The VCA saga continues

It appears that the University of Melbourne was compelled to release its response to the Switkowski Review earlier than scheduled.  This landed in my email last night:

I know that many in our community have followed events at the Faculty of the VCA and Music over the past year with deep concern. Today I hope to bring good news for all interested in our visual and performing arts programs.
The University has now released its response to the Switkowski Review of the Faculty of the VCA and Music, completed in May this year. The University Council has approved the recommendations of a steering committee under my leadership to consider the Review, with input from the faculty itself and consultation with the VCA Integration Committee.
Principally, the University endorses the Review’s recommendation that VCAM continue as a single faculty, but now comprising two discrete parts to be known initially as the VCA and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Each part will be led by a Director, which will be a new position reporting to the Dean.
The response also endorses the Review’s recommendations on the future curriculum of the Faculty. These include suspending the proposed introduction of the Melbourne Model for the visual and performing arts disciplines based at the Southbank campus, pending a new process to consider the curriculum most appropriate to these disciplines.
This process will consider the faculty’s courses, teaching practices and the feasibility of offering an exclusively practice-based Associate Diploma and Graduate Diploma degree program. As recommended by the Switkowski Report, the review will be guided firmly by the principles that curriculum must be financially sustainable, that studio-practice remain central to tuition, and that talent-based entry be reaffirmed.
The Provost or nominee will lead the review, with a brief to report back by 31 December 2010.
The full text of the University’s response, “The Future of the Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Melbourne,” may be viewed online.
As part of the new direction, the Dean, Professor Sharman Pretty will resign from the position. The University's response has clarified that the future directions of the Faculty, and hence the role of Dean within that context, will be significantly different to that which Professor Pretty was appointed. As a result Professor Pretty has decided to step down, as such a different role is not one that she would be interested to pursue.
Professor Pretty came to us after holding distinguished appointments as an educational leader in the arts both in Australia and New Zealand, which had followed a career in music as a performer, teacher and arts manager. She proved to be a highly intelligent, articulate and committed leader and she tackled a very challenging task with great energy and resilience, informed by a wide knowledge of the advancement of the arts internationally. The University is grateful for her many initiatives and achievements, including achieving major support to secure the future of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, and building partnerships with the Royal College of Music London and the Shanghai Conservatory through the recent Global Ensemble project at the Shanghai Expo, and locally through the relationship with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and other professional arts organisations. Her vision for the future of the Southbank campus as a performing arts precinct of international distinction, combining our educational activities with the work of Melbourne’s professional performing companies, is one we will be exploring very seriously.
The changes we have announced today are important ones. I hope they will serve to speed our progress towards achieving a better future for our visual and performing arts programs, one of which we can all be proud.
Professor John Dewar
Acting Vice Chancellor

The withdrawal of Professor Sharman Pretty from the VCA largely vindicates the arguments about her suitability to the institution.  It is clear that the Dean's leadership style made her a polarising figure, which ultimately led to the politics of the institution to triumph over its purpose.  Many exasperated people will be relieved.

Many questions remain, notably the big one about the duplication of music between the Southbank and Parkville campuses.  Since music is to remain within the Melbourne Model structure, it would be better to make a division of the faculty to allow the graduate school to operate in Parkville (taking in performance and research) and teach the undergraduate course at Southbank.  This would be the most sensible use of the existing infrastructure, and does not necessarily imply a heavy division between the two schools.  Indeed, there is a pressing need for a career development structure among graduate students by making sure that they are at least given opportunities for tutoring at Southbank.  Making sure that teaching forms part of the graduate student experience is essential to the development of a post-doctoral career.

Other commentary on this development can be found in The Age and Crikey.