College of Business, Government & Law Newsletter

Welcome to the College Newsletter for May 2020

From the VPED's Desk

Dear Colleagues

Thank you again for your hard work and commitment to the students. The university’s financial state is now as clear as it can be and for 2021 CBGL must make salary savings. We have insufficient income to  meet our salary costs and need to pause recruiting for vacancies, need all academics to have a full workload according to our model, need to reduce hiring of casuals (e.g. through reduction of small topics, removal of areas with very small load, combining topic coordination for face to face and online versions of a topic), cannot renew some contracts because of our plummeting load and lack of need for positions due to that, as well as looking  at saving non-salary costs. I am sorry to be so direct, but we are fortunate to work at a university which is well managed financially and reduced its financial exposure to the impact of the pandemic.

Our alternative where we can to these measures is to maintain our current load of continuing students and to grow our revenue so that we can meet our salary costs. Our new enrolments for Semester 2 are low but there is also a very disturbing problem I have become aware of with our continuing students. I chair the four student consultative committees (Business, Government, Law and Criminology). For two teaching programs I have been told by student representatives of the two areas (who have surveyed their constituencies or held virtual meetings of all students in a topic) of issues generating distress and dissatisfaction. These include their concerns about how the group presentations were run in one teaching program, slowness in two Colleges of a few lecturers responding to emails, in two topics very few lectures being given, and for the first years in particular a lack of preparation for  Semester 2 and feeling lost with little support. Let me also say many lecturers could not be praised enough! There have also been complaints from whole areas about assessment e.g. the group presentations, examinations and how to study for them and the lack of direction about the assessments due, as well as assignments for different topics being due on the same day. There was also great gratitude for the enormous work and care shown by many lecturers, enormous appreciation shown for how lecturers reduced the ‘communication gap’, were flexible for example with extensions for assignments, replaced group presentations with individual assignments, removed exams or set practice exams online and helped students know how to find the support available. Problems were worse at UG than PG level.

I appreciate how extremely difficult the pandemic has been for all, but we need to keep every student we have so that they stay with us for Semester 2 and, if first years, for next year. Some have held up enrolling for Semester 2 or have reduced their enrolment due to the issues above. There is extraordinary competition for our continuing students from our competitors. We need to keep our current student load and reduce attrition and grow new load as well as save the costs outlined in my first paragraph. I also appreciate students can be the cause of their own problems by not reading emails designed to help them with their difficulties, not attending or responding, and not taking advantage of the huge amount of university support. But please respond to student emails, please give full lectures and lecture schedules, use current examples, please give a lot of direction to your classes, please  especially be clear about exams and assignments and give as much direction and help as you can, be flexible or adjust assessment. You might say “what about me?”, “why should I do this?” Because students need this support, none of us are responsible for this pandemic and so they stay enrolled and encourage new students to come to us, so we have to save less salary costs.

Regards

Phyllis

People and Culture

Workday

As you may know, our exciting new HR platform Workday will be launched on 9 June 2020.

Workday will provide all staff with new, more flexible ways of managing common People & Culture tasks – this means improved functionality and less paper forms!

You can even download the Workday app to check your leave balances, view your payslips, or complete tasks on the go.

Supervisors would have received an email from Steve Barrett on 20 May 2020 with further information regarding improvements to a range of P&C business processes that they are responsible for reviewing and approving. This was followed by an email from the MyWorklife Program Team regarding Q&A sessions for Supervisors. We encourage you to enrol in one of the sessions to learn more about this global HR platform and ask questions.

Workday will enable us to become a more productive, efficient, and engaged College – so let’s get excited and work together to get the most out of Workday.

More communication will be released leading up to 9 June, so keep an eye on your inbox!

If you have questions, feedback or need further information please do not hesitate to contact the MyWorklife Program Team at myworklife@flinders.edu.au or your local P&C Team –  Katie Hazell (P&C Business Partner) and Karlee Cook (P&C Coordinator) by emailing cbgl.p&c@flinders.edu.au.

