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Academic Programs Offered from Multiple Campuses Policy

Please note that this policy has not yet been revised or converted to the new format. 

1.  Courses that are offered from several campuses

Where a course is offered from more than one campus:

(i) it will have the same title and lead to the same award at all campuses; 

(ii) an appropriately resourced course management group will be established under a course director appointed by the dean of the managing faculty, with representation from all campuses involved in offering the course and the relevant academic units. This group will oversee the development and operation of the course across all campuses as well as any campus specific variations; 

(iii) there will be equivalent course admission prerequisites, including credit transfer arrangements, at all campuses; 

(iv) the course eligibility score for Year 12 entry to an undergraduate course, will be identical for all campuses. Equivalence criteria apply to entry qualifications which are not included in the ENTER; 

(v) the minimum admission score for Year 12 entry to an undergraduate course at any campus in each year must not be less than the course eligibility score and will be no more than 5 ENTER points below the estimated highest "clearly in" ENTER score for the course, unless otherwise approved by the Dean of the managing faculty in consultation with the relevant campus PVC. Equivalence criteria apply to entry qualifications which are not included in the ENTER; 

(vi) it will have an identical course code, structure and length across all campuses; 

(vii) the units which comprise the core requirements of the course or of a major/specialisation within the course will have identical learning objectives and will have the majority of assessment tasks in common so as to ensure and demonstrate equivalence across all campuses; 

(viii) chief examiners will be appointed by the relevant faculty board for the units comprising the course, which should take into consideration the desirability of spreading chief examiners across the participating campuses; 

(ix) variations in the range of major and minor sequences and the specialisations offered may be desirable to enhance the development of the campus academic portfolio, differentiate campus offerings within the same market or meet national regulatory requirements; 

(x) campus based course variations will be agreed upon by the course management group and relevant academic units; 

(xi) all variations will be clearly articulated in all course marketing materials applying to the same markets; 

(xii) the sequencing of units may vary across campuses, provided that they are consistent with pre-requisite requirements and do not restrict student progression; 

(xiii) offering the same units in different semesters from different campuses may provide students on all campuses with more options for cross-campus study; and

(xiv) not all elective units are required to be offered from each campus
 

2.  Study from more than one campus

2.1 Courses requiring study from more than one campus

Where a course requires students to study from more than one campus, this requirement will be communicated clearly to students at the time of their admission and in all course marketing materials.

2.2 Access to units offered from other campuses

The campus at which a student enrols in a course is considered as the student’s home campus.

Students may, and will be encouraged to, enrol in units offered from campuses other than the student's home campus, provided that the student's enrolment in such units is permissible according to the course requirements. University processes and systems underlying course and unit enrolment, timetabling and inter-campus transport will support this choice.

To assist with the management of resources across the campuses limitations on cross campus unit enrolments may include:

(i) enrolment in a major or minor sequence may be restricted to students whose home campus is the campus at which the sequence is offered;

(ii) enrolment in quota restricted units may be limited to students whose home campus is the campus at which the unit is offered; and 

(iii) enrolment in units involving projects, field trips, internships, work experience, professional practice, teaching practice and clinical practice may require students to enrol in the unit at their home campus.

2.3 Campus transfers

Students wishing to change to another campus as their home campus must apply for transfer via an internal course transfer application.
 

3.  Units offered from more than one campus

Where a unit is offered from more than one campus:

(i) the unit code will be identical at all campuses; 

(ii) there will be only one unit outline for all campus unit offerings. The unit outline is to contain information which is common to all campus offerings as well as information which is specific to each campus offering; 

(iii) campus specific variations of examples, case studies, texts, references and other learning resources is permitted with the approval of the relevant multi-campus unit management group; 

(iv) unit assessment policies, including the proportion of examination and non-examination assessments, hurdles, and result calculation policies, will be identical at all campuses; 

(v) the Chief Examiner will establish a multi-campus unit management group involving key teaching staff from all campuses involved in offering the unit to ensure that: 

