Please click this image to view a video update from Professor Mike Kyrios

EPSW Bulletin - July 2020

Please click video link above for an update from Professor Mike Kyrios, Vice President and Executive Dean

As mentioned in Mike’s video above, please send your ideas to: cepsw.greatideas@flinders.edu.au

An update from Professor Mary Katsikitis, Dean (People & Resources) 

Teaching Program Directors
The recruitment process for Teaching Program Director roles has now concluded and on behalf of CELT and members of the selection panel, I would like to congratulate the successful applicants, whose details are below:
ITE: Ms Ceinwyn Elleway
CPE: Dr Mirella Wyra
Social Work: Dr Helen McLaren
Psychology: Associate Professor Glen Bodner

We want to thank and recognise the support and dedication of both Associate Professor Julie Clark and Dr Paul Williamson who have stepped back from the Teaching Program Director roles to pursue other academic interests.
Thank you to all staff who applied for the Teaching Program Director role. It was a competitive process and therefore one, which for me, is also a measure of the interest and passion of people in our College

Outside Studies Program (OSP)
Due to COVID19, EPSW staff who had been approved for OSP in 2020 have been unable to undertake their programs as approved. In due course, these staff will be contacted in regards to indicating their intention to undertake these activities in 2021.
Unfortunately, due to the effect of COVID19 on the College budget, additional applications for OSP activities in 2021 will not be accepted.

Promotion
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all staff applying for promotion the very best in their endeavours and look forward to receiving those applications by the end of this week.

EPSW Rural, Remote Indigenous Steering Group 

The EPSW Rural, Remote Indigenous (RRI) steering group's primary purpose is to develop an EPSW strategy and implementation plan for RRI which aligns with the Flinders Reconciliation Action Plan.

We hope to:

• Develop culturally safe staff and curricula to build culturally safe graduates equipped to work effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
• Ensure EPSW research reflects rural, remote Indigenous community priorities as well as developing both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal research capacity to successfully conduct research in areas that enhance the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
• Identify and pursue partnership opportunities to enhance the educational and research activities of EPSW;
• Consider opportunities to expand EPSW’s presence in rural and remote locations;
• Identify and deliver strategies to recruit and nurture Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academic and professional staff within EPSW;
• Develop strategies to recruit and nurture Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students including higher degree research pathways;
• Monitor, review and evaluate the EPSW Rural, Remote and Indigenous strategy and implementation plan.

The following three-stage process will be undertaken across EPSW to progress the purpose:

1. Review and document the current state of Rural Remote Indigenous engagement and activity across teaching, research and partnerships within EPSW
2. Engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners in the disciplines and colleagues across the University to identify gaps and needs within EPSW.
3. Engage with staff and leadership to develop an EPSW strategy and implementation plan, aligned with the Flinders Reconciliation Action Plan.

We need your help, if you are interested in being involved, please contact:
Education: Kerrie Mackey-Smith
Psychology: Mikaela Cibich
Social Work: Michelle Jones 

Finance Update

Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)
Entertainment by the way of food, drink, or recreation provided by Flinders University to an employee (and/or associates of the employee) is subject to fringe benefits tax (FBT). Each transaction must be looked at individually in terms of its nature and substance as:
•    Incorrectly coding items to FBT effectively doubles costs to your project and to the University
•    Incorrectly coding items as not subject to FBT has tax implications and may be audited
 

Coding in Fraedom
There are generally few circumstances where an entertainment benefit is not subject to FBT.
Enter as much information as possible about the nature of the event and the attendees (employees, associates, clients/visitors) into the description section of the coding.
Carefully check the expense code. Only entertainment subject to FBT should be coded to 2050. Coding is often split if entertainment is for a combination of employees, associates, and clients/visitors, depending on the scenario. 

Not sure or have a question?
Please see the taxation website for more information about FBT and how to code entertainment.
Feel free to contact the College Finance Team by emailing cepsw.finance@flinders.edu.au.
The below table can assist with some scenarios and which expense code to use. For more scenarios and which expense code to use, please visit the taxation website.

Contracting in the College

With a new financial year beginning, it is timely to remind staff of the need to engage with our College Contracts Officer prior to:
1.    Engaging contractors (for example, editors, copywriters, transcribers and photographers)
2.    Consulting externally
3.    Exploring partnerships or collaborations with third parties
4.    Purchasing software
5.    Signing or accepting any written terms on behalf of the University

The Director of College Services and the Vice President and Executive Dean are the only personnel authorised to execute contracts for the College.  Staff should obtain advice from our dedicated Contracts Officer, Penelope Hooftallen, prior to presenting any agreements for signature.

Penelope can also provide assistance with insurance, University policy compliance and legal matters.

The best way to contact Penelope is via ServiceOne.

EPSW Semester 2 Orientation

Next week marks the beginning of mid-year orientation and as a result, you will see some increased activity around campus. If you get the opportunity to have a look around and say hello to commencing and returning students that would be fantastic. A bit of info about what is happening during orientation is below.  

College Welcome Events

Thank you to the SAS team for all their hard work in the preparation and delivery of the following enrolment sessions:

• College of Education, Psychology and Social Work Enrolment Session – EDUC2.08 – 16th July 11.00 – 12.00 Online only
• Bachelor of Education (Secondary) Enrolment Session – EDUC2.08 – 16th July 14.00 – 15.00 Online Only

Thank you to Helen McLaren, Paul Williamson and Julie Clark for their contributions and delivery of the welcome events for the college.

• Bachelor of Social Work Welcome Event – 24th July 11.00 – 13.00 – EDUC1.01 and livestream
• Master of Social Work Welcome Event – 24th July 14.00 – 16.00 – EDUC1.01 and livestream
• BSHaPA Welcome Event – 21st July 11.00 – 13.00 – EDUC1.01 and livestream
• Bachelor of Education Welcome Event – 23rd July 14.00 – 16.00 – EDUC1.01 and livestream
• Psychology Degrees Welcome Event – 23rd July 11.00 – 13.00 – EDUC1.01 and livestream

O’Guides

Congratulations and thank you to all of our college O’Guides who have recently completed a series of online training in order to support commencing students feel welcome in beginning their journey at Flinders University.

New students have been notified about the O’Guide Program as part of our Orientation communications as well as being prompted to join via the Finding Your Way at Flinders Orientation FLO site. Students can find their relevant O’Guide Group Session in the orientation planner (by selecting their course from the drop down list).

If you are teaching commencing students in semester 2 please promote this program. This can be done by utilising the College slides for O’Week and Week 1 (which outline key orientation information for new students, including the O’Guide Program).

Extended Orientation - Teaching First-Year Students?

Week 1 of semester 2 marks the beginning of the extended orientation support with Connect week. Week 1 (Connect Week) Slides can be included in Week 1 lectures and would be useful to promote with ALL 2020 commencing students, not just mid-year commencing students. The slides for Skills Week (week 2) and Wellbeing Week (week 3) will be coming soon.  

Joss Rankin, Chair Student Success Working Group

Learning & Teaching Week 2020: Call for Items

This year’s Learning & Teaching Week will dispense with keynotes, workshops, and information sessions. Instead, it will be a creative celebration of teaching and learning at Flinders University featuring works by, for and about academics and students, displayed and shared primarily online throughout November 2020.

Called This Academic Life: Artefacts of Teaching and Learning, the centrepiece of the event will be a cinemagraphic exhibition of portraits of academics, displayed both on campus in Studio 2 but also digitally on a dedicated website.

The website will also host other ‘virtual artefacts’ in the form of:

• Digital testimonies of teaching award recipients
• Stories of connection with students, for students, and by students
• Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation in Teaching Award-winning video applications
• Compilation of comic snippets from online topic recordings and meetings (‘Cats, Dogs and Epic Fails’)
• WIL online

Anna Smith in CILT is now calling for submissions of online teaching and learning stories, connections, experiences, successes, and failures.

If conversion to online delivery was a minefield potted with hilarious Collaborate sessions, fumbled Teams discussions, or Kaltura miss-takes, now is your time to shine! If you got innovative with the conversion and designed an online topic with creativity and a twist, share your story!

