Unit Synopsis
This unit introduces the principles and practices relevant to the social licence to operate in the agricultural industry. You will explore how agricultural industries are dealing with the increase in global food and fibre demand while facing social and political scrutiny to cease or alter certain practices. In this unit you will examine how the agricultural industry can respond to these pressures to maintain their social licence to operate. You will use case studies to consider a range of current and emerging social licence challenges in agriculture such as animal husbandry practices, water use and contamination, environmental stewardship and the use of agri-chemicals. You will gain an understanding of the levels of the social licence to operate and the tools to measure this. You will also learn how to develop a plan for an agricultural business which will allow them to maintain their social licence to operate in a changing world.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Completion of at least 48 credit points. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2026
Term 1 - 2027 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Group Discussion | 40% |
| 2. Essay | 30% |
| 3. Presentation | 30% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE feedback
A text to accompany the podcast resource
A script or accompanying text should be made available for the podcast resource for those students who prefer text-based resources.
Students reported that web browsers were able to do this automatically for them.
Source: SUTE feedback
Adjustments to Assessment 1 - Discussion Board
The discussion board activity in Assessment 1 should be adjusted to allow for more in-depth discussions/debates. This could take the form of less frequent (fortnightly) discussions with additional requirements (such as the requirement for student to post multiple posts), thus allowing the discussions to be more conversational.
The discussion board frequency was reduced to fortnightly and students were encouraged to engage in more in depth discussions in order to improve their performance in this assessment. Some additional changes are required in future iterations to ensure a more conversational and collaborative approach on this assessment.
Source: SUTE and Unit Coordinator Reflection
Unit expansion beyond the concept of the Social Licence to Operate
Begin consultation with colleagues on updating AGRI13001 to broaden the unit's focus and rename it to “Agriculture in Society and Policy,” shifting from a narrow “social licence” lens to a wider exploration of how policy, history, economics, and societal factors shape agriculture and their interaction with agricultural risk. The change would better align with newer AGRI units, reduce overlap, and allow other units (e.g., AGRI13009) to refocus on technical sustainability and management content.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator Reflection
Include additional requirements in Assessment 1 to create more dynamic discussions
Update the requirements in Assessment 1 to ensure students engage in discussion rather than the prevailing trend of one-way posting.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Debate the social implications of contentious agricultural practices
- Explain the principles of a social licence to operate
- Evaluate the social obligations of individuals and businesses in the agricultural supply chain
- Apply the concepts and principles of a social licence to operate to a business case in agriculture
- Develop a plan for an agricultural business to maintain their social licence to operate.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion | • | ||||
| 2 - Essay | • | • | |||
| 3 - Presentation | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | ||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | |
| 5 - Team Work | • | • | • | ||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | |||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • | ||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |