UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2009‐2010 Course Unit Teaching Committee Minutes Wednesday 16 September 2009 11.15‐13.00 Bedford Way G03 Staff present: Yoko Aldous Marie‐Laure Aris Sara Bragadina Anja Boeing Roberto D’Onofrio Madeleine du Vivier Juan Fernandez Diego Flores‐Jaime Maria‐Teresa Forteza‐Rey Philippe Galinier Petra Garcia‐Rodriguez Apologies: Claudia Geithner Luay Hasan Dr. Christine Hoffmann Fabrice Lamotte Li‐Yun Liao Mireille Michel Cathy Morand Marc‐Georges Nowicki Catherine Plant Carmen Requena Jenny Rodgers Karine Roumetz Adam Salisbury Fabio Sastre‐Alonso Dr Julia Schoeke Pierre Scordia Chizuko Seki‐Zdralka James Sinclair‐Knopp Cristina Testi Anne‐Sophie Vandamme Antonella Veccia Selina Zheng. Siqin Brown, Fernando Gracia‐Garcia and Dr So Hiranuma 1.
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 1.1 Dr Christine Hoffmann welcomed all back to the Language Centre after the summer break; welcome to our new German tutor Dr Julia Schoeke and to our new TEFL and Delta tutors, Rachel Clark and David Albury who will be able offer some potential Staff Development sessions in the future. 2. LANGUAGE CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS 2.1 Summer Intensive Modern Foreign Language courses: the Summer Intensive courses which took place in July and some of which were taught by course units tutors were a huge success for which we received very positive feedback. Any students with queries about course certificates must contact UCL Advances who issued these. 2.2 Kazakhstan: there will be a presentation in October after which we will have confirmation of whether the project will go ahead; we have requested a Board of Directors. Nothing will begin at the new University until September 2010. Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐09‐16 – Minutes 1 2.3 There have been high numbers on our EAP courses and also on the UPSCE and UPCH courses despite changes to visa restrictions. 2.4 Workload assessment: no drastic action is required following the assessment. It was felt that Course units and EAP are very similar with the same demands. A report will be posted on the intranet. We will meet with HR and the Union to discuss matters. 2.5 There will be new members of staff on the Language Centre reception (Maxwell and Pauline have left): Lone Carstensen and Lola. 3. COURSE UNITS 2009‐2010 3.1 Reports received from all Visiting Examiners, except for Mandarin, these will be posted on the staff intranet by the end of the week; 3.2 Action regarding student feedback 2008‐2009: For Japanese 2 hours is not enough so we will continue to offer additional 1 hour workshops, also for Mandarin and ideally Arabic (all languages with different scripts); After much criticism of the last book we have introduced a new course book for all Mandarin courses; 3.3 The Student Handbook has been updated and is ready to distribute; as before details of the TEFL course have been included. The Course Units website is also updated for 2009‐2010; please inform the office if syllabi or anything else changes. 3.4 We are introducing two new courses this year: LCIA6801 Italian for Art Historians and LCIT6907 Italian Translation Skills. 3.5 UCL Online Timetable: students will now be able to view their entire module timetables online. They can only see their own class details. Tutors can also view their own timetables online. 3.6 Registration: The Common Timetable pattern will be in place at UCL this year – we will follow our usual teaching pattern of teaching 09:00‐11:00, 13:00‐15:00 (Evening courses 17:00‐19:00) etc. however from 13:00‐14:00 is now an official UCL lunch break. We could offer 14:00‐16:00 and 16:00‐18:00 but this would implicate on Evening Courses. We might need to use Birkbeck rooms instead of cancelling classes. Due to the online timetable all our class details must be entered onto the online system earlier than usual i.e. BEFORE classes begin on the Monday after registration takes place; this information can only be entered once all classes have been roomed. Therefore official Course Units registration will take place from Wednesday 23 September to Wednesday 07 October. We will still use classlists but students will be able to view details of their class without coming to the Language Centre. 3.7 Timetabling: as a result of needing class information earlier and therefore less slots available, this year timetabling for higher levels where there are fewer students will take place synonymously e.g. LCGE6007 and LCGE6807 at the same time. 3.8 Reading and Writing examinations: the template for R&W exams will be ready by 18 September; This year students will be permitted to take the exam question paper away so all answers will be in separate answer books. We can modify the answer books to include columns etc. During revision workshops we can prepare students for using answer books, one answer per page etc. however this is the norm throughout UCL so most will be used to this. 3.9 Marks for Referred Assessments: marks must be given to the office by Thursday 17 September – the College deadline is Friday 18 September. Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐09‐16 – Minutes 2 4. 5. SSCs 2009‐2010 4.1 Year 3 medic students will be register at the same time as Course Units; years 1 and 2 students at various set times throughout the CU registration period, as well as some limited times after CU registration has officially ended. Tutors should check that they have the correct registration forms. We will ask all Medics to state a 1st and 2nd choice to avoid them joining a CU class. Year 3 classes will match the term dates of Course Units; Year 2 classes begin at the end of October; Year 1 classes at the start of November. The Medical School have queried the possibility of having more medical related syllabi and especially for Project topics – we are happy to implement this and the Medic tutors should spend some time looking at the SSC our syllabi. This may now take place from 2010‐2011. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 5.1 Michael Worton will be making a presentation to UCL Council regarding the Language Centre; there has been so much development in recent years; 5.2 Course Unit Coordinators have now been trained to carry out appraisals, which should take place for all members of staff annually. Staff should focus on their work over the previous year – no further back than this – so that is still has an impact and can be actioned if necessary now. 5.3 Old newspapers have been cleared out from the SAC – please go through to check if any should be kept; 5.4 Fire Training: tutors must sign up for a session if not already done so; 5.5 Photocopiers: we are replacing the worst of the photocopiers with a brand new machine, however please try to reduce the amount of copying; 5.6 Recycling: please use clear bags for recycling; black sacks for food waste etc. Meeting closed at 13:00.
Course Unit Administrator +44 (0)20 7679 5481 22 September 2009 Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2009‐09‐16 – Minutes 3