LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
JOINT-FIGS/RESEARCH STUDENTS COMMITTEE
FOR ARTS AND HUMANITIES
AND SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES
13 October 2015
MINUTES
Present:
Dr Allen Abramson
Mr Andy Dawson
Dr Paulo Drinot
Mr Richard Edwards
Prof Mairéad Hanrahan
Dr Alan Ingram
Dr Fiona Leigh
Dr Helen Matthews
Dr Benet Salway
Prof Alison Shell
Dr Joy Sleeman
Prof Jonathan Wolff
Anthropology
Department of Information Studies
Institute of the Americas
Departmental Graduate Administrator
SELCS
Geography
Philosophy
Deputy Faculty Tutor (A&H, SHS)
Faculty Graduate Tutor, SHS
English
Faculty Graduate Tutor, A&H (in the Chair)
Dean, A&H
In attendance:
Ms Makeba Adero (Secretary to the Joint FIGS/Research Students Committee)
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE WERE RECEIVED FROM
Prof Andrew Barry (Geography), Professor Stephen Colvin (Professor of Classics and
Historical Linguistics), Miss Lisa Daniel (Institute of Archaeology), Prof Mary Fulbrook (Dean
SHS), Dr Lee Grieveson (CMII), Dr Francois Guesnet (Hebrew &Jewish Studies), Dr Arne
Hofmann (Joint Faculty Tutor), Ms Catherine Thomson (Joint Faculty Communications and
Marketing Manager), Elenor Robson (History), James Wilson (SHS Vice Dean,
Interdisciplinarity), Professor Tamar Garb, Academic Director, Institute of Advanced
Studies[for item 11]
JFIGS /RSC – 13 October 2015 – Minutes
Preliminary business
2
MINUTES OF 12 MAY 2015 MEETING
2.1 Approved - Minutes of the meeting held on 12 May 2015
3
TERMS OF REFERENCE/MEMBERSHIP
JFRSC 15/01/01
3.1 Noted
4
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES THAT ARE NOT AGENDA ITEMS
The Committee was informed that the elections for the role of Faculty StAR were
underway and that a minimum of four StARS were required for the Faculty. It was felt
that it would be useful for Joy Sleeman and Benet Salway, as Faculty Tutors, to meet
with the StARs once they had been elected.
ACTION: JS and BS were to be invited to introductory meeting with Faculty
StARs once elected.
22.9 Minute 12 May 2015
In response to the question as to whether PGTAs remain PGTA after completion of
Post Graduate study, Dr Helen Matthews advised that the Working group would be
reporting back to the joint faculty PGTA in due course.
Matters for discussion
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DOCTORAL EDUCATION STRATEGY AND PLAN 2015 - 2018
PRESENTED BY DR BENET SALWAY JFRSC 15/01/02
APPROVED
Professor Jo Woolf commented on the excellent work that the joint writers of the strategy
had achieved under difficult circumstances and said that he hoped that the Doctoral
school would look on the paper favourably.
Some of the key points to note in the document were the statistical data and feedback
from outside contributors. The Committee were surprised by the sizable number of
students within the Faculty who were self-funded. This would have implications for the
funding bodies that would not fund this group of students. The Committee toyed with the
idea of capturing funded and self funded students separately in the statistics but in the
end it was decided against doing so.
The Faculty was said to be doing well with regards to the supervisor - student ratio though it was recognised that some supervisors do have more than six students.
It was agreed that in relation to the gender and ethnicity profile of the Faculty, while the
figures for gender was quite good, the proportion of students from BME backgrounds
needed to be improved.
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JFIGS /RSC – 13 October 2015 – Minutes
A discussion ensued about submission rates. Members commented that while some
students submitted their PhDs late and acquired senior jobs in academia others complete
on time and are never heard of again. It was said that if submission was required within
four years, it would be good to formulate a structure that would allow this. One model
might be to downscale the PhD. Have a template model for students, which was not a
system of monitoring but a system of support. The model would include a timetable with
key markers. If students went adrift of the key markers then a flag would be triggered.
