At the Vice-Chancellor’s Mid-Year Town Hall on 25 June, Professor S Bruce Dowton welcomed questions from staff. He received an overwhelming response and appreciates colleagues’ engagement and interest.

---

Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is not the issue. Are we, as a University, making sure that all kind of speeches are  encouraged? Freedom of speech shouldn’t be passive but an active statement to have. Are we making sure that we have balanced representation of ideas? Something to think about…

Freedom of speech is at the core of the issue at hand.  How the University community chooses to exercise that important freedom is a matter for the community itself to lead in fostering.  I welcome the report of the Independent Review of Freedom of Speech in Higher Education Providers (the French Review).  Both the Chancellor, the Hon. Michael Egan AO, and I strongly support the promotion of free speech on university campuses as responsible institutions in our democracy.  Freedom of speech and academic freedom are of fundamental importance to the life and vitality of a university.

The French Review is currently being considered by the University’s Academic Senate and it is anticipated that the Review will then be considered by the University’s Governing Council.  This approach entirely accords with Minister Tehan’s request that universities give ‘full and careful consideration’ to the Model Code proposed by the French Review.  The Code is consistent with the University’s Academic Senate Statement on Academic Freedom which describes academic freedom as ‘fundamental to the values that the University upholds and strives to cultivate in the wider society’.

Where do the University’s boundaries surrounding free speech lie? What measures does the University take in order to promote safety and wellbeing for community members? For example, Bettina Arndt spoke on campus

There are certainly boundaries on free speech.  Speech must be lawful, for example, it must not involve racial vilification or defamation, and it must protect confidential information and intellectual property.  Beyond this, universities have responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of staff and students as well as visitors to the campus.  So, where a speaker is invited onto campus, we all must have regard to any risk of injury to people or damage to property and take appropriate measures, including working with our colleagues in Security, to try and prevent this from happening.

What is the impact on the University of the recent ‘Report of the Independent Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers’? It would be really interesting to hear your perspective on this – thank you!

I agree that we have a duty to actively encourage freedom of speech.  As our Statement on Academic Freedom says, ‘The value of a university as a public institution depends upon its ability and its determination to create new knowledge and understanding, to challenge accepted ideas, test novel hypotheses, and encourage rigorous academic debate.’  The Statement goes on to identify as a responsibility of the University, that it will ‘place academic freedom principles at the forefront in conceiving and implementing its administrative and governance polices and processes.’  The French Review has given Macquarie an opportunity to consider how well we are meeting this responsibility and we look forward to hearing the views of our Academic Senate.

---

Information Technology

When logging in to Tracker, any staff or students’ details and contacts, even their home address, etc. can be found. Please clarify on that and find solutions to hide that or at least some of the information that is not necessarily to be published.

I heard staff addresses can be accessed via the tracker internal directory. How is this so? That was shocking to hear, and I feel insecure about my own personal data as an employer at Macquarie! Please investigate ASAP.

Thank you for raising this concern. We take privacy of student and staff data very seriously and are investigating this matter as a priority.

Staff Directory should be on private and not be accessible to everyone but only MQ staff.

Staff directory shouldn’t be publicly available simple!

Scams are on the increase. A public staff directory has contributed to many of us getting scam calls on our work lines, with voicemails left.

Regard to privacy, the staff directory should be on private and should allow staff to log-in to view contact details. Various scam and non-university websites are copying information from the staff directory. Do a Google search on your name.

If we care so much about email security, why is our staff directory open to the public?

The staff directory has been publicly available for a significant portion of the University’s history. This has assisted staff, students and the public to identify and locate University staff as needed. It is clear, however, that the misuse of such information is increasing and there is good reason to remove public access to the staff directory. This process to decouple the staff directory from internal systems, policies and procedures is a complex exercise, however steps are being taken to remediate the issue in the short term and longer term and solution implementation details including timeframes will be announced shortly.

…but these systems are siloed in themselves with time wasted switching between them… can they be integrated more seamlessly?

