orientation for our 58 new PBL students, with positive feedback. This is up from the
2012 enrolments of 44, and much greater than our initial enrolment in 2011.
If taking OSP, or if you know someone that is, get them to consider Peninsula campus. Additionally, if
wanting research space away from the home campus on a regular or irregular basis please contact
Narelle Krueger to work out options: narelle.krueger@monash.edu
The offering of summer units was discussed and all agreed promotion of these units needs to be done earlier
than in the past. This issue was identified in the BBusCom Review, with students advising they often do not
find out about summer unit options until it is too late for course planning and enrolment.
ACTION: Chair asked each relevant campus to distribute promotional material on summer units by June.
10.6

BBusCom(Hons) - Dr Mohammed Sharaf Shaiban
BBusCom(Hons) Student Handbook
The 2013 BBusCom(Hons) Student Handbook had been updated with slight revisions made in the
following area:
 Milestone for Project Proposals and Ethical Clearance from week 3 & 4 to week 4 & 5
respectively;
 Added a brief description on AOL Assessment, Rubric form and Assessment Report template.
The amendments/ additions is basically is for BEW4100. The rest remain unchanged as 2012.
Some supervisors are still not happy with all revisions and will take the opportunity to amend in the next
update.
ACTION: BBusCom (Hons) CD to re-send report.

BBusCom(Hons)/PGDip Semester 1, 2013 intake
There are a total of 15 students accepted in the BBusCom(Hons)/PG Dip program in Semester 1, 2013
with Monash Sunway campus. However, there are 2 withdrawals due to personal reason. In total, there
are 13 students (11 Honours and 2 PG Dip) started the program on 1st March 2013 denoted same
number of students recruited in 2012.
A briefing session was conducted on 22 Feb 2013 to all supervisors highlighting and re-emphasizing their
roles and responsibilities, key challenges, milestones and plans to move forward. This is to allow new
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
Page 7 of 8
supervisors to familiarize with the policies and procedures for the Honours program with the aim to
achieve AOL standard.

A successful orientation program was carried out on 1st Mar 2013 (1st day of the Semester 2013). The
response was overwhelming with lots of interactions, questions and enthusiasm shown by the students.
It was a good head-start and sharing session for the students.
The Chair advised Sunway are no longer able to sponsor students and if other campuses are in a
position to do so, please go ahead.

Introducing a new approach
Interdisciplinary and co- supervision were introduced for 2013 Sem 1 intake with the aim of developing
more lecturers with supervisory skills in honours degree and in alignment with the school KPIs.
There are 7 supervisors and 9 co-supervisors from multi-disciplines volunteered to supervise/cosupervise the 1st Sem 2013 batch students.

AACSB Mock Audit Review
A Mock Audit took place on 18 -20 Feb on the AOL assessment for BBusCom(Hons). Most of the
Course Directors and Course Coordinator and management members attended the 1 st meeting. The
feedback from the discussion was very insightful.
11
QUALITY VERIFICATION SYSTEMS (QVS) FOR BUSINESS LAW
QVS
Report_-_v4[1].docx
12
TERMS OF REFERENCE
The first draft Terms of Reference for the BBusCom CAG were distributed with the agenda. The Chair
requested DCDs and Manager, Academic Services review and provide feedback. All suggestions, no matter
how minor, are very welcome.
ACTION: DCDs and Manager, Academic Services to provide feedback to the Chair. The ToR will then be
finalised in conjunction with the BCom and BBus Course Directors, the Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching)
and the Manager, Academic Services.
13
MEETING DATES FOR 2013
Further meeting dates for 2013 were confirmed and will be held via video/tele conference links to members as
follows:
Meeting 2 – 3 May
Meeting 3 14 June
Meeting 4 – 16 August
Meeting 5 – 25 October
Bachelor of Business and Commerce Course Advisory Group – Minutes 01/2013
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