Standing Orders for Academic Board

Purpose and scope

1. The Academic Board will conduct its meetings and other business in accordance with these standing orders, subject to the UTS By-law, General Rules and Council delegations.

2. Any matter not dealt with in these standing orders shall be governed by customary procedures at meetings. Customary procedures refers to the process by which the Board's business is conducted through a Chair and proceeds on the basis of resolution. In the conduct of meetings of Academic Board and its committees, all reasonable discretion is allowed to the Chair.

3. These standing orders apply to Academic Board and its committees (see standing order 4). Faculty boards and boards of studies are governed by the Standing Orders for Faculty Boards.

4. Standing orders 1–3, 7, 8, 10, 12–20, 22(a), 23–38, 41–43, 45(d), 46(b) and 48–49 also apply to Academic Board committees. When applying these standing orders to Academic Board committees, all references to Academic Board shall be read as Academic Board committees.

Meetings of Academic Board

5. The Academic Board shall normally meet in ordinary session at least six times in each year and at such other times as the Academic Board determines.

6. In addition to ordinary meetings of Academic Board, a special meeting may be convened by the Secretary (or nominee) on the request of the Chair, or the Deputy Chair or the Vice-Chancellor, or upon the written request of any five members of Academic Board. A special meeting shall be scheduled within 14 days of receipt of the request.

7. (i) A special meeting of an Academic Board committee may be held

        (a) on the request of the Chair, or

        (b) by the University Secretary on the written request of any five members of the committee.

    (ii) A special meeting shall be scheduled, as far as practical, within 14 days of receipt of the request described in 7(i)(a) and (b).

Chair, Deputy Chair and Secretary

8. The Chair shall preside at any Academic Board meeting except in the circumstances described in standing orders 9–11.

9. At the first meeting of Academic Board following the beginning of a new two-year term, the Vice-Chancellor will open the meeting and invite the recently elected Chair to preside over the meeting from that point.

10. Where at a meeting of the Academic Board the Chair

    (a) is absent

    (b) elects not to preside

    (c) is unable to preside,

or the office of the Chair is vacant, the Deputy Chair shall preside unless unwilling to do so.

11. In the absence of the Chair and Deputy Chair from an Academic Board meeting, or, in circumstances described in standing order 10, if the Deputy Chair has elected not to preside at the meeting:

    (a) the Vice-Chancellor, if the Vice-Chancellor is present and wishes to preside, is to preside at the meeting; or

    (b) if the Vice-Chancellor is not present, or being present, does not wish to preside, the Board is to elect one of its members to preside at the meeting.

12. In the absence of the Chair and Deputy Chair from a meeting of an Academic Board committee, or, in circumstances described in standing order 10, if the Deputy Chair has elected not to preside at the Academic Board committee meeting, the committee is to elect one of its members to preside at the meeting.

13. The University Secretary shall be Secretary to the Academic Board.

Notice of meetings

14. At least seven days’ written notice of a meeting of the Academic Board shall be given by the Secretary (or nominee) to members of the Academic Board setting out the time and place of the meeting and the agenda (including specifying any matters requested under standing order 6 for discussion at a special meeting).

15. At least two business days’ (minimum 48 hours) notice of a special meeting shall be given by the Secretary in writing to the committee members setting out the time and place of the meeting and purpose for which the meeting is to be convened.

16. Proceedings of the Academic Board shall be valid notwithstanding non-receipt of a notice of meeting by a member.

Agenda and tabled papers

17. The order of business at any meeting of the Academic Board shall follow that set out in the agenda unless the Academic Board otherwise determines.

18. No member of the Academic Board shall initiate any matter for debate or move any motion in respect of a matter, other than a matter on the agenda, unless the Academic Board otherwise determines.

    (a) To ensure that Board members have adequate time to consider matters for resolution, papers should not be tabled at a meeting. However, if, after consulting with the Secretary, the Chair believes the Board may wish to determine whether it will receive a tabled paper, an opportunity to do so will be provided at an agenda item, Receipt of Tabled Papers. Tabled papers received by the Board will be considered for starring in the sequence they are received.

