• Section 1 - Application and Scope
• Section 2 - Purpose
• Section 4 - Timetable Production and Publishing
• Data Collection
• Scheduling
• Teaching Staff Availability
• Publishing
• Teaching Activity Enrolments
• Section 5 - Roles and Responsibilities
• Section 6 - Definitions

Section 1 - Application and Scope

(1) This Policy applies to all scheduled University teaching activities which are part of an onshore Australian course.

(2) This Policy does not apply to offshore global campuses or partner institutions.

(3) This Policy does not apply to other institutional events such as academic forums, meetings, presentations and professional development. 

Section 2 - Purpose

(4) The primary purpose of this Policy is to create a timetable which ensures students can complete the requirements of their course and ensures the provision of appropriate teaching and learning environments for students and staff.

Section 3 - Principles

(5) Timetabling prioritises the learning needs and experiences of students over other activities occurring in the University, reflecting the University's primary objective of providing quality education and research training, enhancing the student experience, and supporting students to achieve their learning outcomes.

(6) The timetable:

1. enables program progression by minimising clashes for students who follow a standard course progression, to allow students to complete the core subjects of their course and to satisfy course rules; 
2. optimises space and the use of university teaching resources and facilities; 
3. facilitates attendance by, wherever possible, providing students with options to attend teaching activities without large gaps or multiple campus locations on the same day, and providing flexibility in choices of activity dates and times; 
4. is published with sufficient lead time to enable students to plan and finalise their enrolment and other work/life commitments;
5. is as stable as possible, with minimal changes made after publication to students; 
6. supports equity and diversity, including reasonable adjustments for carers’ responsibilities, religious beliefs, and disabilities, where practicable. Staff and students can use established request mechanisms as outlined in the associated Timetable Production Procedure to  make these requests; and
7. meets the University’s occupational health and safety, legislative, and regulatory obligations. 

Section 4 - Timetable Production and Publishing

Data Collection

(7) Student Administration Services Division (SASD) will coordinate the collection of data from Faculties required to develop the timetable, in line with timeframes and data collection methods outlined in the Timetabling Production Procedure.

(8) Faculty Executive Managers will confirm staff within the Faculty who will be responsible for working with SASD to provide required timetabling data.

Scheduling

(9) The University’s teaching activities will be scheduled within the span of teaching hours:

1. between 0830 and 2030, Mondays to Fridays;
2. where the faculty requests subjects to be taught on weekends, between 0830 and 1730 on Saturdays and Sundays; and
3. allow a two-hour window free of activities for each School to schedule meetings.

Teaching Staff Availability

(10) Teaching staff can make requests to be precluded from certain teaching times within the span of teaching hours outlined in this document, in accordance with the provisions outlined in the Timetabling Production Procedure. These requests will be considered and approved by the Head of School and Faculty Executive Manageror nominated representative and forwarded to SASD for implementation.

Publishing

(11) SASD will provide a draft timetable to faculties and teaching staff with a window of at least ten working days to provide feedback.

(12) Processes for resolving change requests and disputes to the draft timetable are outlined in the Timetabling Production Procedure.

(13) SASD will publish the timetable at least eight weeks prior to session commencing.

(14) Following the publishing of the timetable, changes will only be made in exceptional circumstances where a valid need can be demonstrated and approved by the appropriate School or Faculty authority, as detailed in the Timetable Production Procedure.

Teaching Activity Enrolments

(15) Following the publishing of the timetable, teaching activities are imported to SMP and prepared for timely student enrolment according to the timelines outlined in the Timetable Production Procedure.

Section 5 - Roles and Responsibilities

(16) SASD is responsible for:

1. managing and coordinating the production, publishing, and maintenance of the University timetable in accordance with the provisions set out in this Policy and the associated Timetable Production Procedure;
2. communicating information (such as publication timelines), to relevant stakeholders.

(17) Faculties are responsible for:

1. providing required data and information to allow SASD to produce the University timetable;
2. requesting activity types that are compliant with relevant legislation, including ESOS standards;
3. managing and coordinating teaching staff to ensure the published timetable is delivered;
4. reviewing draft timetables and providing feedback within specified periods;
5. notifying SASD of scheduled teaching activities that will no longer be running so resources can be reallocated;
6. monitoring activity enrolment numbers and requesting appropriate amendments to the timetable;
7. coordinating the use of Faculty-managed, specialist teaching venues.

(18) The Infrastructure and Property Division (IPD) is responsible for:

1. ensuring centrally-managed venues are physically fit for purpose in advance of each teaching session;
2. liaising with Information Management and Technology Services (IMTS) to ensure centrally-managed venues have required audio-visual setups to support required teaching activities;
3. conducting regular audits of centrally-managed teaching venue use;
4. coordinating, in a timely manner with SASD and IMTS, any upgrades, refurbishments, or changes impacting the venue’s configuration, capacity, availability or technological capabilities.

(19) IMTS is responsible for:

1. maintaining IMTS-managed computer labs;
2. planned and unplanned maintenance of technology in centrally-managed teaching spaces;
3. ensuring appropriate user instructions are in place for all technology options that can be utilised within centrally-managed teaching venues;
4. coordinating, in a timely manner with SASD and IPD, any upgrades, refurbishments, or changes impacting the venue’s configuration, availability or technological capabilities.

(20) Teaching Staff are responsible for:

1. ensuring timely availability of teaching activities for student enrolment;
2. ensuring the standard buffers of five minutes after the scheduled commencement time, and five minutes before the scheduled completion time of teaching activities is adhered to by vacating rooms and entering rooms in line with these buffers; to enable students time to move between activities;
3. ensuring the classroom is vacated in a reasonable state for the next scheduled teaching activity, including returning future to original positions and clearing whiteboards;
4. liaising with Timetabling Services in relation to identified overcrowding in teaching spaces.

(21) Students are responsible for:

1. enrolling into teaching activities (such as tutorials and labs), which have more than one scheduled option;
2. conducting themselves in accordance with the Campus Access and Order Rules, including leaving rooms as they found them;
3. making all reasonable efforts to be available to attend their scheduled teaching activities;
4. using established channels and mechanisms to request consideration of reasonable adjustment requests.

Section 6 - Definitions