STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT for UNDERGRADUATE SSLCs in 2013-14
It is the responsibility of the Academic Convenor to ensure the SSLC Annual Report is completed by or in consultation
with student SSLC representatives and returned via e-mail to Rory McIntyre, Teaching Quality,
(r.j.mcintyre@warwick.ac.uk), by 23 May 2014, even if the Committee has not had its last meeting of the year by that date.
Please type this Annual Report.
1. Which department/centre/degree courses are covered by this Student-Staff Liaison Committee?
If the course is delivered off campus, please also state the location of delivery.
Undergraduate
German Studies, German with French, German with Italian, German with Spanish, German with International Studies,
French and German, German and Italian, German and Business, German and English Literature, German and
History, Ghispanic Studies and German.
Postgraduate
PhD programmes, MA in German Cultural Studies (not running in 2012-13); MA in German Studies by Research
Is this SSLC for:
Undergraduate courses?
(yes/no)
Undergraduate and postgraduate courses?
yes
If yes:
 how many PG reps sit on the committee?
 how many UG reps sit on the committee?
2
28
2. MEMBERSHIP
Name
Academic Convenor
Dr Seán Allan
Chair
Rotating
Student?
Staff?
(yes/no)
(yes/no)
no
yes
Secretary
Rotating
Number of staff members:
2 (+ subject
librarian and
careers
advisor)
Number of student members:
30
Attended at least one meeting? (y/n)
n
Receives Minutes? (y/n)
Subject Librarian
y
Careers Advisor
y
y
y
e-Learning Advisor
n
n
Students’ Union representative
y
3. MEETINGS
How many times has the SSLC met during this academic year?
5
If there were fewer than 4 meetings this year, please indicate why.
n/a
How many SSLC members attended the meeting?
Student reps
Other attendees
1st meeting:
28
1
2nd meeting:
26
1
3rd meeting:
20
1
4th meeting:
17
2
4. FOLLOW-UP FROM 2011-12 SSLC ANNUAL REPORT
Please identify which issues have been resolved, which issues are still unresolved, and highlight any
solutions which have been particularly effective for the current academic year.
Issues resolved from
2012-13:
Issues not resolved from
2012-13:

The department has now introduced a 30-CAT UG dissertation option
(GE 436)

The department has 100% record in providing feedback within 20 days.

The department is introducing a range of 15-CAT Year 2 modules in
2014-15.

The module in Accountancy and Finance is no longer compulsory for
Ger/Bus students and a greater number of options has been introduced
for Ger/Bus students generally.

An essay-writing module has been introduced in Year 1 and an essaywriting workshop for returning finalists.

