Governance and management policy review

Purpose

The governance and policy review project has been established by the Transformation Taskforce to ensure that the University's policies and delegations are fit for purpose as the Sustainable Future program outcomes are implemented in 2021.

The policy library currently holds over 200 management or governance rules, policy and procedures, many of which are overdue for review. The policy review will reduce the number of policy documents and ensure they are current, fit for purpose, appropriate to our organisational requirements and structures and compliant with external requirements.

Building on the successful reshaping of the academic governance policies, the Transformation Taskforce have committed to a full review of all management and governance documents by the end of March 2021. External consultants have been engaged to help with this work.

Particulars

What are the project's objectives?

1. Significantly streamline the 120+ management and governance policies currently in the policy library to policies that are current, easy to access and use.
2. A new policy taxonomy that will assist at three levels:
   1. Dimension 1 improves the governance of policies, their approval, and the processes they support.
   2. Dimension 2 aligns all policies with the HESF domains, allowing us to better demonstrate compliance.
   3. Dimension 3 categorises policies into meaningful groupings, aiding discoverability and improving alignment with University delegations and functions.
3. A simpler, easier to use policy suite to support staff and organisational units as we continue to implement Sustainable Futures in 2021.

Payoffs

What are the benefits?

1. Significantly reduced number of documents in the policy suite, making them easier to locate and use.
2. Trusted and reliable policies that are current and aligned with internal structures and processes and external compliance requirements.
3. Greater awareness of policies and mechanisms for providing ongoing feedback suggestions.
4. Easier process for policy owners to maintain and improve policies.

Proposed Policy Consolidation

View the proposed policy suite and policy consolidation [PDF]

Timeline

View the project timeline

Taxonomy

The proposed taxonomy provides three ways to classify policy documents: by their approval stream, by their compliance with the Higher Education Standards Framework, or by category grouping.