The use of the Microsoft suite of products, including Office 365, Teams etc. enables an integrated information platform. The use of additional security controls used with the platform will protect privacy.  Additionally, the HR system will be replaced with a newer modern solution which will incorporate the functionality of the staff directory allowing the current legacy systems to be migrated.

As mentioned in the Town Hall Meeting, the tender process for the selection of a new integrated Human Capital Management System is almost complete.  The selection of an Implementation partner and the planning required to implement the new system will occur over the coming months with a view to commencing the rollout of the new system in late 2019/early 2020.

Dear Vice-Chancellor, I have a question in relation to cyber security that I would like to ask you. Recently, The Australian National University was hit by a massive data hack, with unauthorised access to significant amounts of personal details of students and staff. Perhaps ANU is a particularly attractive hacking target because of its research and information about staff and students. I was wondering, what lessons can Macquarie University learn from ANU? How are we strengthening our IT security and improving the digital safety of our community and reducing the risks of similar intrusions? The methods used by malicious cyber attackers are constantly evolving and are we staying apt with the attackers’ threats and strategies? Are there perhaps any steps that we, as staff, could take to protect our (University) systems and personal data? I’m so sorry for the long story and multiple questions! Thanking you in advance! Best wishes.

The Australian National University hack was most likely perpetrated for reasons that were very specific in nature. However, as we have seen with organisations around the world, we are all a potential target of cyber security criminals of various capabilities. All universities, including Macquarie University, are regularly targeted by phishing campaigns.

Macquarie University takes cyber security very seriously. We have invested in sophisticated email filtering systems and warning systems to identify and respond to phishing attacks as they arise. The University is also constantly searching for and addressing system weaknesses. This is an ongoing body of work which requires diligent monitoring and constantly strengthening protection measures that keep pace with evolving cyber-attacks.

The University has for a number of years undertaken security checks on our network and systems.  As a member of AUSCert, we receive dynamic alerts and security bulletins about existing and potential threats.  Additionally, we utilise external services which monitor and assess the health and state of our systems to continually protect our information. We undertake a regular cyber security education program to alert our staff and students on how to increase protection of our systems and personal data.

What you can do:

One of the biggest areas where staff can assist is to report suspicious behaviour to the IT Service Desk when it is identified. Suspicious emails, strange pop-ups or exposure of sensitive data are all issues that should be reported to the IT team for further investigation. If you receive an email, even from a trusted source, always ask yourself – would that person be asking me for this information? If in doubt, do not click on the link.

Treat sensitive information very carefully. The collection and handling of private information relating to individuals should be minimised as much as possible. This sort of information should remain in secure systems and not accumulate on workstations or laptops.

Faculty IT staff have been working under cloud of restructuring for many years now, Given that a number of business units (MGSM, Hospital) and Faculty of Human Sciences have been centralized,  Will the Vice-Chancellor confirm that IT centralization is part of its operating strategy and when can we expect centralization of IT service to be completed.

The University does not have an overall strategy to centralise all of our IT systems. The Central IT team has been working with all other elements of IT within the University to build a collaborative community. While some IT services have been brought into Central IT, this has been done on a needs-basis for the office, entity or faculty and the ability to create efficiencies by doing so. An analysis is conducted, followed by a consultative process before any centralisation is undertaken.  We have realised that some common service can be better and more efficiently provided centrally whereas others rightfully live in more dispersed locations.  The latter are often highly specialised services used by a certain group.  It is important to remember that the Central IT group can provide a much more efficient and protected service around aspects such as data security and protection.

What is happening with IT? Process mapping of processed and IT integration has been ‘achilles heel’ of University for extended period of time.

A comprehensive, multi-year roadmap has been developed for all of the major components of IT. As each component is addressed, a detailed review of the processes, functions and outcomes regarding the areas it supports is undertaken. It is a long journey; however, once complete the environment will be more seamlessly integrated and the systems will support efficient processes.  These initiatives are gathering momentum initially with the PURE system for research management.  From that we learned a lot and are now at a stage of smoother implementation of systems such as the Curriculum Management System, the upgrade of the Finance System etc.

---

Leadership

The elephant in the room is the recent SMH article. The optics of this are bad in a time when the university is proposing staff redundancies. What would you like staff to know about this?

