UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
BOARD OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Undergraduate Studies held on 4th June 2014 .
Present:
Professor R Leng (in the Chair), Mr P Brown, Professor T Bugg, Professor P Corvi, Ms
E Davies, Dr G Martin, Dr F McKay, Dr D Wood, Dr C Wright.
In Attendance: Mrs D Christie, Mr R. McIntyre (for item 40/13-14), Dr J Taylor.
Apologies:
Dr C Jenainati, Professor N Johnson, Ms K Moozova, Dr C Melville, Mr E Stewart, Dr J
Vickery.
_________________________________________________________________________
36/13-14
Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meetings held on 19th February 2014 and 21st May 2014 be
approved, subject to minute 9/13-14 being corrected to read “Accounting and
Finance” [correction in italic].
37/13-14
Matters Arising on the Minutes
(a) Postgraduates as Teachers (BUGS minute 4(c)/13-14 refers)
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Chair, noting that:
(i)
The report of the Board of Graduate Studies Working Group on
Postgraduates as Teachers had now been received. The Chair had met with
the Chair of the Board of Graduate Studies and with members of the BGS
Working Group. It was agreed at that meeting that the Chair would
undertake to draft an updated version of the Guidance on the Use of
Postgraduates as Teachers on the basis of the recommendations of the
BUGS and BGS Working Groups. It is intended that the draft will be
completed during the summer vacation and would then be circulated to
departments for consideration;
(ii)
The Joint Working Group would also recommend that the University
conduct a review of the pay and terms of employment of postgraduates
who teach as a matter of urgency.
1
(b) Pass Mark for 4th Year Modules on IUMDS (minute 4(e)/13-14 refers)
REPORTED:
(i) That the Quality Assurance Working Group, at its meeting on 2 May 2014, had
resolved that the recommendations of the Sub-Group established to consider
the implications of changing the pass mark on Level 7 modules taken by
students on integrated masters degrees to 50% be endorsed as set out in paper
QAWG 6/13-14, noting that the Sub-Group should be reconvened, by
correspondence if necessary, to consider the outstanding issue related to the
right of undergraduate students to remedy failure in a permitted number of
modules; and that the revised conventions would also need to be considered at
the Board of Undergraduate Studies and Board of Graduate Studies, prior to
recommendation to the Academic Quality and Standards Committee and the
Senate.
(QAWG minute 11/13-14)
(ii)
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of
Science, at its meeting on 14 May 2014, had recommended to the Academic
Quality and Standards Committee that the Committee should provide a
paper on the proposals [referred to under (i) above] to be circulated to
faculty committees for consideration.
(SUGS minute 33(3)/13-14)
(c) Intermediate-year Undergraduate Progression Conventions (minute 10/13-14 refers)
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Chair on the progress of the Working Group on
Intermediate-year Undergraduate Progression Conventions, noting that the
proposals of the Working Group will be circulated shortly to departments and
faculties for comment, and that the Chair will circulate them to members of the
Board at the same time.
(d) BA degree courses in Politics, International Studies and Quantitative Methods and in
Sociology and Quantitative Methods (BUGS minute 27(a)/13-14 refers)
RECEIVED:
A paper submitted by the Q-Step Centre providing more details of the Quantitative
Methods Camp offered on the above degree courses (paper BUGS 21/13-14).
2
(e) Intermediate-year Resits in the School of Engineering 2014/15 (BUGS minute 27
(f)/1314 refers)
REPORTED:
That Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, had approved the proposed resit
arrangement for 2013/14 only.
(f) The Board of Undergraduate Studies’ Terms of Reference (minute 29/1314 refers)
CONSIDERED:
Proposed revised Terms of Reference for the Board of Undergraduate Studies (BUGS
paper 22/13-14).
RECOMMENDED (to the Senate):
That the proposed revised Terms of Reference for the Board of Undergraduate
Studies as set out in paper BUGS paper 22/13-14, be approved.
g)
Undergraduate External Examiners’ Reports for 2012/13 (BUGS minutes 28/13-14
refers)
REPORTED:
(i)
That the Chair had contacted departments where responses to External
Examiner’s Reports were outstanding.
(ii)
That the External Examiners’ Reports and the responses from Departments
were available at:
https://files.warwick.ac.uk/bugs/browse#External+Examiners+Reports .
