LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE FOR ARTS AND HUMANITIES
AND SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES
23 February 2016
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Minute
34d
35
38d
41
Action required
Publicise Faculty StARs elections
to Departmental StARs
Forward any amended
Postgraduate ASER reports to
Helen Matthews.
Respond to consultation on UCL
UG and PGT Assessment
Regulations Reform
Anyone interested in contributing
views or joining the Connecting
Postgraduates group to contact
Alex Standen.
Responsible
Due Date
All Departments.
3 March 2016
All Departments.
29 February 2016
All Departments.
24 March 2016
All Departments.
Ongoing
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES
23 February 2016
MINUTES
PRESENT:
Prof Mary Fulbrook
Dr Arne Hofmann
Dean, SHS (Chair of meeting)
Faculty Tutor (Chair of JFTC)
Dr Jenny Bryan
Mr David M Burrows
Ms. Juliette Devillard
Dr Luke Fenton-Glynn
Dr Caroline Garaway
Mr Carl Gombrich
Dr Angus Gowland
Dr Charles Inskip
Prof Peter C H John
Dr Valerie Lechene
Prof Neill Lochery
Dr Maria Loh
Prof Philippe Marliere
Dr Helen Matthews
Mr Tony McNeill
Dr Benet Salway
Dr Bill J M Sillar
Dr Joy Sleeman
Dr Hugh Stevens
Dr Julian Thompson
Prof Anne White
Prof Jonathan Wolff
Greek and Latin
Slade
StAR, AH
Philosophy
Anthropology
BASc
History
Information Studies
Political Science
Economics
Hebrew and Jewish Studies
History of Art
ESPS
Deputy Faculty Tutor
SELCS
Faculty Graduate Tutor, SHS
Archaeology
Faculty Graduate Tutor, AH
English
Geography
SSEES
Dean, SHS
In attendance: Ms. Makeba Adero (Secretary to the Joint Faculty Teaching Committee); Mr Robert
Donovan (UCL Careers) for minute 36; Ms Lizzie Vinton (Assessment Regulations & Governance
Manager) for minute 42
Apologies for absence: Prof Andrew Barry (Vice-Dean Interdisciplinarity, SHS), Michael Barbieri
(StAR), Miss Lisa Milroy (Slade), Dr Alex Samson (Vice-Dean Education, AH), Dr Alex Standen
(CALT)
2
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
Key to abbreviations:
ASER
Annual Student Experience Review
BME
Black and Minority Ethnic
CALT
Centre for Advancing Learning and Teaching
CMA
Competition and Markets Authority
DTC
Departmental Teaching Committee
ESPS
European Social & Political Studies
PMASG
Programme and Module Approval Sub Group
PMAP
Programme and Module Approval Panel
PTES
Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey
QRSC
Quality Review Sub-Committee
Preliminary business
33. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 15 DECEMBER 2015
Approved – Minutes of the meeting held on 15 December 2015.
34. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Minute 18B Appointment of Departmental StARs
Dr Matthews reported that she had contacted UCLU who would liaise with Academic Services
regarding the comments made in the SSEES IQR. Professor White noted that the
recommendation of the review panel had subsequently been revised.
Dr Matthews noted that elections for new Faculty StARs were currently taking place, and
encouraged colleagues to bring this to the attention of current Departmental StARs.
Minute 20 Programme Proposals
Dr Matthews reported that the BA Comparative Literature with a Year Abroad had been approved
by PMAP. Approval of the BA UCL-Venice Double Degree in Italian Studies (Italian/Italian and
History of Art) was still pending as PMAP had requested further detail on ab initio language and
pastoral care. This would be submitted to the next PMAP meeting in March.
.
3
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
Matters for discussion
35. PGT ASER [JFTC 15/03/01- JFTC 15/03/02]
Postgraduate taught ASER reports had been circulated to the Committee. It was noted that most
Departments had submitted their ASER reports, but a number of reports did not clearly address
the mandated actions to benchmark departmental unemployment and graduate level work-study
rates and indicate the steps they would take to ensure student engagement with the PTES or
demonstrate how students had been involved in the discussion of the plan. Departments were
requested to revisit these parts of the form before forwarding on to the Faculty for submission on
the 1st March 2016.
