New Position in Media & Communication

CASE FOR A NEW POSITION

While the discussion about a new position in Media & Communication has been triggered by the
departure of Marc Brennan in July 2004 to take up a Lecturer B job at the University of Sydney, the
case for such a position has been looming for some time and, indeed, was implied in the decision to
make two 0.5 Lecturer A appointments in 2003. At a time when the Discipline was embedding a new
undergraduate program, the understanding at Faculty level was that these would convert into a full-time
position in 2005, as the question of Discipline needs was clarified.

The case for advertising for a new position in Media & Communication arises from four factors:

1. High Student:Staff ratios in Media & Communication

QUT data indicates that Media & Communication has the highest student:staff ratio in the Creative
Industries Faculty, and that it has grown dramatically over the 2002-2003 period.

Student: Staff Ratio Staff FTE

2002 2003 2002 2003
Acting & TP 9.6 10.8 9.43 10.03
Comm. Des. 14.8 18.3 13.79 13.29
CWCS 21.3 23.5 11.92 12.67
Dance 12 11 15.54 15.34
Fashion 17.7 11 1.42 2.92
FTV 24.3 22.8 13.59 13.59
Journalism 15.1 14.5 13.35 13.95
Media & Comm 13.6 24.6 8.87 8.37
Music 17.2 14.7 14.99 17.09
Perf. St. 16.8 16.6 15.26 15.86
Visual Arts 19.5 19.1 14.08 14.08
Faculty Ave. 18.7 19.7

While there are contingent factors in the sharpness of the increase in this ratio – most notably the one-
year lag between staff changes and curriculum changes – the table above also indicates the extent of
reliance upon casual academic staff to meet the teaching needs of the discipline. In 2002, Media &
Communication employed 57 academic staff, of whom 7 were full-time or fractional, and 50 were
casual. While 2003 data is not as yet available, the number of full-time/fractional staff fell to 6.5, and
the casual academic staff budget figures would point to dramatic growth in the total number of casual
academic staff.

While there are relevant and useful arguments for the ongoing use of casual academic staff in Creative
Industries disciplines, I would argue that the experience of Media & Communication has been one of
ongoing casualisation of core teaching responsibilities, with all of the ongoing stresses and strains
which such an approach leads to.

2. Departure of Greg Hearn to CIRAC

The establishment of Greg Hearn as Research Development Co-Ordinator for the Faculty through
CIRAC has unquestionably been a major and important strategic initiative for Creative Industries that
has delivered significant tangible outcomes. At the same time, it has led to a significant gap for the
Media & Communications discipline in terms of higher-level academic leadership.
The establishment of Professor Hearn in this role has led to a bifurcation of the Discipline’s profile,
between a small number of academic staff with extensive university experience, but who are unlikely to
become intellectual leaders in the field, and a large number of people with considerable promise, but
without significant experience in academic positions.

There is a case, not only for replacing Greg Hearn, but for ensuring that the replacement is someone
who is not only able to meet gaps in the teaching program, but who can exercise recognizable academic
leadership in articulation Media & Communication to Creative Industries at a national and international
level.

While it could be argued that leading people in the Faculty, such as John Hartley and Stuart
Cunningham, are in fact located in Media & Communication and therefore filling this role, the problem
is that people in such senior roles are understandably unable to articulate this back to curriculum
development in Media & Communication.

3. Resolving instability in unit co-ordination

While the Media & Communication discipline is recognized in the Creative Industries Faculty as a
leader in delivering undergraduate programs with the highest degree of economy – it only offers 12
undergraduate units, which is the minimum requirement for a Professional degree, and a substantial
number of these units are offered into inter-disciplinary and inter-faculty programs – the discipline has
faced an ongoing problem of instability in unit co-ordination, as indicated below in relation to specific
units. The problem that arises is only in part about co-ordination: it is also about consistent intellectual
development of the units, and how they articulate into an overall vision for the Media &
Communication degrees over time.

Unit 2002 2003 2004

KCB140 Media & Society – From the Christina Gil Woodley Jason Sternberg
Printing Press to the Internet Spurgeon
KCB295 Virtual Cultures Christina Gil Woodley Judy Gregory
Spurgeon
KCB336 New Media Technologies Christina Henk Huijser Axel Bruns
Spurgeon
KCB204 Globalisation and New Media Greg Hearn Adam Swift ?

4. Capitalising on economic gains in Media & Communication

The Media & Communication discipline has been rigorous in the development of new resource
opportunities, and in identifying cost savings in the delivery of courses. The suite of interfaculty
postgraduate coursework degree offerings in Creative Industries, established in 2002 in collaboration
with the Brisbane Graduate School of Business, have already attracted … EFTSU, at a rate of $/EFTSU
($100/cp) that is well above the Faculty average. The new interfaculty postgraduate coursework degree
offerings in Creative Advertising are showing a similar upwards trend, with … enrolments being
identified in this degree so far.

At the same time, Media & Communications has assiduously pursued cost savings in the delivery of
undergraduate degree programs. Identifying the opportunities provided by the new teaching spaces at
the Creative Industries Precinct, the maximum number of students participating in an undergraduate
unit that does not involve computing technology has been increased from 20 to 25 in 2004, and the
maximum number of students involved in a computer lab-based tutorial has been increased from 16 to
20, in recognition of the absence of a space constraint of the sort that existed at the Gardens Point
campus. Detailed data on the cost savings arising from such changes can be made available on request.

Moreover, the discipline made a strategic decision in late 2003 not to continue one of the 0.5 Lecturer
A positions for 2004, and to rely upon casual academic staff for 2004, in order to have ‘money in the
bank’ for the development of a position for 2005. My point in all of this is that, while I haven’t done
the detailed microeconomics, the broad case for a new position in Media & Communication is
nonetheless strong..

APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF POSITION

On the basis if recent experience, we know two things about positions in Median & Communications.
First, on the basis of advertising two 0.5 lecturer A positions in late 2001, we can guarantee a strong
field of applicants. Of the 25 people who applied for those positions, about 1/3 had PhDs, and about 1/3
were about to complete’. PhDs. Second, as the fastest growing area in the Humanities & Creative Arts
panel, people (particularly from the Sandstone Universities) are very prepared to headhunt. We are
losing Marc Brennan because the Program Director at the University of Sydney identified him as
someone that they wanted, evaluated our offerings, and made him a better offer. We should not be
naive about the extent to which filling these positions involves active recruitment of preferred
candidates, rather than some form of blind tendering.

I have outlined below my sense of the pros and cons of advertising the position at different levels. My
recurring argument would be that we should go for an ongoing rather than a contract position, and that
the successful applicant must have a PhD. My preference is for an appointment at a Lecturer B level, as
indicated below:

Level of Appointment Pros Cons

Lecturer A Will do a lot of teaching Easily lost to another University
Low-cost option Difficult to engage in strategic
course planning
Lecturer B Will attract strong national field,
including those currently in full-
time positions
Can establish a leadership role
Lecturer C Can be appointed to leadership Current staff will apply
role Higher-cost option
Lecturer D + Would attract international field I would apply

TIMETABLE FOR APPOINTMENT