Birkbeck
University of London
STUDENT EXPERIENCE & WIDENING PARTICIPATION COMMITTEE
Meeting 22 January 2013
Minutes
Present:
Tricia King (Chair), Nigel Buckle, Elizabeth Charles, Patricia Crampton, Angela Dierks, Dr Jennifer
Fraser, Garmon ap Garth, Dr Adam Gearey, Dr Kerry Harman, Verity Hutton, Dr Tim Markham,
Annette McCone, Dr Jane Nicklin, Rob Park, Mark Pimm, Pierre Smith Khanna, Professor Matthew
Weait
Apologies:
Angela Dierks, Keith Harrison, Dr Sarah Hart, Professor Sue Jackson, Dean Pateman
In attendance:
Darren David, Xiomara Pattison, Trevor Pearce [Secretary]
13 MINUTES
Received:
13.1 The unconfirmed minutes of the meeting of 10 October 2012 (SEWPC 14 – 2012/13).
Agreed
13.2 To confirm the minutes of the meeting of 10 October 2012.
14 MATTERS ARISING
Received and noted:
14.1 The Committee’s report to Academic Board of its meeting of 16 May 2012 (SEWPC 15 –
2011-12)
Noted:
14.2 That applications for 9 uses of alumni funding had been approved; 8 had now been funded with
one deferred for 2013/14. Applications for 2013/14 funding would be requested during April
2013.
15 CHAIR’S REPORT
Reported by the Chair:
15.1 (i) that the terms of reference for the Government commissioned review, led by UUK, of
part-time study would shortly be published. Birkbeck would be represented by Tricia King on
the Committee. It was anticipated that the review would report before July 2013;
(ii) that David Willetts had commissioned an analysis of the information supplied to applicants
to support part-time study
(iii) that a meeting between College representatives and Treasury representatives to discuss
financial support for part-time learners had been convened;
(iv) that UCAS had published its data on 2012/13 recruitment. Many Russell Group institutions
had significantly improved recruitment, although some had lost students. Birkbeck had been
reported as having significantly improved its full time student recruitment.
(v) that research undertaken by the Department of External Relations on recruitment in 2012
would be presented to the May 2013 meeting of the Committee.
Noted:
15.2 (i) That Birkbeck had proportionately more disabled students than other institutions; the
review should review provision for disabled part-time students.
(ii) the view that the Review should also consider students moving from part-time study to full
time study.
16 WIDENING PARTICIPATION
Reported by the Pro-Vice Master (Academic Partnerships):
16.1 (i) That the College’s Institutional Partnership agreement, incorporating the commitment that
any applicant from a partner institution would receive an offer from the College upon
application;
(ii) that it was a significant project to ensure that frameworks were put in place to ensure a
smooth transition from Further Education to Higher Education, particularly for mature
students and student from more vocational programmes in Further Education.
(iii) the College continued to work with the Open College Network, who were responsible
for the validation of a number of access programmes in FE; they had asked that the College
encourage its staff to participate in the validation of access modules and programmes.
(iv) that a prize fund would be created, to support the development of projects to work with
an FE College.
Noted:
16.2 (i) that the College’s published entry requirements often suggested that A level passes were
preferred; a group would be established to review the College’s website provision to ensure
consistency and support for the College’s widening access agenda.
Received and noted:
16.3 The report from the Widening Access & Retention Team (SEWPC 17 – 2012/13)
Reported by Caroline McDonald, Head of Outreach and Widening Participation:
16.4 (i) that the College had analysed attendance and feedback at the “Try It” workshops, and the
results had been positive; this positive feedback would be reported back to HEFCE;
(ii) that the College’s Learning Café’s had been put forward for an award; impact of these
initiatives could be slow but was shown by research to be significant;
(iii) that take-up of the Trade Union discount had increased substantially, including a
substantial increase in take-up at postgraduate level.
Noted:
16.5 That research indicated that 80% of part-time students had relied on information published by
the College, and in particular the initiatives led by the Widening Access & Retention Team
Received and noted:
16.6 The College’s confirmed Widening Participation Strategic Assessment (SEWPC 18 –
2012/13) an update on progress towards OFFA targets (SEWPC 19 – 2012/13) and tabled
guidance on the 2014/15 OFFA Access Agreement (SEWPC 19a – 2012/13)
Reported by Garmon ap Garth, Outreach & Widening Participation Officer:
16.7 (i) that the Widening Participation Strategic Assessment for 2011/12 was submitted in January
2013;
(ii) that the College was on target to meet the milestones identified in the Access Agreement.
