UNSW Arts Social Sciences Strategic Intent 2012 – 2017 Never Stand Still
Arts
Social Sciences
Purpose Professor James Donald, Dean, Faculty of Arts Social Sciences. Our defining purpose is to promote education and research in the Humanities, the Social Sciences and the Creative and Performing Arts. In a systematic manner that is both intellectually enriching and vocationally enabling, we educate students in the conceptual paradigms, research methods and practical skills embodied in those traditions. We disseminate original scholarly knowledge, critical understanding and creative achievement in our areas of expertise, to the benefit of our students, our peers and the public. Since I became Dean of Arts & Social Sciences in 2007, the Faculty has seen many positive changes. More and more students want to study our degrees and in 2014, even though the pool of school leavers had decreased and many other universities experienced a decline in preferences, we enrolled more students than ever before, and did so while raising the minimum entry score for our flagship Bachelor of Arts program by four points. We have made some outstanding appointments over the years, not only of senior academics but also of early career researchers with extraordinary potential. This approach is bearing fruit, both in the number and quality of publications by Arts & Social Sciences scholars, and also in the grants and awards that we are winning. According to the Australian Government’s measurement of research, the Excellence in Research for Australia Report, the great majority of our disciplines are either above or well above world standard. Community engagement is core to all that we do. We reach out through public performances and lectures, research collaborations, student internships, professional development, community and industry partnerships, conferences and forums for intellectual debate, recommendations to government, publications, shared research findings and social commentary. We shall continue to develop that outward-facing ethos. This Strategic Intent was drafted in 2011. It articulates a vision of where Arts & Social Sciences wanted to be in 2017. In the years since the document was first published, Arts & Social Sciences has continued to prosper. We are revisiting the document now in order to measure our progress against our aspirations and to make any adjustments that will best enable us to adapt to the uncertain environment in which we are now operating. It may be a bumpy ride, but we are well prepared for the future.
UNSW Arts Social Sciences provides a licence to explore big ideas, new perspectives and critical social issues with Australia’s sharpest minds.
Aspiration We aspire to be recognised internationally as a progressive and socially engaged Faculty, with distinctive strengths in scholarship across the contemporary Humanities, the Social Sciences and the Creative and Performing Arts.
Culture • T he manner in which we attempt to achieve our purpose, pursue our aspiration and conduct our business will be informed by a shared set of values and principles. • W e value the academic autonomy of the University, and promote the exercise of the freedoms and responsibilities deriving from that autonomy. • W e are a secular institution and, within that context, we respect individual freedom of thought, conscience and religion. • O ur collegial culture should be experienced by staff, students and others as performance-orientated, merit-based, mutually accountable, respectful, and of high integrity and ethical standards. • W e assess student performance wholly on the basis of explicit criteria and fair processes. • O ur organisation is designed to maximise research engagement and facilitate the research outcomes of all individual staff and multi-disciplinary teams, within the Faculty and across the University.
• We subject our activities to rigorous review and provide opportunities for constructive critical comment, including student feedback on the continuing development of high quality teaching. • W e work in socially responsible and mutually beneficial partnerships with the academic, government, industrial and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and internationally. • A cknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia, and respecting their ways of knowing, we attempt to increase and support the successful participation of Indigenous Australians in the Faculty as students, researchers and staff. • W e develop our students as global citizens and support the participation of academic staff in the global community of scholarship.
Deans Research Awards 2014 Geordie Williamson, Advisory Council Member Dr Jeni Whalan, Best monograph by an early career researcher – Winner
Supporting and Promoting Research The quality of the research produced within UNSW Arts Social Sciences is widely recognised within UNSW, among our peers and, increasingly, by the broader community. We are determined to develop a research environment and a research culture that will enable us to retain our position as one of Australia’s top three research Faculties in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative and Performing Arts and to develop effectively our international activities and reputation. Our success in increasing both the volume and quality of research has generated its own challenges, principally in the greater need for effective management of research conducted in Centres, large and small, and in Schools. The Arts & Social Sciences Research Office promotes intellectual collaboration, supports research development and creates a strong research environment within Arts & Social Sciences. The Faculty will develop systems and target funding and appointments to support established and emerging research strengths,
as identified by past performance and future strategy. Achievements in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative and Performing Arts will be publicised, and their contribution to UNSW’s overall research strengths highlighted. Working with colleagues in other faculties, we shall attempt to ensure that University-wide policies and processes take due account of the specific nature of research in the Humanities and Creative Arts and in the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences, and the strategic opportunities they offer. In addition to these intentions, we shall identify and support suitably qualified internal and external applicants for funded fellowships, awards and research positions and develop substantive collaboration with appropriate partners internationally, in areas of research strength.
