Unconfirmed minutes
Humanities & Social Sciences
School Board
Minutes of the First meeting of the School Board in the 2012-13 academic
session, held on Wednesday 5 December, QA075, Greenwich Campus
Present:
Apologies:
1.
Sarah Greer, Chair
Justine Baillie
Irene Barranco
Alessandro Benati
Sarah Crofts
Bill Davies
Leader
Sandra Dunster
Leader
Elaine Major
Kathy McKean
Mark Pawlowski
Zoe Pettit
Linnell Secomb
Ray Stoneham
Richard Wild
Leader
Jan Smith
Kirsten Guindi
Acting Dean, HSS
CCA, Senior Lecturer
Academic Services Librarian, ILS
Director of Research & Enterprise
Academic Services Librarian, ILS
Principal Lecturer & Programme
Alev Adil
June Balshaw
Alice Hilling
Steve Hurley
Eleanor Kehoe
Adam Sylvester
Head of Department, CCA
Director of Resources
Senior L&Q Administrator
Senior Lecturer
Office of Student Affairs
LLB Student, Level 5
Senior Lecturer and Programme
Principal Lecturer, CMS
Lecturer & ECR
Professor, Law School
Director of Learning & Quality
Head of Department, SPCS
Principal Lecturer, CMS
Senior Lecturer and Programme
Office Manager
Secretary, PA to the Dean
Welcome and apologies
Sarah welcomed everyone to the first School Board of2012/13. Apologies
were received as above.
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2.
Minutes of the previous Meeting (30 May 2012)
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 May 2012 were agreed as an
accurate record.
3.
Matters arising from the Minutes
3.1
Student Reps (Ref: Item 4.3)
It was noted that one student rep has now left the University and
another rep may need to be elected. This is still to be confirmed.
3.2
Learning and Quality Committee (Ref: Item 5)
Zoe confirmed that the Course Evaluation Form will be updated.
3.3
Staff Conference (Ref: Item 8)
Sarah confirmed that the follow up School Meeting would be held on 19
December. Sarah also said that the feedback regarding the School
Conference has been very positive.
3.4
Staff Handbook (Ref: Item 12)
It was noted that the Staff Handbook is accessible on the Staff Intranet.
This would be updated and added to as necessary. Staff have reported
that this is a useful addition.
4.
External Examiners
Zoe said that most of the appointments are recorded in Item 6.2 but an
additional external has been appointed for MA Public Policy and Practice: Dr
Jim Goddard.
ACTION:
5.
All requests for new appointments or extensions to be
approved by the end of the year. Director of L&Q.
School Monitoring and Reporting Document (SMRD)
The Board discussed the draft SMRD. Sarah confirmed that the draft SMRD
must be submitted by 21 January. The Board were directed to Section 4 and
Appendix 5. It was noted that the School has improved in many of the areas
discussed in Appendix 5.
Sarah reported that in line with elsewhere, student recruitment (NECN)
decreased in 2012/13 and said that the School is focusing on recruitment and
conversion rates as a result.
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The Board noted that the NSS results were positive for the School and it was
announced that Louise O’Dwyer will now be working with the DLQ to continue
to encourage NSS response rates within the School.
6.
Learning & Quality Minutes, Zoe Pettit
6.1
3 October 2012
Learning & Teaching Workshops: Zoe confirmed that the workshops
are running well and the next one is on 6 December
Week 1 Report: Zoe reported that Week 1 was discussed at the
central Learning & Quality Committee and it has been agreed that
there will also be a dedicated Postgraduate Week 1 Programme.
Employability: The DELHE Statistics have improved significantly for
the School.
NSS 2012: This was discussed in Item 5.
School’s Code of Practice on Assessment: This document has been
redrafted and is now called Operational Guidelines on Assessment,
taking into account the University’s new Assessment and Feedback
Policy. A copy will be circulated by the end of term.
6.2
7 November 2012
Annual Monitoring Reports: Zoe confirmed there was an
improvement on last year and there are many examples of good
practice.
Link Tutor Reports: These are in the process of being completed.
6.3
Learning & Quality Update
Programme Structures: Programme Leaders are currently looking at
and revising the programme structures with a view to streamlining
them.
Employability Courses: For courses that do not already have
employability embedded in the content it is now possible to create 15
credit Employability courses that will run alongside other 15 credit
courses.
7.
Research & Enterprise Minutes, Alessandro Benati
7.1
29 February 2012
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7.2
21 March 2012
7.3
10 October 2012
7.4
28 November 2012
Alessandro confirmed that the Research and Enterprise Committee are
currently working on three main items:
i.
GREAT 2012
The 5 REF groups have been working very hard to establish
themselves and have completed the first stage. The draft documents
have been checked by externals and returned with comments. The
next stage is to update the documents and send to new externals for
further comments.
ii.
Research & Enterprise Strategy
Early Career Researchers (ECRs) continue to be supported both by
staff and financially with a £1K grant for each ECR. The School is also
developing a mentoring Scheme for ECRs.
The School has appointed several new professors and a reader.
The School will also be looking at introducing a new training
programme for PhD students.
iii.
Becoming sustainable
Alessandro said that the School needs to increase research income.
All bids over £20K will need to be submitted to a central university
panel.
Sarah expressed thanks to Alessandro for all his work on the REF and
the new strategy.
8.
Any Other Business
8.1
Reading Weeks
It was noted that this term is very long and some staff suggested that a
Reading Week is necessary. The new three term schedule may
reduce this problem.
8.2
Employee Engagement Survey
Sarah confirmed that she has met with CCA and SPCS and that Zoe
has met with the School of Law for initial feedback and discussion
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following the School Conference. The next step is to set up a
dedicated working group to look at the specific issues raised in the
survey.
9.
Date and Time of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held at 2pm on Wednesday 20 February, KW016.
Secretary: Kirsten Guindi
Tel: x9357/8991
Email: k.guindi@gre.ac.uk
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