CHANCELLOR'S REPORT TO COUNCIL 7 December 2016

Friday 21 October • I attended a special meeting of Finance Committee. • Later I chaired the University Council meeting, then hosted the University Council

Civic Reception, both held at The Cairns Institute. Saturday 22 October

• I participated in University Council workshop facilitated by Peter Rohan. • I later travelled to Townsville. • Chris and I attended the Barrier Reef Orchestra concert ‘Going to the Opera” held

at the Townsville Civic Theatre.

Thursday 27 October • I attended the C N Barton Medal 2016 awards ceremony, hosted by Professor

Marcus Lane, Dean, College of Science and Engineering. (The prestigious Engineers Australia Charles Barton Medal is awarded annually to the student who has presented the best fourth year thesis seminar in the disciplines of Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Electronic and Mechanical Engineering.)

Friday 28 October

• I presented awards and spoke at the End of Year Completion Gathering for International Students on Townsville campus.

Wednesday 2 November • I attended the Festival of Ideas Symposium then related workshop on

“Transforming Townsville: New strategies for a regional city”. (The Festival of Ideas was convened by James Cook University and Townsville City Council, with the Townsville Bulletin, and the support of the Queensland Government. The Festival is also supported by ABC Radio, the Townsville Chamber of Commerce, Townsville Enterprise Ltd, Townsville Business Women’s Circle, Townville Business Development Centre, and Innovation NQ.

Friday 4 November • I attended special meetings of Finance and Human Resources Committees. • I received letters dated 31 October 2016 from the Hon Kate Jones MP, Minister for

Education and Minister for Tourism and Major Events, one regarding authority for Queensland universities to remunerate members of their University Governing bodies if they so wish, and one regarding the outcomes of the review of the establishing Act for Queensland public universities and confirming that she is currently considering JCU’s proposal regarding amendments to the JCU Act to change the size of structure of the JCU Council. (Copies of these letters are attached.)

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Thursday 10 November • The Vice Chancellor and I undertook a tour of the Sport and Recreation facilities,

with an overview of programs available, which was conducted by Teisha Condie, Sport and Recreation Manager, JCUSA.

• I later chaired Investment Sub Committee. Friday 11 November

• I attended Health, Safety and Environment Committee. • Later I attended the 2016 Annual Speech Night of Townsville Grammar School at

the Civic Theatre. Monday 14 November

• I attended the JCU and TEL Business Breakfast, held at the Mercure, at which the Vice Chancellor was guest speaker.

• Lunch meeting with Greg Tonner, Cowboys CEO. Wednesday 16 November

• I attended the Estate Board Meeting. Thursday 17 November

• I attended Futures and Audit Committee Meetings. Friday 18 November

• I attended special Finance and Human Resources Committee meetings. Tuesday 22 November

• Introductory meeting with 2017 JCU Student Association Council (accompanied by the University Secretary).

• I later attended the Finance Committee Meeting. Wednesday 23 November

• I travelled to Cairns. • I later attended and spoke at the Flag-raising Ceremony on Cairns campus.

Thursday 24 November

• I travelled to Port Douglas. • I later attended and spoke at the Senior Staff Conference held at the QT Resort

and joined participants for dinner. (A copy of my remarks to conference participants is attached.)

Saturday 26 November

• Chris and I attended a Cocktail Reception in recognition of the support and assistance provided to the Australian Army by Townsville’s Leaders in 2016, hosted by Brigadier Chris Field AM, CSC, Commander 3rd Brigade and Ms Sarah Kendall at Jezzine House.

Monday 28 November

• Chris and I travelled to Brisbane.

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Thursday 1 December • Chris and I travelled to Singapore. • We later attended an AUSCHAM Christmas Event held at Beast and Butterflies.

Saturday 3 December

• I officiated at the Graduation Ceremony in Singapore, accompanied by Chris, who looked after the VIPs.

Sunday 4 – Monday 5 December

• Chris and I travelled to Townsville.

