HOLMES INSTITUTE Newsletter
October 2011

FROM THE CEO

Welcome to the third Holmes Institute Newsletter! In this issue I want to highlight some of the milestones achieved for Holmes Institute in 2011 by managers, faculty and staff; some very significant for the instituteâ??s future.

AUQA SUCCESS
In January, we received the exciting news that Holmes Institute's AUQA audit report was very positive, and the audit panel had commented favourably on many aspects of our operations. We were invited to include our Peer Review of Teaching program in the AUQA Good Practice Database, which is now available on the new TEQSA site (http://www.teqsa.gov.au/).

NEW DEGREES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Embracing growth and innovation, Holmes submitted three new higher education degrees in 2011 for accreditation with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA).

Following site visits by senior professors from Victorian universities as part of the VRQA panels, I am very pleased to share with you that the following higher education programs have been accredited for five years.

1. Bachelor of Fashion and Business
This program is the offered by the School of Fashion and allows students from the Melbourne School of Fashion to articulate into the new Holmes fashion and business degree. Rachel Matthews was the key academic in the design of this degree, and I welcome her as Head of the Holmes School of Fashion, which is part of the Faculty of Higher Education.

2. Bachelor of Information Systems
The Holmes Institute Bachelor of Information Systems is a companion degree for our already very successful Holmes business degree. The new focus on information systems responds to market demand and increases the breadth and depth of our undergraduate degree offerings in business and enterprise. It allows Holmes to build on and further develop its existing capabilities.

3. Diploma of Business
This new one-year Higher Education Diploma offers a sound introduction into Higher Education and allows students direct entry into the second year of our existing Bachelor of Business.

DEGREE REACCREDITATIONS
Besides the above-mentioned new degrees, we were also successful in having the Bachelor of Professional Accounting reaccredited by the governments of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in achieving this important goal. The BPA is one of our strongest bachelor degrees!

HOLMES GRADUATIONS 2011
Graduation ceremonies are always exciting and enjoyable events, celebrating studentsâ?? achievements with friends and family.

We held two ceremonies earlier in the year for our graduates in Hong Kong and Brisbane. The Hong Kong ceremony was held in the Centenary Ballroom of the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel, pictured below, which was a splendid location for the second Graduation Ceremony of our Holmes Institute Hong Kong campus.

Hong Kong Gradation, June 2011, Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel

In two monthsâ?? time we have two big graduation ceremonies scheduled, namely our Sydney graduation on 5th December, and our Melbourne event on 8th December. I would herewith like to extend a warm welcome to everyone to be part of the celebration of our success.

POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP
Finally, and very importantly, I would like to extend my congratulations also to Ms Anna Rocamora, the second recipient of the Holmes Institute Postgraduate Scholarship. The scholarship was awarded to Anna in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the Bachelor of Professional Accounting program at Holmes. Besides now studying for her Master of Business Administration at Holmes, Anna has started her academic career as a tutor in the Holmes undergraduate programs.

I would like to end this newsletter with my sincere thanks to everyone for the ongoing enthusiasm and support of our programs!

Gaye Dixon
CEO, Holmes Institute

FROM THE CEO May 2010

AUQA News

As previously communicated, we will participate in an audit of our quality processes and practices conducted by the Australia Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The audit is planned for 10-11 November.

The results of the AUQA audit will be available to the public via the AUQA web site (www.auqa.edu.au). Please access this site when you have an opportunity and review the information about AUQA and its audit process.

All the processes and practices of the Higher Education division of Holmes will be audited by AUQA. They may also be interested in any aspect of our operations that connects to Higher Education (for example, articulation between VET and HE courses; student support services).

In preparing for the audit in the past six months, Stephen Nagle has coordinated the preparation of the Holmes Performance Portfolio, which set out our quality process and procedures in the light of the goals and Key Performance Indicators set by the Senior Management Group.

The Performance Portfolio tells AUQA as much as it can about our mission, our goals, how we achieve what we set out to achieve in a given period, our strengths, our areas for improvement and the like.

