Staff Policy

Staff Policies:

Seed Funding for Conferences

The purpose of this policy is to outline the circumstances under which the Faculty of Engineering will contribute to seed funding of conferences and the conditions that are applied to such funds.

The Faculty of Engineering understands that staff are often involved in the hosting and organisation of conferences and that this plays an important role in service to the profession and discipline as well as raising the profile of UNSW when the conferences are hosted in Sydney.

It is also understood that seed funding for initial payment of items such as venue and hotel deposits can be difficult to obtain.

PROCEDURE + CONDITIONS

1. Seed funding of up to $20,000 will be provided to staff members with leading roles in organisation of conferences to be hosted at UNSW under the following conditions.

a. An appropriate business case is provided outlining the:

  • size,
  • scope,
  • timing of the conference, and
  • a developed financial plan

As a minimum requirement, this business case should outline:

  • why the seed funding is required,
  • what other seed funding has been obtained, and
  • the schedule for repayment of the seed funding to the Faculty

The purpose of this is to allow the seed funding to be recycled and used by other potential conference organisers.

In the event of conference running at a loss, rendering the organisers of the conference unable to return the seed funding, a detailed financial statement along with the circumstances leading to the loss shall be submitted to the Faculty.

b. Indication that part or all of the conference will be held on site at UNSW or in an approved venue outside UNSW, and that the UNSW logo and the Faculty of Engineering appear prominently on materials relating to the conference.

c. If the conference is run through the UNSW financial system it is appropriately registered as a commercial activity with the legal office if required see http://www.policy.unsw.edu.au/guideline/commercial_activities.htm

d. The conference topic area is aligned with Faculty of Engineering Research Strengths

e. The conference is a highly regarded conference in its field of research

2. Applications with appropriate supporting documentation addressing the above conditions and Head of School approval of the staff involvement in the conference should be forwarded to the Associate Dean Research for approval.

Graduate Attributes

WHAT IS MY ROLE IN DEVELOPING STUDENTS' GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES?

The first step is to identify the graduate attributes that are most relevant to your course, remembering that you are not responsible for developing all 12 graduate attributes!

The content, learning activities, and assessment tasks in different courses will lend themselves to the development of different attributes. It is important to be aware of the attributes being developed in other courses in students' degree program, to ensure an appropriate distribution of graduate attributes development. It is important to make it clear to students in your course outline which graduate attributes will be developed and assessed in the course. The UNSW Course Outline Template encourages you to define learning outcomes that relate to graduate attributes, and outline learning activities that will be used to support learning outcomes.

GETTING STARTED

Integrating the development and assessment of graduate attributes into courses and programs can seem daunting at first. Learning & Teaching @ UNSW answers a list of frequently asked questions to give you a background to graduate attributes and provide you with ideas on where to start in terms of embedding relevant graduate attributes into your course(s).

For example:

  • How do I incorporate information about graduate attributes into my course outline?
  • How do I assess graduate attributes?
  • What support is available to me?

HOW ARE THESE ATTRIBUTES RELEVANT TO MY FACULTY AND DISCIPLINE?

It is important to recognize that graduate attributes only have meaning when expressed in the context of the discipline. For example, effective group work in Medicine might require a different set of skills to group work as practised in Engineering or Law.

The Learning & Teaching @ UNSW provides links to information about how different Faculties have expressed the UNSW graduate attributes in the context of their discipline(s) and professional areas.

GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES TOOLKITS

Learning & Teaching @ UNSW has developed a series of graduate attributes toolkits to support you in the development and assessment of graduate attributes at UNSW. The toolkits have been developed to provide you with: questions and ideas to help you reflect on how particular skills are valued in your discipline; tools to support you in developing learning outcomes, activities and assessment tasks for particular attributes; and strategies for supporting students in the process of reflecting on their development of particular skills.

Faculty Contribution to Professional Development 

The Faculty will consider funding 50% of the cost of Professional Development training for Professional (Administration and Technical) staff, where:

  • A recommendation is received from the School's Senior Administrative Officer which details how the course will benefit the School
  • The course cost is covered 50% by the School
  • The course will be of benefit to the School and the broader Faculty community
  • The recipient shares the benefits of the course/experience with interested people across the Faculty - an invitation is sent out via the School Senior Administrative Officers

Requests should be sent in writing to Meredith Lowe at m.lowe@unsw.edu.au.