1. Governing policy
The purpose of the Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Procedures (“procedures”) is to operationalise its parent policy across the Institution through support, academic management processes and funding initiatives. As a higher education institution, all academic staff have access to advanced knowledge and support in scholarship. These procedures are one aspect of the Institution’s Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework.
2. Scope
All current and prospective academic staff at the Institution, including sessional staff, casuals and contractors.
3. Systematic support for scholarship and scholarly practice
3.1 Guided by the Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework, the Institution provides systematic support for academic staff to undertake scholarly activities and produce scholarly outputs. This includes appropriate project funding, workload allocation, approved contract research opportunities and incentives in the form of grants and awards.
3.2 The Chair of the Scholarly Practice Committee oversees the administration of internal competitive scholarly grant and award programs, and ensures that the selection process conducted by the Committee, is fair, transparent basis and aligned with Institutional priorities.
3.3 Academic staff are encouraged to pursue external funding, grants, awards and approved contract research opportunities, that support scholarship of learning and teaching, disciplinary knowledge, professional practice and original research.
3.4 Applications for external funding, grants, and awards or contract research work that:
a. are submitted in the name of the Institution;
b. commit institutional resources;
c. create contractual obligations; or
d. require institutional endorsement
must be submitted to the Associate Dean (Scholarship) for review before being submitted to the President for approval.
3.5 Approved contract research work may include research or consulting work commissioned by an external organisation or industry partner, or funded project deliverables completed by staff under a separately approved contract. All contract research work must be approved before commencement and managed in accordance with institutional financial, employment, intellectual property and copyright, ethics and governance requirements. Project leads or chief investigators are responsible for ensuring funds are used for their approved purpose and that any reporting or deliverable obligations are satisfied.
3.6 A Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel (HREAP), constituted by the Scholarly Practice Committee and overseen by its Chair, is responsible for facilitating lower risk ethics reviews and approvals of research involving human participants or data in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.
3.7 A fit-for-purpose and user-friendly Scholarly Output and Activity Register (SOAR) is maintained to capture scholarly outputs and activities from staff. The Associate Dean (Scholarship) regularly analyses aggregated data to monitor the Institution’s performance in scholarship. They subsequently prepare reports and recommendations for the Scholarly Practice Committee and the Academic Board.
3.8 Academic staff are informed about the categories and specific types of scholarly outputs and activities the Institution recognises and prioritises. They develop an Annual Scholarship Plan agreed with their manager at the beginning of each performance review cycle. Annual Scholarship Plans should identify:
a. intended scholarly outputs and activities;
b. opportunities for industry, professional or community engagement;
c. proposed applications for internal or external scholarship funding, grants, or awards or approved contract research, where relevant;
d. opportunities for collaboration with internal or external partners; and
e. expected scholarly outcomes and impact.
3.9 An online information hub is provided to academic staff where they can access the latest policies, procedures, guidelines and news about scholarship.
4. Culture and capability building
4.1 The development of a positive scholarship culture is recognised as essential. It requires the participation of and commitment from all academic staff.
4.2 Academic staff are strongly encouraged to join scholarship clusters, where staff with diverse discipline, industry and/or research experience can exchange ideas, share resources and good practices, identify problems and develop scholarly projects to find and implement innovative solutions. Scholarship clusters are encouraged to identify collaborative scholarly projects, partnership opportunities and funding initiatives that support the strategic priorities of the Institution and contribute to scholarship capacity building.
4.3 Scholarship clusters are also a vehicle for capacity building in that staff can learn from and build on each other’s strengths. The Institution provides additional professional development support or training to each cluster depending on their goals and needs.
4.4 Capability building on an individual level is facilitated by performance goal setting, appraisals and promotions. Staff should determine their goals and professional and scholarship development needs at their annual performance review based on the promotion criteria in the Academic Titles and Promotions Procedures.
5. Dissemination and impact
5.1 The Institution encourages staff to collaborate with academics internally and externally to produce quality and impactful scholarship outputs and/or activities.
5.2 In addition to traditional dissemination channels, such as peer-reviewed journals, conferences and media, staff can disseminate their scholarly outputs and activities via scholarly events organised by the Institution, for instance, interdisciplinary seminars, forums and symposiums, or the institution`s online Scholarly Impact publication to build thought leadership and reputation in the higher education sector.
5.3 Evidence and narratives of the impact related to the scholarly outputs and activities are collected in the form of case studies and reported by the Institution in annual reports.
5.4 Outputs and benefits or impact arising from internally funded projects, external grants, approved contract research, industry-supported initiatives and other approved scholarly activities affiliated with the Institution should be recorded through the SOAR process and may be used to inform reporting, scholarship planning and continuous improvement activities.
6. Roles and responsibilities
6.1 The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) is responsible for overseeing the implementation of these procedures ensuring appropriate funding support and resources are provided to academic staff.
6.2 The Chair of the Scholarly Practice Committee manages scholarship grants and awards, approved contract research processes, and the human research ethics approval process for lower risk research projects facilitated by the HREAP.
6.3 The Associate Dean (Scholarship) is responsible for providing systematic support for scholarship and scholarly practice, reviewing external funding applications before President approval, and reporting on scholarship outputs and activities across the Institution.
6.4 The Chief Quality Officer provides advice to the DVC (Learning and Teaching) and Associate Dean (Scholarship) on issues pertaining to compliance with the Higher Education Standards Framework and TEQSA’s regulatory requirements.
6.5 All academic staff are expected to maintain continuous scholarly activity, commensurate with their academic level and role, as demonstrated through regular SOAR reporting, which can be in original research, learning and teaching, industry or professional practice, and civic engagement. The breadth, quantity and quality targets are set at their annual performance review and subsequently assessed as part of the performance appraisals.
6.6 Academic managers support their staff in performance goal setting and identifying opportunities for professional and scholarly development.
7. Related documents
Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework
Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Policy
Human Research Ethics Policy
Academic Titles and Promotions Policy
Academic Titles and Promotions Procedures
Academic Staff Professional and Scholarly Development Guidelines
Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) Framework
Academic Staff Professional and Scholarly Development Guidelines
Intellectual Property and Copyright Policy
Publication Guidelines for Scholarly Impact
8. Version history
| Summary of changes | Approved by | Approval date |
| Rescinded – Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Policy | Academic Board | 5.4.19
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| New | Academic Board | 17.11.23
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| Academic Board | 5.7.24
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| Academic Board | 18.7.25
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| Updated to include grants, award and contract research, and the process for approval of applications. | Academic Board | 9.10.26 |