Members

• Peter James (University of Technology, Sydney and Chair)
• Bruce Meikle (University of Sydney)
• Maureen Klinkert (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Avril Grant (Queensland University of Technology)
• Peter Nikoletatos (Curtin University of Technology)
• Peter Nissen (CAUDIT)

Latest Minutes and Documents

For access to the minutes of the committee and background information, go to the Professional Development Document Repository

Terms of Reference: Standing Committee on Professional Development

Preamble and Statement of Purpose

The University Sector within Australia and New Zealand expends significant funds on professional development for both IT Directors and their staff.  CAUDIT has in the past sponsored various workshops to support its own activities or to help members build a capability within the sector, with the Benchmarking and AusCERT workshops being two recent examples.

At a regional level, there is some co-operation between members to deliver workshops or pool together enough staff from a number of institutions to gain sufficient numbers to enable a training provider to deliver the course on site and therefore reduce the per head cost.  QuestNet is a notable example of this for the Queensland group of Universities, and at times has extended these workshops to other CAUDIT members.

Within various institutions across the sector, other specific expertise exists often in Computer Science Schools or similar such as the CISCO Networking Academy Program or the Microsoft Academy where institutions are able to provide industry endorsed courses and qualifications to staff and students at a significant discount when compared to mainstream commercial rates.

Finally, CAUDIT has been running an institute programme modelled on the EDUCAUSE Leadership Institute which has been tailored for Australian and New Zealand members.  This programme targets senior IT staff (often Associate Directors or similar) who will be the next generation of IT Directors.

To date these various initiatives have been in many cases highly successful, but represent only a small percentage of overall expenditure on professional development for IT staff across the sector.  Further many other areas of need have not been addressed, including professional development that is both engaging and meaningful for current IT Directors.

The CAUDIT Standing Committee on Professional Development will on behalf of member institutions investigate and facilitate arrangements, utilising both existing but perhaps untapped capabilities within the sector and commercial offerings to expand the range of professional development opportunities that are available to members and their staff at more competitive pricing than is currently available.

It should be clearly noted that CAUDIT is not seeking to become a training organisation as such, but rather sees its role and being a facilitator to leverage existing capability within the sector and use the collective purchasing power of its members with commercial providers.

Terms of Reference

1. Identify and catalogue existing IT and relevant professional training capability within the sector in both IT Services areas and Academic Schools.
2. Review current member professional development needs and expenditure and identify areas of priority which are not being addressed or are currently beyond the financial means of members.
3. Work with identified training providers and facilitate professional development opportunities on behalf of the membership.
4. The chair will be appointed by the CAUDIT Executive.  Whilst it would be preferable for the chair to be an IT Director, the appointment would be at the discretion of the CAUDIT Executive and need not necessarily be a current serving IT Director.  The Chair will be appointed for a period of 2 years, with the option to extend this for a further 2 years at the discretion of the CAUDIT Executive.
5. Up to 4 general members; drawn from the membership of CAUDIT.
6. General members are appointed for a period of 2 years, with half of the members being up for re-appointment each year.  There are no limitations on the number of times a member can serve on the committee.
7. One or more other members appointed by the CAUDIT executive as appropriate.
8. One member nominated by the NZ Standing Committee for Information Technology.
9. Where there are more nominations than positions available, the Chair of the Committee along with the CAUDIT Executive will review the applicants and make a selection at its discretion.
10. The CAUDIT Senior Project Manager will provide support for the standing committee.

Reporting and Communication

The Chair of the SCoPD will report to the executive of CAUDIT, with updates on the activities of the SCoPD to be available for each CAUDIT Executive Meeting. The Chair will also provide a report on the activities of the SCoPD to the membership of CAUDIT at both the AGM and GM.

In general communication between the committee and the membership of CAUDIT and constituent groups should be through the Chair or delegate. For specific activities which are focused around a particular vendor or arrangement, the Chair may nominate an individual to take a lead role to facilitate direct communications relating to the activity.

Updated: 22 September 2009