Physics PG-SSLC Agenda 20th September
Physics PG-SSLC
Agenda for the meeting held on 13th December 2013, MAS 2.06
1. Welcome and Apologies
Apologies: G. Brown.
Present: N. Wilson, D. Steeghs, D. Armstrong, S. Tatlock, R. Ball, M. Hadley, A.
Goldsborough, J. Mudd, D. Patchett, R. Edwards, M. Valchou, P. Cartar, J. Greis, S. Greis,
M. Bours.
2. Minutes of the Last Meeting
a) Minutes are now online - PG SSLC website
Everyone present is aware of the availably of the minutes and is satisfied to
their accuracy.
3. Travel Budgets
Travel budgets are intended for conferences only, rather than for trips to
experimental/field work. In future these will be referred to as ‘Conference
Travel Budgets’ to avoid confusion. Recent applicants begin with £2,000 and
your remaining budget can be viewed online.
Students should be aware that if they require funding for an important trip
then they should ask their supervisor, they may refuse if they believe the trip
is not a good use of resources but may be able to find a source of funds if it is
truly of importance.
Each student will have a personal costcode to charge against for conference
travel. There ARE funds available to cover field trips, in particular for STFC
funded students, but claims for these should not be charged against the
conference travel budget. If students have approval to use another
budget/costcode, either because they have exhausted their own code, or
because the travel is covered by another grant, they should state this clearly
when filing their expense claim, including a contact person who controls that
budget and can approve that charge, to avoid delays in processing your
claim.
Physics PG-SSLC Agenda 20th September
4. PG – Teacher and Demonstrator Holiday Pay
The matter of holiday pay has been raised and the matter will be
investigated further. The matter is being introduced in many departments by
Warwick Students Union. If holiday pay is a legal requirement for workers
paid an hour wage, as is the norm for small group teaching and lab
demonstrators, the law will of course be abided by. It is possible in future the
number of hours worked by individuals will be agreed upon prior to the
beginning of work. If holiday pay is implemented it will be approximately
10% of pay and can be back dated by up to a year.
5. Signing Timesheets
Time sheets can be either signed by the relevant academic and then
submitted to the finance office, as is currently the norm; alternatively,
unsigned forms may be submitted to Susan Tatlock who will ensure they are
received by the relevant academic. A message informing students of this
second option will be sent out to all students.
6. Facebook Group
A general Facebook group for all physics postgraduate students is to be created,
with the proposed purpose as being used as a forum for discussion between
current postgraduates and for potential applicants to ask questions and read
past posts. This group will be created by modifying the current Facebook group
for organizing postgraduate social events, which will still be promoted using the
new Facebook group.
7. Tabula
A new system is being introduced to record meeting between supervisors and
postgraduate students. This is to ensure a meeting occurs once a month as a
minimum. Both supervisors and students must agree that a meeting has taken
place. It is left to the students’ discretion to decided what constitutes a meeting,
but it must include an opportunity for the student to raise any issues they have.
Tabula can be used to track monitoring points as well as individual meetings. At
this stage we are required to use Tabula for tracking monitoring points
(including supervision contacts), but the use of it to track and record individual
meetings is not obligatory. These details will be made clear to students and
supervisors once we roll it out.
8. Warwick Communications Meeting
Physics PG-SSLC Agenda 20th September
As a consequence of issues raised in the Warwick Communications meeting
everyone is to be informed that for postgraduate and post-doctoral workers
paternity leave is identical to maternity leave (2 weeks).
Also a minimum target of 20% female speaks at post graduate seminars per
month, with a preferred target of the proportion to be equal to those present in
the post graduate population (~25-30%).
If this target
is reached the
postgraduate seminar budget may potentially be expanded. If anyone has any
suggestions of how to make the seminars more accessible to women we would
very much appreciate any input. A raised issue was whether the supply of pizza,
beer & wine is gender neutral in its appeal.
9. Other Matters
The Department Christmas meal is this Thursday and drinks prior and post meal
will be organized, potentially at Varsity and at Kasbah in Coventry Respectively.
A new Postgraduate Seminar organizer is being sought, the role way be split into
two separate roles to reduce the individual workload.
No student representative is available to attend the staff meeting on the 3rd on
January.
10. Next Meeting
MAS 2.05, Friday 7th February 2013.