Another suggestion was made that it might be useful if Supervisors were retrained since
they would have gained their doctorate 20 years prior.
It was also suggested that it would be good to collect statistics on where students go after
completing their PhD. Someone explained that resources may not be spent in this activity
currently because the assumption was that UCL doctoral students got good jobs. The
comment was made that some institutions asked their students to submit within a certain
time whether they have finished or not. This may have an effect on the quality of the final
paper.
All were in agreement that as a Faculty we would need to keep an eye on our submission
rates and if possible it would be good to get data on submission rates across the
institution.
ACTION: Members were encouraged to contact Dr Salway if they felt that the
definition of research integrity given in the document required improvement.
6
PGR SUBMISSION RATE DATA (2015) PRESENTED BY DR BENET SALWAY
JFRSC 15/01/03
It was reported that the JeS database (which records students who receive RCUK
funding) would need to be kept up to date in future. Professor Woolf had a meeting
arranged with David Bogle to discuss this matter. The Committee agreed that It would be
good to have an external auditor to view the figures to help with future bids and with
reporting.
ACTION: Supervisors to be advised of the need to keep JeS updated.
ACTION: Committee members asked to be kept abreast of the AHRC embargo
applied to UCL.
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DOCTORAL TRAINING PARTNERSHIPS PRESENTED BY DR BENET SALWAY
AHRC LAHP: It was reported that, although not eligible for funding from ths DTP,
research students from the relevant departments in Queen Mary are now able take part in
the cohort training activities along with students from the LAHP consortium (UCL, KCL,
and UoL School of Advanced Study)
ESRC: It is anticipated that the UCL ESRC DTC is to be re-commissioned from 2017 as
a 'Bloomsbury Consortium’ DTP, comprising IOE (now, of course UCL), SOAS and UCL.
Allen Abramson spoke as one who was involved in the negotiation of the joint bid of the
Bloomsbury Consortium. It is expected that the ESRC will, like the AHRC, required from
the participating institutions. With the bringing together of the institutions the question was
asked whether the overall number of grants available to UCL students is likely to be the
same as currently.
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JFIGS /RSC – 13 October 2015 – Minutes
8
POSTGRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT (PGTA) EMPLOYMENT AND 180-HOUR
RULE PRESENTED BY DR BENET SALWAY AND DR JOY SLEEMAN
JFRSC 15/01/04
It was said that harmonisation had depressed remuneration because it was hard to pay
PGTAs for their preparation time. On the other hand a number of departments had gone
beyond the 180 hours rule. Rather than seek derogation from the policy the department
would like to move away from the rule for the non-funded students and make it in line with
the number of hours that students subject to visa requirements could work.
Joy Sleeman reported to the Committee that she had met with Bob Carey and had found
out that according to the website the policy was updated in June 2014 and that the rule
related only to fully funded students. There was a question as to whether the date was
correct and if the rule only related to fully funded students. Joy Sleeman and Helen
Matthews would meet to discuss the dates. Individual departments could apply for
derogation. The question needed to be considered of whether or not the rule was
appropriate for everyone across the institution. It was argued that If the time was equated
with full-time contracts it worked out to be approximately five weeks which did not seem
sufficient. It was noted that current contracts were being accepted. HM and JS undertook
to look at what was on the website and address any issues when they becomes a
problem.
The Committee agreed that while the policy was in place to support students, where this
lead to them teaching elsewhere because of the rule it would be better if they taught at
UCL. It was also noted that If the rule was only derogated for non-funded students this
would have an impact on our funded students.
ACTION: Dr Joy Sleeman and Dr Helen Matthews to review the website.
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PRACTICE-LED PHD PROPOSAL PRESENTED BY DR BENET SALWAY
JFRSC 15/01/05
Approved
The idea for this was in response to a proposal from Geography. Professor David Bogle
has asked if a generic rather than subject specific template could be created. The request
may have been made without the knowledge that a practice-led PhD existed in the Slade.
