MINUTE of the SCHOOL MANAGEMENT GROUP held in Room 407, 1 University Gardens on 8 th January 2014
PRESENT: Roibeard O Maolalaigh (Chair), Ian Ruffell, Ann Gow, Thomas Clancy, Lynn Abrams, Adam
Rieger, Stuart Airlie , Michael Murray, Catriona MacDonald. Nyree Finlay, Sheila Kidd
APOLOGIES: Jeremy Huggett
ATTENDING: Pauline McLachlan
Table of Contents
Minute of the meeting held 27 th November 2013 ....................................................................................... 1
Matters Arising .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Head of School Update .............................................................................................................................. 1
Business Cases for future investment ......................................................................................................... 2
Erasmus Links ............................................................................................................................................ 2
HoSub Update ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Administration/Finance Update ................................................................................................................. 2
School Committees .................................................................................................................................... 3
AOB ................................................................................................................................................... 4
1. Minute of the meeting held 27 th November 2013
Action:
The minutes were approved. PMcL will circulate to all School colleagues.
2. Matters Arising
2.1 Leverhulme ECF – ROM/TC reported that two nominations had been received within
Humanities, both from History, for forwarding to College of Arts. One of the two had subsequently been selected as the nomination to go forward from the College as the sole nomination to the external competition (Nikolaos Papadogiannis). If successful, Dr
Papadogiannis would be mentored by Dr Maud Bracke. TC will work with MB, NP and
Karin Lury on the application.
2.2 Recognition & Reward / Academic Promotion – ROM reminded colleagues that the
School and HR deadlines had been circulated and highlighted that the forms had changed.
Draft applications should be forwarded to ROM with draft supporting statements from
HoSubs.
2.3 Wi-Fi Provision – AG and MM took this issue forward. MM reviewed the asbestos reports and highlighted areas where routers could be placed. LA reported that PGRs are unhappy with the lack of facilities. MM and PMcL will progress and report back at the next meeting.
PMcL
HoSubs
PMcL/
MM
TC
3. Head of School Update


3.1 CMG Update
ROM provided an update from the last CMG meeting:

Due to changes in reporting procedures for HESA returns from 2015, it will be necessary for holiday and other leave for all staff to be recorded in CORE. Currently only 42% of CoA staff are using this facility. There will be a drive to address the
 under-reporting of leave in 2014.
New staff in the College had reported inconsistencies in induction procedures across the College: an issue for Humanities to monitor.
The Grade 7 replacement HATII post was agreed.
Note the earlier application dates for PhD scholarships (13 Jan) with a 2-week turnaround; nominations to be made to panels by 4 Feb.