In other words, the Performance Portfolio is a comprehensive set of data about Holmes, including a description of the roles of each member of faculty and staff in achieving our goals.

As part of the process, we have established several key benchmarks against which out targets can be measured across a range of areas that are normally publicly available (e.g., student satisfaction with teaching; student satisfaction with student administration; and graduation rates).

As you can see, the AUQA audit is a serious exercise with implications for how Holmes is perceived as a quality provider of higher education.

As part of disseminating information about the AUQA audit, all faculty and staff on the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane campuses will attend an AUQA Information Session.

The purpose of the Information Session is to provide you with details about such things as:

• How the audit is conducted?
• What type of information Holmes will present?
•  What questions AUQA might ask you?
• What process/procedures are we benchmarking?

The first information session will be held for Melbourne faculty and staff on the Melbourne Campus.

Where:      Auditorium Level 4

When:       Friday 21 May

Time:         11:30 -12:30

I will advise faculty and staff in Sydney and Brisbane shortly of the schedule for their AUQA Information Sessions.

Stephen Nagle and Mike Berrell will lead these interactive sessions.

Mike is the Executive Dean of Holmes and directing the activities of the team producing the Holmes Performance Portfolio for AUQA.

Mike returned in late 2009 from the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates to take up the position at Holmes. Mike served as Director (Academic Services) and Dean of Business and Information Technology across the 16 campuses of the College.

Welcome to new Associate Dean, Bruce Pollard

Bruce Pollard is now our Associate Dean on the Sydney Campus. He is also the discipline leader of Accounting across all Holmes campuses. Bruce has been with Holmes Institute since 2005 and oversaw the introduction of our BPA and MPA degrees. Prior to joining Holmes, Bruce worked at the Australian National University, the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK) and the University of New England. His experience also includes working as an auditor with a large international accounting firm. As a Fellow of CPA Australia, Bruce brings expert industry knowledge to his new role at Holmes.

 Welcome to new faculty

Welcome to Kelvin Leung who is teaching on the Sydney campus on the BPA course. Kelvin has a wealth of knowledge in accounting and finance. He also has significant industry experience and will be a great asset for our teaching team in Sydney.

All the best for the remainder of the Trimester 1.

Gaye Dixon
CEO Holmes Institute

FROM THE CEO January 2010

I would like to welcome all staff and faculty to a new academic year at Holmes Institute. Welcome also to the new employees of our organization. This year will be particularly significant for Holmes Institute as we move into a new education environment.

In 2010, we will participate in an in-depth external audit of our systems, structures, process and practices. The Australia Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) will conduct this in October and the results will be available to the public.

Since the established of a commercial college in Melbourne in 1963, Holmes Institute has pursued excellence in business and education and its operations today include campuses in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns and Hong Kong.

The Institute also maintains articulation agreements with a range of education providers in Australia and overseas for English language, technical, vocational and higher education courses.

In late 1999, to meet the demands of a new education environment, we began to offer bachelors and masters courses in partnership with Australia universities. In 2004, Holmes Institute of Higher Education was established in order for the institute to offer graduate and post-graduate business degrees in its own right.

Today, we operate principally in a multi-sector environment, offering awards in technical, vocational and higher education.

In particular, government accrediting bodies in Australia recognizes our higher education awards. The CPA, the ICA and the NIA also recognize the Bachelor of Professional Accounting.

However, while Holmes is proud of its achievements, we need to develop fresh strategies and practices appropriate to the changing education environment. These developments are fundamental to the continued success of the Homes Institute.