Quorum

19. The quorum at any meeting of Academic Board shall be one-half of the current members of Academic Board. If one-half is not a whole number, the next higher whole number shall be used.

Vacant positions on Academic Board do not count toward the calculation of the number required for a quorum.

20. Once a meeting of the Academic Board has commenced with a quorum, a quorum shall be deemed to exist thereafter, unless the lack of a quorum is drawn to the Chair’s attention. On the Chair’s attention being drawn to the lack of a quorum, the Chair shall adjourn the meeting for ten minutes. If at the expiration of ten minutes there still is no quorum, the Chair may adjourn the meeting and/or deal with remaining business as noted in standing order 21.

21. If no quorum is present, the session can proceed at the Chair’s request and with endorsement of members of Academic Board who are present.

Items of business can be discussed (but no formal decisions can be made) and the inquorate session is recorded as notes.

Items of business discussed at an inquorate session may be sent to Academic Board members out of session for approval.

In the instance where sufficient members join (part way through an inquorate session) such that a quorum is achieved, the now quorate members may choose to resolve to approve and accept all the items discussed during the inquorate session. Such items would then be considered resolutions of the now formal meeting.

Where an inquorate session does not proceed as outlined above, the Chair will determine how business will be dealt with, which may include:

    (a) through out of session business (refer to standing order 46)

    (b) at the next meeting of the Board, or

    (c) for no further consideration.

Declaration of conflict of interest and starring of items

22. Before the commencement of the general business of the Board’s agenda, the Chair shall invite Board members to:

    (a) declare any conflict of interest in relation to any listed matters

    (b) recommend items to be starred.

Any member may declare a conflict of interest or star an agenda item.

Starring of items is a meeting procedure adopted by the University to ensure that the whole agenda is covered, where possible, at the one meeting.

Items considered to require further discussion are accorded an appropriate amount of time within the constraints of a reasonable meeting duration, which is usually up to two hours.

Items which are not starred shall be adopted immediately after resolving, which, if any, items should be starred for further discussion.

Minutes

23. The Secretary (or nominee) shall keep a record of each meeting, which shall be stored in an appropriate manner consistent with the Records Management Policy, and at each meeting the minutes of the preceding meeting shall:

    (a) be read unless copies thereof have been previously circulated to members

    (b) be confirmed or confirmed as amended, and

    (c) subsequently be signed by the Chair as confirmed with or without amendment.

Conduct of meetings

24. The meetings of the Board may be conducted in person or virtually (audio/video conferencing). Accordingly, participation of members in a meeting of the Board shall be in person or electronically.

25. No member of Academic Board may be represented by a nominee unless specifically stated in the approved composition.

26. No nominees to Academic Board may further delegate a nominee to the position they hold.

27. Meetings shall, subject to the presence of a quorum, start at the time set out in the notice of meeting, and shall, subject to the discretion of the Chair, continue until all business on the agenda has been concluded, except that the agreement of the Academic Board shall normally be necessary for the duration of the meeting to exceed two hours.

28. Any member who desires to speak at a Board meeting shall only address the meeting when called upon by the Chair:

    (a) if two or more members indicate their desire to speak simultaneously, the Chair shall call upon the member who first caught the Chair’s attention, subject to precedence being given to the Vice-Chancellor or any person acting in that position;

    (b) if the Chair rises or speaks during a debate, any member speaking shall cease to do so and the Chair shall be heard without interruption.

Motion or amendment

29. A motion or amendment before the Chair can only be withdrawn by the mover, with leave of the seconder and the Academic Board, provided that no motion shall be withdrawn while an amendment is being discussed or after any amendment has been adopted.

30. Subject to standing order 29, when an amendment is before the Chair, discussion shall be confined to that amendment, and no further amendment shall be proposed until the amendment before the Chair has been disposed of.

31. A motion or amendment before the Chair may be reworded by the mover with leave of the Academic Board.

32. Members of the Academic Board shall only speak once to any question, except that the mover of a motion or amendment shall have the right of reply, which reply shall close the debate. For the purposes of this Order, an amendment shall constitute a separate question from the original motion and from any other amendment.

