THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC PROPOSALS FOR NEW OR CHANGED AWARDS, COURSES, PROGRAMS AND UNITS OF STUDY PRO FORMA

New AWARD/PROGRAM	TITLE: Master of Information Technology in eScience
RATIONALE	See attached document.
Academic merit	Comment: this is a selective entry, medium-high quality course: a conversion/specialisation masters by coursework (including project work component courses) with selective entry of science/engineering etc bachelor degree with 65% average in 3rd year of 3 semesters full time equivalent duration.
Does this replace an existing course/award/program/unit?	No - but associated with GradDip in IT (eScience)
Has market research been conducted?	Yes: through academic staff attendance at international recruitment exhibitions (esp. India and Singapore), and consultation with RMIT in similar market, local industry consulted (and supportive) in original eScience program proposal.
What is the intended student market?	3- and 4- year science and engineering bachelor graduates, with one year work experience, or with Grad Diploma in IT (eScience)
What is the likely student interest?	Medium-small: 10-20 new students per year
Have related academic areas of the University been consulted (eg duplication; overlap; joint teaching arrangements)?	No duplication (this is a new specialised area). It is complementary rather than overlapping with the new area of Computational Science, which has no Masters proposal yet. This is an extension of the Graduate Diploma in IT in eScience - which revealed no overlapping programs at ANU. Joint teaching with Statistics is the same as the existing Grad Dip; RMIT Dept. of Computer Science has been consulted in detail with agreement on cooperative arrangements at course (unit) and module level (Head Sheila Howell and course convenor Geoff Leach)
RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS
Are any additional resources required
Academic area (eg teaching commitments; tutorials; bricks; web publishing; advertising; scholarships; administration)	Teaching academic staff for management of the program and developing and teaching new courses has been initially funded by DETYA Science Lectureships Initiative grant. Two academics and one support programmer have been appointed or are under offer. Advertising will use established eScience website and the eScience program will produce its own promotional materials. FEIT administration and student services have been consulted concerning publicity and recruitment.
Graduate School and Research and Scholarships Office (eg publicity; fees; scholarships)	Publicity will be handled by FEIT Student Services and eScience program staff. Fees to be confirmed: indicatively $16,000 p.a. Specific scholarships if any to be determined by FEIT.
IT Support (eg computer facilities; internet facilities)	Computing laboratories to be shared with Grad Dip, already funded by DETYA grant; further virtual environment lab equipment already exists (the WEDGE installed in CSIT Building). No additional ITS/STS computing laboratory access is required.
Student Administration and Support Services (eg timetabling; fees; student system; inclusion in Handbooks; scholarships)	Existing units will be used in part; new units will be submitted for approval before mid-year 2001, for inclusion in 2002 timetable. Normal fee-paying masters conditions apply and normal dispersal of fee amounts will provide appropriate SASS etc. funding.
Student Recruitment and International Education (eg promotion and recruitment, inclusion in recruitment materials)	Previous consultation with SRIE staff has shown strong support for Master in IT. Publicity materials will be created by eScience program. FEIT staff expect to attend several international exhibitions to promote the program during 2001.
University Library (eg reading materials)	No additional paper library resources are envisaged. Electronic library access and search facilities will be used, primarily to the computer science and computer graphics literature.
Source of additional resources (eg Dept/ centre/school/faculty recurrent or outside funding)	DETYA Science Lectureships Initiative grant for eScience program 2000-2002, supplemented and eventually replaced by the student fees income.

Chris Johnson, Dept of Computer Science

26/03/01