Course Units 2005-2006
Minutes
Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting
Wednesday 09 November 2005
11:15 – 13:30
Foster Court, Room 101
Chaired by Dr Christine Hoffmann
Present:
Anja Boeing, Sara Bragadina, Roberto D’Onofrio, Madeleine Du Vivier, Diego Flores-Jaime, Maria-Teresa
Forteza-Rey, Petra Garcia Rodriguez, Claudia Geithner, Fernando Gracia Garcia, Dr. So Hiranuma, Dr.
Christine Hoffman, Mireille Michel, Marc-Georges Nowicki, Catherine Plant, Carmen Requena, Jenny
Rodgers, Chizuko Seki-Zdralka, Adam Salisbury, Ariane Smart and Cristina Testi.
Apologies:
Marie-Laure Aris, Sylvie Batlle, Juan Fernandez and Marion Sadoux.
1. Feedback on Student numbers and from Executive Meeting
Christine Hoffmann gave out the following information to the team:
Students registered this year:
• The number of students registered has increased from last year;
• More students have chosen 1.0 units;
• There are also more students from the Medical Faculty registered on Student Selective
Modules – 130;
• There are 166 classes, so huge thanks to Ayanna for finding rooms for all of them.
Executive Meeting:
• The Director of the Faculty gave positive feedback regarding our Course Units;
• He also commented on our English for Academic Purposes courses, in particular the InSessional course, which has good numbers (which runs to the same dates as our
courses) also on our Academic Writing in English for Non-Native Speaker’s course unit,
which has over 50 students in 5 classes and on our Evening Courses which have good
numbers;
• The Finance Committee also complemented us for having made a surplus.
• There will be a Board of Management meeting on Monday 14 November.
2. Meeting Schedule
•
•
•
An updated meeting schedule will be put in all pigeonholes tomorrow.
Marco Federighi from the Centre of Management Studies would like to offer us some
more Staff Development Sessions focusing on 3 case studies, e.g. the Automobile
Industry; the next one will be at the end of November;
There will be a Staff / Student Consultative meeting on 01 December – student
representative forms for this will be distributed next week.
Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting
09 November 2005
3. Feedback on new courses (Professional Purposes I and II)
•
•
All tutors for Professional Purposes would like to meet to discuss the courses;
Feedback from these tutors regarding the course so far:
- German: the students are of a variety of nationalities; so far topics covered are
university systems, the job market – popular jobs;
- Japanese: there are 3 students who have Japanese parents and have studied at
a Japanese university; this term we have summarised their knowledge of the
language – there seems to be a lack of formal Japanese;
- Spanish: there are 3 students taking Professional Purposes as a 1.0 unit and 7
as a 0.5 unit; many have returned after taking the Business level last year;
topics covered so far include the Education system, changes in Spanish law, new
government and laws for universities.
4. Language Exchange (some ideas for level C students)
•
We would like to offer a Language Exchange as a one-off event to see if it is popular
amongst students:
- it would be aimed at students of an intermediate level, e.g. level C;
- we will suggest an evening and provide a large room where students can meet;
- students from UPSCE and EAP courses will also be invited, as well as Mandarin
students off the Evening Courses as there are some Mandarin nationality students
taking EAP courses;
- we will also invite SOCRATES students so that there is more chance of finding a
language match amongst students;
- Teams should discuss ideas for the Exchange, e.g. what format it should take, what to
provide on the evening.
5. Mini Observations
•
•
Madeleine Du Vivier and Christine Hoffmann will carry out mini observations on all
Course Units tutors’ classes – this will take place in the week of 28 November;
There will be a general feedback session the following week and individual feedback will
also be offered.
6. Reading and Writing exams (where we are, deadlines etc.)
•
•
Adam will send an examination template to all tutors – drafts should be sent back using
this template – the deadline for drafts for Levels A – Business is 21 November;
At present we do not have an External examiner for Japanese; Examiners for all other
languages will continue from last year;
7. Any other business
Late Registrations:
• We should only accept students onto courses at this stage (November) if there are
exceptional circumstances – we would need to discuss whether they have missed too
much, whether there is sufficient room space/availability etc…
Photocopiers:
• All members of staff have now been given a quota for photocopy usage:
- Course Unit tutors – 10,000 copies (5,000 on each machine);
- Coordinators – 16,000 (8,000 on each machine);
- If the credit on one machine runs out Paul/Rob can switch over some of the
credit from the other machine;
- Tutors should not let other people use their photocopy I.D number.
• Credit limits can be re-assessed – we will look at the usage to see if the limit needs to
be increased or not; tutors are notified once they are within 500 copies of their limit.
Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting
09 November 2005
Course Unit Teaching Committee Meeting
09 November 2005