The new guidance for the 2014/15 Access Agreement had now been published; the
Agreement would need to be submitted in April 2013. It would be similar to previous years.
(Guidance tabled). It was proposed to establish a group, including membership from the Fees,
Bursaries and Scholarships Committee, to review the Access Agreement.
(iii) HEFCE had asked the College to update the Widening Participation Strategic Statement
for 2012/13; in future years the Agreement and Statement would be combined into one
document;
(iv) that National Scholarship Programme funds would now be distributed according to the
number of widening participation students recruited; this was likely to see a small cut in
funding to the College.
Agreed:
16.8 To establish a sub-group of the Committee to approve the 2014/15 Access Agreement by the
deadline date of 2013/14.
17 RETENTION STRATEGY
Received:
17.1 Retention Strategy 2010-14, together with a report from the Retention Strategy Steering
Group (SEWPC 20 – 2012/13), an update report on the Mentors and Buddying strand of
the Retention Strategy (SEWPC 21 – 2012/13) and an update report on the Supporting the
Transition to HE strand of the Retention Strategy (SEWPC 22 – 2012/13)
Reported by Annette McCone, Outreach and Widening Participation and Officer:
17.2 (i) that the Integrated Learning Development Working Group continued to review retention
data, and had noted that the School of Law had made substantial gains in student retention.
(ii) that the mentoring strand was making slow progress; it had been difficult to identify
potential mentors who could make the time commitment; the “Get Talking” workshops had
proved successful however and it was planned to role these out further over the year.
(iii) that, as part of the “supporting transition” workshop, a further careers workshop would
be offered after open days, in addition to Thursday evening and Saturday workshops.
(iv) that careers workshops had been extremely popular and were fully booked; the group
were looking at ways to provide further careers support for students, including workshops
delivered by alumni and other College contacts.
Noted:
17.3 that the Steering Group did not currently have a student representative; this would be
reviewed by the Chair.
18 STUDENT COMMUNICATIONS
Received:
18.1 An update on the development of practice in relation to institutional communications with
students (SEWPC 23 – 2012/13)
Reported by Darren David, Marketing Officer:
18.2 (i) The all-student email bulletin was now being produced and sent;
(ii) that a calendar of workshops had been published; the webpages had been viewed nearly
10,000 times, with 50-60 workshops currently being advertised. Work was now underway to
improve the presentation of the calendar;
(iii) that a review of the website had just been completed and issues regarding the location of
information identified; recommendations had been made regarding the architecture of the
website had been made
19 STUDENT SURVEYS
Received:
19.1 A report on the analysis of results of the National Student Survey (SEWPC 24 – 2012/13)
Reported by Trevor Pearce, Deputy Academic Registrar (Academic Services)
19.2 That the report highlighted the issues that had been identified for departments to address,
together with departmental responses; the survey had been broadly positive for the College.
Noted:
19.3 (i) That comments had been made about the Students Union; the SU’s own survey had
analysed in more detail issues and had identified communication of the Union’s purpose and
processes as a key area to improve. The Union were now working on a strategy to improve in
this area.
(ii) that the College had supported the Union in the development of the website, which it was
hoped would help improve communication.
Received:
19.3 A report on the rationalisation of College surveys (SEWPC 25 – 2012/13)
Reported by Darren David, Marketing Officer
19.4 Work was continuing to rationalise the number of surveys produced, and a task group had
been established to rationalise these and to feed back on outputs.
20 COMPLAINTS (SEWPC 26-27, 2012/13)
Received and noted:
20.1 Reports on complaints and disciplinary cases considered by the College in 2011/12.
21 BIRKBECK / UEL STUDENT EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
Received and noted:
21.1 Minutes of the July and September meetings of the Birkbeck / UEL Student Experience
Committee (SEWPC 13 – 2012/13).
Reported by the Garmon ap Garth
21.2 (i) that a Pre-entry IAG team was now established at Stratford, and additional resource would
be provided in the new building once it was open.
22 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Noted:
22.1 That the next meeting of the Committee would be held on 7 May 2013.
Meeting concluded
Signed ___________________________________________________________________
(Tricia King, Chair, Student Experience & Widening Participation Committee)