Staff Student Committee
Minutes of the 15th February
Present: Marina Moskowitz, Maud Bracke, Donald Spaeth, Matthew Strickland, Evan
Mawdsley, Donald Tait, David Talbot (student chair), Imrin Aziz, Oliver Mazar, Marc
Ensch, Heather Cluness, Joni Allan (student note-taker), Layla Roxanne-Hill, Rebecca
McQuarrie
Apologies – Lionel Glassey, Hayleigh Robertson
Absent without apologies – P. O’Brien
1. Minutes Last Meeting
No queries, accepted
2. Courses
1B.
No complaints, nothing to report. EM: there were problems with the link in the Boyd
Orr, which we are trying to resolve and to find out why this is happening.
MB asked 1B reps to be more proactive in approaching students to hear their
complaints.
2MED
Queries on the availability of recommended course texts as there does not appear to be
sufficient copies for seminars since the course is run thematically. All students have the
same subjects, compared to 2AM which ran different seminars on different weeks. DT
need to know which books are lacking, provide specific titles of books to provide more
print copies or make texts available online. MS said it is necessary to organise seminars
in this way as the lectures are taught chronologically. Essays times are spread in order
for maximum diversity in learning of the course. Specific source readings and the bare
minimum readings are on Moodle. There are several digital readings available online,
there is always something relevant to read; however if you think that more texts are
needed then it is necessary to let the department know or they can put them on short loan
to 4 hour or 24 hour loan. IA: most students are not bothering to bring back books and
are just paying the fines on those books.
MS: what is students’ impression of e-journals?
DTal: people are beginning to use them in a more significant way, for example JSTOR is
a useful source.
IA said the weighting of the final exam, 60% is heavy in weighting of the evaluation of
work. MB this is the general structure of courses, a subject that comes up regularly, it
will stay this way for the foreseeable future. Exams are graded in the same way as essays
and seminar papers therefore it is a means of preparing to go into exams.
IA: is it possible to get feedback on exams?
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DS: A model of exams are available online or in the library and therefore, access is
available to look at past exam papers as revision. It is possible to make a request to see
your exam paper and the feedback; the comments on these can provide insight on your
grade.
MB: If there were model exam papers available for revision purposes to aid in preparing
for exams would this be welcome?
HC: Would they be anonymous?
MB: Yes
DT: The only thing that would result from this would be an exact structure replica for
each essay in exams.
IA: Is it possible to hold more workshops - something similar to the essay workshop - as
a study aid for exam preparation.
Dta: This does not address the issue of how to set out an exam answer
MB: A sample exam of good answers would not necessarily be useful for answers as
there would be a danger of imitation. Would it be better if a general idea on how to study
for exams was provided?
IA: There are previous past papers in course documents, the essay workshop helped in
understanding how to break down the question instead of a hard and short essay question
response. This would enable students to engage with the question and themes
DTal: There is not much time spent on exam technique, this is unfair due to the weighting
of exam.
LRH: The exam structure is different for A-Levels and it takes a while to get used to this.
EM: There is a teaching lecture in April for 1st year history exams which prepares
students for May exams.
DS: Yet this does not solve feedback issues for exams, we need to make it clear to
students that they can see their exam paper. There is a need for better exam techniques
and the department believes that exam assessment is very important and it is unlikely that
there will be a move to more assessed course work.
SM: I didn’t know that exams were available, is there an opportunity to challenge exam
results if they are made available?
MM: Yes this has happened.
MB: If students are not aware that exams are available to look at then this must be
advertised better. The department will send an e-mail round, nearer to exam time,
reminding students of their right to view their exam papers
ME: Students are unaware of how exams are broken down mark wise.
DS: All exams are 2nd marked, thus an effort is made to ensure marks are solid.
EM: It is fair to say that all courses are marked on the same basis.
Action: e-mail to remind students that they have the right to see their exam paper with
comments. (MB)
2SCO
No news to report.
Rep said it is good that books are online, JSTOR restores confidence that books in the
library are not necessary in understanding the course.
DTai: reminded all that it is feasible to digitise chapters of books than the whole thing.
