LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES
27 October 2015
MINUTES
PRESENT:
Prof Mary Fulbrook
Dr Arne Hofmann
Dean, SHS (Chair of meeting)
Faculty Tutor (Chair of JFTC)
Dr Kristin Bakke
Dr Stephanie Bird
Dr Jenny Bryan
Mr Andy Dawson
Dr Par Engstrom
Dr Luke Fenton-Glynn
Dr Andrew Gardner
Dr Caroline Garaway
Mr Carl Gombrich
Dr Angus Gowland
Dr Nick Grindle
Dr Valerie Lechene
Prof Neill Lochery
Dr Maria Loh
Dr Helen Matthews
Mr Tony McNeill
Dr Christine Reh
Dr Benet Salway
Dr Alex Samson
ESPS
CMII
Greek and Latin
Information Studies
Institute of the Americas
Philosophy
Institute of Archaeology
Anthropology
BASc
History
CALT
Economics
Hebrew & Jewish Studies
History of Art
Deputy Faculty Tutor
SELCS
Political Science
Faculty Graduate Tutor, SHS
Vice-Dean (Education and Planning,
Arts & Humanities)
Faculty Graduate Tutor, A&H
English
CALT
Dean, A&H
Institute of Americas
Institute of Archaeology
SSEES
Dr Joy Sleeman
Dr Hugh Stevens
Dr Alex Standen
Prof Jonathan Wolff
Dr Graham Woodgate
Dr Karen Wright
Prof Anne White
In attendance: Ms. Makeba Adero (Secretary to the Joint Faculty Teaching Committee)
Apologies for absence: Prof Andrew M Barry (Geography), Dr Julian R Thompson (Geography)
JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
Key to abbreviations:
ASER
Annual Student Experience Review
BASc
Arts and Sciences programmes
BME
Black and Minority Ethnic
CALT
Centre for Advancing Learning and Teaching
CLIE
Centre for Languages &International Education
CMII
Centre for Multidisciplinary & Intercultural Inquiry
DTC
Departmental Teaching Committee
ESPS
European Social & Political Studies
PMASG
Programme and Module Approval Sub Group
QRSC
Quality Review Sub-Committee
SELCS
School of European Languages, Culture & Society
SSEES
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
UKVI
UK Visas and Immigration
Preliminary business
1.
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 26 MAY 2015 MEETING
Approved – Minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2015.
2.
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Minute 38 PGTA Policy update
It was noted that that there were still some issues to be resolved before a final draft of the policy
could be brought back to the Committee, in particular a review of PGTA employment issues that
was being undertaken in Human Resources. In the meantime, a draft template for payment
calculation had been produced and the financial impact was currently being tested by
departments.
Minute 39 MA Editing Lives and Letters
It was reported that the ‘MA Editing Lives and Letters’ had been approved by PMASG for a 2016
start. The Committee noted that Professor Lisa Jardine had recently passed away, and recorded
its condolences to her family.
Minute 44B Peer Dialogue (JFTC 15/01/01)
It was reported that the new Peer Dialogue policy had now been approved by Education
Committee and replaced the former Peer Observation of Teaching scheme.
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JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
Minute 48 Report on Departmental Teaching Committees (JFTC 15/01/02)
Helen Matthews reported that queries identified in the annual report on DTC minutes had been
followed up with the departments concerned over the summer. It was noted that the new
Academic Manual included updated Terms of Reference for DTCs. Changes included the
replacement of Annual and Augmented Annual Monitoring with the Annual Student Experience
Review and a new responsibility for approval of academic partnerships. Chairs of DTCs were
reminded to ensure that the new Terms of Reference were noted and that all formal DTC
business is minuted.
Matters for discussion
3.
TERMS OF REFERENCE AND MEMBERSHIP (JFTC 15/01/03 and JFTC 15/01/04)
Received: The terms of reference and membership for 2015/16.
Noted: That the terms of reference had been updated to include ASER and approval of new
academic partnerships.
Reported: That as a result of an agreement between the Faculty of Social and Historical
Sciences and the Vice-Provost (International) the Committee would take on a formal quality
assurance role in respect of UCL Qatar. The Committee would report to the Vice-Provost
(International) on matters relating to UCL Qatar.
4. EDUCATION STRATEGY (JFTC15/01/05)
Received: The draft UCL Education Strategy 2015-21.
