Academic Board forums

UTS Academic Board climate change forum (2021)

The 2021 Academic Board forum was held on Wednesday 13 October. It brought together groups and individuals with an interest in climate change and its impacts, showcasing the distinctive depth and breadth of the university’s activity and expertise in this critical area.

Visit UTS Academic Board climate change forum for more details.

UTS research contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020)

The 2020 Academic Board forum was held on Wednesday 14 October and brought together UTS research experts who presented on research contributions relating to COVID-19.

Visit UTS research contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic for more details.

Lifetime of learning: The learner of the future (2019)

The 2019 Academic Board forum focused on Lifetime of learning: the learner of the future in response to the UTS 2027 learning for a lifetime initiative. Speakers presented on the key skills and attributes that are required in future employees and how they envisage ‘learning for a lifetime’.

Integrity at UTS (2018)

Integrity at UTS focused on academic integrity at UTS. It covered UTS initiatives, benchmarking across the sector and student perspectives on the importance of integrity.

UTS Social Impact Framework (2017)

UTS Social Impact Framework covered the public benefit of universities and the Social Impact Framework and included stories of impact and a panel discussion on demonstrating social impact.

Innovation at UTS and Beyond (2016)

Innovation at UTS and beyond looked at innovation, transdisciplinarity and how our students are engaging with industry to innovate, with UTS and external speakers addressing these topics.

Work-integrated learning (2015)

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL): We have the WIL, but what is the way? focused on work-integrated learning, addressing university and industry perspectives.

Academic year dates 2016 (October 2014)

Professor Peter Booth presented proposed revisions to the 2016 academic year teaching periods. UTS staff can see the full presentation at Academic Year Dates 2016 (PDF) (SharePoint).

Course accreditation and approval process (April 2014)

The Course Accreditation and Approval Process Information Session covered this core business activity of Academic Board. While many UTS staff are engaged in different stages of the process for accreditation and reaccreditation of courses, the aim of the session was also to provide an overview of what is involved in the entire framework.

The future of learning (2013)

The Future of Learning: How They Want It, Where They Want It, When They Want It? was designed as a Q&A event, to stimulate the sharing of information and excite discussion among the UTS community on this very important topic. It was led by leaders in the field of new teaching and learning platforms.

Academic Board event (2012)

The Academic Board Event included Professor Hilary Winchester's presentation on Academic Board best practice, and a Q&A-style panel session, 'Higher Education: Risky business? Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask'.

The AUQA debate (September 2011)

The AUQA Debate was a light-hearted but informative debate about the topic of practice-orientated education; one of the themes for the upcoming AUQA audit.

The future of academic work and careers (May 2011)

The Future of Academic Work and Careers took a look at academic work and what careers will look like in the future. The higher education sector is facing a serious staff supply problem in many disciplines over the next five to ten years. UTS is developing strategies which seek to address this and other universities are already implementing strategies and new approaches.

The changing nature of scholarship (2005)

This 2005 forum was a discussion on the changing nature of scholarship and the role of scholarship in realising the University's twin aspirations of excellence in teaching and research. The forum raised some interesting ideas about the nature of academic collegiality. Themes discussed included:

• Is teaching scholarship?
• What good are colleagues?
• How do we know when we've achieved scholarly excellence?
• How does a high (or low) level of scholarship affect the delivery of a course? How would students notice the difference?
• How do we maintain a discourse about scholarship?

For a full report, see notes from Academic Board mini-forum (PDF).

Thinking about plagiarism (2004)

Thinking About Plagiarism — Ethical Dilemmas of the Internet Era was designed to stimulate debate about the challenges posed by the issue of plagiarism. The following questions were discussed:

• Does our traditional understanding of plagiarism and copyright, both concepts which have been developed for a print age, still apply, or does our understanding have to be fundamentally modified for the internet era?
• Are notions of originality and ownership of content universal? What are the cultural elements? Do we need different models for different cultural groups or for different disciplines?
• What are the key challenges facing universities in the areas of copyright and plagiarism, and how will UTS respond to these challenges?
• Are we preparing and benefiting graduates for their post-university experiences in the internet era, and advancing research in this area?

Speakers included Dale Spender, Joyce Kirk, Alastair Pennycook, Rebekah Doran, Peter Kandlbinder, Andrew Litchfield and Alex Barthel.

Productive community engagement (2003)

Productive Community Engagement: Community? Engage? Why bother? was held to stimulate discussion about community engagement, and it was successful in providing the University with a way forward with its community engagement initiatives. It was chaired by Mr Alex Byrne and featured a panel of high profile speakers whose contribution to the debate threw new light on the community engagement challenge. Questions posed by the forum included:

• Are current community engagement practices preparing and benefiting graduates for their post-university experiences, advancing research or otherwise returning value to UTS?
• What are some of the key challenges facing universities in the area of community engagement, and how will UTS respond to these challenges?
• How can community engagement activity be measured and evaluated? How do we know if it is adding value to community, staff and students?