CONSIDERED:
A report from the Chair on the Undergraduate External Examiners’ reports for
2012/13 identifying recurrent themes (paper BUGS 23/13-14).
RESOLVED:
(i)
That in future the Board should receive the relatively brief thematic report
exemplified by paper BUGS 23/13-14 in place of the detailed summary of the
work of the Board’s External Examiner Report Sub-groups prepared in the
Autumn Term;
(ii)
That the Secretariat be asked to maintain files of the further consideration
and correspondence conducted by the Sub-groups following their Autumn
Term meetings;
3
(iii)
h)
That paper BUGS 23/13-14 be forwarded to the Academic Quality and
Standards Committee for its information, it being noted that since the
Board’s consideration of the External Examiners’ reports, the Teaching
Quality Office had circulated further advice and minute templates to
departments relating to the consideration of students’ mitigating
circumstances.
Interdisciplinary teaching (BUGS minutes 33/13-14 refers)
REPORTED:
That the Academic Quality and Standards Committee, at its meeting on 27 February
2014, had endorsed the proposal from the Board of Undergraduate Studies that
departments be encouraged to support their staff who wished to be involved in
interdisciplinary modules through the award of appropriate departmental teaching
credit (AQSC minute 73/13-14).
i)
First-year Board of Examiners (FYBOE) Conventions (BUGS minute 10/1314 refers)
REPORTED:
(A) That, at its meeting on 2 May 2014, the Quality Assurance Working Group
had considered proposed amendments to the First-Year Board of Examiners
(FYBOE) conventions to provide further clarification on the requirement for
resits in certain circumstances (paper QAWG 11/13-14) and had ecommended
(to Academic Quality and Standards Committee) that the proposed amendments
to the First-Year Board of Examiners (FYBOE) conventions be approved as set
out in paper QAWG 11/1314.
(B) That, at its meeting on 15 May 2014, the Academic Quality and Standards
Committee had recommended to the Senate that the proposed amendments to
the First-Year Board of Examiners (FYBOE) conventions be approved as set out in
paper QAWG 11/1314.
j)
Disruption by Students in Examination Sessions (minute 50/12-13 refers)
REPORTED (by Dr Wright):
That the enforcement of the regulation regarding mobile phones in examinations
had been very beneficial from the point of view of invigilators and the smooth
conduct of examination sessions.
38/13-14
Chair’s Action
4
(a) “Seen” examination status for EN 3480
REPORTED:
That the Chair had taken action on behalf of the Board to permit "seen" examination
status for EN 3480 for this year only, noting that if the Department wishes to set a
seen exam in future years a further request should be made, setting out the
rationale.
(b) Accreditation of Prior Learning request from the Centre of Lifelong Leaning
REPORTED:
That the Chair had taken action on behalf of the Board to reject an APL request for a
named student submitted by the Centre of Lifelong Learning on a basis of lack of
congruence with the Warwick modules for which exemption was requested.
39/13-14
Chair’s Business
Directors of Undergraduate Studies Lunch Scheduled for 24th June 2014
RESOLVED:
(a) That, in the light of the involvement of Directors of Undergraduate Studies in
examining, the Board proposed that the Directors of Undergraduate Studies
Lunch Scheduled for 24th June 2014 be cancelled;
(b) That in future it would be preferable to replace the Summer Term Lunch with
one held in the earlier Autumn Term, which might also be of greater benefit to
newly-appointed Directors of Undergraduate Studies.
40/13-14
New Courses of Study
(a) Proposed BSc (with Foundation Year) in Accounting and Finance and BSc (with
Foundation year) in Management
REPORTED:
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Social
Sciences, at its meeting on 14th May 2014, considered a proposal from the Warwick
Business School for a new BSc degree course (with Foundation Year) in Accounting
and Finance, and a new BSc degree course (with Foundation Year) in Management,
as set out in papers UFSS.45-49/13-14, and recommended to the Board of
Undergraduate Studies:
5
“ That the introduction of the two new degrees proposed by Warwick Business
School, namely the BSc (with Foundation Year) in Accounting and Finance and the
BSc (with Foundation Year) in Management, as set out in papers UFSS.45-49/13-14,
be approved”
(UFSS minute 43(a)/13-14)
CONSIDERED:
The recommendation of the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the
Faculty of Social Sciences that the new degree courses (with Foundation Year) in
Accounting and Finance and in Management , as set out in papers UFSS.45-49/1314, be approved.
