Online Events incl. Academic Support Programs in Colleges, Tuesday 8 June
UCA's Melbourne Forum, 20-22 September
Project Report: International Student Health & Wellbeing Project
Dear Members,
Our thoughts are once again with our Victorian colleagues as they endure yet another period of lockdown. The disrupting impact of COVID-19 continues to be a major focus for the Executive Committee as we determine how we can best support our Members. Our newly elected Committee will meet next week to consider the Roadmap Ahead and I shall have more to report after this meeting. In the meantime, details of online events, including next Tuesday's forum on Academic Programs in Colleges, and our Melbourne Forum are outlined below. I also draw attention to Dr Tim Corney et al. Report on International Students and Mental Wellbeing. Whilst we are aware of the higher incidence of mental ill-health among university students, we know that our international students face additional challenges. Nurturing better mental health will be one of the topics addressed at our Melbourne Forum.
The Roadmap Ahead
The recent online AGM provided an opportunity to present the Executive Committees' Discussion Paper on repositioning and further resourcing our Association. In summary, it is our belief that if UCA is to continue to attract, retain, diversify and grow our membership, it requires further financial resources. Whilst the Executive Committee members will continue to provide leading insight and experience as Heads of our respective colleges and residential halls, we simply do not have the time to deliver the programs and resources required to meet an increasingly ambitious national higher education agenda. We require the professional resources of a more full-time Executive Manager at 0.6FTE to provide focussed leadership for the Executive Committee and complement (and manage) our existing part-time 0.2FTE Executive Officer resource. Financial modelling based on current membership numbers indicates that a 30% increase in annual membership fees is necessary to achieve this outcome.
Those Members present at the AGM expressed strong support for the new repositioning and resourcing model. Please read the Paper here You will find all associated AGM papers at the Members' page here - please contact our Executive Officer should you require assistance with access.
UCA Membership Renewals
Over the next few days Members will receive their renewal invoices and will notice that there has been a 30% increase in their annual membership fee. To give some context for this increase, I can advise that there has been no increase to our fees for the past 11 years and, in response to COVID-19, UCA reduced its fees by 50% for the 2020 Financial Year. However, following on from our Discussion Paper, and with agreement from those Members present at our AGM, it was decided that the fee should be increased in order to provide the necessary resources to further professionalise our Association. This means that, for Members with over 100 resident students, the new fee will be $1,200. The fee for Members with fewer than 100 resident students will be $800. For those Members with overarching responsibility for more than three residential halls, the fee increase will be set at the equivalent of two full membership fees, being $2,400.
Further information on our Roadmap Ahead will be provided in the coming weeks. In the meantime, should you have any queries or want to discuss your membership fees, please contact me or a member of the Executive Committee here
Wayne Erickson UCA President
Upcoming Events
Register Now for Tuesday 8 June at 2pm AEST - Academic Support Programs in Colleges
Our next webinar, for all Members, will be presented by Wayne Erickson and will use the academic programs of St Andrew's College as a model. To register your interest contact our Executive Officer here
UCA Forum 2021 Our future: Innovation, Growth and Change in an uncertain world
St Hilda’s College, The University of Melbourne,
Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd September, 2021.
We have an exciting program in place for this year’s Forum so please ensure that the dates are reserved in your diary. We will circulate the draft program and some accommodation recommendations shortly.
As part of this year’s Forum, we will be calling for submissions on the topics of innovations you/your college has made to help ensure:
Academic success
Graduate employability
Nurturing better mental health
Pastoral care and student development
Creating positive cultures for Respectful relationships
We look forward to presenting our Forum Program in the coming weeks and meeting you in Melbourne,
Dr Brenda Holt and Adjunct Professor Bill Peirson UCA Forum Convenors
Member Resources International Students & Mental Wellbeing Project Report - see Dr Tim Corney et al. Reporthere
This project undertook a quantitative large scale survey, with questions co-designed with a number of University International Student Associations. The survey was undertaken by 632 students from 44 different countries of origin. The survey (see Report Appendix for English and Mandarin survey instruments) asked a number of demographic questions, used the internationally recognised ‘Personal Wellbeing Index’ (2013) to determine levels of wellbeing in the international student population and examined student awareness of the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ (Aked & Thompson, 2011) public health messaging campaign currently being trialled in Victoria.