       (a) there is appropriate communication between the teaching staff at each campus;

       (b) the assessment tasks and standards are equivalent and are reviewed across campuses;

       (c) the teaching resources are comparable between the campuses, and are shared between the campuses where relevant;

       (d) the unit evaluation is conducted in a consistent manner and that evaluation results are reviewed at each campus and across all campuses through the aggregation of ‘unit offering’ results to unit level;

      (e) the timetabling of unit offerings on multiple Melbourne campuses maximises opportunities for students to complete units on a campus other than their home campus; and

       (f) access to resources provided centrally and by faculties is equitable irrespective of the campus of study.

(vi) the Chief Examiner will work collaboratively with the multi-campus unit management group to: 

       (a) ensure that there is a clear articulation of both learning objectives for the unit, and assessment procedures for each item of assessment, which are understood by all parties to the assessment process; 

       (b) contribute to the development of all items of assessment including the preparation of examination questions and sighting of the final examination; 

       (c) implement strategies to ensure equivalence of assessment standards across all campuses, such as: 

            (i) to ensure demonstrably equivalent assessment tasks with identical weights are undertaken by all students at all campuses; 

            (ii) to ensure assessment tasks do not disadvantage any student campus cohort. Some campus specific variation to assessment tasks may be appropriate in view of differing student cultural and national contexts; 

            (iii) to ensure comparability of assessment between markers. A range of techniques will be used to ensure the equivalence of assessment across campus cohorts including for example: 

  • using a detailed written marking guide for each item of assessment; 
  • training of assessors to ensure a common interpretation of the marking guide; 
  • using one assessor or assessment team for each item of assessment across all campuses where such arrangements are practicable; 
  • second-marking a selected sample of items of assessment to validate assessment standards and interpretation of the marking guide across campuses; 
  • exchanging samples of graded items of assessment between assessors;         

        (iv) review the results obtained by each campus cohort for each assessable task to ensure equivalence and comparability; and 

        (v) the Chief Examiner will provide a report regularly to the course director and course management group on the performance of students in the unit and the extent to which multi-campus governance was implemented and consistency achieved.

Purpose

To provide guidance to faculties in the provision of multi-campus coursework programs.

Rationale

The Education Plan states that Monash University aims to ensure that the multi-campus nature of the University is used to the greatest academic advantage of its staff and students (objective 7)

Offering academic programs from multiple campuses allows the University to use the widest set of expertise available across its network of campuses to develop, enhance and offer its academic programs, to share best practice in pedagogy and curriculum, to broaden student experience and to promote the efficient use of University resources.

It is important to effectively manage such programs to ensure equivalence of academic standards, alignment with university, faculty and campus strategic objectives and effective program marketing.

This document defines policy governing the provision of

  • Courses offered from more than campus
  • Courses where students are required to undertake studies from more than one campus
  • Units offered from more than one campus

Scope

This policy applies to all courses and units offered from more than one campus or where students undertake studies on more than one campus including campuses in Australia, Malaysia and South Africa. This policy also applies to courses and units that are offered concurrently in both on campus and off campus mode. In relation to this policy off campus mode is treated as a campus. Assessment aspects of this policy also apply to Monash courses and units conducted through Open Universities Australia.

Definition

Home campus - For management of resources across the campuses, except if a student is admitted as an external student, the student is admitted to a course offered on a particular campus, which is referred to as the student's home campus.

Related Documents

Governing Documents

Responsibilities for Implementation

  • University wide – Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), Pro Vice-Chancellor Campus Coordination
  • Faculty wide - Deans, Associate Deans (Teaching), Heads of Departments, Chief Examiners.

Approval

Approved by Academic Board at meeting 4/2006 dated 12 July 2006.

Date Effective

Beginning of the first academic year that follows approval by Academic Board.

Review

This policy will be considered for review by Academic Board three years after approval or earlier as required.

Contact Person

Professor Phillip Steele, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Campus Coordination)