UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
BOARD OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
AGENDA
There will be a meeting of the Board of Undergraduate Studies at 2.00pm on Wednesday 4th
June 2008 in the Council Chamber, University House.
J F Baldwin
Registrar
Note: Questions on agendum items or apologies for this meeting should be directed to the
Secretary to the Board, Dr J A Taylor, email J.A.Taylor@warwick.ac.uk or telephone
extension 22633.
1.
Minutes
TO CONSIDER:
The minutes of the meeting held on 20h February 2008 (copy attached).
2.
Matters Arising on the Minutes
TO REPORT:
(a) New Courses of Study (minute 20/06-07, resolutions (e), (f), (g) and (h) refers)
(i)That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved the proposal from
the Department of French for a new course entitled ‘French with Theatre
Studies’ as set out in papers AUSC20/07-08 (revised), AUSC28-30/07-08.
(ii)That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved the proposal from
Warwick HRI for a new course BSc in Environmental Biology as set out in
paper SFS 21/07-08 (revised).
(iii) That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved the proposal from
the Department of Computer Science for a new course BSc in Discrete
Mathematics as set out in papers SFS 28/07-08, SFS 29(a)-(b)/07-08 and
SFS 30/07-08.
(iv)That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved the proposal from
the WBS for a new course entitled BSc International Management as set out
in papers UFSS 40/07-08, UFSS 41/07-08 and UFSS 42/07-08.
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(b) Progress of Board Recommendations
(i)
Proposal for the Department of French Studies to Move to an 8-unit
Classification of Degree (minute 23/07-08 refer)
TO REPORT:
That the Academic Quality and Standards Committee, at its meeting on 27
February 2008, considered the proposal and resolved that the proposals from
the Department of French Studies to restructure the final year of the BA
French Studies course, with consequential effects on the degree classification
convention be approved, it being noted that the change would not affect
students already enrolled on the Honours portion of the course.
(ii) Protocol for Assessing Student Participation in Seminars (minutes 12/07-08
and 14/07-08 refers)
TO REPORT:
(i)
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the
Faculty of Arts, at its meeting on 30th January 2008, considered the
‘Protocol for assessing student participation in seminars’ (paper BUGS
10/07-08) and resolved that the Committee welcomed the proposal.
(ii)
That the Undergraduate Studies Committee of the Board of the
Faculty of Social Studies, at its meeting on 30th January 2008
considered the ‘Protocol for assessing student participation in
seminars’ (paper BUGS 10/07-08) and resolved that the Committee
was broadly supportive of the paper, but thought that it would be
important for departments to receive the right level of guidance, as the
Committee had concerns about:
(A) Ensuring that student participation was defined in a meaningful
sense (for example, attendance, oral contribution);
(B) Ensuring that changes to modules, so that they follow the
guidance, does not create a significant administrative burden on
seminar tutors, departments or Faculty sub-committees, noting
that the proposal is concerned with only 10% of a module.
(iii)
That the Sub-Faculty of Science, at its meeting on 14th May 2008,
considered the ‘Protocol for assessing student participation in
seminars’ (paper BUGS 10/07-08) and resolved not to approve the
aforementioned paper, noting that:
(A) Several Science Departments already undertook assessment
based on performance in seminars or similar forums;
(B) Clarification was needed on the definition of a “seminar”, as
assessment based on performance in what could be defined as
a seminar currently exceeded 10% in many cases in the Science
Faculty; and many Departments objected to the specification of
10% in this protocol;
(C) Clarification was needed on what constituted a “record” of
seminar performance, to ensure that current Science Faculty
practice was not precluded by these proposals;
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(D) There was broad concern that whereas these proposals were
clearly aimed at trying to encourage the possibility of
assessment based on seminar performance they may have the
contrary effect in the Science Faculty by putting restrictions on
practices that were already widespread, and had always had
University support.
3.
Chair’s Action
TO REPORT:
(a) That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved a request from
the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies to change the
exam paper for EN259 ‘Native American and Mixed-Blood Narratives’ to a
seen paper.
