Teaching program change process

Approved changes to teaching programs should be advised by 1 May each year in order to be implemented in major University corporate systems for the following academic year.

Please note that teaching program refers to the organisational grouping of teaching areas in each college that is overseen by teaching program directors. The information on this page does not apply to changing courses or topics, often referred to informally as “programs”. Please see the course and topic approval process webpage to change courses and topics.

The types of changes include:

Any approved new teaching programs (with a list of all courses and topics that will be affected).
Any changes to existing teaching programs (e.g. name change, discontinuation of a teaching program).
Any changes required to courses regarding the ownership of a course by a teaching program (e.g. a course to be moved from one existing teaching program to another existing teaching program).
Any changes required to topics regarding the ownership and/or teaching responsibility of a topic by a teaching program (e.g. a topic previously shared by two teaching programs will no longer be shared). Note: the ownership of topics should align with the ownership of topic availabilities.

The 1 May timeline for changes in is required due to constraints on major business processes:

Work on load planning and budgeting for the following year needs to be stable by the end of June of the current year.
Work on the timetable for the following year starts in June of the current year to allow students to begin enrolling in October of the current year for classes in the following year.
Teaching program changes need to be made in Student Management in May/June prior to the first transfer of timetabling data from Student Management to the Timetabling system.
This is the minimum lead time for University corporate systems to plan and implement the changes and inform downstream systems of the changes so that data remains consistent between systems.

Quick links

Academic Staff Affiliations & Reporting Sub Structures

Course/topic change procedure

Organisational Structure Procedures

Teaching program change proposal template

Professional Service Affiliations

How to propose a change

The proposed change information should be documented and approved by the college Vice-President and sent to the Planning and Analytical Services office (PAS) by May 1st of the year prior to the implementation date.

The documentation needs to include the information below and the Teaching program change proposal template can be used.

Approval from the Vice-President and Executive Dean
Name and college of the new or changed teaching program.
Date the new or changed teaching program will become active.
Names of any teaching programs that are to be closed and dates they cease to exist.
A list of courses and topics affected - any changes required to owning and teaching responsibility assignments to teaching programs for courses and topics in the Student Management system. List the current and future teaching program responsibility.
A list of staff affected – list the current and future teaching program affiliations.

If changes of staff affiliations to teaching programs need to be made, this can be done by college staff (e.g. Dean).

The timing of the staff changes should align with the date the change will become active and staff affected should be informed the changes have been made.

Please keep in mind the following existing procedures and guidelines when arranging the approval and documentation required:

The Academic Staff Affiliations & Reporting Sub Structures at Flinders University giving the agreed rationale behind teaching programs at the time of the change from faculties to colleges.
The course/topic change procedure from the Educational Quality Unit.
The Organisational Structure Procedures (Sections 2, 4.1a and 5) for major changes to teaching programs.

How to get the changes reflected in university systems

The PAS office will arrange for any new codes to be created by June 1st and distribute the information to staff responsible for changes to all major corporate systems.

Each year, a reminder to colleges will be taken to the March/April Education Qualities Committee (EQC) meeting that changes planned for the following academic year are to be provided to the PAS office by May 1^st each year. The information needs to include any teaching programs, courses, topics and staff affected.

Your cooperation in providing this advice in the required timeframe is appreciated.