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IA: Where there is a high demand of books, putting them on 4 Hour or 24 Hour loan is
better than the hold policy.
Level 3
No one present.
Junior Honours
ME: no specific issues. The organisation of seminars, since it varies course to course, is
not necessarily the best way to help students with their time management.
MM understands that it is hard to regulate this as it depends on course combination.
HC: is there any news of junior honours exam timetable?
DS: The first exam is the 8th of April and module exams begin on the 9th April, they are
scattered through the month.
HC: what is the situation with the history society? Is it up and running and is there
available funding?
DS: it is a very good thing, students should be encouraged to take it up again.
HC: why did it fail before? There are a few third years that are interested in organising
meetings, guest speakers, videos, establishing a better social scene within the department,
also useful for revision purposes.
MS says that if a small dedicated number of students and encourage various events and
are enthusiastic then this is a positive thing.
MM says she would be happy to help out in any way possible.
HC says there are problems with the computers on Level 8, students cannot log on.
DS this is a serious issue, since computers are not useful, then the lack of study space is a
problem, contact IT department in the library.
Action: check situation with IT (DTai)
Senior Honours
Nothing to report.
DS: How did dissertations go?
SM: Looking back on the workshops, they were focussed a lot on oral history and
medieval sources. There was not much on general sources such as newspapers. To
understand how to access newspapers she went to see Donald Tait who was a great help.
Possibility to spend more time on different sources
MM: I am revising the workshops and will take this into account.
3. New Course Proposal
Special Subject – Maud Bracke
Dtai: Good that films are used as sources.
DTal: is it a two term course?
IA: what is the percentage
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MB: Standard - as it is same as all special subjects.
4. Matters Arising
MB: National Student Survey results for final year students compares history to other
subjects. Survey from first year students, extracts and comments are on your handouts
DS: encourage final year students to do the survey
JA, SM: we have completed it online.
DTal: There are consistent low marks on feedback form.
MB: The low marks are generally to do with constraints regarding the number of staff
available, a problem which depends on the university and faculty rather than the
department.
EM: What do these statistics mean? How many were filled out?
DS: 105 filled in, report is 16 pages long. What are your comments on the paragraph at
the bottom of the hand out?
IA: it seems first year students don’t really know how their grades and how the course
operates i.e. the differences between the subjects since some are thematically based and
others are chronological.
MM: It is sometimes hard for first years to know what tutors want.
JA: Students need also to be made more aware of the useful skills for future employment
fields, and different work opportunities with a history degree.
SM: It would it be helpful to introduce to students what is expected of them in an
introductory lecture, what you should do and other various details.
EM: With regards to how students are marked, is it the same type of mark sheet across all
courses?
DS: No, level 1 and 2 use different marksheets.
RM: On some marksheets, the tick boxes do not provide helpful comments and are a
substitute for this.
MB: The 1B marksheet has a mix between tick boxes and comments.
JA: There are variations between markers, it is sometimes difficult to understand why
there is a difference between a B1 and A5, varies from department to department.
MS: The basics, regardless of discipline, is clarity of expression and wide use of evidence
in universal writings there are clear signposts whether an essay is a good piece of work
and the mark sheets are an indicator of this.
SM: This breakdown appears in the honours handbook but is often overlooked, it should
be emphasised more.
RM: The essay workshops were really helpful in understanding the base of a successful
essay
DS: We can try to have these more regularly.
MM: The general essay workshops run by the faculty do no assert that there are different
details required by each department
HC: By third year you find that you pick up what you are doing wrong and right.
DPTLA
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DS – the end document was 40 pages long and shows what strengths and weaknesses the
department have, the issues raised came as a result of the feedback. The session in
December with student reps was extremely helpful and some interesting ideas were
raised. Alison has a full copy of the document to look at if you want to.
DT – on the library website there is a new feature which shows history of the books that
you have borrowed, a system of feedback on the books that you found helpful. The
facility is on the library home page, reading history feature and is an opt-in facility,
which will keep track of books that students have borrowed. It is a confidential service
MB: Would it be best to communicate through student representatives?
DT: It does need to be publicised; we can send an email through Alison for this.
Action: inform students of this new feature (DTai)
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