Issues raised in the discussion that ensued included:


The impact of the move to centralised UCL admissions procedures on Masters students.
There was some confusion as to what information was required regarding widening
participation. It was noted that data on widening participation at PGT level was difficult to
obtain because school information was not available.
Regarding the difference in BME/non BME attainment, it was noted that more meaningful
conclusions could be drawn if data on specific BME groups were available. Dr Matthews had
already made this suggestion to QRSC.
ACTION: Departments to submit revised ASER reports where appropriate by 29
February.
36. UCL CAREERS SERVICE REPORT [JFTC 15/03/03]
Presented by Robert Donovan (Careers Consultant and Deputy Head, UCL Careers)
Mr Donovan presented a paper covering the following:
The Joint Faculty Careers Tutors forum, which runs twice a year, bringing together departmental
Careers Liaison Tutors and Careers Consultants: the most recent forum on 10 December had
covered a range of topics including the proposed review of joint faculty/departmental provision,
extending UCL Careers support for PGT students and an overview of enhanced departmental
careers provision in the School of Management and the Faculty of Laws.

PGT Annual Student Experience Review (ASER): UCL Careers had offered support to all
Departmental Masters Tutors in January to assist in understanding the DLHE data structures
and/or exploring possible additional support.

Current and future activity, including Careers Registration project pilot, UCL Internships
scheme, and the Graduates Intensive project (contacting PGT graduates to offer individual
coaching).
Some concern was expressed regarding the possible changes in careers support for individual
departments. Mr Donovan confirmed that he was reviewing current activity across the joint
faculties, with a view to achieving a balance of effective ‘faculty-central’ activity (e.g. skills
workshops, sector based employer events, online materials) alongside elements of departmentbased (and/or ‘department clusters’ based) activity.
4
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
37. STUDENT BAROMETER [JFTC 15/03/04 and JFTC 15/03/05]
Dr. Hofmann reported that there had been a slight improvement in the UCL results but that in
relative terms had been found to be bottom of the Russell Group for Assessment, Learning
Support, Feedback, Course Organisation, Marking Criteria, Language Support and for overall
satisfaction metrics.
Within UCL, the Arts and Humanities Faculty was ranked sixth and Social and Historical
Faculty eleventh, but such aggregates were felt to be largely meaningless because of the way
in which individual departmental scores were calculated. It was noted that the response rate
was low at all levels, across all years. However, the results broadly correlated with those of the
NSS, which cross-validated both surveys.
Ms. Juliette Devillard (StAR, AH) suggested that responses to surveys should be encouraged by
making them mandatory before gaining access to Moodle.
Dr. Hofmann said that another suggestion might be a reduction in the number of surveys and or a
consolidation of the questions asked.
Ms. Juliette Devillard suggested that focus groups should be used to help the institution
understand the responses.
Dr. Hofmann encouraged departments to follow Prof Jo Wolff’s advice to focus on
improvements to matters under their control.
38. FACULTY TUTOR’S REPORT
38A. E-LEARNING UPDATE
Dr. Hofmann reported that the next Joint Faculty E-Learning Forum was scheduled to take place
on Wednesday, 2 March and would be chaired by Uli Tiedau. The session was to examine best
practice and issues of common concern. The outcome of the Forum would be reported back to
JFTC.
38B. EDUCATION STRATEGY
The Committee was informed that the Education Strategy consultation had closed. The current
draft of the strategy was available at www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-lerning/2016-21
The next stage would be approval by Academic Committee.
38C. MOODLE
It was reported that Moodle would be down during the summer for the annual upgrade (Friday 22
July, 6.00 pm to Wednesday, 27 July 2016, 12.00 pm). As part of this year’s upgrade the data
centre would be moving from London to Slough which would mean that the system should be
considered as being at risk during that time.
38D. IN-SESSION RESITS [JTFC 15/03/06]
The Committee was reminded that the reform of Assessment Regulations, due to be discussed
later in the meeting, included the introduction of in-session resits. A discussion paper by the
Director of Student Administration had been circulated for further information.