All cases for investment posts are to be taken to the January CMG meeting (will be discussed further under Head of School agenda item).
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3.2 HATII Lecturer/Senior Lecturer
ROM reported that four candidates had been interviewed with an offer made.
Unfortunately, the offer was subsequently declined. AG and ROM will pursue the possibilities of a targeted appointment.
3.3 Grade 7 HATII
ROM reported that this post had been approved at CMG and the financial approval had been submitted.
3.4 Convenors
ROM reported that two School Convenors would be required: Graduate Studies and
Research and it is hoped to appoint before the end of March 2014 to allow a handover/shadowing process. ROM had queried progress of Convero JDs with GIllain
Shaw, College HRM, but had received no response as yet.
4. Business Cases for future investment
ROM tabled two documents summarising the feedback from HoSubs and discussed the possible scenarios. The MPA business case had been circulated in advance along with the meeting papers. SA felt that the MPA case was very strong, and agreed that is encapsulated many of the issues the School faces in regards to MPA resourcing. MM outlined that the case was based on current need; ROM suggested that the School could go forward with two and submit a case for an additional post next year. ROM was inclined to put forward two MPA and two academic posts based on the net contribution of the income
(mostly RUK), which would continue for a period of 3-4 years. MM agreed with this suggestion, and outlined that given the current related budgetary surplus (£150K), it was a position IR agreed with this suggestion. AG queried whether the MPA grades requested could be altered for example, 1 x Grade 5; 1 x Grade 3 or 2 x Grade 4. MM outlined that the cases for posts had to be made on the basis of current/future needs, and that requesting a non-fixed budget would be problematic. MM suggested that we consider how all cases, including the academic posts, would be viewed at CMG.
ROM invited each HoSub to provide a brief statement in support of their proposed post(s) and then the posts could be ranked A-C under various criteria, for example, recruitment potential, research income generation, KE&I and Discipline+. Cases were made by IR, LA and AR. ROM requested feedback and agreement on which posts the group felt could be successful and a discussion followed. Four posts were identified as possibilities for going forward to CMG; two would need to be prioritised. ROM and MM and the relevant
HoSubs will review the evidential figures for each case and come to an informed decision.
It was agreed to review further: Moral/Political Philosophy, Global War/Conflict Studies
(broadly defined), Late Antiquity and Enlightenment (possibly shared between Philosophy and History). MM outlined that, in consultation with the relevant HoSubs, an analysis of current and likely income in relation to UG, PGT, PGR and research activity across each theme would be developed in order to further inform the decision around academic posts.
5. Erasmus Links
ROM reported that Alice Jenkins had communicated that we can suggest up to five agreements to retain and supporting statements would be required by 17 th January. In year deficits would be set against School budgets. Thomas Munck, Simon Newman and AR had commented on the CMG Erasmus paper and all had highlighted the language issue.
ROM requested a clear indication from HoSubs about the exchange programmes to cancel and or retain. A case for retention will be required and should be returned to ROM by 15 th
January.
[Addendum: ROM offered thanks to HoSubs for feedback on Erasmus exchanges: (a) 8 cancelled; (b) 4 retained and (c) 3 borderline cases were not accepted and reported that there could be financial implications, with consumables budgets being restricted/decreased if a negative balance occurs. It is therefore in our interest to ensure two-way traffic].
6. HoSub Update
Nothing to report.
7. Administration/Finance Update
ROM/AG
ROM/MM/
AR/IR/LA
HoSubs
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7.1 Process Improvement Update – CMIS
MM outlined that he had circulated the revised plan from Steve Sutton on 7 th January 2014, which included a request for feedback from Schools. Noting the short turnaround period,
MM had added comments, based on previous experience of the CMIS implementation and consultation with the wider learning and teaching admin team, to HoSubs, with a view to ensuring a response by the of 10 th January. MM reported that many of the problem issues would appear to remain, in areas such as training, reporting lines/communication and the inefficiency of many of the processes. MM also noted that there is a suggestion that the new policy also includes reference to School’s implementing a ‘Communication Plan’ and the academic staff become more closely involved with the planning process. MM will respond to Steve Sutton by the deadline and circulate response comments for reference.
7.2 Regrading
MM reported that School Administration had successfully regraded two posts from Grade 3 to Grade 5.
7.3 TSSA
Interviews for KH replacement post will be held on 9 th January 2014.
[Addendum: Ms Ruth Burke, currently employed at Strathclyde University will join
Humanities from 3rd March 2014]
7.4 Process Review Meetings
MM sought confirmation on how to proceed as the timeline had slipped somewhat. MM further expressed concerns that aspects of the project were now being used as a template for other Schools across the University; however a lack of progress around the wider implementation/development of solutions was proving difficult. The group agreed that this was a reflection of current workloads across those involved. Nevertheless, it was agreed to use alternative ScMG weeks, working around other meetings in order to regain momentum.. Meetings would include HoSubs, SA, CMacD and MM
8. School Committees
8.1 Graduate Studies
CMacD reported on recent Graduate Studies activity.
8.1.1 PG Committee Meeting – A meeting had been held in early December which Barbara
Burns and Andrew Atkinson attended regarding web presence. A new GU web search will be launched to help prospective students find a supervisor. Colleagues were encouraged to update their staff profiles. HoSubs would take this back to subject areas as a matter of urgency.
8.1.2 Actions Plans – Action plan updates would be generated by Subjects by mid-January detailing changes and reforms since the last PTES.
8.1.3 PG Conversion & Marketing – Interviews had been held for the College Recruitment and Conversion Marketing Officer replacement, but no notification of an appointment had been issued from CoA as yet.
[Addendum: Carin Fyfe has been appointed from 10 th March 2014 and joins Glasgow from the University of Sheffield where she is currently Marketing and External Engagement
Officer in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities]
8.1.4 HDC – New programmes and changes to programmes to be considered at School level before submission to Higher Degrees Committee.
8.1.5 PhD applications – CMacD reminded colleagues that there had been a change to the application process. Applications to be submitted by 13 th January, Subjects will then consider between 14 th January and 4 th February and return to College for consideration.
8.1.6 College Grants – Applications had been reviewed and a decision expected soon.
8.2 Research
TC had no issues to report regarding recent Research activity.
8.3 Learning and Teaching
SA reported on recent Learning & Teaching activity.
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HoSubs
MM
MM
MM

8.3.1 CMIS – SA thanked MM for his comments.
8.3.2 School L&T Committee – The minutes of the previous two meetings to follow soon.
8.3.3 RIO – SA reported that RIO are keen to promote the importance of conversion work and will contact History and Archaeology for unique selling points for websites and promotional materials.
8.3.4 Employability – The employability week organized by Modern Languages may be adopted by Humanities. Ann Duff will attend School L&T Committee to discuss further.
8.3.5 Code of Assessment – SA reminded colleagues about the regulations concerning the granting of extensions and suggested that the Progress Committee model in place in
Archaeology should be followed across the School. This was also identified as part of the
L&T Process Improvements. NF will circulate the Archaeology Progress information to
ScMG.
9. AOB
9.1 Action Points – reported and agreed.
SA
NF
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