Contact Anna today with your ideas and let’s turn them into a shared and celebrated artefact.

Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT): Call for Assesors 

The AAUT Awards Team are now seeking expressions of interest from staff interested in becoming an assessor of AAUT applications in 2020. Acting as an assessor provides both academics and professional staff with professional development and networking opportunities in the teaching and learning field. The knowledge that they bring back into the institution is invaluable for the development of future teaching award applications.

Institutions can put forward up to 10 recommendations for teaching award assessors, and nominees should have the following attributes:  

• Discipline expertise
• Learning and teaching expertise and leadership experience
• Experience assessing award or grant applications
• Experience in/understanding of the scholarship of education

For more information, see the 2020 AAUT Assessor Information Brochure.

Send your expression of interest to Anna Smith in CILT by COB Thursday, 2 July 2020.

Academic Calibration: Call for Calibrators 

Academic Calibration is an external peer review process involving the review of topic learning outcomes, assessment and topic design. Conducted across the seven institutions of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network of universities, Academic Calibration aims to provide a comparable review and constructive feedback for selected higher education topics, in order to:

• demonstrate the appropriateness of the standards of learning outcomes and grades awarded in IRU universities
• maintain and improve the academic standards of IRU
• enable comparisons of learning outcomes in similar subjects across IRU
• promote discussion on good practice in learning and teaching across IRU.

The IRU are seeking nominations from suitable academics who might be interested in reviewing a topic from their discipline from another university. To find out more, visit the Academic Calibrate website, and contact Anna Smith in CILT.

Workshops for Sessional Staff

The Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) offers workshops specifically designed to help sessional staff gain confidence in teaching at Flinders.
Workshops include:
Introduction to Sessional Teaching offered as a two part workshop with both Part 1 and Part 2, available online. These cover roles and responsibilities, planning and facilitating teaching, managing groups and interactive sessions and the relationship between student learning and your teaching. Part 1 must be completed before staff can begin Part 2.

Sessional staff may be eligible for reimbursement to attend these sessions. Please contact CILT or your supervisor for more information. 

Please be reminded that there are a range of Good Practice Guides and Tip Sheets linked to many aspects of learning and teaching, with new ones being added continually: https://staff.flinders.edu.au/learning-teaching/good-practice-guides

Open Days

This year Flinders University is offering a whole new experience for Open Days. 

Online program
Our virtual Open Days program runs from Monday 10 August – Friday 14 August, and will be a fantastic opportunity to:

•    View over 60 video presentations on careers, study areas and university life
•    Learn about our course options and career pathways
•    Chat online with study area experts
•    Hear from current students and alumni
•    Take a virtual campus tour
•    Access informative documents and useful links

On-campus activities
There will also be an opportunity to experience Flinders in the real world, with tours taking place at Bedford Park campus on Saturday 15 August in accordance with State Government restrictions. Following Open Days, additional campus tours will be held at Tonsley and Sturt for those interested in studying courses that are primarily based at these locations.

If you know anyone who may be interested in finding out more about Flinders Open Days 2020, please forward this email or share our Open Days Facebook event and website. And, just by registering and logging in to our virtual platform, they could win an incredible Apple iPhone Pro and AirPods Pro package (worth over $2,100), as well as an awesome Apple MacBook Pro (valued at $1999) if they register before 24 July 2020.
Please click here for instructions on how to update your email signature and link the image to www.flinders.edu.au/opendays.

2020 Alumni Award Nominations Now Open 

Nominations for the 2020 Flinders University Alumni Awards are now open and run until 5pm, Friday 11 September.
This year’s awards include the Early Career Alumni Award, which recognises the achievements of alumni who have graduated in the past five years.

Nominate a graduate who is making a difference in their field: https://www.flinders.edu.au/alumni/our-alumni/awards-and-honours/alumni-awards?utm_source=Collegee-news&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=Alumni%20Awards

Or promote the Alumni awards as your e-signature, with the following link: https://www.flinders.edu.au/alumni/our-alumni/awards-and-honours/alumni-awards?utm_source=email&utm_medium=esignature&utm_campaign=2020AANominations

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