Discussed: It was noted that as a result of the initial consultation it was no longer proposed that
every programme should have a mandatory online module and that the ‘core course’ was now
conceived as an online pre-enrolment activity. The notion of UCL graduate attributes had also
been dropped.
It was reported that the Vice-Provost (Education and Student Affairs) had indicated that there
would be an emphasis on assessment.
Feedback on the draft strategy can be sent to vpeducation@ucl.ac.uk or c.goudy@ucl.ac.uk.
A committee member commented on the need for a joined up policy on access for disabled
students and a document detailing teaching rooms which are accessible and fire safe.
ACTION: accessible teaching room document request to be directed to the SLASH Estates
Board.
5.
NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY AND TEACHING EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK
5A National Student Survey
Reported: The results of the survey were presented to the Committee. It was noted that the
Joint Faculties had five departments among the top ten overall satisfaction scores for UCL,
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JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
including both departments scoring 100% (Anthropology and the Slade). Overall satisfaction
scores had increased by 4% in SHS and decreased by 4% in Arts & Humanities. Overall
satisfaction for UCL as a whole had decreased by 3%, placing the institution 22nd in the
Russell Group and 112th in the sector as a whole. It was of particular concern that no progress
had been made with scores for assessment and feedback, whereas there had been steady
improvement in the sector as a whole. It was noted that the results would be particularly
important in the context of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
5B Teaching Excellence Framework
Reported: The TEF was expected to link the ability to raise tuition fees in in line with inflation
to the student experience, which would mean that the student experience was going to
increase in importance. Details would be provided in the forthcoming Green Paper.
6.
ANNUAL STUDENT EXPERIENCE REVIEW
Reported: that the new process combined NSS action plans, annual monitoring, responses to
external examiners and review of BME attainment. The QRSC had identified institutional
concerns, which departments would need to address (assessment and feedback in the case of
the undergraduate ASER), but departments would also have the opportunity to feed up their
own concerns. Departmental reports would now be considered at Faculty level and centrally.
Owing to the timing of meetings, it had not been feasible for departments to submit their
undergraduate ASER reports for discussion at this meeting and only the report from the Slade
had been received. Colleagues were asked to forward their undergraduate reports by
11 November, and these would then be circulated to the Committee.
Colleagues were encouraged to discuss the action plan in their SSCC and ask the StARs for their
feedback on what they thought was important. They were also required to use the NSS
benchmark exercise to review their assessment and feedback practice.
It was noted that there was an ‘ASER intensive’ process for departments whose NSS
performance raised particular concerns. The Vice-Provost (Education and Student Affairs) and
the Provost would meet the department and faculty to explore the reasons and discuss plans to
turn the situation around.
7.
ENGAGEMENT MONITORING, ABSENCE RECORDING, ATTENDANCE MONITORING
(JFTC 15/01/06)
Reported: that the UCL procedure for engagement monitoring had been revised in order to
comply with UKVI requirements and there were now more departmental monitoring points,
although the process would now only apply to students on Tier 4 visas.
In addition new UCL regulations concerning authorised absence had been introduced. All
absences would have to be approved (this includes study away and therefore dissertation
students during the summer vacation).
Discussed: The attendance and engagement monitoring was resource intensive. The
attendance monitoring project would have helped, however the project has been defunded.
Given the resources available, departments were advised to concentrate on capturing raw data
by ensuring that registers were up to date and on monitoring the worst cases and students on
Tier 4 visas.
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JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
It was noted that the Economics department was developing a Moodle form as a tick box
exercise to help cut down on the paper intensive requirement of the new process for authorised
absences. Some uncertainty was expressed about whether the new authorised absence and
study away authorisation applied to research students, and this would be checked.
Action: Departments were asked to ensure that all students were aware of the new requirements
for absence and study away authorisation as per Academic Manual, chapter 1, section 4.4 and
section 4.5.
8.
EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES POLICY AND DISABILITY SUPPORT
Reported: The new UCL Extenuating Circumstances Policy was briefly explained to the
Committee. It was noted that this was a very different approach, which distinguished between
short term problems with an impact on assessment and long–term chronic issues, integrated
previously separate mitigation tools, including extensions, and created a new system of panels. It
was noted that the UCL policy was based on Faculty panels, which could delegate
responsibilities to Departmental panels. The Joint Faculty would be delegating a significant part of
the decision-making to Departmental Panels and a delegation policy had therefore been put in
place. Due to the need to develop and implement a faculty delegation policy at short notice over
the summer, it had unfortunately not been possible to consult the Committee in advance.
