Confirmed
SCHOOL of HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
MINUTES of the FIRST meeting of 2007/2008 of the School Board (& Conference)
held on Thursday 13 September 2007, at 9.45am in SL101, Greenwich Campus
Items marked with are to be put before the Academic Council
Present:
Jane Longmore (Chair)
Kirsten Guindi (Secretary)
Thomas Acton
Alev Adil
Ezekiel Alexander
Mike Alsford
Sally Alsford
Justine Baillie
June Balshaw
Irene Barranco
Louise Bell
Mick Bowles
Carolyn Brown
Terry Cannon
Sandra Clarke
Anne Cormack
Sarah Crofts
In attendance:
Bill Cain
Sally Mitchell
Apologies:
Noemi Almeida
Alessandro Benati
Jane Bland
June Ernstzen
Nandini Dasgupta
Andrew Dawson
Harry Derbyshire
John Dunne
Simon Dye
Paul Eastham
Sue Edwards
Michael Fidler
Selina Goulbourne
Pippa Guard
Emma Hanna
Suzanne Healey
Alice Hilling
Caroline Hull
Kristian Humble
Peter Humm
Martin Jackson
Mavis James
Kath Jones
Peter Jones
Maria Kaspersson
Michael Langan
Cécile Laval
Angela Laycock
Bridget Leach
Heather Lilley
Siân Lund
Stefan Manz
Christine Morgan
Craig Morris
Corinne Palmer- Brown
Steve Peacock
Dragana Radosavljevic
Gavin Rand
Susan Rowland
Katy Shaw
Gauti Sigthorsson
Silvia Stanton
Douglas Stuart
Bob Tsukada Bright
David Waterworth
Kathy Watson
Richard Wild
John Williams
Paul Wingrove
Carol Withey
Lucy Yeatman
Michael Zell
Clive Carswell
Simon Walker
Clive Duncan (ALRA)
Judith Johnson
Mary Farrell
Sue Golding
Rebecca Harrison
Lynne Hanmore
Rita Headington
Leonie Howe
Sitheshini Jayakumar
Lorraine Lacey
John McLean
Mike Ottley
Zoé Pettit
Jim Urpeth
1.
Welcome
The Chair welcomed the Board to the first School Board of the session and thanked staff from
other departments and Partner Colleges for attending. The Chair thanked Peter Jones and
Andrew Dawson for co-ordinating the Conference.
2.
Chair’s announcements
The Chair reported that Xose Rosales and Marco Aponte-Moreno have left the University and
thanked them for their contribution.
3.
Minutes of the last meeting – 23 May 2007
The minutes were recorded as an accurate record.
Matters arising
4.
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4.1
Employability (Ref: Item 9)
The Chair informed that Committee that the Employability Conference for Students
held in June was very successful and thanked June Balshaw for her hard work in
organising the event.
4.2
Induction (Ref: Item 8)
Sally Alsford confirmed that the induction timetable will be circulated on Monday and
that 60-70 students will be registered early on Tuesday.
The Board noted that
someone from each Department will need to be around during the induction week to
answer any queries that may arise.
Bridget Leach reminded the Board about the Enhanced Induction Project which
includes a programme of activities designed to help students feel more welcome. Two
current students attended the Induction Mentoring Training and staff were asked to
remind their students about this opportunity (Mentors will get paid but only if they
attend the training session).
The Chair thanked Sally and Bridget for their work on the induction programme.
5.
Approval of External Examiners
The Board approved the request to extend Mr David William’s appointment as External
Examiner for the Greenwich Maritime Institute (GMI) for one year.
6.
Any other business
6.1
7.
Reading Lists
Sarah Crofts reminded the Board that there is still time to submit Reading Lists for the
web.
School Conference
Plenary session 1: Recent developments and planning for 2007/8
 Learning enhancement and student support, Peter Jones and other contributors
Recent developments and planning for 2007-2008 include Learning Enhancement, Student
Support, Academic Writing Courses and Study Skills. Sally Mitchell from Queen Mary has
been running Writing in the Disciplines Workshops. Judith Johnson, Writing Fellow
sponsored by the Royal Literary Fund will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays to give
one to one support to students.
The Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) has been set up for teaching and learning
enhancement work and project development.
The Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund held a ‘Dragon’s Den’ in which the School
received funding for 5 projects (out of 13 awards across the University).
E-learning: Sandra Clarke has produced a WebCT guide; Gavin Rand confirmed that further
staff development support will be available during 2007/8.
Employability: The School is awaiting confirmation of funding for a School Employability Coordinator; June Balshaw confirmed that there will be an Employability Conference for
Students next summer.
Educational Development Team: Simon Walker from the School of Education and Training
explained the role of the new central team and suggested that schools should share good
ideas.
Learning Enhancement Co-ordinator for Humanities is Andrew Dawson. He will be
attending departmental meetings across the School.

Research and enterprise, Nandini Dasgupta and other contributors
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Nandini thanked everyone who has been involved in the RAE particularly the UoA Coordinators and Kirsten.
There have been 4 PhD completions this year including Anne Cormack, HPP, who was
congratulated.
HEIF – Five bids were successful.
A new Humanities & Social Sciences Fund for Research & Innovation has been set up,
allowing consultancy money to be used for research not covered by the RAE. This new
fund will be discussed in future Departmental meetings and proposals will be submitted to
the Research & Enterprise Committee.
Parallel sessions 1:
1.
Marketing the School, Sue Edwards and other contributors
2.
Using Turnitin to prevent student plagiarism, Andrew Dawson and Gavin Rand
3.
Developing and delivering short courses, Gauti Sigthorsson and other contributors
4.
Using e-journals & ebooks in your research and teaching, Sarah Crofts, Irene Barranco
5.
Dealing with difficult students, Clive Carswell
Parallel sessions 2:
1.
Good seminar teaching: ideas exchange, Kath Jones and other contributors
2.
Using HEIF to enrich the student experience, Pippa Guard and other contributors
3.
Supporting students’ writing development, Sian Lund, Louise Bell, Sally Mitchell, Judith
Johnson
4.
Music composition workshop, Steve Peacock, Ezekiel Alexander
5.
Beginners’ guide to using ICT in the classroom & WebCT demonstration, Gavin Rand, Bill
Cain and Sandra Clarke
Plenary session 2:
The Future of Teaching and Research in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences &
reports from the Parallel Sessions.




Short courses: KJ reported that one of the suggestions from the Small Seminar sessions was
to consider seating arrangements – pallet seating was one option.
Classroom Equipment: SC asked staff to send the Classroom Equipment Questionnaire
back to the Humanities Office as there is funding to improve the equipment.
Staff Development: JB confirmed that Simon Walker would like to draw up a list of
initiatives happening across the University so the staff can gain knowledge and ideas of
best practice from other Schools.
General Comments: It was agreed that it would be useful to see some notes from all of the
the parallel sessions (perhaps on WebCT). It was also suggested that there should be more
than one conference a year.
Date of Next Meeting: Wednesday 24th October 2007
The meeting finished at 4.30pm
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