Student Wellbeing and Resilience – SAHMRI Complete Mental Health platform

Good wellbeing and mental health of our students is paramount for student success, particularly in time of change and uncertainty. The College of Business, Government and Law has worked in partnership with SAHMRI to be able to offer the use of SAHMRI’s Wellbeing and Resilience platform to our students, along with the Colleges of EPSW and S&E.

This freely accessible platform gives participants content aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing. It will also allow participants to take a personalised assessment that gives personalised tips and techniques to build and improve mental health and wellbeing.

In the first week of June students in CBGL will be sent an email from the SAHMRI Complete Mental Health platform (support@completementalhealth.com) containing a unique link to the SAHMRI site. Once on the SAHMRI site the students complete the assessment, browse articles and start doing activities.   All collected personal information and survey responses will be de-identified and completely confidential.

Staff will be forwarded information by email to assist in promotion of the use of the platform and are asked to encourage students to take part in this College Wellbeing initiative.

Prof Phyllis Tharenou
Vice-President & Executive Dean

Research News

Congratulations to Professor John Spoehr who participated in a (virtual) Flinders University Brave presentation with the futurist Andrew Grill on Beyond COVID: the Future of the Workplace on 21 May. While there has been much global discussion about COVID-19 and its effects on life as we once knew it, this presentation focused on the future of the workplace. John Spoehr and Hamish Gamble of AITI also authored a report released in April titled: Impact of Covid-19 on the South Australian Economy and Employment.

Academic staff publications

Refereed Journal Articles

Huang, B. and Zhu, R. (2020). “Peer effects of low-ability students in the classroom: evidence from China's middle schools". Journal of Population Economics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00780-8  (Scimago: Q1 Top 10% (9/99), Demography: Web of Science: Q2 (173/363), Economics; ABDC: A ranked)

Stocchi, L., Ludwichowska, G., Fuller, R., and Gregoric, A. (2020). Customer-Based Brand Equity for Branded Apps: A Simple Research Framework, Journal of Marketing Communications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2020.1752775 (Scimago: Q1 (58/396), Business and International Management; Web of Science: N/A; ABDC: B ranked)

Siddiquee, N. and Saleheen, A. (2020) Taxation and Governance in Bangladesh: A Study of the Value-added Tax, International Journal of Public Administration. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2020.1744645 (Scimago: Q2 (123/396), Business and International Management; Web of Science: N/A; ABDC: B ranked)

Giannacopoulos, M. (2020) Debtscape: Australia’s Constitutional Nomopoly. Borderlands, 18(2), 116-136. (Scimago: N/A; unranked; Web of Science: N/A, unranked)

Book Chapters

Brand, V. (2020) The Ethics of Corporate Whistleblowing Rewards. In: S. Lombard, V. Brand, and J. Austin (Eds), Corporate Whistleblowing: Theory, Practice and Design. Springer. (SENSE Publication Ranking: B)

Other Publications

Professor John Spoehr and Hamish Gamble released Impact of Covid-19 on the South Australian Economy and Employment, a report that finds double digit unemployment for the next few years, and a plunge in Gross State Product and slow recovery are among the likely impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on South Australia.  Full report here:

Cassandra Star and the Climate and Sustainability Policy Research (CASPR) group published an article, titled ‘Defence-funded study outlines climate risk to national security’, on their current externally funded research in Australian Defence Magazine: For more information click here

Education

Teaching and Learning

BREAKING NEWS – COLLEGE TEACHING AWARDS CLOSING DATE EXTENDED

The Vice President & Executive Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award and Vice President & Executive Dean’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant closing dates have been extended from 29 May until Friday 17 July 2020.

 Further information can be found at:  https://staff.flinders.edu.au/learning-teaching/awards-and-grants

Assignment Research Library Guides Available NOW for each College 

With the temporary closure of the physical Library branches, students now face the challenge of finding all their research online and this can sometimes be difficult.  