(b) That the Chair, acting on behalf of the Board, has approved a request from
the WBS to change the exam paper for IB2190 ‘Quantitative Methods for
Multivariate Analysis’ to “open book” status.
4.
Chair’s Business
5.
Guidelines for Consideration of Examination Candidates Notifying Mitigating
Circumstances
TO CONSIDER:
A composite report of the responses from departments and faculties to the draft
Guidelines for Consideration of Examination Candidates Notifying Mitigating
Circumstances (paper BUGS 14/07-08, attached).
6.
Guidelines for Joint Degrees
TO REPORT:
That the Quality Enhancement Working Group, at its meeting of 1st May 2008,
discussed the paper ‘Organisation of Joint Degrees’ BUGS 15 /07-08 (attached).
TO CONSIDER:
The abovementioned paper, provided by the Assistant Registrar (Teaching Quality),
‘Organisation of Joint Degrees’ BUGS 15 /07-08.
7.
Oral Report from the Senior Tutor
8.
New, Restructured and Discontinued Courses of Study
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TO REPORT:
That the Board of the Faculty of Arts, at its meeting on the 7th May 2008,
approved the request from the Department of English and Comparative
Literature to discontinue the BA in English and American Literature course
from October 2009 (paper AUSC 43/07-08, BFA minute 40/07-08, resolution
(a) (iv) refers).
TO CONSIDER:
(a) A proposal from the Departments of History of Art and Italian for a new course
‘BA in Italian and History of Art’ for introduction in October 2009 (papers
AUSC.85-88/07-08 (attached)).
(b) A proposal from the Departments of History of Art and Italian for a new course
new course ‘BA in History of Art with Italian’ for introduction in October 2009
(papers AUSC.89-91/07-08 (attached)).
(c) A proposal from the Department of History to make changes to the BA in
History (papers AUSC 95-97/07-08 (attached)).
(d) A proposal from the Department of Comparative American Studies to make a
change to the structure of BA in History, Literature and Cultures of the
Americas (papers AUSC 98-101/07-08 (attached)).
(e) A proposal from the Centre for Lifelong Learning for a revised part-time
course ‘BA in European Studies’ for introduction in October 2008 (papers
AUSC.92-94/07-08 revised (attached).
9.
Availability of Lecture Rooms in the Faculty of Science
TO REPORT:
That the Board of the Faculty of Science, at its meeting on the 13th May 2008,
resolved that the concerns of the Sub-Faculty over the pressure on timetabling raised
following the proposal of new degree course Discrete Mathematics be endorsed and
recommended to the Board of Undergraduate Studies and the Academic Quality and
Standards Committee:
(a)
(b)
That the major obstacle to creating a workable timetable was the availability
of lecture rooms, and the University should ensure that the recent award of
funds for teaching infrastructure be used towards developing an appropriate
lecture room stock;
That the University should work towards a solution to the timetable for 200910 and, in doing this, should consider what is the maximum, appropriate
lecture size for a given subject.
(BFS minute 26(b)/07-08 refers)
10.
Regulation 11: Cheating in University Tests
TO CONSIDER:
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Summary data from departments regarding any cases of cheating in University tests
dealt with by Heads of Departments under Regulation 11 (B) (2) (b) in the academic
year 2006/07 (paper BUGS 16 /07-08, TO FOLLOW).
11.
Regulation 10.2
TO REPORT:
That the Students’ Union has commented on the enforcement of Regulation 10.2 and
that the Chair of the Board has provided a response (paper BUGS 17/07-08
attached).
12.
Undergraduate External Examiners’ Reports for 2006/07
TO RECEIVE:
The procedure for the consideration of External Examiners’ reports by the Boards of
Undergraduate and Graduate Studies (paper BUGS2/07-08, attached).
TO CONSIDER:
(a) The reports of External Examiners for Undergraduate courses for 2006/07
received since the last meeting of the Board (paper BUGS 18/07-08, attached);
(b) Pro-forma responses to the External Examiners’ reports received from
departments since the last meeting of the Board (paper BUGS 19/07-08,
attached);
(c) Responses from departments on specific issues raised by the Board
following its consideration of reports at its last meeting (paper BUGS 20/07-08,
attached);
13.
Any Other Business
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