The department has piloted the Tabula system
There were no issues outstanding from 2012-13 to be resolved.
5. COMMUNICATION
(a) Which of the following methods have been used to gather
material for meetings?
(b) Was the SSLC Website used
(go.warwick.ac.uk/sslc)?
Please tick or type “yes” in appropriate box(es):
SSLC pigeon hole
SSLC notice board
Questionnaire
E-Mail
Departmental staff meetings
SSLC Web-site
Facebook/Twitter etc
Other (please specify):
Yes
Yes
(yes/no)
yes
If yes, how was the website used? Was the individual page
for this SSLC utilised (Nb: if you would like to include a link
on the portal to an existing departmental webpage, please
contact the Students’ Union,
anna.chowcat2@warwicksu.com)?
Agendas and minutes were posted
Do you have any suggestions for developing the website?
-
Consultations of SSLC
representatives with their
constituencies
-
input from staff and student
members
YES – 2014 annual report forms still not available in week 3
of the summer term (which makes it impossible to use the
report form for the final SSLC meeting of the summer term).
Up-to-date forms need to be available earlier.
(yes/no)
Is a student representative of the SSLC
invited to attend formal
departmental/centre/collaborative course
meetings for to discuss SSLC business?
yes
If yes, how
many meetings
were attended?
Is a student representative of the SSLC
regularly invited to be a member of any
additional departmental committees that
discuss teaching and learning or resources?
Has the SSLC as a whole seen and
discussed the content of this report? If the
report is drafted between meetings, it should
be circulated by email to SSLC members.
Are there any training or information needs
related to the SSLC system that have been
identified this year?
n/a
If yes, please
specify which
committees:
yes
If no, why not?
no
If yes, please
specify:
If no, why not?
2
6. ISSUES AND GOOD PRACTICE 2012-13
Main topics discussed at SSLC meetings under the following headings and action taken:
Course content and
delivery (but not
individual lecturers),
changes to existing
courses and proposals
for new courses
Assessment, including
assessment feedback,
and examinations (if
applicable)
What was discussed?
What action was taken?
Some reading lists for final-year
module websites had not been
updated during the summer vacation
to reflect the most recent changes.
Module websites updated and staff
would be reminded to ensure that
module websites were up to date by
the end of the summer term preceding
the next academic year.
Proposed integrated undergraduate
masters degree (M.Lang) in German
Cultural Studies
SSLC members welcomed the new
course proposal and felt that it would
be an attractive option.
Deadline clashes for assessed work
on joint/with degrees.
Generally, such clashes cannot always
be avoided due to the large number of
joint honours degrees in the
department. It is the student’s
responsibility to plan his/her work
accordingly (and the department
cannot – and does not – offer
extensions for a failure to plan
adequately.
Assessment for GE434
Students on the module clarified the
weightings of oral presentation/written
elements with module convenor.
Length of essays and contribution of
footnotes to overall word count.
DUGS wrote to all students clarifying
this issue. The guidelines for assessed
essays and exams states: ‘Footnotes
should not be included in the word
count’ (p. 10). It also states that ‘The
word limit for assessed essay can be
expanded by 5% of the specified word
limit without attracting any penalties
e.g. for a 5,000 word essay the
maximum length would be 5,250
words’ (p. 11).
University/department assessment
strategy.
Committee members were alerted to
changes to the university’s assessment
strategy (under which the ‘50:50 rule’
had been relaxed). There was,
however, a clear view that – wherever
possible – students should continue to
have a choice between assessed
essays and formal examinations when
taking ‘content’ modules.
Committee members also alerted to
the university’s new policy of
moderating a sample of assessments
(rather than second-marking all
assessments).
Timing of final-year oral exams.
Staff explained the rationale behind
holding oral exams in Term 3 of the
final-year.
Skills development and
training
Student support
(including progress
monitoring and the
Personal Tutor system)
Committee members had found it
hard to obtain details of SSLC rep
training.
Departmental secretary alerted all
members of training session on 6 Nov
2014.
Subject Librarian expressed concern
that 1st Year German and Business
students did not receive the same
introductory Library resources training
as single honours Business students.
Subject librarian said that a separate
time slot has been identified during
which Ger/Bus students could receive
training.
Tabula
Students were informed that the
department was trialling the ‘Tabula’
system.
[Feedback on pros & cons of Tabula
will be an agenda item for the meeting
in Week 3]
Library provision
Was the Subject
Librarian invited to
attend to discuss
relevant issues?
IT and e-Learning
provision
Some students had reported
difficulties in using the current system
of library classification
Librarian sent a memo informing
students that the library was in the
process of moving to the Library of
Congress classification system which
should resolve the problem.
Yes
No issues raised.
Was an e-Learning
Advisor invited to attend
to discuss relevant
issues?
Other academic
resources (teaching
accommodation,
research facilities and
electronic resources)
n/a
PG students raised the issue of oncampus working areas. Since most
PG work spaces (Wolfson Research
Exchange and PG Hub) were
designed for group work, there was a
lack of space on campus where PG
students could set up a base for
individual working (and leave books,
papers and other materials etc.)
[This will be an agenda item in Week 3]
Careers provision
Organisation of alumni evening, led by
Fiona Kent (Careers Advisor) and
assisted by Kathryn Harrop.
Modern Languages alumni evening
was organised and held in Term 2
Week 7. The event was a great
success and welcomed by students.
Was a representative of
the Careers Service
invited to attend to
discuss relevant issues?
Joint and crossdepartmental courses (if
there are joint degree
students who take
modules on the course(s)
covered by the SSLC,
issues relevant to joint
degrees should be
discussed)
Yes
Some first-year students had found
the arrangements for selecting
modules on the Ger/Eng and Fr/Ger
degrees in the first week of term 1
hard to get to grips with.
Joint course directors alerted and will
be on hand to advise in the coming
year.
Other issues or SSLC
initiatives (if the SSLC
covers both UG and PG
students, include, for
example, supervisory
arrangements [but not
individual supervisors]
and research training)
No other issues were raised.
PG students may wish to comment on
research training at the meeting in
Week 3
7. UNRESOLVED ISSUES
Which of the issues discussed during this year remain unresolved and what steps are being taken to resolve them?
There were no issues outstanding from 2012-13 to be resolved.
8. ACADEMIC CONVENOR FOR 2014-15
Who will be the Academic Convenor of this SSLC next year?
NAME: CA/tbc
E-MAIL:
EXTENSION:
9. CONFIRMATION FROM STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES – PLEASE SIGN BELOW
If this form is submitted by e-mail, it should be sent by a student representative in lieu of signature.
Chair of SSLC
Secretary of SSLC
Date
When you have completed this form, please return it by e-mail to Rory McIntyre, Teaching Quality,
(r.j.mcintyre@warwick.ac.uk), by 23 May 2014. The form should be returned by this deadline even if you have further
meetings scheduled in the current academic year; the draft form should be circulated to members of the SSLC by email.
The Academic Convenor should keep a copy for departmental records.