FACULTY OF LAWS
STAFF STUDENT CONSULTATIVE
COMMITTEE (SSCC)
Ms Olga Thomas (Chair of the SSCC)
Ms Anna Antipova (Secretary to the Committee)
Staff Student Consultative Committee
Friday, 26 March 2010, 2.15pm
Room 301, Bentham House
AGENDA
Minutes from the Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) Meeting
Present: Olga Thomas (Chair), Gemma Burridge (LLB Programme Administrator),
Hauwa Shehu (President of Law Society), Yash Zaveri (Senior Student Representative),
Pavlos Anastasi (First Year Representative), Florian Wagner von Papp (Deputy Director,
|Europeazn Double Degrees), Fiona Smith (Faculty Careers Tutor), Danai Azaria
(Research Students Representative), Anna Antipova (minutes)
Apologies: Joan Small, Laura Parrett
Welcome and Introduction:
Welcome from the Chair and introduction of committee members.
Minutes from last meeting approved.
Matters arising from minutes:
-
Appointment of Ian Peel, IT Support Manager
Personal Tutor Protocoles are in the process of implementing. This reduced a
number of complaints. E-mails have been circulated telling students when
they are required to meet their Personal Tutors.
Chairperson’s Business:
i)
Review of the curriculum and the degree structure:
Criminal law will be taught in the first year, WLO will be removed from the
curriculum, research prioject will become an option available for the final year law
students rather than a compulsory module.
ii)
NSS
Students are encouraged to complete the NSS, the respone rate was 53 %. OT
urged the Student Representatives to encourage students to complete the survey as
the results are published in the League Tables and thus it affects the university
reputation.
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iii)
-
-
Point-based immigration system:
OT explained that student monitoring system is required to comply with the
UK Border Agency Regulations. Should UCL not report back attendance of
students, the UK Border Agency has the power to revoke the licence and
UCL will no longer be permitted to issue visas. Due to the policy of equality,
UCL has taken the position that ALL registered students should be subjects to
attendance monitoring, not just students on Tier 4 visas. The attendance
monitoring system allows to identify any problems at earlier stages and thus
all students can potentially benefit from it.
Currently, the undergraduate students are monitored via class attendance,
post-graduate via some seminar attendance.
There is some difficulty with monitoring research students attendance, and
different options /procedures for the above are considered.
New Prinitng Policy:
-
OT explained that free printing could no longer be attainable due to financial
and environmental considerations. There is an ongoing consultation with
students as to what should replace it.
-
YZ brought to the attention system abuse and excessive use, and the fact
that a lot of students will not oppose prinitng charges.
-
HW – suggested that free printing should only be used for specific purposes,
for example, mooting competitions.
-
OT suggested using photocopying rather than printing as it is cheaper.
-
Other suggestions include introducing weekly limit.
Quiet Areas and Study Space:
-
Quiet Areas – OT emailed students re quest study rooms. UG - OLG1 and
LG2, post-graduates – GS101, 201 and 301, there are signs on the doors,
they are booked from 9am-7pm from 7th April – 11 June.
-
LLM Common Room – next year starting september it will be used for both
undergraduates and postgraduates, however, the quiet areas will also be
designated.
Action: OT will be seeking feedback from students as it is the first time the quiet
areas were introduced.
New Law Society Committee:
i)
Induction and Handover meetings:
-
OT – expressed congratulations to the new committee members. She will
sent out e-mails regarding various handover meetings and presentations,
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including formal session about the accounts, presentation offered by each
member of the old committee on challenges and successes, website
management and event management. She suggessted that all committee
members should attend these meetings to ensure that everyone is informed
about the different roles witin the society.
-
FS mentioned the need to organise a separate handover meeting with her for
Careers Events Management.
-
OT – suggested that all committee members should present.
-
HS pointed out that the new committee should appoint an allumini officer to
improve the outreach with the Allumini lawyers.
Action: OT willl circulate the email re student availability for attending the meetings.
ii)
Law Society Website
-
FS - recommends the website to remain in the Law Faculty to avoid conflict of
interest, unfairness and biases that can potentially result from maintaining
external websites sponsored by the individual law firms. Further, it is also
beneficial for the purposes of compliance with equal opportuniy policies since
the content can be easily monitored by the Faculty.
-
HA – suggessted to appoint a law student, not necessarily a member of the
society, who would be responsible for web-site maintenanvce.
iii)
Bologna Process
-
OT - New requirement whereby transcripts would indicate not only academic
achievements, but also extra-curriculum activities. This will require extensive
data collection as every single activity will need to be registered.
-
OT - suggessted that Societies should maitain monitoring system and clearly
indicate the roles of different committee memners.
Student Concerns:
-
Printer access: external people can access the printer. Action point: inform
Ian Peel about this.
-
Recycling policy: A lot of research students are very concerned about the lack
of recycling policy on campous. Action: arranging a special recyclign bin next
to each photocopying/printing facilities. OT also invites further discussions on
the issue.
i)
-
1st years:
PA indicated that it has been a very positive year, however, there has been a
number of complaints re exam timetable.
OT – underlined that timetabling is outside the Faculty’s jurisdicion.
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ii)
HA suggested to arrange more feedback sessions from students in the form
of questionnaires on moodle.
Research Students:
-
Printer access: external people can access the printer. Action point: inform
Ian Peel about this.
-
DA expressed concerns how the new Tier 4 Visa Requirement will affect
people on study leaves, and whether or not this would incurr extensive
bureaucracy that can hinder the research process.
-
OT explained that the Home Office did not indicate any clear guidelines as to
the points of contact. It seems that some point of contact can be non-personal
and a reply to the e-mail would suffice. All university are faced with the same
difficulties of setting out a workable system approved by the Home Office.
-
Personal Tutoring issues: The issue is still under discussion. Research
students interested in special tutors who would deal with any conflicts/
problems with supervisors. OT – there is no clear policy and the issue is still
udner discussion.
-
Facilities issues: DA indicated that there are no powerpoints, shelfs and
drawers in the Research Students Room. Further, alarm was set off on
Sunday.
-
Special Career events for PhD Students: FS – PhD Students are not
represented in careers programme. She also pointed out difficulties in PhD
Students requiretment outside academia. She will seek feedback from the
firms regarding Phd Students recruirment. Work Permits can also be an
iussue for the inernational students.
iii)
Careers Office Issues:
-
Graduate Destination Questionnaire: FS expressed concerns with the lack of
response from students with respect of Graduate Destination. The information
goes to the League Table and thus affects the reputation of UCL. Urged the
Student representatives to encourage all final year students to leave a contact
address with Gemma.
-
Bentham Association: FS reminded that all final year and LLM students
should put their name on the register to be entitled to 2 years free access to
UCL careers facilities.
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