UCL LANGUAGE CENTRE
Course Units 2007‐2008 Teaching Committee Meeting - Minutes
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2. Tuesday 06 November 2007 11:00‐12:45 Bentham House Seminar Room 1 Staff present: Petra Garcia‐Rodriguez Yoko Aldous Cathy Morand Claudia Geithner Sylvie Batlle Marc‐Georges Nowicki Fernando Gracia‐Garcia Anja Boeing Catherine Plant Dr. So Hiranuma Roberto D’Onofrio Carmen Requena Madeleine du Vivier Jenny Rodgers Dr. Christine Hoffmann Juan Fernandez Adam Salisbury Fabrice Lamotte Diego Flores‐Jaime Chizuko Seki‐Zdrzalka Li‐yun Liao Maria‐Teresa Forteza‐Rey Cristina Testi Mireille Michel Apologies: Marie‐Laure Aris, Karine Roumetz, Antonella Veccia and Selina Zheng. Welcome and Introduction 1.1 CH welcomed all and went through new Language Centre Staff Guidelines – these were distributed to all; 1.2 All tutors must attend a Fire Safety training session and must watch the Fire Safety video; all present told to check fire procedures for the each building that they teach in. Course Units Registration 2.1 All agreed that the Registration process went well, as a result we have over 195 classes running at all levels; it was useful that tutors kept track of student numbers during assessment – this helped in preparing timetables and we should all try and do this next year; 2.2 We are still negotiating with the Medical School about arrangements (assessments, dates, fees) for Year 3 Medical students to take an SSC at the Language Centre this year, this will be confirmed shortly; 2.3 We cannot allow anymore students to register at this stage – unless there are exceptional circumstances for them doing so and their level of the language is at least a Level C, absolutely no beginner’s. 2.4 There appear to have been a number of students changing course and in particular, changing level within French – more than with any other language; this is to be discussed between the French team; 2.5 Intercollegiate students taking courses with us will now receive UCL status (I.D card, email account); we will inform them once we have been told that their I.D cards are ready for collection from Access Systems; Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2007‐11‐06 – Minutes 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. MEETING SCHEDULE 3.1 The meeting schedule for the coming week was explained, which includes a Staff Development session and preparation of Reading and Writing examinations. READING AND WRITING EXAMINATIONS 4.1 The deadlines for writing the first drafts of the Reading and Writing examination papers were confirmed:  Syllabi A, B, C, D and Business & Current Affairs – 10:00 on 26 November 2007;  Current Affairs & Culture, Professional and Academic Purposes – 10:00 on 03 December 2007 LANGUAGE CENTRE / COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTS 5.1 Internal Quality Review: we have still not received the final report following the Language Centre Audit in March, only a draft copy, which we have commented on and returned; we need more feedback on this ‐ we have the support of, and this has been followed up by the Vice‐Provost; 5.2 UCL will go ahead with plans for a “Common Timetable”, which as a result means that 0.5 course units would have to be taught over one term, with a final examination in December or in May (with a 6 month gap of non‐teaching in between); we feel this does not support UCL’s Internationalisation Strategy, as one cannot pedagogically teach/learn a language sufficiently over 10 weeks or then be expected to remember anything they have learnt 6 months earlier when faced with an examination; the Faculty of Arts and Humanities are also in agreement with us; 5.3 GCSE in a foreign language; by 2012 all students admitted to UCL will be required to have a GCSE in languages – we will have a large part to play in this. Students will be encouraged to continue with language learning while at UCL. We may notice a shift in numbers, from beginner’s to higher levels. Those with no GCSE would be required to take a language unit to begin with ‐ or we would run a separate, non‐credited course then provide certificates to confirm the students have reached a suitable level. We should also think about offering a Translation 0.5 course unit; 5.4 New premises: new signage will be put up on the outside of Bedford Way next month, listing all Departments, including the Language Centre; we will contribute to the cost of plants for the area outside the main doors; there are also plans to display a short directory on the column in the reception listing Departments locations on each floor; COURSE UNITS WEBSITE / CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.1 Please contact Adam if you need to meet regarding updating Course Units web pages. OBSERVATIONS 7.1 Course Units Peer Observations have been scheduled to take place in week beginning 14 January; Mini Observations have been scheduled for week beginning 28 January. Jane Skirving will circulate exact details of these immediately after the Christmas break. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 8.1 The Student Union held a Language Exchange as part of the “Give it a go” initiative, there were lots of Japanese students but a lack of English students. As part of this initiative they will also be holding some “Language Taster” sessions offering students the chance to see what it would be like to learn a particular language; the next session will include Spanish (14 November, 5‐6pm) and Mandarin 30 November, 4‐5pm) – we will need to be there as representatives of these languages, ideally one or two tutors for each – please let Jane Skirving know as soon as possible who will be available for this; Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2007‐11‐06 – Minutes 8.2 Student Attendance: any students who have so far missed 2 weeks (4 or 8 hours) or more of classes will be emailed immediately after reading week about their attendance; students should tell tutors if they have a reason for being absent and will be marked as excused; 8.3 New classrooms: Ayanna Prevatt‐Goldstein (room bookings) has asked for feedback on the 6 new classrooms that we now have in Bedford Way, e.g. which rooms are preferable, what do tutors feel is the capacity in each; all agreed on the following: G06a – capacity x16 G06b – capacity x14 G06c – capacity x14 B07 – capacity x14 B08 – capacity x14 B09 – capacity x16 (if tables arranged in zig‐zag) Ground floor rooms are preferred, although often not enough chairs in each; B07 and B08 generally preferred to B09 because of A/C problems and because they have windows, although very cold; more chairs have been ordered; radiators in basement have now been turned on; we have also ordered some smaller tables for the basement which will be more suited to these rooms; 8.4 Assessment coversheets for coursework will be available for tutors to download on the Intranet. Meeting closed at 12.45. Course Units Administrative Assistant +44 (0) 20 7679 5481 14 November 2007 Course Units Teaching Committee Meeting 2007‐11‐06 – Minutes