ACADEMIC COUNCIL
MONDAY 5th December, The Council Chamber, Main Building 5.307pm
Agenda
Part I – Standard Items
1.
Welcome
2.
Apologies
3.
Membership
Part II – Items for discussion/approval
4.
Appointments to Student Council
5.
‘Assessment Matters’
a. Presentation by Andrew Lloyd REGIS
b. Discussion on involvement
6.
Student Charter:
a. Presentation by Sarah Williamson
b. Discussion on involvement
7.
National Student Survey Briefing (Sam Reid)
8.
Libraries: update on extended opening hours and new room availability over
exams (Sam Reid)
9.
Course Rep Training Update (Sam Reid)
Part III - Information
10.
Date of next meeting: February 2011
Part IV Any Other Competent Business
ACADEMIC COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE MEETING MONDAY 4th April, COUNCIL CHAMBER,
MAIN BUILDING, 5PM-7PM
Present:
Sarah Ingram (Chair), Gareth Davies (CHEMI), Freya Austin (ENCAP), Saskia Bruens
(CLAWS PG), James Cheeseman (MATHS), Andrew Lim (PHRMY), Elizabeth Button
(SOCSI), James Wakefield (EUROS PG), Rizwan Sharif (JOMEC PG), Emma McKeogh
(EUROS), Sam Reid (Academic Officer elect), Marcus Coates-Walker (President Elect)
Apologies:
Charlene Smith (BIOSI PG), Jessica Franklin (BIOSI), Christopher Hall (COMSC),
Ricardo Calil (LEARN)
1. The Learning and Teaching Strategy
A presentation was given by Sarah Williamson (REGIS) about the principles
regarding the Learning at Teaching Strategy. There was a discussion about
‘involvement’, ‘participation’ and ‘partnership’. Students thought employability issues
were important and that strategies that could be developed inline with employment
would be very useful.
Academic Reps thought that students were sometimes dissuaded to answer surveys
or module questionnaires because it impacted on future students and not on
themselves and it was questioned whether compulsory questionnaires were useful
because everyone fed back, or whether some students filled it in as quickly as
possible and therefore the information was not as relevant. CHEMY have started
doing module questionnaires in the middle of term (EUROS are thinking of starting
this for 30 credit modules). There are feedback mechanisms that are entirely
students-driven, i.e. student-led focus groups and these are usually very helpful.
Alternatively, students can use the ‘clicker system’ in lecture theatres to see the
feedback of their fellow students; can be effective.
Education is challenging, but not always creative or innovative and it is dependant on
the course as to whether collaborative learning is included. Some Schools work with
students to put on events or do group work, however, others (SOCSI) have a
reluctance to share any work at all, in case their ideas are plagiarised.
There is some difference between the amount of teaching hours at Cardiff, compared
to other Universities – specifically in PGT law (6 hours at Cardiff).
2. Developments for next year
Course Rep Training
Course Reps need to be well publicised to staff and students. CHEMY have given
direct links to the reps via their facebook society page and other reps are putting up
photos of themselves in the Schools, so people know who they are.
It would be good to have separate training for 1 years, 2+3 year and ‘senior reps’,
the latter including chairing meetings and minute training. More communication
should be given to Schools about training, so that they can advertise it and let
students know it is happening.
Choosing Reps and their length of service
SOCSI have their 1st years reps look after specific modules (1 per module). Most
reps are under the assumption that they are elected or chosen to represent for one
year, but the School do not make it very obvious. PG Law do not have a studentstaff panel, it is possible that they could join in with the UG one – currently they only
have a board of studies.
Schools have different problems with getting reps – some struggle with 1st years,
others with later years. It is a challenge and the Schools are unsure what to do as
well.
Student-Staff Panel parameters
In JOMEC students are asked to leave at certain times during the meeting. It
depends on the School as to what specifically is discussed at student-staff panel
meetings, some have a set agenda, others just talk about whatever issues there are.
However, individual lecturers complaints are avoided as are issues that affect single
students.
Feedback Loop for Action
CHEMY student-staff panel have to ask for feedback on their actions, but they
usually get some feedback. PHRMY have specific actions for everyone to do and
everyone does them. MATHS specifically go to the compulsory large lectures to
feedback to students what they have done if they’re changing something.
It was discussed that other Universities had the chairs of the Student-Staff panels
write up an annual report which was sent to their Academic Officer so that there was
some idea of what had gone on each year within the student staff panel. This work
could then be disseminated to the University, the Students’ Union and used as
handover material for the next chair of the Student-Staff panel. Academic
Councillors were enthusiastic about this and so it was suggested that this year it
could be trialled to see what type of information came out of it and whether the
information was useful for next year’s team. It was reinforced that this report would
not need to be in until the end of June so that it would not interfere with exams and
could be any length.
3. Assessment Matters – Final Policy
The final policy was handed out to academic councillors, it was explained that it had
not been passed yet, but that it would be doing so this summer and it would be
launched to students next September. If they were currently talking to their Schools
about changes to feedback, it was explained that this would be a useful document to
have.
4. JSTOR – Update and news
467 students and staff have now signed the JSTOR petition. A paper has been
written by the University and is going to the Academic Information Resources forum
in May, however, we are optimistic that the £4000 per year funding for this archive
will be made available.
5. National Student Survey
A lot of students have filled the survey out now, but we have another three weeks
before it closes, so this is the last chance to encourage students to fill it out at
www.thestudentsurvey.com
7. Enriching Student Life Awards
SI is currently going around to the Schools and presenting the shortlisted staff with
their invitations to the ceremony and dinner. The awards will be on the 9th of May
and include the course reps that have been shortlisted for the awards.
8. Exam Timetable
It was discussed that the reason the timetable came out so late was because
students had the option to change their modules up to the third week in the
semester, which therefore meant the deadlines for everything were quite tight.
Whilst there was some understanding of this, it was suggested that a provisional
timetable could be prepared before the final one, as the numbers of students that
change modules that late in the term are very small, so it would be possible to
predict the size of the exam venue needed.
Some course reps also questioned the proximity of exams and although there was
some allowance for a lot of optional modules not being able to be timetabled
effectively for students, there were other compulsory modules that were also very
close together in the timetable. MATHS students had actually been asked this year
how many weeks they wanted their examinations spread out by and therefore had
some choice in the matter, it would be preferable if everyone had that choice.
9. Thank you
Thanks were given to all academic councillors for their hard work this year and there
enthusiasm for all the issues that had come up.
10. Next Meeting Date
The next meeting will be some time in November 2011