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Speaking Points: Senior Staff Conference, Port Douglas, 24 November 2016

Background Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. My first footsteps into the JCU community were as a full-time student and then later as a part-time student, working initially in the library and later in the administration. So JCU played the dual roles of providing me with the educational and intellectual foundations for a 40-year career in Australia’s diplomatic service, and also with my first full-time job. But please don’t blame JCU for my manifold shortcomings – that’s all my own work! It therefore has personal significance for me to be here as JCU’s comparatively new Chancellor, having taken up the position in late March. I’m also delighted to be the first JCU alumnus to hold this position. Yesterday was in fact the first anniversary of my election by Council to fill this role. It’s good to be back home, living in a city which I know well and love; where I did all my formal education, from Grade 1 to graduation from university; and where I met and married my wife Chris, also a JCU graduate. Although I left Townsville at the beginning of 1976 to take up appointment as a Foreign Affairs Trainee in Canberra, my Mum and Dad never left: Mum passed away in Townsville in 1980 and Dad in 2011. My younger sister and her family are also living in the North and it’s a real bonus to now see more of them. Over the years Chris and I have spent quite a lot of time in and around Cairns. Chris and I actually honeymooned in the area in 1973. In fact, our last proper holiday, before my appointment as Chancellor and while I was still serving as Ambassador to the Philippines, was to Cairns and Port Douglas - in August last year. By sheer coincidence, we stayed then in this very resort! I never fail to be uplifted by that drive north from Cairns to Port Douglas; I was again this morning. Overview I am grateful to you all for having been allocated some time to speak with you this afternoon. It’s not my intention to use all of my time speaking at you. I know the risks of standing between a group like this and pre-dinner drinks! I couldn’t stand listening to me for that long so why should I expect you to? So no long, boring discourse on what it is like to be Chancellor or lecture on what governance is and isn’t, although I would be happy to use some of our time together – and/or time before and during dinner - to answer any questions you might have.

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I was told most staff don’t often get to hear from or see the Chancellor. I’ve only been in post a mere eight months - compared with the 17-year tenure of my predecessor John Grey, whose legacy and contribution I honour – so let’s see what we can do about that. I’d like to speak a little, from a governance perspective, about Council’s support for the University and those charged with managing and leading it, and about Council’s determination to add genuine value to the advancement of our University, including by setting the strategic direction of the University. As senior staff, you have all played, and continue to play, an important role in steering the University towards meeting its strategic intent and you bring a genuine “value add” to the University’s operations. And I acknowledge you are doing this in very challenging and uncertain times. A brief working definition of the difference between governance and management is that the governance level is all about what the University does and the management level is about how it’s done. As a rough analogy, it can also be helpful to think of the Vice Chancellor as the CEO of the University and the Chancellor as chairing the board, that board being in our case the University Council. But there are caveats on this analogy: a University is not a company, and has at its very heart a “public good” objective in the various communities it serves, locally, nationally and internationally, notwithstanding our need to ensure we abide by sound business principles. Universities nowadays are required to operate in a global competitive market, so we must operate in a businesslike manner and focus on sustainability in everything we do, balancing the need to be not just a business, but also a public good. University Governing Bodies, in our case a Council, currently comprising 22 members in all, are set up to harness expertise from other areas of expertise, to help bring different and new perspectives and add value to the deliberations of the University. I don’t see this as some sort of adversarial/ oppositional role. Ideally the relationship between the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor is a cooperative, warm and mutually-supportive, not an adversarial, one. Sometimes this is referred to as having a “critical friend”. One of the things I’m keen to impress on my Council colleagues is the importance to the proper functioning of the University of swimming in our own lanes, with both the governance and the management levels respecting each other’s prerogatives. That sort of mutual respect, I’m happy to say, has

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from the outset been a characteristic of my own relationship with our Vice Chancellor. And I pause at this point to acknowledge Sandra Harding’s leadership during a difficult and challenging year, her 10th as our Vice Chancellor. I knew, before becoming Chancellor was even a gleam in my eye, just how highly regarded Sandra is across the higher education sector and beyond. Her central role in having the UN declare 29 June as the International Day of the Tropics was a high-profile manifestation of what Sandra brings to our University, our communities and our nation. Sandra herself would be the first to stress the extent to which these achievements rely on the work and support of colleagues, a good percentage of whom are present today.

Key Governance Issues Key governance preoccupations since my installation as Chancellor have included the following, and I won’t pretend to be exhaustive:

• Efforts, with the full support of Council, to move to a new, more

flexible Governing Body membership model – of 11-21 members and with more flexibility to help ensure a better mix of skills that are appropriate to modern-day governance challenges, and greater gender, geographical and ethnic diversity. More on this later.

• Other legislative amendments.

• Approval of a revised set of Academic Delegations and register following a review process led ably by the Chairperson of Academic Board, Professor Stephen Naylor.

• And, following on a Council Workshop in Cairns on 22 October devoted to looking afresh at what Council should be doing and how, Council will, at our next meeting on 8 December, be considering options to reduce and reconfigure our committee and sub-committee structures in order to ensure they are fit-for-purpose in our current circumstances.

