1. General

2. Composition and membership

3. Meetings of faculty boards

4. Elections and filling of remaining vacancies

5. Casual vacancies

6. Duties and powers

7. General

1. General

Each faculty of the University has a faculty board whose function is to foster the educational work of the faculty, to perform duties and exercise such powers as the Council determines on the recommendation of the Academic Board. The faculty boards are: the Faculty Board in Arts and Social Sciences; the Faculty Board in Business; the Faculty Board in Design, Architecture and Building; the Faculty Board in Engineering and Information Technology; the Faculty Board in Law; the Faculty Board in Nursing, Midwifery and Health; and the Faculty Board in Science.

2. Composition and membership

2.1 The composition of faculty boards is approved by Council on the recommendation of the faculty and either the Vice-Chancellor or Academic Board and, depending on individual faculty structure, it may vary between faculties. Membership of faculty boards is set out in the UTS:Calendar (see Chapter 1). Some faculty boards provide for all members of the faculty to be members of the board if they so elect. Where this is not the case, Council has prescribed that each faculty board shall consist, as a minimum, of ex officio members, nominated members and elected members, as follows:

2.2 The ex officio members are:

(i) the Dean; and

(ii) other senior full-time or fractional-time staff members including, where applicable, the Associate Deans, Heads of School, the Professors, and the Faculty Manager.

2.3 The nominated members serve a two-year term of office, and they include:

(i) a nominee of the University Librarian;

(ii) a nominee of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Teaching, Learning and Equity);

(iii) one member of academic staff from the faculty board of at least three faculties that contribute to the teaching programs of the faculty concerned, to be nominated by the Deans of those faculties in consultation with the Dean of the faculty concerned.

2.4 The elected members include:

(i) academic staff (full-time or fractional-time) elected by and from the academic staff of the faculty, the total number of persons to be such that it is equal to or larger than the sum of the total number of ex officio and nominated members, for a two-year term of office;

(ii) one support staff member elected by and from the support staff of the faculty, for a two-year term of office;

(iii) students elected by and from the students of the faculty with a minimum number of four students, at least one of whom shall be a postgraduate student, for a one-year term of office.

2.5 Elected members shall be eligible to stand for re-election and nominated members shall be eligible for renomination.

3. Meetings of faculty boards

3.1 The Dean of the faculty shall be Chair of the faculty board, or the Dean may appoint a member of the faculty board as Chair, if he or she wishes.

3.2 At the first meeting of a faculty board after the first of November in each calendar year a board shall elect a Deputy Chair from among its members, who shall hold office until 31 October in the year immediately following and shall be eligible for re-election.

3.3 The Faculty Manager shall be Secretary to the board.

3.4 The quorum for a faculty board shall be one-half of its members (excluding any members on recognised leave), or the nearest whole number above.

3.5 A faculty board shall meet in ordinary session twice in each semester and at such other times as it shall decide.

3.6 Not less than seven days' notice of an ordinary meeting shall be given by the Faculty Manager in writing to members of a board setting out the time and place of the meeting and the agenda.

3.7 A special meeting of a faculty board may be convened by the Dean of the faculty and shall be convened by the Faculty Manager on the written request of five members of a board.

3.8 Not less than three days' notice of a special meeting shall be given by the Faculty Manager in writing to members of a board setting out the time and place of the meeting and the purpose for which the meeting is to be convened.

3.9 The agenda for any meeting of a faculty board and any papers pursuant to matters on the agenda including minutes of the previous meeting(s) shall be available for perusal by any member of the academic staff of the faculty on application to the Faculty Manager.

4. Elections and filling of remaining vacancies

4.1 The Registrar or nominee shall be the Returning Officer for all elections of elected members of a faculty board.

4.2 In the case of a board as first constituted, wherever the term of office of elected members of a faculty board is two years, one-half of the elected members or where one-half is not a whole number the number immediately greater than one-half shall be determined by lot by the Returning Officer and shall hold office for one year.

4.3 Where a remaining vacancy occurs in the office of an elected member of a faculty board the vacancy may be filled by resolution of the faculty board and in accordance with procedures for the filling of casual vacancies as set out in 5.1 below.

4.4 A person selected to fill a remaining vacancy shall be appointed for the period stated in the notice of election for that office, and is, if otherwise qualified, eligible for election to that office at the expiry of the term of office for which he or she was appointed.

5. Casual vacancies

5.1 Where a casual vacancy occurs in the office of an elected member of a faculty board, the vacancy may be filled by resolution of the faculty board:

(i) in the case of academic staff and undergraduate students of the faculty, on the recommendation of the relevant Responsible Academic Officer; or

(ii) in the case of support staff and postgraduate students of the faculty, on the recommendation of the Dean;

(iii) a person selected to fill a casual vacancy shall be appointed for the remainder of the term of office, and is, if otherwise qualified, eligible for election to that office at the expiry of the term of office for which he or she was appointed.