Research Strengths UNSW Arts Social Sciences disseminates original scholarly knowledge, critical understanding and creative achievement in our research strengths, to the benefit of our students, peers and the public. Informing social change: Social policy, education, and health • Criminology • Health and wellbeing at the margins • Language and literacy education • Cognitive processes and education • Social policy Contributing to the UNSW research strength: Social policy, government and health policy
Understanding and doing: Contemporary humanities and creative arts • Contemporary philosophy • Imperial, colonial and transnational histories • Literary and cultural modernity • Performance studies • Screen and media studies Contributing to the UNSW research strength: Contemporary humanities and creative arts
Acting globally: Development, rights and security • Area studies: Australian, Asian, American, European • Environmental humanities and social sciences • Globalisation and governance, development and sustainability • Human rights and refugees Contributing to the UNSW research strengths: Water, environment and sustainability; Defence and security
Student Experience Education: learning, teaching and students’ experience Informed by strengths in scholarship and research, the Arts Social Sciences curriculum will continue to reflect the breadth of the humanities, social sciences and creative and performing arts and the depth and rigour of understanding offered by their disciplines.
Building on our research expertise, we aim to make all students’ experience of studying Arts & Social Sciences courses intellectually stimulating and professionally apposite. There will be a particular focus on the international and global dimensions of our programs. We shall continue to develop graduates who are leaders, critical thinkers and significant contributors to positive social change. Arts & Social Sciences delivers a range of diverse educational programs, from individually supervised Higher Degree Research, through professionally oriented postgraduate coursework, to both specialist and generalist undergraduate programs. A variety of performance indicators, including student feedback, consistently rank the quality of teaching in Arts & Social Sciences very highly both within the University and against its traditional comparators. Even so, we continue to seek ways of improving the quality and relevance of every student’s learning experience in our courses, whether or not they are enrolled in our programs.
The Faculty’s quality assurance and improvement processes ensure that when our programs are revised, the primary objective is to meet the needs, aspirations and expectations of students. Our emphasis is on achieving the balance between research-informed theoretical understanding and the skills and aptitudes that will benefit students in their future careers. Particular attention will be paid to developing students’ capacities as researchers, and expanding their opportunities for ‘work-integrated learning’, which can introduce students to potential employers, and also for overseas study and further research. The Faculty is committed to creating a lively intellectual and collegial culture for Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and also to improving the scale and quality of support both for all HDR students and for students enrolled in postgraduate coursework programs.
Performing Arts & Music Speed Networking Evening 2014
External Engagement UNSW Arts Social Sciences aspires to be a valued partner to industry, community and government organisations, domestically and internationally, and to be heard as an increasingly respected and authoritative voice in public debate.
Arts & Social Sciences has long been distinguished by its commitment to ameliorative community engagement, through participation in such activities as the Community Development Project in Waterloo, the the Gendered Violence Research Network, UNSW’s socially inclusive ASPIRE project for potential undergraduate students, the collaboration between the Centre for Refugee Research and the UN High Commission for Refugees, and the conferences regularly hosted by the National Centre for HIV Social Research and the Social Policy Research Centre.
of Educational Leadership and the courses offered to international participants through the annual Summer Institute of Language Teaching. In 2010, the Faculty established an Advisory Council to develop and support such partnerships. The potential for attracting philanthropic support for academically worthwhile endeavours is well illustrated by the partnership between the Faculty and Sydney’s Australian-Irish community in supporting global Irish Studies.
In recent years, the Faculty has achieved a higher degree of public visibility– internally, for example, through initiatives like the So, What? series of public lectures and UNSWriting, and, externally, through its partnerships with the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Sydney Film Festival and the Walkley Foundation. It is also building an international reputation for knowledge transfer through its professional development and outreach activities, such as the workshops conducted by the Office
• Forms of external engagement and community partnerships that support high-quality research and research output;
Priorities in the coming years will be:
• The extension of research collaborations with leading universities internationally; • More effective communication with Arts & Social Sciences 42,000 alumni; • Seeking philanthropic support for the Faculty’s strategic priorities.
Capabilities and Resources UNSW aspires to be a research-intensive, performancebased meritocracy. Accordingly, the Faculty will establish systems, protocols, practices and relationships that enhance staff performance and maximise operational efficiency. At the same time, we shall maximise available resources, so that we are in a position to invest in future priorities in research, learning and teaching, and career development. The Faculty’s achievements are attributable entirely to the abilities, commitment and collaboration of the individuals who constitute its members. Arts & Social Sciences will continue to support effective career development for all staff, through regular reviews and training opportunities. We rely on effective leadership, distributed across
the Faculty. We encourage mutual trust, open communication and orderly governance. We are committed to providing an efficient, attractive and environmentally sustainable working environment, and to safeguarding staff and students against violence, disruptive behaviour and intolerance. The Faculty will be explicit and transparent in making its choices about resource allocation across competing options and strategic alternatives.
Contact us Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences The University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia Email arts@unsw.edu.au Web arts.unsw.edu.au Location C-20 Morven Brown Building, Room G1
CRICOS PROVIDER 00098G Š Copyright of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales 2014 The information in this publication is correct at October 2014.