Responsibilities and expectations

Affiliate Lecturers are contracted by the Transnational Partner to deliver Murdoch courses or units in the country that they operate in. Sometimes they are employees of Murdoch Singapore for example, but generally will be employed independently of Murdoch University.

Although they are often not employed directly by Murdoch, their appointment is subject to Murdoch University’s selection criteria and approval (for more information please see Affiliate Recruitment). 

Understanding teaching & learning expectations

Both the TEQSA Higher Education Standards Framework and Transnational Education via Partnerships Policy (PPM) dictate that student learning outcomes and experiences for offshore students must be comparable to that of onshore students. In order to help achieve these standards, Affiliate Lecturers need to understand their responsibilities in relation to teaching, marking, moderation and student engagement at both University and unit level.

They can find information on broader teaching and learning practices and philosophies on the Educational Development Unit page and can access Murdoch’s teaching and learning policies via the Policy and Procedure Manager (PPM). The Affiliate Management section of Unit Coordinator Rights and Responsibilities is also a useful resource for background information and it is the Unit Coordinator's responsibility to mentor and guide affiliates in relation to formal moderation.

Prior to the start of the trimester, please arrange a time to organise a meeting with the unit coordinator. You can use this to ask questions about the unit and discuss changes, feedback and lessons learned from the previous offering. As the primary point of contact within the unit and possessing extensive knowledge about the students, it is crucial that you make yourself available to assist students outside of class time. As the local affiliate, you will be the first point of contact in the unit. This entails being responsive to emails and Teams communications from both students and Unit Coordinators. Unit Coordinators may ask you to coordinate extensions based on EQAL requirements or for students who meet the extension criteria outlined in the unit guide. If this is your first time teaching, you may need help to familiarise yourself with the process.

The Unit Coordinator is critical to the induction process of the Affiliate Lecturer and regular communication/engagement between the Unit Coordinator and their affiliate is crucial. The Unit Coordinator should ideally start communicating with the Affiliate Lecturer as soon as contact details are received, which is usually a month prior to the start of the teaching period. It is also particularly important that the Unit Coordinator holds a briefing for Affiliate Lecturers who will be teaching in the unit before the commencement of the teaching period and prior to key assessment events. Communication can be via email, phone or vide conferencing as appropriate. While email may be the preferred mode communication due to convenience and cost, face-to-face communication is encouraged to create close and productive teaching relationships (Microsoft Teams is Murdoch's preferred program). TNE research has consistently demonstrated that this regular communication provides better quality outcomes for academics, Affiliate Lecturers and students. 

While the Unit Coordinator should be briefing affiliates, it is also their responsibility to seek guidance and further information from their Unit Coordinator as required. Ultimately, it is incumbent on both the Unit Coordinator and the Affiliate Lecturer to maintain meaningful and regular contact. If an affiliate has not received clear information and guidance on the expectations of a unit with regards to things such as the assessment and delivery methods; standard of student work; amount of feedback required on assignments; and timeliness of assignment return, they should contact the Unit Coordinator to receive this information. In the event that the Affiliate Lecturer still experiences major difficulties in communicating with the Unit Coordinator, the Affiliate Lecturer may contact the Murdoch staff in the country that they are located for assistance, i.e. Discipline Leads or Singapore Dean/Dubai Dean. The Affiliate Lecturer may also contact the Academic Chair or School Dean (in escalating order) from the relevant Murdoch School.

For more information, please refer to the TNE Guide for Communication between Unit Coordinators and Affiliate Lecturers.

Student Enquiries

TNE students are Murdoch students in all respects regardless of location and it is not necessary to distinguish them from the general student body. They are governed by the same University legislation as other students and are therefore entitled to benefits comparable to those enjoyed by onshore students. For this reason it is important that TNE students have ongoing access to teaching staff. The first point of contact should always be the local Affiliate Lecturer, but students can also contact their Unit Coordinator after first consulting their Affiliate if need be. Both Murdoch staff and Affiliate staff will be responsible for making known their availability to TNE students, and the Unit Coordinator should provide guidance to local teaching staff in regard to student support. Individual assistance given should be given at a level consistent with the learning needs of the student cohort.

