1999 Arts Handbook - Structure and organisation of the faculty

Structure and organisation of the faculty

Location of offices
Schools in the faculty
Faculty board and standing committees of faculty board
Officers

Location of offices

The term 'Faculty of Arts' is used both in a broad descriptive sense and in a strictly legal sense. In the descriptive sense, it is used to include all students enrolled for arts degrees and all staff, including academic, administrative, technical and clerical, attached to the departments and centres of the faculty and to the Arts faculty office. The departments and the faculty offices on the Clayton campus are housed chiefly in the west and south wings of the Robert Menzies School of Humanities. A noticeboard is located on the ground floor indicating the location of departments and staff. On the Caulfield campus, the Faculty of Arts is located on the fourth floor of building B while on the Peninsula campus the faculty office can be found on the fourth floor of building A. At the Berwick campus, the administration office is found on level three of building D and at Gippsland campus, the School office is located in building 2W.
The Faculty of Arts is one of the largest in the university in terms both of student and of staff numbers. In 1998 on the Clayton campus there were more than 4000 undergraduates, the majority of whom were full-time, and nearly 1400 graduate students. The teaching staff number more than 250 full-time and part-time members, together with sessional staff. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Gippsland became part of the Faculty of Arts in 1993. At the end of 1997 the faculty established a School of Humanities and Public Policy at the Caulfield campus to strengthen the faculty's research base at this campus.
The Faculty of Arts is also responsible for the administration of two university degrees: the Bachelor of Communication degree offered on the Berwick campus and the Bachelor of Arts, an open-access degree available through Open Learning Australia.

Schools in the faculty

In 1999 there will be ten schools in the faculty:

School of Asian Languages and Studies
School of European Languages and Cultures
School of Geography and Environmental Science
School of History and Women's Studies
School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences
School of Literary, Visual and Cultural Studies
School of Performance Studies
School of Philosophy, Linguistics and Bioethics
School of Political and Social Inquiry
School of Public Policy

Each school has a head, who has administrative and academic responsibilities for that school. Most schools have one or more professors, who have particular responsibilities for academic leadership. Each school has responsibilities for teaching and research in one or more disciplinary areas of study. Some schools contain sections which assume responsibilities for a discipline.

Faculty board and standing committees of faculty board

In its legal sense the faculty is a statutory body of which all full-time members of the teaching staff are members. The major academic responsibilities of the faculty are vested by legislation in the faculty board, a smaller body of about ninety, including all heads of departments and schools, other departmental representatives elected on a proportional basis, and nine student members, two graduate and seven undergraduate, elected in November of each year by the students enrolled in the faculty. The faculty board normally meets about every six weeks from March to November. Except in certain matters on which it has power to act, it makes recommendations to the Academic Board or through the Academic Board to the Council.
The organisation of teaching and research rests with the heads of the departments, who act in consultation with other members of their departments and within the framework provided by the degree regulations and any other conditions which may be agreed upon from time to time by the faculty board.
The faculty board is concerned with questions which affect more than one department, with interpreting and amending the regulations, and, in particular, with new developments within the faculty. It has certain committees, some of which have power to act on behalf of the board when an immediate decision is needed. These committees include:
1 the Committee for Undergraduate Studies, which advises the board on all matters relating to undergraduate students as they arise including questions of student workload and matters concerned with academic policy assessment; approves admissions to fourth-year honours courses and advises the board on matters concerning the honours degree; acts for the board in cases involving use of discretionary powers conferred on the faculty by the degree regulations and considers proposals for the introduction of new subjects and courses and variations to subjects and courses;
2 the Committee for Graduate Studies, which advises the faculty on all matters concerned with the admission of candidates for higher degrees and graduate diplomas and the awarding of higher degrees and diplomas;
3 the Admissions and Exclusions Committee, which acts as a subcommittee of the Committee for Undergraduate Studies in controlling the selection of new undergraduate students and considers the cases of undergraduate students who become liable to be excluded for unsatisfactory progress.
4 the International Committee, which advises the faculty on all matters concerned with the admission of international students.
Finally there are various service and administrative components within the faculty. The faculty office consists of the offices of the dean and the faculty registrar, the Resources Office, the Computer Services Unit, and the Language and Learning Unit. The Language Centre provides services and facilities for the teaching of languages within the faculty.

Officers

The chief officers of the faculty are the dean, the associate deans and the faculty registrar (Arts). The dean is a professor of the faculty and presides over meetings of the faculty, the faculty board and its committees, and is especially concerned with staffing and finance.
The faculty has four associate deans, who are responsible for teaching and undergraduate studies, research, graduate studies and international matters.
The faculty registrar (Arts) has superintendence over the student administration and student services of the faculty, provides information on policy and planning matters and is responsible for the provision of secretarial services to various faculty boards and committees.
The deputy faculty registrar (Arts) has responsibility for the management of administrative and technological change in the student administration processes in the faculty as they impact on the campuses.
The coordinator for undergraduate studies is responsible for undergraduate student-related matters on the Clayton campus and works closely with administrative officers on other campuses to ensure consistency of policy and procedures. Course advisers are available at the various campuses to advise undergraduate students on the planning of their courses and on changes of course.
The coordinator of postgraduate studies is responsible for the graduate student related matters on the Clayton campus. Staff in the Graduate Studies Office can assist graduate students.
Any student wishing to see the dean, the faculty registrar (Arts), the coordinator undergraduate studies, course advisers, coordinator postgraduate studies, or other faculty staff is normally able to make an appointment at fairly short notice. Inquiries should be made at the faculty office, first floor, west wing of the Robert Menzies School of Humanities (Clayton students); fourth floor, B block (Caulfield students); or level three, building_D (Berwick students) or fourth floor, A_building (Peninsula students). Students located at Gippsland can make an appointment through the school office.
Students wishing to bring any relevant matters to the attention of the student members of the faculty board should feel free to do so. The student members can be contacted c/o the office of the faculty registrar (Arts).