FACULTY OF HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Department of Economics
Departmental Staff-Student Consultative Committee (DSSCC) Meeting
Wednesday 18 March 2015 – Minutes
Student Members Present:
Arshia Hashemi (Economics, Year 1)
Kenneth Fung (Economics, Year 1)
Ahmed Khan (Economics, Year 2)
Alexandra Terizakis (Economics & Geography, Year 2)
Keshvi Gandesha (Economics, Year 3)
Zoe Constantinou (Economics, Year 3)
Abdul Ilyas (Economics & Statistics, Year 1)
James Yan (Philosophy & Economics, Year 2)
Staff Members Present:
Viv Crockford (UG Studies Administrator)
Martin Cripps (Deputy Head of Department)
Cloda Jenkins (Careers Tutor)
Valerie Lechene (BSc Director)
Paula Moore (Secretary)
Ian Preston (Lecturer)
Balli Sarkaria (Teaching & Learning Administrator)
Christian Spielmann (Teaching Fellow)
Frank Witte (Chair)
Apologies:
Victoria Kongoasa (Economics, Year 2)
1.
Welcome and Introduction
FW opened the meeting.
2.
Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday 12 November 2014
The minutes of the meeting were approved.
3.
Matters Arising
Drayton House Common Room (Basement) Facilities
KG & ZC asked for an update on the request for improved UG Common Room
facilities. Suggestions included a printer; weekend and out-of-hours access to rooms
to facilitate revision; use of B17 when not in use for teaching; vending machine.
Action: FW to look into suggestions by the end of term.
No further matters arose from the last minutes.
i4.
Construction Nuisances
FW invited comments about the disruption to lectures caused by building works. It
was noted that both staff and students were frustrated with the inadequate facilities
provided at alternative lecture locations. Experiences included short notice of room
changes, missing lecture-cast equipment and recordings and unacceptable noise
levels. The Faculty has been notified of the Department’s dissatisfaction.
ii4.
ECON2001 - Timing of Tutorials
It was noted that the schedule of tutorials for ECON2001 did not synchronise well
with the sequence of lectures as there was no opportunity to discuss the topic of the
final lecture in any classes. Discussion followed. Suggestions included making use
of Reading Week; making more use of online tools; holding extra office hours and
scheduling a tutorial for the beginning of Term 3. It was agreed that the situation was
less than ideal and it was suggested that a specific request could be made to the
timetabling officer to look into alternative scheduling.
4.
Course Evaluations
VC circulated a summary of the end-of-term course evaluations from last term.
She noted the response rate had fallen from last year and has been doing so year on
year. The Departmental Teaching Committee (DTC) has convened a working group,
which includes a student member, to look into redesigning the questionnaire. It was
mentioned that the survey is now administered via Moodle rather than via OPINIO.
LG and ZC circulated and summarised the results of a survey StARs conducted to
find out more about response rates to the mid and end-of-term evaluation
questionnaire. Discussion followed.
VL noted that an important incentive for students to complete the evaluations would
be to show how their feedback informs curriculum design. The example of
ECON1003, which has been successfully revised taking into account student
feedback, was cited. It was agreed that improved communication between lecturers
and students about how feedback is being taken on board would be welcome.
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Action: Department to gather evidence of student feedback and module related
changes and communicate these to students; VC & FW to post a general
message on Moodle Admin page with this information; Lecturers to include a
message on the Moodle course page.
5.
National Student Survey (NSS)
FW encouraged StARs to encourage peers to fill out the NSS. CJ noted there was a
financial incentive of £1500 should the department hit a completion rate of 75%.
Action: StARs to encourage peers to fill out the NSS.
6.
Students’ Engagement with Careers Service Support
CJ reported that there was frequently a poor student turn-out at Careers Service
events, including talks from employers and alumni, which was an undesirable
situation. She requested that StARs gather feedback from peers as to whether they
were any gaps in the current support and to identify whether there was demand for
information about career paths alternative to those in finance and investment
banking, information for which is currently well provided by the Economics and
Finance Society (EFS). Discussion followed.
CJ suggested possible approaches to working out the details of any alternative
support could be to work more closely with the Economist’s Society in terms of
provision or engage a group of year 1 and year 2 students in the Change Maker
project but that it was important to establish first what support was most needed.
Action: StARs to provide feedback to CJ.
7.
Any Other Business
FW mentioned that results (departmental) of the recent UCL black and ethnic
minority survey would be circulated to students and comments gratefully received;
the topic would be added to the agenda of next SSCC meeting.
FW suggested that the Committee may wish to meet more frequently; twice in both
terms 1 and 2. It was agreed this was desirable.
ZC raised concern about the lack study space and facilities in Drayton House and
that this was reflected in student satisfaction surveys. It was observed that LSE has
recently benefited from a new Economics-dedicated hub. Discussion followed.
Action: Department to gather information on space per student ratio - for
further discussion.
AT commented that Joint Economics & Geography students had been missed out of
communications about departmental social events in Freshers’ Week. It was
confirmed that this should not have been the case.
KG enquired about the examination timetable and asked when this would be
released. VC confirmed the anticipated release date as the last day of term and that
students should have been notified of this by central student administration offices.
VC mentioned that all communications to students can now be found via My UCL.
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JY enquired as to whether the website was the only source of information for year 2
students trying to find out more about year 3 module options. FW confirmed that it
had been discussed in previous meetings that lecturers could prepare relevant
Moodle pages for visitors which would then be accessible to students prior to module
selection.
FG asked when it would be known which modules would run next session as he had
received enquiries from students wishing to plan their degree. It was confirmed that
this information had not yet been decided but would be communicated to students as
soon as possible.
Meeting closed.
Date of the next meeting: 18 November 2015
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