    (a) A member moving a motion or amendment without speaking to it may reserve his right to speak to it subsequently.

Suspension or conclusion of debate

33. At any time during the meeting, a member of the Academic Board who has not already participated in the debate on a matter may, whether another speaker has the floor or not, move ‘That the question be now put’, which motion, if accepted by the Chair, shall be put without amendment or debate. The Chair shall have absolute discretion to accept or refuse the motion. If the motion is put during debate on an amendment, the motion shall close debate on the amendment only.

    (a) A motion is ‘disposed of’ when it has been voted on, has lapsed due to absence of a mover or has been withdrawn.

    (b) Once a motion is disposed of, a member shall not speak to or reflect on the motion or the vote of a meeting pertaining to the motion, except in the case of a motion for the rescission of a resolution previously adopted by the Board (of which, due notice must be given in the form of inclusion on a meeting’s agenda).

Point of order

34. Any member of Academic Board may raise a point of order, which shall take precedence over all other business and be open to discussion. The point must be raised at the time the alleged irregularity occurred.

    (a) The Chair will make a ruling on a point of order.

35. Any member of the Academic Board disagreeing with the Chair’s ruling on a point of order may move dissent. Such motion shall be put to vote forthwith without debate. Upon such a motion, the Deputy Chair shall take the Chair until the motion is disposed of.

36. Any decision made by a validly constituted meeting shall not be void by reason only of a departure from these standing orders which was not detected until after the decision was made.

Method of voting

37. At meetings of the Academic Board, voting shall be by show of hands, and

    (a) any question shall be decided by a majority of the members present, and

    (b) the Chair shall have a deliberative vote and, in the event of equality of votes, a casting vote.

Academic Board election

38. Elections for Academic Board shall be held in accordance with Rule G3, Part 3 of the UTS General Rules.

Open meetings

39. Meetings of the Academic Board shall be open to UTS staff, students and graduates, who may attend meetings of the Board as observers and shall be admitted subject to the availability of space. The Executive Officer to Academic Board should be informed by such person who intends to attend the meeting.

Observers shall not be accorded speaking or voting rights. The Chair may however grant observers leave to speak at a meeting on a matter or item of discussion.

Attendance at Academic Board meetings

40. UTS officers identified from time to time by the Executive Committee of Academic Board, in consultation with the senior management as appropriate, will be alerted to the online availability of Academic Board papers, and have a standing invitation to attend meetings and participate in discussion, subject to permission by the Chair, as appropriate to their expertise and area of responsibility.

Closed session

41. The Academic Board may, if it so wishes and provided that a quorum is present, go ‘into closed session’, whereupon all non-members who are present shall, with the exception of those non-members as the Academic Board may determine, be required to leave the meeting and shall not be readmitted to the meeting until the Chair declares that open session has resumed.

    (a) The minutes of the meeting shall record the motions for the commencement and cessation of discussions in a closed session. Minutes of discussions in a closed session will be considered confidential and kept separately.

Adjournment

42. The Chair may, with the consent of the Academic Board or if so directed by the Academic Board, adjourn a meeting to another time and/or place.

When a meeting is adjourned:

    (a) no further business will be dealt with. Business left unfinished will be carried over to the next meeting

    (b) for 10 days or more, notice of the adjourned meeting, to consider the unfinished business, shall be given as for an ordinary meeting

    (c) for 10 days or less, shorter notice of the adjourned meeting, to consider the unfinished business, shall be given, as determined by the Chair and Secretary

    (d) it shall not be necessary to give any notice of the business to be transacted at the next sitting of an adjourned meeting.

Cancellation of meetings

43. The Chair may cancel a meeting of the Academic Board at any time in between meetings.

    (a) If the Chair is of the opinion that there is not sufficient business to warrant the holding of a meeting of the Board, the Chair may direct that members be informed that the meeting has been cancelled. The Chair will also determine how business that would have been transacted at the cancelled meeting will be dealt with, in the manner set out in standing order 20.