How does the VC’s taking out of a loan for a range of expenses, from University funding in a climate of scarce budgets and fights for money to deliver services and programmes, reflect his espoused community empowerment values?

Will the VC answer the questions around the integrity and ethicality of accepting a loan from the university & renting his home for university events for a profit?

With a lot of budget cuts at University, the article that was recently published about the VC on SMH does not paint us in a good light. Hope this could be corrected.

A number of Australian universities provide an official residence for their Vice-Chancellor in the expectation that the residence will be used to host a range of functions in the service of advancing the cause of the university.  Such expectations across the sector are that the Vice-Chancellor will engage with external stakeholders of their university including alumni, partners, academic colleagues, philanthropic supporters, diplomats etc.  In cases where the university owns the residence, the university bears the entire cost of maintaining and operating the residence.  The remuneration packages of Vice-Chancellors in those instances often reflect a component of fringe-benefits tax to cover the Vice-Chancellor’s private use of the residence as well.  Unlike a number of other Australian universities, Macquarie University does not provide an official residence for the Vice-Chancellor (a practice Macquarie discontinued more than 15 years ago). Instead, when I returned to Australia to assume my position the University provided a loan to assist with securing a Sydney residence suitable for hosting official University functions.

The loan was approved in 2013 and documented under a formal loan agreement between the University and me. Since that time, I have serviced the interest payments as per the loan agreement.

Separate to the loan agreement is a licence fee agreement covering the fee paid to me by the University for the use of the residence for official University functions. The terms of payments under this agreement were determined by the University using the services of an independent consultancy for benchmarking rental markets for similar properties in Sydney and are reviewed annually. It also reflects a range of expenses incurred in hosting the functions.

Many of you will know I host a range of functions throughout the year for domestic and international guests from the higher education and other sectors.  The residence is also used to host Macquarie students and staff members at functions during the University calendar.

University Council, with input from the Nominations and Remuneration Committee of the Council, approves my salary and that of Executive Group members based on a number of considerations and in line with national benchmarking and international standards.

Can the Vice-Chancellor provide any further information concerning the recent ICAC raid which was covered by the ABC? Obviously, this is an issue of concern for the entire Macquarie University community, concerns shared by staff, students and alumni, and some further information from the VC would be greatly appreciated. 

The University is assisting the ICAC with a current investigation relating to third party contractors.  Because the investigation is ongoing, further information cannot be provided at this time.

Are we targeting a place in G8? If so, how far are we? Thanks

As the VC, do you realistically expect MQ will be the 9th addition to the Go8 – if so, how is this achieved? and on what timeline?

At this time, we do not aspire to join the Go8 organisation. The G08 are all very fine institutions bound together by a range of common attributes.  My view has always been and remains that Australia is best served by having greater diversity of types of universities in the higher education sector.  I have always espoused that Macquarie University is a very distinctive University and that we should continue on that pathway of charting a unique journey to establish renown for the University by being different.

Yes, the University is an amalgamation of all of these things but there is too much emphasis on budgets and not on providing the best education possible with smaller student to staff ratio’s like Cambridge did recently. Will that change?

The financial resources (as derived through budgets) available to the university are one of the key enablers of the work of the University.  Allocation of those resources via budgets is an important set of tools to get the balance right in how all aspects of our work is delivered.  Discipline in budgeting wisely and carefully are an important component of ensuring that the University remains financially sound both in the short term and for the medium / long term sustainability of the University.  The resources available to Cambridge University are vastly different to that any university in Australia.  Their education model, based on centuries old history, is also very different.  I cannot see a way that we will move to a time of not having budgets as an essential tool to enable prudent management of the University’s fiscal resources.

Will the VC reach out and host a meeting with every department and professional unit to listen to concerns on the ground?

I have offered to all members of the Executive to be present at convenings of their organisational units in whatever format works best for them.  In the recent few weeks, I have held such meetings in the Faculty of Arts leadership team and Macquarie International for example and am scheduled to visit the Faculty of Science and Engineering shortly for their Town Hall. I am happy to visit units on campus as schedule permits.  I note that I will not do that in a way which usurps the orderly operations of the University’s management structure, i.e. if asked to visit an organisational unit, I will consult with the relevant member of the Executive Group.

