UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Course Units 2012‐2013 Senior Coordinators Meeting ‐ Minutes Thursday 01 November 2012 17:15‐19:00 26 Bedford Way room 101 Staff present:
Dr Christine Hoffmann Anja Boeing Liyun Liao Carmen Cabrera‐Balaguer Mireille Michel Roberto D’Onofrio Jenny Rodgers Luay Hasan Dr So Hiranuma 1.a Matters arising from Course Units Coordinators meeting (17 October 2012) – action points regarding timetables, which classes need to be split and who will teach classes for medics students have been addressed. RECEIVED 1.b All present received agenda. 2. READING WEEK SCHEDULE 2.1 Noted that all should have seen the Staff Development schedule for Reading week, circulated by Jane Skirving on 29 October; 2.2 Jane Skirving has requested that any ideas from language teams for CPD (Continuing Professional Development) sessions should be raised with Coordinators and passed onto her; 2.3 Some coordinators still need to confirm a date for their appraisals with Director, which must take place this term; 2.4 Coordinators were requested to meet with Director for exam paper preparation meetings next week, preferably twice, as it is reading week: confirmed to meet on Monday 05 November at 16:00 and either Wednesday 07 or Thursday 08 November, to be confirmed; 2.5 All teams are requested to meet next week to discuss and confirm the new In‐class course assessment taking place in January 2013. Liyun Liao requested that the Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin teams also meet together to discuss the assessment. 3. SIMFL 2013 3.1 UCL Outreach, the organisers of the Summer Intensive language courses for school children, would like to run the 2013 course at a later date than normal, from 29 July to 09 August, as they cannot source accommodation in London for the pupils in July. Coordinators are requested to ask their teams to confirm who would definitely be available to teach these. Courses would only be offered at beginners level so there would be 7 classes, one tutor required per language; 3.2 The SIMFL (Summer Intensive Modern Foreign Language) courses aimed at graduating UCL students will run as normal in early July, from 08 to 19 July 2013. 1. Course Units Senior Coordinator Meeting 2012‐11‐01 ‐ Minutes 4. 4.1 TEACHING HOURS/CONTRACTS The numbers of hours taught by each Course Unit tutor was looked at by all, language by language, to ensure all contracted hours are fulfilled this year:  As some tutors for Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish are required to teach more hours, they should teach on the Summer Intensive language courses to make up for this;  We could also check registration for Evening Courses in term two – if there is an increase in numbers, teaching on these courses could be used to make up some hours. 5. 5.1 SSCs 2012‐2013 The SSCs (Student Selective Components for medical students) for year 1 students are scheduled differently this year as they will only be taught in term one, allowing them to take another medical SSC in term two. However, as they will still submit coursework towards the end of term two, we need to make arrangements for them to have contact time in term two. Language teams were asked (12 September: Course Units Away Day Teaching Committee) to think about ideas for this. The following as noted:  Tutors must be available to see students in term two, each week at the usual SSC class time, ideally in the usual classroom (Thursday afternoons);  Tutors should offer revision workshops and guidance on the Project coursework;  Students must be told to come and to keep in touch with their tutor regularly;  This must be consistent across all languages. The Course Units office will circulate clear guidelines on this for tutors by next Wednesday 07 November at the latest. 5.2 There is one Year 1 SSC student who is attending a (non‐medical) Course Unit class for his SSC as he wanted to take Mandarin, but was the only student who registered for this language/level. He will attend the Course Unit class in term one and can either attend the same class in term two, or see Liyun Liao separately for guidance on his Project coursework. 6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 6.1 Visiting Examiners Confirmation given of languages for which a Visiting Examiner still needs to be arranged: German is now agreed; however we still need to arrange Examiners for Arabic and Mandarin; 6.2 Arabic workshop It was confirmed that an Arabic workshop will be offered for Level A students. Workshops are already offered for Japanese and Mandarin as extra practise and should be offered for all the languages with second scripts that we offer; Luay Hasan to confirm the day and time for this; 6.3 One term Course Units The possibility of offering 0.5 course units in term two only was raised by Dr So Hiranuma, whereby students register for a 0.5 unit, but attend classes for a 1.0 unit starting in term two, as this may increase interest and numbers. This is essentially what is currently offered at the CLIE, only to affiliate students who come to UCL in term two only, subject to certain criteria. We need to check whether this would be possible, logistically and pedagogically. 6.4 UCL Student Survey 2012 Statistics and feedback from the UCL Student Survey, which were circulated at the UCL Academic Committee (18 October 2012) were given to all. Meeting closed at 19:00. Course Units Administrator +44 (0)207 679 5481 07 November 2012 Course Units Senior Coordinator Meeting 2012‐11‐01 ‐ Minutes