RESOLVED:
That the the new degree courses of BSc (with Foundation Year) in Accounting and
Finance and the BSc (with Foundation Year) in Management, as set out in papers
UFSS.45-49/13-14, be approved.
(b) BA (Hons) Education Studies
REPORTED:
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Social
Sciences, at its meeting on 14th May 2014, had considered a proposal from the
Centre for Education Studies for a new degree course of BA (Hons) in Education
Studies as set out in papers UFSS.50-55a/13-14, and had recommended that the
proposal be approved.
(UFSS minute 43(b)/13-14)
CONSIDERED:
The recommendation of the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of
the Faculty of Social Sciences that the new degree course BA (Hons) in Education
Studies, proposed by the Centre for Education Studies, as set out in papers
UFSS.50-55a/13-14, be approved.
RESOLVED:
That the new degree course of BA (Hons) in Education Studies, proposed by the
Centre for Education Studies, as set out in papers UFSS.50-55a/13-14, be
approved, subject to the satisfactory development and approval of the proposed
specialisms to be offered in conjunction with other departments.
(c) Proposed Integrated Masters Degree (MLang) in German Cultural Studies
6
REPORTED:
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Arts,
at its meeting on 14th May 2014, considered a proposal from the Department of
German Studies for a new Integrated Masters degree (MLang) in German
Cultural Studies, to commence in October 2015 (paper AUSC.25/13-14), and
recommended that the proposal be approved.
CONSIDERED:
The recommendation of the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of
the Faculty of Arts that the proposed Integrated Masters degree (MLang) in
German Cultural Studies , as set out in paper AUSC.25/13-14, be approved.
RESOLVED:
That the new degree course of Integrated Masters (MLang) in German Cultural
Studies , as set out in paper AUSC.25/13-14, be approved, subject to the Chair
obtaining satisfactory clarification from the Department of German Studies
about the accumulation of degree credit over the four years of the programme.
Note: subsequent to the meeting of the Board, Dr. Sean Allen of the Department
of German has confirmed to the Chair that the final year of the degree will be
notionally weighted at 150 CATS, but that students will be expected to conduct
research for the Dissertation module (GE436, weighted at 30 CATS) during the
summer vacation following the third year, and that accordingly the final year of
study will not be over-weighted in reality.
41/13-14
Discontinuation of Courses
REPORTED:
(a) That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of
Science, at its meeting on 14th May 2014, had resolved that the discontinuation
of F102 BSc Chemistry (SUGS paper24/13-14 refers) and the discontinuation of
Computer Science G400 BSc and G402 MEng degree courses in Computing
Systems from September 2015 (SUGS paper 25/13-14 refers) be approved.
(SUGS minute 36/13-14)
(b) That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the Faculty of Social
Sciences, at its meeting on 14th May 2014, had resolved that the proposal from
the Centre for Education Studies to discontinue the courses as followed be
approved:
(i) UIEV-X3ZX Certificate for Children’s Workforce Practitioners;
(ii) UIEV-X3XE Counselling Studies (North Warwickshire College);
(iii) UIEV-X3XH Humanistic Counselling (Tile Hill College);
7
(iv) UIEV-X3XI Humanistic Counselling (North Warwickshire College);
(v) UIEV-X3XS Integrative Counselling (Solihull).
(UFSS minute 43(b)/13-14)
42/13-14
Higher Education Achievement Report
CONSIDERED:
(a)
A paper from the Assistant Registrar (Teaching Quality) setting out proposed
governance arrangements for the Higher Education Achievement Report
(HEAR) (paper BUGS 24/13-14);
(b)
A proposal to recognise three new extra-curricular achievements as part of
the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) (paper BUGS 25/13-14).
RESOLVED:
(c) That the proposed governance arrangements for the Higher Education
Achievement Report (HEAR), as set out in paper BUGS 24/13-14, be approved;
(d) That a sub-group of the Board should review the content of section 6.1 of the
HEAR during the forthcoming academic year;
(e) That the proposals for the recognition of three new extra-curricular
achievements as part of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) as set
out in paper BUGS 25/13-14, be approved, subject to the Chair resolving the
appropriate number of hours’ work that should be committed by Students’
Union Advice Centre Volunteers.
jat 05.06.14
8