38E. CMA
The Committee was informed that universities now come under consumer protection laws and the
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The need to comply with the CMA had significant
consequences for the legal standing of information given to students and its role in an implied
legal contract. To this end, a working group was being set up to review all information that would
be provided to students.
38F. HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW UPDATE
Dr. Matthews reported that the Self Evaluation Document had been submitted to the QAA on 17
February. She expressed, thanks to colleagues in departments who had helped to identify and
5
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
share evidence. It was expected that there would be a call for further evidence from the review
team in the week commencing 14 March. The review visit would take place in the week
commencing 9 May.
38G. ANNUAL ACADEMIC REVIEW
It was reported that at the time of the meeting all departments had taken advantage of the
opportunity of a meeting with Academic Services. The final deadline of 31 March was being taken
seriously, and the Vice Provost (Education and Student Affairs) was receiving progress reports on
departments’ engagement with the process.
39. FACULTY GRADUATE TUTORS’ REPORT
Presented by Dr Joy Sleeman and Dr Benet Salway
Dr. Sleeman and Dr. Salway would be meeting with David Bogle of the Doctoral School on
Monday 7 March to discuss the Joint Faculty Doctoral Students’ Strategy.
40. MATTERS RAISED BY STUDENT ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES
No new matters were raised. Ms. Juliette Devillard enquired about the Personal Tutor agenda item
that was raised at the last meeting. Dr Hofmann responded that that item was yet to return from
Education Committee.
41. CALT UPDATE
Dr Nick Grindle was unable to attend the meeting.
Secretary’s note: Following the meeting, details of a new working group being set up to explore
postgraduate perspectives on the Connected Curriculum were circulated. Anyone interested in
contributing views or joining the group was asked to contact Alex Standen in CALT.
42. REVIEW OF THE ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR TAUGHT PROGRAMMES [JFTC
15/03/07 and JFTC 15/03/08]
Presented by Lizzie Vinton, Assessment Regulations & Governance Manager, UCL Registry
Services
The Committee received the consultation paper outlining proposals for reform of the assessment
framework for taught programmes. The Committee discussion focused on year abroad
assessment, late submission penalties and in-session resits.
a) YEAR ABROAD ASSESSMENT
The feedback varied depending on how the year abroad was currently assessed within the
specific department (with imported marks or a year abroad project module). Some members of
the Committee felt that that attempts should be made to improve the year abroad assessment
rather than abandon it. The year abroad project was problematic for SELCS, which had a large
number of students going to diverse institutions. The UG StAR for Arts & Humanities suggested
an assessment which required students to reflect throughout their time abroad rather than a report
or essay at the end would improve the seriousness with which the year abroad was taken. Other
suggestions received were an oral assessment. It was noted that the year abroad had financial
implications for the institution and that no one model would suit all departments. It was suggested
6
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 23 February 2016
that the costs could be mitigated if the year abroad could be completed through an internship such
as the ERASMUS Plus programme rather than as an exchange.
b) LATE SUBMISSION PENALTIES
The Committee noted that penalty thresholds that fell over a weekend could be problematic. Care
should be taken when setting assessments on days observed as the Sabbath.
c) IN-SESSION RESITS
It was noted that considerations would need to be made as to when examination boards would sit.
Ms. Vinton indicated that consideration of the results of late summer resits could be delegated to a
small board, which could meet virtually.
Dr. Hofmann encouraged the Committee to attend the Round Table Discussions and complete the
survey where appropriate.
Other matters for approval or information
43. PROGRAMME AND MODULE APPROVALS [JFTC 15/02/07]
Received:
Programme amendments and module proposals and amendments approved under delegated
powers since the last meeting.
44. PROGRAMME SPECIFICATIONS
Received:
Programme specifications approved under delegated powers since the last meeting.
.
45. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

24 May 2016 at 3.00 p.m.
Secretary name Makeba Adero
Secretary to the Joint Faculty Teaching Committee In Arts And Humanities & Social And Historical Sciences
Contact details m.adero@ucl.ac.uk
Date 19 April 2016
7