It is extremely important that Affiliate Lecturers have a strong understanding of a unit's resources and materials so that they can effectively teach the unit; mark assessments to an acceptable standard; and respond to student questions and concerns as required. A number of Murdoch's contractual obligations help ensure that both the Unit Coordinator and Affiliate Lecturer are prepared for the start of the Trimester. The Unit Coordinator must confirm unit resources required for the unit (including the textbooks, software and/or hardware and classroom requirements) 12 weeks prior to the commencement of each unit. The unit resource requirements will be collated by the TNE Liaison Team and provided to the Transnational Partners and Library in a list of all units. Murdoch must also provide unit materials to the Transnational Partner no less than four weeks prior to the commencement of the unit (via LMS).

As a minimum, the unit materials delivered to Transnational Partners will consist of the following:

  • Unit Information/Learning Guide, including information on session outlines, activities and assessment;
  • A unit specific teaching guide/teaching notes (as per the Units Policy);
  • PowerPoint slides for lectures if slides are used at South Street, or other support materials as appropriate
  • Any readings that are not found in a textbook and published on My Unit Readings (for more information on this please see the My Unit Readings Guide for Teaching Staff); and
  • Past examination papers (or an indication of where they can be found), where applicable/available.

It is important to ensure that units delivered at transnational locations are comparable across each offering and that the Unit Coordinator retains control of all teaching materials used. For this reason, the Affiliate Lecturer should only use the unit materials provided to prepare and deliver the unit. Collaboration is welcomed as the TNE delivery model encourages Affiliate input, especially in the event the Affiliate Lecturer has taught the unit a number of times, however no changes should be made/nor additional materials provided without consultation/permission of the Unit Coordinator.

It important that Affiliate Lecturers are aware of Murdoch's approach to integrity in student work and referencing guidelines/approach to plagiarism. It is strongly encouraged that all assessments are submitted via LMS with access to Ouriginal (formerly Urkund) reports.

For more information on this please see the Ask Murdoch: Submitting your assignment to Ouriginal.

It is the responsibility of the Affiliate Lecturer to be familiar with Murdoch IT programs (LMS and My Unit Readings) and software such as Ouriginal. The Affiliate Lecturer will need to access the unit materials provided by the Unit Coordinator via LMS, while copyrighted materials will be available on My Unit Readings. The submission, marking and moderation of student assignments should also be done via LMS.

The Affiliate Lecturer should advise students of the academic support that is available to them, such as the Murdoch Library and Support & Advice webpages.

Our objective is to provide students with meaningful feedback on their work within 10 working days from the submission date. While the official Murdoch policy allows for a 15-working-day turnaround, our shorter trimester-based TNE system necessitates a faster feedback process.

It is the ALs responsibility to gather any evidence and report instances of student academic misconduct to the Unit Coordinator; if a timely response is not received from the Unit Coordinator, we ask that ALs contact their local TNE Dean or Learning Support Lecturer. Unit Coordinators are responsible for reporting academic misconduct through the portal via ServiceNow; any staff member, including ALs can report a General Misconduct via the same portal. Further information is available here.

For detailed information on marking at our TNE locations, please see the Assessments page.

We strongly support our Affiliate Lecturers in TNE to consistently seek opportunities for enhancing their professional development and learning. While the specific avenues for improvement may vary depending on the affiliate, here are some examples of professional development activities. Please note that some of the below resources will require that you log in with your Murdoch credentials:

Learn about teaching and educational technologies through:

Develop your expertise and career through:

For more information, visit Professional Development & Learning.

For queries about teaching, including learning technologies, contact professionallearning@murdoch.edu.au.

For TNE-specific requests, please contact your local team.