Alternate members

44. (a) An alternate student member may attend meetings of Academic Board either as an observer (as per standing order 39) or upon request by Executive Officer to Academic Board to attend in place of an elected student member if the elected student member is unable to attend (see Rule G3-1(3) in the Rules relating to Academic Board).

    (b) (i) If and when the elected student member is not or will not be present for a meeting, then an alternate student member will be entitled to receive the agenda papers, attend and vote at meetings of Academic Board.

        (ii) When both the elected member and the alternate member are present at a meeting of Academic Board, only the elected member has speaking and voting rights.

        (iii) Immediately prior to the commencement of a meeting of Academic Board, or as soon as possible thereafter, but during the meeting, an alternate member who is attending in place of a member shall confirm that attendance with the Executive Officer to Academic Board.

        (iv) When both the member and the alternate are unable to attend a meeting of Academic Board, the Executive Officer to Academic Board is responsible for registering the member's formal apology.

        (v) If, for three consecutive meetings of Academic Board, neither the student member nor the alternate member has attended and the student member has not registered a formal apology with the Executive Officer to Academic Board for any of those meetings, the membership of the student member lapses, and that of the alternate member with it (see Rule G3-1(4) in the Rules relating to Academic Board).

Communication of Academic Board decisions

45. Academic Board decisions are communicated in the following ways, via:

    (a) the UTS Official Noticeboard

    (b) minutes published on the UTS website

    (c) the UTS Academic Board briefing, which is an electronic newsletter sent by the Chair to all staff after each Academic Board meeting. This newsletter is to keep the UTS community informed about the matters that transpire at meetings. The briefing is published on the UTS website

    (d) individual notifications of the outcomes of the Board’s deliberations shall be prepared by the Executive Officer to Academic Board and forwarded to relevant UTS officers whose attention needs to be drawn to any Board resolution, for noting or actioning or for further referral to appropriate UTS officers, as necessary.

Out of session business

46. During the period between meetings, in case of emergencies or in circumstances where delaying a decision until the next meeting would cause disadvantage to UTS, or when a scheduled meeting is inquorate or cancelled:

    (a) In accordance with the powers provided by Council resolution from time to time, the Chair approves an Executive Action on Academic Board's behalf.

        (i) At the earliest opportunity, the Chair shall report to the Board on the exercise of this authority.

        (ii) Academic Board shall maintain a register of executive action recording all actions taken under this provision; and relevant records on a registered file/TRIM.

    (b) the Chair of an Academic Board committee shall have discretion to issue a flying minute.

        (i) A flying minute of an Academic Board committee shall include a clear and accurate statement of material facts and reasoning for the proposed action, and the urgent need to circulate the flying minute

        (ii) an Academic Board committee may pass a resolution without a meeting being held if a majority of the total number of members (for the time being) of an Academic Board committee provides an affirmative vote regarding the resolution in writing or electronically

        (iii) the resolution is deemed to be passed (and therefore effective from), when the last member of the majority (inclusive of the Chair) provides an affirmative vote

        (iv) passage of a resolution under this section must be recorded in the minutes of the next meeting

        (v) in the event that a majority of positive responses is not received after seven days then the proposed recommendations may be redrafted and resubmitted to members, held over until the next meeting or given no further consideration.

Suspension of standing orders

47. Standing orders 5–45 may be suspended in whole or in part by a majority of those present at a meeting of the Academic Board. A motion to that effect shall be open to debate.

Appointment of a Deputy Chair of Academic Board committee

48. At the first meeting of each year, the committee shall appoint a Deputy Chair from among the committee membership, in accordance with the Procedures approved by the Chair of the Academic Board.

    (a) The Deputy Chair may speak to the committee report at Academic Board in place of the Chair, when required. If the Deputy Chair is not a member of Academic Board, the Deputy Chair will be considered an observer, and not counted towards quorum.

Academic Board committees

Co-option of members

49. On the recommendation of the Chair of the committee, a committee has the power to approve the co-option of members on the basis of their skills and experience as appropriate.

Meetings

50. Academic Board committees shall normally meet in ordinary session at least four times each year and at such other times as the Academic Board committee determines.