Posted on 08 Aug 2008
Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Update
The meeting noted the email on the UK debate on this matter.
The Chair advised the meeting that she would be attending the Indicator Development Group on September 12 and that two further meetings will be held before the end of the year, with the second scheduled for October.
The meeting agreed that an appropriate consultative session on the ERA should be part of the ACUADS Conference program when the Chair reports on matters to date.
ACUADS Constitution
It was agreed that the Constitution should be checked for any anomalies and suggested changes put to the AGM on 3 October 2008 for discussion.
ACUADS Web Site – New Publications Site
Kirsten Muir reported on the establishment of this new site and the meeting noted that there is a distinction between the Conference, Research and Publishing sites, but that they would be linked.
The meeting noted that the site would provide a record of scholarly works, which could be searched, and agreed to establish an Editorial Committee with Professors Noel Frankham and Kay Lawrence to act initially for a year. The meeting noted that the submitted work would have been refereed prior to submission.
The meeting confirmed that the site would be launched at the Adelaide Conference.
Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) Grant : Future-proofing the Creative Arts
The Chair reported that as the Project Manager, Giselle Kett, was not appointed until 2 May, a request had been made to the ALTC that the project be extended an extra two months and ACUADS would therefore be reporting at the end of March 2009 followed by the financial report on 31 May. The meeting noted that possibly an application for a second stage of funding may be made.
The Project Officer spoke to her report advising that a web site has now been established with links to the ACUADS site and invited members to submit material for the Literature Review section together with photos of art and design for uploading to the site.
The meeting noted that collecting data for the project included several phases and asked the Executive for the name of research degree coordinators to interview, following the Ethics approval. It was suggested that the Project Officer email Executive members for suggestions on appropriate students for interviews and that the list of interview questions be circulated to the Executive for comment.
The Chair advised the Committee of the PhD Roundtable being held at the VCA on 14-15 September with presentations from the various people who have received ALTC grants.
Treasurer’s Report
The meeting noted the Report together with the Receipts and Payment account pages and agreed to ratify the expenditure.
Adelaide Conference: 1-3 October 2008
The meeting discussed the conference and agreed on some alterations to the timetable to provide more discussion time for the roundtables on Studio Teaching and Future-proofing the Creative Arts.
Over 30 abstracts for conference papers have been submitted and the refereeing process is currently underway.
To date 13 submissions have been received for the Research Report and the Committee agreed that the Report should be confined to one submission from each Institution, other than the host institution, which may include more than one submission.
The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS)
The Chair reported that it appeared that the organisation CHASS was to be dismantled. CHASS was established in 2004 as a peak representative body for the humanities, arts and social sciences sectors as a whole.
ACUADS Award Applications
The Meeting considered the Fellowship, Teaching and Research nominations and approved the granting of the ACUADS Award to each.
Award Process
The meeting discussed the process in light of queries and agreed that further clarification appeared necessary.