A central focus of Council’s December meeting will be to deliberate over the Triennium Budget, in a context of significant uncertainty within the sector and the economy, together with the increased global competitive environment. It has been a busy period for the Council: in addition to our usual working schedule we have needed to call two special Council meetings on the one day during 2016. One dealt with an important development in relation to the status of our Singapore operations and the other with on-campus student accommodation.

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I must say my preference regarding special meetings is that they should be rare but they can be essential. Council must play its part in ensuring the University is nimble and flexible in how it responds to challenges and opportunities, and add value promptly at times that management most needs the Council’s support and approval. Process should never trump substance - if I’m still allowed to use that word, “trump”!

The Committees of Council have also been very active, with several Special Committee Meetings taking place throughout the year in addition to the normal schedule of meetings. These were often held at short notice to consider critical matters for which those committees had delegated authority to deal on behalf of Council. And, in the same way, these Committees, most of which include co-opted expert advisers, seek to “add value” to management on behalf of the Council in their timely and efficient dealings.

Reflections on Chancellors’ Council Conferences An interesting aspect of the job has been chances to interact with and learn from the Chancellors of other Australian universities. In my first few months I attended a meeting with Chancellors of other Queensland universities – among ourselves and then collectively with the State Education Minister, Kate Jones. At the national level, I have also attended two University Chancellors' Council (UCC) meetings – one in May and the other in October. The UCC meets twice a year. In these UCC meetings and at the National Conference on University Governance, also in October, and contiguous with the UCC meeting, participants discussed the main challenges facing universities, including key legislation on University governance. Clearly all universities are challenged in many ways, prominent among them being retaining our academic integrity and our accountability to the community, while ensuring and maintaining our financial sustainability and gathering strength and momentum. It was re-affirmed that those charged with governance, leadership and management of universities must work together to negotiate inherent tensions within universities while operating in a dynamic environment. It’s clear we all face many common challenges, including with regulatory uncertainty and budgetary constraints.

I also accepted an invitation from the current head of the UCC, Peter Shergold, Chancellor of Western Sydney University and former head of the

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Federal Public Service, to serve on a sub-committee that helps him perform his role in steering the UCC in these difficult times. I’m pleased, as such a New Kid on the Block, to have been asked to perform this role.

All these interactions have been valuable to me in helping me comprehend the common challenges across the higher education sector. Council Review It is also timely to think how one of the University’s key decision-making bodies, our Council, should manage its governance role and processes in line with the strategic and operational directions of the University with a view to achieving efficiencies. You may be aware that in the joint meeting with all Queensland Chancellors in May, to which I earlier referred briefly, Kate Jones acknowledged that JCU Council was a special case, with unusually inflexible arrangements for selection of its Council members, and proposed that we deal directly with her on ways to improve our arrangements. Following on from her offer, we held a Council Workshop later in May. At the Workshop, the Secretary to Council, Michael Kern, an acknowledged expert in university governance matters, presented change options, endorsed by me, for Council members’ consideration. (You don’t have to take my word about Michael’s credentials in this area: such is Michael’s reputation that Peter Shergold asked Michael to present to the October UCC meeting on governance challenges, a rare honour.) At and following the Council Workshop, Council endorsed a revised model for the size and composition of Council which I put to Kate Jones at a meeting with her in June.

Following the June meeting with the Minister, we – meaning primarily the University Secretary and I - undertook comprehensive consultations with our key stakeholder groups and their representatives and locally-based State politicians. As a result of inputs from those consultations, Council made some tweaks to the model and we re-presented a final model to the Minister at a meeting in October.

I am pleased to advise that the Minister gave the green light for the next phase. That will see a draft legislative amendment Bill emerge either late in 2016 or in early 2017 for further consultation and subsequent consideration and, we hope, approval by Government in mid-2017. From there the Council will be able to choose its preferred size, ranging between 11 and 21 members (currently, as I mentioned, 22), for a likely implementation date after the conclusion of the 16th Council on 19 April 2018.

All this process linked back to concerns and aspirations which Kate Jones, then the newly-appointed Minister, had expressed more than a year ago when

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she conveyed her desire for “legislative amendments to streamline and improve the administrative operation of matters relating to governance, delegation of powers and statutes”, and that she was “considering options for providing Universities with more flexibility in the composition and size of their governing body including options to reduce the number of members appointed by the Minister (Governor-in-Council) and reducing the number of elected representatives while still ensuring student and staff representation.”

Other Council members and I are mightily indebted to Michael Kern for his dogged and creative work on this issue – and I for much else as well as I settle in to my new role. It has involved a lot of work but Council considers the endeavour important to advancing our determination to be a body which reflects diversity of gender, diversity of skills, inclusiveness of people from Indigenous communities, and our regional diversity across two countries and three campuses. Other legislative are also changes afoot:

• The Minister has decided that Statutes are a thing of the past and the existing Statutes, of which JCU has only 3, will likely be revoked during 2017. Policies will replace Statutes.