6. Duties and powers

6.1 A faculty board is charged with advising the Academic Board and the Dean and other senior officers of that faculty on matters pertaining to the educational work of the faculty, and with exercising such responsibilities and powers as are assigned to it by Council in consultation with the Academic Board from time to time.

6.2 In particular a faculty board:

(i) shall consider and report on all matters which are referred to it by the Academic Board, the Vice-Chancellor or the Dean of the faculty;

(ii) [deleted]

(iii) (a) shall consider proposals for the introduction of new courses and major changes to existing courses and make recommendations on these to the Vice-Chancellor's Committee and the Academic Board as appropriate;

(b) shall consider and may approve minor changes to existing courses;

(iv) shall approve the syllabus of subjects in courses offered by the faculty;

(v) shall maintain and develop courses to ensure a vital and contemporary relationship between the faculty and the professional fields which it seeks to serve;

(vi) may advise the faculty or academic units of the faculty on academic matters in respect of courses of study which have been approved by the Academic Board;

(vii) shall consider and make recommendations to the Academic Board on the industrial experience required as part of the courses of the faculty;

(viii) may advise the Dean on the establishment and composition of Course Advisory Committees of the faculty;

(ix) may refer any matter to a Course Advisory Committee or to a committee of the board or an academic unit of the faculty, for report;

(x) shall establish:

(a) an Examinations Committee or Committees which shall review the result of examinations conducted in respect of courses of the faculty and shall approve the publication of results; and

(b) a faculty graduate studies committee;

(xi) may establish such committees, in addition to the Examinations Committee or Committees and a faculty graduate studies committee, as it deems appropriate to assist the educational work of the faculty.

(xii) shall recommend to the Academic Board the minimum requirements which will provide eligibility for entry to particular courses of study of the faculty;

(xiii) shall examine and make recommendations to the Academic Board on the regulations for recognition of prior learning in relation to subjects offered by the faculty and entry to the courses with credit in recognition of prior learning;

(xiv) (a) may approve credit in recognition of prior learning up to the maximum of two thirds of the course credit point requirements for a course of equal to or less than 144 credit points and three quarters of the course credit point requirements for a course of greater than 144 credit points;

(b) may, in exceptional circumstances and on a case by case basis, recommend to Academic Board that credit in recognition of prior learning be approved in excess of the limits defined in (a) above.

(xv) shall receive recommendations for and may approve the appointment of examiners for all courses of study offered by the faculty;

(xvi) may delegate authority to relevant faculty committees/boards, for the approval of credit in recognition of prior learning to individual students, and appointment of examiners for courses of study offered by the faculty;

(xvii) shall report to Academic Board identifying those committees/boards to which authority has been delegated, pursuant to (xvi) above, and require the relevant committees to report to the respective faculty boards on the exercise of such delegation;

(xviii) shall, subject to any resolution of the Academic Board on the matter, determine faculty policy in respect of the progression of students in courses of the faculty;

(xix) may consider the performance of students in any course and make recommendations on matters affecting such performance;

(xx) (a) may exclude any student who, in the opinion of the board, has not made satisfactory progress with his or her studies, and

(b) may readmit any student who has been excluded more than twice;

(xxi) shall submit to the Academic Board the names of students who have completed courses of study together with recommendations as to the award (including the grading) which should be made in each case;

(xxii) may recommend to the Academic Board a candidate for admission to a degree or for the award of a diploma ad eundem gradum;

(xxiii) may determine:

(a) the conditions of competition for the granting of fellowships, scholarships, bursaries and prizes subject to any conditions made thereto by the founder or the donor, provided that such conditions are within the general guidelines that have been approved by Council, and

(b) the recipients of prizes, scholarships and awards within the faculty;and shall report its determinations on these matters to the Academic Board.

UTS note:
Note that Council has now delegated to Academic Board the function of setting conditions for the granting of fellowships, scholarships and prizes. Refer G3 clause 14(f).

6.3 The Dean of the Faculty is authorised to take executive action on behalf of the faculty board where exceptional circumstances require faculty board business to be conducted between meetings. Where possible, notice of the action the Dean proposes to take should be given to members of the Board at least 7 calendar days before the proposed action. The notice should include a clear and accurate statement of the action the Dean proposes to take, with the advice that the Dean will take the action after the expiration of the 7 days unless one third of the number of members or more indicate in writing before the expiration of the 7 days that the decision should be made by the Board at a meeting. The action taken must be reported to the next regular meeting of the faculty board.

7. General

7.1 The Dean of the faculty shall be an ex officio member of all committees of the faculty board.

7.2 The Dean of the faculty may, if he or she so desires, convene and/or preside at a meeting of a faculty board committee.

7.3 As secretary to the faculty board, the Faculty Manager shall keep proper records of meetings of the faculty board and shall lodge copies of all papers of the faculty board with the Registrar as part of the official record of the University.

7.4 The Faculty Manager shall be responsible for bringing forward to the Academic Board matters arising from meetings of the faculty board.

7.5 The Faculty Manager shall notify the Registrar on or before the first of November each year, of the names of the members of the board for the 12-month period immediately following.