The Library is here to help! We have developed an online guide for students that is specific to each College. The guide shows how to find resources that are relevant to their discipline for example, primary sources and statistics. 

The guides can be accessed via the Findit@Flinders catalogue by clicking on the ‘Smart Search Subject Guide’ link. 

For more information about finding online resources for assignments students can contact the Library, Book a Librarian or head straight to the guides. 

More Library Information COVID-19 Library Updates 

New Student Portal to be released in 2020

 The Compass Program are excited to announce we are now in the final stages of development to deliver a new Student Portal in 2020. Learn more.

The Library has just launched a new Library Chat customer service tool ‘Library Chat’

Need a quick response to a Library question? We’re up for the challenge. The Library is piloting a chat service: Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm. Look for the widget on the bottom right of the Library’s homepage   

Top tip: Library Chat works best using Google Chrome; doesn’t like Internet Explorer 

Articles on Scholarship of Learning and Teaching

Kumar, S., Verma, P., & Rajesh, J.I. (2020) The context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Country Chapters – India. In: A.R. Nankervis, J. Connell and J. Burgess (Eds). The Future of Work in Asia and Beyond: A Technological Revolution or Evolution? Routledge. (SENSE Publication Ranking: A)

Student Engagement and Events

Congratulations to Team 7 “Health_e_View” for winning first place in the very first virtual National Innovation Games for South Australia!

The team’s students from Flinders University, University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, Western Sydney University and Deakin University virtually collaborated in a day competitive design thinking with business representatives from ECH Inc., Personality Care, Global Centre for Modern Ageing and Adelaide’s Design Network, as well as mentors from SA Health and The Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health (CEIH).

A well deserved win with game-changing ideas and solutions that will go toward improving the provision of healthcare services for all South Australians.

Bachelor of Letters (Innovation & Enterprise) student Adrian Loschiavo was nominated for Challenger of the Day.

Presentation to the Public, Community and Business

Brendan Grigg contributed to the Adelaide session of the Australian Groundwater School, presented by the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training at Flinders University. It provides participants with a broad but rigorous introduction to groundwater. Introducing hydrogeology, assessment methods, modelling, managed aquifer recharge, management, governance and more, the course truly encompasses the fundamentals of groundwater. 

Professor John Spoehr wrote COVID-19 is one of two curves we must flatten for The Adelaide Review’s May edition regarding the second ‘curve’ of rising unemployment rates.  For more information click here

Alumni 

Flinders Flashback - Alumni Competition

For the chance to win a Nikon SLR camera* submit photos from when you were studying on campus.

Spending more time at home at the moment? This might be a great opportunity to look through old photos and send us your memories of when you were studying on campus.

Each week we’ll choose our favourite photo and share your Flinders Flashback on social media. A monthly winner will be chosen to receive an Instax mini 9 instant camera*.

The overall winner will be selected via a People’s Choice online vote and will receive a Nikon D7500 DSLR camera and lens kit (valued at $1898).
*Ts&Cs apply. For more information click the link  https://www.flinders.edu.au/alumni/flashback

Marketing

Bachelor of International Business (Wine, Spirits and Tourism)

The marketing campaign for the new BGL course the Bachelor of International Business (Wine, Spirits and Tourism) is well underway, receiving enquiries and over 1,841 views on the 30 second video in just over a week. 

In line with the Semester 2 student recruitment marketing campaign ‘Get Future Ready’, the International Business (Wine, Spirits and Tourism) campaign positions Flinders as leaders in the space, bringing together Flinders strengths in the teaching area: the new course, FOMENT – Wine and Tourism Technology Accelerator Program with NVI, and the Bachelor of Tourism and Events.  The campaign aims to inspire and nurture potential interests with the new video announcing the new degree, with a focus on industry experts teaching into the degree, and the TAFE SA partnership and the embedded WSET qualification in wine.  We’re executing a 100% digital media strategy given the current COVID-19 situation, which is in market taking an always on approach.  

Thanks to all involved.

College of Business, Government and Law

Flinders University
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park South Australia 5042