• The Minister had also recently advised all Queensland universities

that they are permitted, if they so wish, to pay their Council members remuneration, as happens in other States, without the requirement for legislative authority.

Our people A few words about our people, who are at the very centre of every achievement to which we aspire. At a personal level, it has been a real joy to go from a 40-year career, a highlight of which was the quality of one’s colleagues in Australia’s and other countries’ foreign and broader public services, and beyond, to being again in an environment with such accomplished and stimulating people. We, meaning those in management and governance leadership roles at JCU, could not meet the challenges before us and achieve all that we have without our people. Across every College and every Research Centre and Institute, and every organisational unit, our academic and professional staff members are working tirelessly to build and grow JCU’s reputation and offer an engaging and enabling student experience. Modesty might prevent you from seeing this, but it’s very clear.

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2016 Australian Award for University Teaching Speaking of enabling student experience, warm congratulations to JCU’s Learning Centre for receiving the Award for Programs that Enhance Learning in the category of Student Experiences and Services Supporting Learning, Development and Growth in Higher Education. I understand that the JCU Learning Centre, led by Dr Andrea Lynch, was recognised as one of Australia's most outstanding university programs, contributing to the quality of student learning and student experience in higher education.

And we have continued our strong performance in Citations for Outstanding Contributions for Student Learning. Culture It is right too that we continue to place great importance on our culture at JCU, knowing that any great learning environment is built on relationships that are mutually respectful. We are a very distinctive university which faces outwards to the tropics and our region. This has always been part of our Charter and who we are. We are also a University with a great number of first in family, regional and remote Australia, low socio-economic status and Indigenous students. This is a feature of which I’m very proud and to the enrichment of which I have a strong personal commitment. Just yesterday, we held a very special flag-raising ceremony on the Cairns campus – a significant step toward improving engagement of our University with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their culture, spirituality and history. If JCU can’t do well by those groups then who can? Re-affirmed Statement of Strategic Intent: Key Settings I am pleased that this Council has re-affirmed our University’s Statement of Strategic Intent, and strongly supported the University of the Future Framework Key Settings. Indeed, the Statement and the important action and positioning that it has inspired, has encouraged some of the world’s best scholars to decide to pursue their career at JCU. It is fair to say that staff members understand the distinctiveness of this Statement and, as indicated through past Staff Opinion Surveys, identify strongly – and proudly – with the University’s mission.

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2020 Celebrations 50th anniversary Speaking of our mission, all of you would be aware that on 20 April 1970, Her Majesty the Queen visited Townsville to sign the proclamation enacting James Cook University of North Queensland. Both my wife and I were at JCU when it became a full University on that day. In fact, Chris was chosen as one of the bright young students to meet the Queen – whilst I was given the much less important role of showing people to their seats! I often think of this as a metaphor for our nearly-44-year marriage! To this day, this remains the only Act of Parliament, State, Federal or Territorial, in Australia to have received the personal assent of the reigning monarch. In 2020, the University will celebrate our 50th Anniversary. As Chancellor, I have written to the State Governor, the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC - a sound man and Cowboys supporter! - to invite a member of the Royal Family to James Cook University as part of our anniversary celebrations beginning in April 2020. The University has grown considerably in the intervening years to become Australia's national university for the tropics, and is established as a world leader in education and research on the challenges of life and living in the tropics. We have become a vibrant, multi-campus university – a long way from the institution at which I commenced studies in 1968. It will be a great honour to welcome a member of the royal family to James Cook University to celebrate with us in our 50th year, especially having been involved, albeit in a rather different role 50 years ago. Closing (and research excellence) In closing, let me reinforce what a joy it is to be back at an institution to which I owe so much and to be chairing its governing body. But times are tough. 2017 will be tough. Let’s not gild the lily. Although together we face significant challenges in a highly competitive sector, we share an enduring commitment to accessible, high-quality education and research excellence, particularly on issues of critical importance to the world’s tropics.

As a regionally-based university, we recognise too our obligation to engage with industry and government, commercialise our research findings and achieve critical mass through productive research partnerships with other research organisations. I know that Council was particularly pleased with our excellent ERA 2015 result and of course our ranking (top 300 of the

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world’s universities) in the Academic Ranking of World Universities released by the Centre for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Be assured that Council is very engaged and very supportive of the University. We acknowledge that there are public policy challenges but Council is committed and pleased to work with Management in meeting those challenges. Thank you for being a patient audience.

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