However, the delegation policy would be reviewed after the first year.
Committee members expressed concern that the process had not undergone consultation at
departmental level. The Committee was informed that Academic Services had acknowledged that
the accelerated implementation of the new extenuating circumstances policies had come at the
price of some difficulties and had offered assurances that there would be more extensive
consultation on future regulatory changes. The EC policy would be reviewed in Summer 2016.
Concern was expressed about the emotional needs of long term disabled students and Student
Disability Services’ turn around times for dealing with applications under the new policy.
9.
FACULTY TUTOR’S REPORT
9A New Academic Manual
Noted: that the new Academic Manual includes an approval process for new academic
partnerships. [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-manual/c7/c7-intro]
9B ChangeMakers
Reported: that grants of £500 were available to support educational development projects in
departments through the UCL ChangeMakers scheme: www.ucl.ac.uk/changemakers.
9C E-Learning
Reported: that Ulrich Tiedau had been appointed as the new Chair of the Joint Faculty ELearning Forum and would be an ex-officio member of the Committee.
9D Moodle Assessment Feedback project
Reported: A new facility in Moodle called My Feedback was currently being piloted by
Engineering and the School of Management before rollout to faculties and departments UCL
wide. It enabled students to view all their grades and feedback for assessment activities such as
Moodle Assignments, Turnitin Assignments, Workshops, and Quizzes across modules (initially,
and years eventually) in a single-view report.
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JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
Any departments interested in being part of the initial rollout were advised to contact Christine
Darley (c.darley@ucl.ac.uk).
9E: New Programme Approval Process
Reported: A new programme approval process had been approved by Education Committee.
PMASG would be replaced by smaller panels and a new report template for external scrutineers
had been produced. It was noted that external scrutineers should not be current external
examiners, although there was flexibility on this for proposals which were in the system already.
9F English Language requirements
Reported: As a result of external examiners reports, the UCL Board of Examiners had
expressed concern about UCL’s English language requirements and asked Faculties to review
the English language requirements for their programmes, ensure the appropriateness of the
standards set, raise them where possible, and enforce existing standards consistently. It was
noted that CMII and SELCS had recently raised their English language requirements for various
programmes
ACTION: Colleagues were asked to contact Arne Hofmann if they wanted to raise their
English Language entry requirements.
10. FACULTY GRADUATE TUTORS’ REPORT
10A: PGTAs and the 180 hours rule
Reported: that the rule on the maximum hours to be worked by a PGTA was currently being
operated by Human Resources in line with the strict wording of the UCL PGTA scheme (i.e.
applying to fully-funded PGTAs only.)
10B Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)
Noted: PRES responses had indicated concerns about the lack of teaching opportunities.
ACTION: Survey report to be circulated with the minutes.
11. MATTERS RAISED BY STUDENT ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES
The Faculty StAR for Arts and Humanities, Juliet Devillard, had submitted agenda items, but was
not in attendance. Discussion was therefore deferred to the next meeting.
Other matters for approval or information
12. INTERNAL QUALITY REVIEW REPORTS (JFTC 15/01/07, JFTC 15/01/08, JFTC 15/01/09)
Received: IQR reports in respect of SELCS (undergraduate and postgraduate) and CMII.
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JOINT FACULTY TEACHING COMMITTEE IN
ARTS AND HUMANITIES & SOCIAL
AND HISTORICAL SCIENCES Minutes 27 October 2015
13. PROGRAMME AND MODULE APPROVALS
13A Action taken under delegated powers (JFTC 15/01/10)
Received: details of programme amendments and module proposals and amendments
approved under delegated powers since the last meeting.
13B Deadlines for 2015/16 (JFTC15/01/11)
Noted: that the deadlines for the annual academic review process would be enforced strictly in
future. Departments were requested to submit forms for module proposals and amendments
and programme amendments to the Faculty Office by 17 March 2016 to ensure that any
queries could be resolved in time for the registry deadlines to be met.
14. UPDATE OF PROGRAMME SPECIFICATIONS
Noted: that Programme Specifications must be reviewed annually.
Received: details of Programme Specifications approved since the last meeting.
15. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

23 February 2016 at 3.00pm

24 May 2016 at 3.00pm
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 7 December 2015
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