Recently, the Senior Management Group (SMG) of the Holmes Institute redrafted its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to reflect the Institute's commitment to:

• Becoming a leading multi-sector private provider of quality education and training
• Establishing systems, structures, process and practices for quality improvement and administration that are equivalent to those in leading universities and TAFE colleges
• Embracing new technologies and student-cantered teaching and learning strategies
• Actively engaging with the community to meet it needs
• Successfully completing the audit by AUQA in October 2010 with better than average outcomes

The SMG has already made several changes to facilitate and further consolidate the position of Holmes Institute as a premier multi-sector private provider - the establishment of the Faculties of Higher Education and VET within the Institute now provide staff, faculty and students with clear goals and outcomes relevant to activities and outcomes within each faculty.

Holmes Institute 10-12 Strategy

In the coming two year period, Holmes Institute's 2010-2012 Strategy will build on previous achievements to step up to another performance level by building on the achievements of our committed staff, faculty and students.

The SMG is proud of your contributions to date - a recent survey of our internal senior staff, for example, indicated that all of the group would recommend Holmes Institute very highly.

While the SMG has identified enormous opportunities for Holmes Institute in the new environment with Federal and State Government policies focusing on skills shortages and training development, we still require additional internal capabilities to take full advantage of these prospects.

With the role of private higher education providers and their contributions to Australia's economic well-being highlighted in several formal reports, Holmes Institute is particularly well positioned to capture many new opportunities through its 10-12 strategy.

Achieving the 10-12 Strategy

The SMG of Holmes Institute remains committed to providing valued-added education and training courses for emerging and established industries that disseminate new knowledge about skills sets, environmentally responsible management practices and corporate social responsibility.

Key steps on the 10-12 pathway include:

• Completing an organization review of all systems, structures, process and practices for quality improvement and administration to ensure these are compliant with quality improvement benchmarks in general and AUQA expectations in particular
• Embedding the Institute's values and behaviours in everything we do
• Executing a strategic review of all courses
• Developing and implementing a comprehensive branding strategy
• Streamlining the Institute's systems and processes
• Engaging our Alumni

To achieve the goals of 10-12, we will need to think differently about how we go about our work. It will also involve a much close alignment of activities across our campuses and the various managerial and functional roles performed within the Institute.

The Executive Director of Higher Education, Stephen Nagle, is leading the current organisation review and in the coming period he will be examining the roles and responsibilities of key senior positions as well as campus based-positions to ensure these are aligned to our future organisational requirements and directions.

The SMG will work with all staff and faculty to ensure that the Institute is well placed to meet the challenges ahead in 2010-2012.

Continuous improvement is our goal

An important first step is improved management training for all people managers through a comprehensive management development and leadership program.

In this context, Holmes Institute will direct its internal capabilities to enhancing a performance and values-based organizational culture that focuses its resources of achieving superior outcomes through value creation activities.

The Executive Director of Higher Education's organizational review will include scrutiny of the internal servicing of our students. This review will ensure that value-added service activities are increased while non-value service activities are terminated immediately.

Other initiatives involve improving the Institute's knowledge management processes, internal procedures and a significant enhancement of Holmes Institute website.

From a teaching and learning perspective, we will work to expand flexible delivery options and improve curricula with the inclusion of multi-media applications. We will also develop a web-based FAQs for student inquiries and expand delivery via Blackboard.

What outcomes will be achieved?

The KPIs and the 10-12 Strategy are deliberately framed by action words - becoming, establishing, embracing, actively engaging, completing, implementing, embedding, executing and developing.

In this sense, we are striving for demonstrable outcomes in quite specific areas. Our performance management system will now focus on and reflect this new agenda.

In the next few weeks, I will communicate a schedule of deliverables for Holmes Institute in the coming period.

I know that our dedicated staff, faculty and students with the support of the SMG will join me in establishing Holmes Institute as a premier private provider of education and training.

Special announcement

I am proud to announce the implementation of an Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award for faculty of Holmes Institute. This annual award will commence in the current academic year. Both full-time faculty and faculty holding fractional appointments are eligible to apply for the award. The campus Associate Deans may also nominate faculty. The Executive Dean of Holmes Institute will communicate more details concerning this new award in the coming week.

All the best for 2010

Gaye Dixon

CEO Holmes Institute
January 2010