Dr Salway has submitted a paper based on proposed and existing PhD’s. If the paper
was not accepted then the Faculty would return to the proposal put forward by
Geography. During the discussion it became apparent that the Department of Information
Studies had looked in to the idea previously and that English and Translation studies
would be interested in such a programme. The question was asked if the PhD could be
enacted retrospectively. It was thought that it might be an idea to look at the experience
within the Slade and that the matter should be discussed with Hayley Newman. Dr
Salway hoped that the Geography programme would be available from September 2016.
ACTION: Dr Salway to speak to Hayley Newman about how the practice-led PhD
was introduced to the Slade and if it was made available retrospectively.
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FACULTY GRADUATE TUTORS’ REPORT PRESENTED BY BENET SALWAY & JOY
SLEEMAN
The online link was provided to the Briefing/Refresher for DGTs and Administrators 30
June 2015: Slides / Dossier at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ah-shs-office/graduate_tutors
The new single upgrade panel report/registry notification form (JFRSC 15/01/06) was
distributed. The form took the place of the two forms previously. There was no change to
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JFIGS /RSC – 13 October 2015 – Minutes
the procedure, just a change to reporting. The form was available to use immediately for
current MPhils.
Changes to the Academic Manual 2015-2016
The Committee was told that all regulations and policies had been included in the
academic manual and that they should review the Research Degrees Guidance.
When AH-SHS had requested a termination outcome from the MPhil, they were told that
they were the only Faculty with this request but that recently LAWS had expressed an
interest.
The number of applications for MRES and PhDs in A&H were reported to be slightly
down, while offers were up and acceptances down. SHS Applications were down, offers
were down and acceptances were down though only slightly.
Brief comment was made on the UCL PRES 2015 statistics. The AH-SHS response rates
was 35% as against UCL’s 36%. The Faculty’s departments are spread amongst the
categories because they did not map directly to the department categories in the survey.
Comment was made on the wording of the questions. This was the first time that UCL
had carried out the survey and so it might be necessary to educate students as to what
the questions meant. This matter is on the Research Degrees Committee agenda. The
outcome will be reported back to the JFIGS/RSC committee.
11
JOINT FIGS REPORT AND THE UCL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES
PRESENTED BY CATHY THOMSON (JFIGS) & TAMAR GARB (UCL IAS)
Professor Tamar Garb, Academic Director, Institute of Advanced Studies
By way of clarification Professor Garb sent an email message stating that IAS will not be
administering the JFIGS money or being involved in the organisation of events. JFIGS will
continue to receive its own budget from the joint faculties. What has been agreed to is that
the forum should become integrated into IAS space so that it takes place in the Common
Ground venue – and that it will be called the IAS Interdisciplinary Friday Forum – or
something of that nature. Also IAS will support it and advertise it through their website and
networks. IAS are happy that the JFIGS/RSC committee should go on administering it,
advertising, selecting winning bids and helping to facilitate the events.
The deadline for application was Friday 16th October and members were asked to forward
applications even if they were incomplete.
12
MATTERS RAISED BY DEPARTMENTAL GRADUATE TUTORS/ADMINISTRATORS
No matters were raised.
13
MATTERS RAISED BY STUDENT ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES (STARS)
PRESENTED BY FACULTY PGT AND PGR STARS
No StARs were present as they were being elected.
Meeting ended 17:36
14
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
10 May 2016 at 3.00pm
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JFIGS /RSC – 13 October 2015 – Minutes
SECRETARY NAME: Makeba Adero
Secretary to the JOINT FACULTY BOARDS OF EXAMINERS (UNDERGRADUATE and GRADUATE)
IN ARTS AND HUMANITIES and SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES COMMITTEE
Contact details m.adero@ucl.ac.uk
Date 21January 2016
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