What is meant by remaining whole when tackling renown? Can it be explained in a different way?

Renown can be measured in a number of different ways.  We can recognise and celebrate the achievements of individual members of the University staff which may reflect their work internally or their work as recognised externally through major awards, grants, honours, prestigious appointments etc.  Another level of renown is at the discipline or department level.  In most cases, this will reflect the standing of the work of Macquarie scholars in that particular field when benchmarked externally against similar organisational groupings nationally (e.g. ERA) and internationally (rankings positions in any one of the number of rankings systems).  A further level of renown is represented by the aggregation of all of our fields into an institutional level position in ranking schemes.  Depending on the particular scheme, some factors feeding into such an institution wide summative ranking may be a summation of institution wide aspects independent of discipline (e.g. employability as viewed through the eyes of employers).  Other components may reflect a summation of our performance field by field in research publications as recorded, for instance, in Scopus.

We must also then consider how do we use rankings and how can they help us.  This varies.  Clearly, ranking in a discipline is very important area for attracting and retaining the very best staff and students.  Institutional rankings are viewed keenly by international students and families in making their choice of where to apply.  So here we can see how important it is to strive for high performance in each field but also importantly overall at the institutional level.  It is important to note that the institutional ranking is very important in recruiting high quality students.  Some rankings schemes do not favour as metric an evaluation (e.g. some fields in the Arts and Humanities) largely by the nature of the way publications occur in those fields.  Those are important fields which fulfil Macquarie’s goal to nurture its students to shape the issues defining humanity, and to grow into well-rounded world citizens and community leaders while ensuring they are job-ready for at least the first of the multiple professional opportunities that will be available to them in a rapidly changing world.

Is the global trend summary taking climate change for granted? I assume it must be, otherwise it would be a pretty glaring omission

At the Town Hall, I referred to a number of global megatrends already affecting us, and many more side issues which will dramatically alter the way we operate by 2050.   A number of these observations emanate from two retired US military officers (Admiral James Stavridis and General John Allen) whom I have heard speak on the subject – it was their work I was referencing in summary.  One of the issues I mentioned is global food security, which is a huge challenge affecting the world due partly to climate change. So, while I did not reference climate change specifically, but rather a subset of its impact, it is and will be, one of the key challenges we face as community, University and as a nation.

Research on climate change has a prominent place in the University’s Future-shaping Research Priorities, Themes and Streams. More information on our leadership in this area will be featured in subsequent weeks, along with the University’s position on sustainability.

---

Poll Everywhere

Why isn’t upvoting being used instead of DVCA manually collating themes from the question?

Could we implement a system that lets staff anonymously express their concerns and vote for most important concerns other expressed to be able to solve them with priority? Such solutions exist already and can be implemented easily to give everyone a voice.

Why aren’t any questions showing up?

The communitarian philosophy doesn’t seem to extend to us viewing the responses of other community members.

How come the responses are disappearing and I can’t seem to keep track of them as the presentation is happening?

Can we actually see all the responses/questions please?

Poll Everywhere was used at the event as a mechanism for staff to pose questions at the Town Hall. The purpose was not to read ‘sentiment’ in the room and allow for upvoting – which, as noted by a number of audience participants, is the core functionality of the Poll Everywhere tool.

Feedback from other events where the tool has been used suggests that it can be a distraction for some audience members who are wanting to pose questions, particularly when there is only a small window of opportunity to do so at the event. For this reason, the ‘upvoting’ function was moderated. However, I would like to reiterate, that all questions collected before and after the event are represented in series of themed Q&As featured in This Week (commencing 17 July).  I hope that the staff participants are comfortable with the level of transparency. In hindsight, I have been advised it was probably not the most appropriate platform to use for what was, in fact, simply a callout for staff questions.  The team have taken this on board for future events.

---

Read more in the Vice-Chancellor’s Town Hall Q&A series: 

Curriculum Transformation
Human Resources