School of Modern Foreign Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick
German
Staff Student Liaison Committee
29 October 2014
1.00-2.00pm, H2.03
Members present
Staff: Ian Roberts (chair), Grit Brendecke, Annika May, Richard Perkins
Students: Emilie Dawson (Fr and Ger), Hannah Nottridge (Ger/Bus), Tom Neal-Smith (Ger and Sp),
Emma Plummer (Ger and Sp), Charlotte Matheson (Ger and Eng), Victoria Burgess (Ger), Desmond
Huthwaite (Ger and Eng), Nadia Bazargan (ML), Ciara Lawrence (Ger and His), Danielle Baker (Ger w
Rus), Alex Ball (Ger and Eng), David Brown (Ger and Fr), Joe Chard (Ger), Dan Anstiss (Ger/ Bus),
Jessica Hargreaves (Ger and Eng), Frances Millen (Ger and Fr), Lucy Meakin (Ger and Fr), Pia Deutsch
(PG), Maria Roca Lizarazu (PG)
1) Apologies:
Charlie Searle, Chris Dawson
2) Minutes of the previous meeting:
Issue with the minutes, only one copy in pack – deferring the minutes of the last meeting to a later
date.
3) Constitution 2014-15:
We are now part of the modern languages school. German SSLC board will stay for this year however
may move to a school wide SSLC due to the merging of the languages into a modern language school
The SSLC is to meet twice a term and to feed comments, criticism and suggestions through to the
agenda wherever possible when we have any feedback from the fellow students.
4) Annual Report:
Contains the things that were agreed on last year, which are now being carried out in order to stay in
agreement with what was discussed last year. The SSLC members will read thoroughly in their own
time and it will be part of the process of this year.
5) Chairs Business:
- Nothing year specific
The Chair wanted to draw attention to the following points:
- We are now part of a school and all operate under an umbrella: What does this mean?
- Volker Braun is visiting the university on Monday 10th November 2014. The members of the SSLC
were asked to talk about it and promote it amongst with fellow students to draw a big crowd to the
event. It is a big honour to have him come to the university and it will be a privilege to have him read
some of his works. Not only in German, so people for all other departments are welcome.
- Reminder about the email regarding the German department football team- still looking for people
to join the team so the SSLC members were asked to spread the word amongst people on their
courses.
- Training for SSLC representatives: It has come to attention that only the final years have taken part
and the representatives from other years haven’t done it. Grit will keep looking for upcoming dates
and keep the representatives up to date.
6) External Examiners Report:
All departments are obliged to be scrutinised by an external examiner. Professor Allyson Fiddler from
Lancaster is responsible for ours. The final report is submitted through Vice Chancellors office. The
office then makes sure that German studies responds appropriately to the recommendations from the
external examiners.
Due to the sensitivity of the reports the SSLC members have been asked to leave the reports behind
after reading them.
SSLC has been informed about the report and have read the External Examiners Report.
7) NSS:
- The Chair explained the survey to the constitution. It is for finalists only as is an exit survey on wide
range of issues that have affected students during their time at Warwick. It potentially contains action
points that need implementing.
- Performance and satisfaction are usually very high however the department are disappointed that
some of the scores dipped last year. The smaller the department is, the more likely it is that when one
person has some criticism the result sticks out creating a statistical anomaly.
- SSLC members were given time during the meeting to read through the statistics and the action plan.
- The representatives were told they could take their copies away with them to read in further detail
but were asked not the leave the copies laying around the university as the information they contain is
slightly sensitive.
- A question was raised about what happens when a student does a dual degree- You only do one
survey and it is with the home department.
- From there another question was how do you hypothetically go about critiquing another department
when you do a dual degree? When a student has issues with other departments they should be raised
through personal tutor and hopefully passed on.
8) Any other business:
- The Chair explained how this section of the agenda works.
- 1st Issue: Timetabling: Some students thought that we got the German time tables very late, and
some students had to change their English modules due to an unavoidable clash. It was also said that
some people had already bought books for modules that they could no longer do. The question that
came about was: can the timetables be finalised and released earlier? The Chair explained that thee is
a natural pecking order and it goes on size, English is bigger than German. Catherine does try to see if
there can be leeway but sometimes there are inevitable changes (the smaller departments have to
move). The overall consensus was that students would prefer more notice on the timetables. However
the opposite was the case for the French, the German timetables came through earlier than the French
department. Some students also found that the English department timetables weren’t very well
organised, some cancellations in the first week.
- French and German 1st year- Strategy module: Students are not enjoying it, finding it a chore. It is a
core module for some degree combinations and not for others, which they don’t think, is fair. The
students have been advised to speak to the people who are teaching it and to speak to the people on
the French SSLC. This was a common feeling throughout all the years that had already done the
module.
- Evision: Some students raised the issue of there being no examples of essay questions when
choosing modules that are new to the syllabus. They were informed that most of the new modules are
adaptions of previous modules and were advised to look at the old modules and see where this year’s
modules are going to go. They were also told the essay coursework questions won’t be a million miles
away from the exam questions so when these are published they should read those for an idea. When
new modules begin it is always a problem. Things are going to be published within the next week or
so.
- Issue raised with regards to last year’s report: workspace problem for postgraduates. The
postgraduate students feel that no one is responsible for it. The workspace issue will be regularly put
on the agenda however it was said that the answer will most likely be that the new humanities
building will solve this issue. The postgraduates would also like more info on what the school means
for them.
- 4th Year Module Business and Society in Contemporary Germany: Issue about getting into WBS
building. Students don’t have access to doors on the side of the building as their cards haven’t been
given permission to get in. The students were told that they can get in via the main reception without
needing a card. The Librarian asked if it would be useful to have a training session for how to
effectively find business studies resources. The representatives thought that this would be very
beneficial so an email will go out with regards to this.
The date of the next meeting will be November 19th 2014.