SCHOOL BOARD
Minutes of the Medway School of Pharmacy School Board held on Wednesday 18th July
2012
Present
Dr Buge Apampa
Director of Learning and Teaching
Dr Tara Ghafourian
Chair Staff/Student Liaison
Dr Gurprit Lall
Early Career Academic
Min Keating
Health and Safety Representative
Professor Alistair Mathie (Chair)
Director of Research
In attendance
Dr Cleopatra Branch
Catherine Dewsbury
Jerome Durodie
Dr Bernhard Gibbs
Dr Tarlochan Gill
Stuart Gill-Banham
Dr Andrew Hall
Andrew Lea
Linda Lucas
Dr Ali Nokhodchi
Minutes
Joanna Mowbray
1. Apologies
Professor Iain Cumming
Dr Ruth Rodgers
It was noted the school board usually takes place in May but was delayed to
accommodate Learning and Teaching Committee where external examiner
comments were considered. It was agreed an additional Learning and Teaching
Committee would be scheduled.
2. Minutes of the school board 7th December 2012
The minutes were accepted as a true record of proceedings.
PART A: Items for discussion
3. E-Learning plan
Shivaun Gammie presented an E-learning plan written in conjunction with Rob
White and Kaye Bachelard, which will be submitted to the Learning and Teaching
committee for approval. The proposal for the school is that E-Learning is defined as
“learning that is facilitated by means of technology or electronic resources”. The
school has adopted a pro-active approach to E-Learning tools so far;
Moodle
Audience Response Systems
Myfolio
For the new academic session it is proposed that improved training will be given to
students regarding Myfolio. Kaye Batchelard will provide an online podcast with
helpful hints for MyFolio, improved online resources students, E-learning newsletter
for staff, and structured help and support days with discussion lead sessions for staff.
The full document is available to staff who are welcome to provide comments to
Shivaun Gammie.
4. REF update
At the last school board, the R&E committee reported no clear guidelines regarding
MSoP submissions. It has since been confirmed the school will return jointly with
UoK and UoG in unit of assessment 3. This category includes submissions from
pharmacy, alliance health professions, nursing and dentistry.
The REF pilot submission system exercise which mirror’s next year’s schedule will
start in September 2012.
Communication regarding individual staff circumstances has been circulated and the
deadline was the end of June-however, it was noted submissions will be taken into
account up until REF 2013. The defined circumstances include illness,
paternity/maternity, part time working.. Staff should ensure they complete this
important exercise and the Chair reassured staff it would not be considered at
school level, but anonymously at university level.
5. Accreditation update
A working group of academic staff members from the three subject disciplines have
been asked to work with the DoLT in reviewing the nature, content and quality of
the MPharm curriculum to ensure that our provision will be in alignment with the
new academic standards and the indicative syllabus in preparation for the GPhC
accreditation in 2013.
The school needs to produce an integrated vertical curriculum which is learning
outcomes focused.
Andy Husband led the Sunderland School of Pharmacy to a successful reaccreditation of their MPharm against the new standards in 2011 and will be visiting
the school in September and November in an advisory role to discuss the procedures
for the accreditation.
Action points relating to the re-accreditation for the working group and all staff for
the coming academic session;




Indentify and engage stakeholders
Confirmed dates for future meetings
Indentify students representatives
All staff meetings to communicate changes and plans for the curriculum as it
is imperative all staff know the curriculum and can defend the content of to
the visiting accreditation panel.
PART B: Items for noting
Chairs to provide brief verbal updates on key points
6. Draft minutes of the Research and Enterprise committee 16th May 2012
Kent faculty plan
The document is due to be signed off by UoK executive group this week. The following
elements apply to research;

Increase the role of the Faculty Director of Research, Enterprise and Innovation.

A new director was appointed in 2011-12. At present this post is only a 10% FTE
position. This will be increased to 30%. The director will interact more strongly with
Schools and the Research and Enterprise offices. A budget change needs to be made
to accommodate this.

Continue with its Research Support Fund in 2012-13. This was a centrally provided
£25k pot of money in 2011-12. It acts as seed-corn for small activities to improve
research to REF 3* or preferably 4* level. Whilst the REF is almost upon us, it acts as
a very positive stimulant for research so we want to repeat this. We request that this
credit is continued in 2012-13.

Ensure that all academic appointments at faculty level are REF 3* or 4* level.

Ensure new faculty members have appropriate probationary plans.
Schools will be expected to ensure a school research plan exists and ensure similar
plans exist for each research group and each faculty member with research in their
contract (who will be responsible for their own plan). These should be on file in the
School.
The school needs more detail and to prioritise their research interests-instead of
the current broad range. The clinical and professional practice team have agreed
their research areas and biological science have begun discussions.
Schools will also be expected to ensure a School Enterprise and Innovation Plan exists.
This should be on file in the School and should be supplied to, and discussed annually
with, the Faculty Director of Research and Enterprise/Innovation. The Dean and Kent
Innovation and Enterprise Office should have access to these plans on request.
In addition to the well established Director of Research, have a clearly identified
Director of Innovation and Enterprise whose workload is reflected in the WAM. This
may be the same person as the Director of Research.
The school does not currently have a Director of Innovation and Enterprise. It was
noted the school does not generate much enterprise income.
It was agreed that the Chair will take on the role while the school develops its
enterprise activities.
Establish a target for research income for the School. This will be subject specific and
should be based on a comparison to the School’s inspirational peer group (or a mixture
of subjects to reflect the composition of the School, but should be externally benchmarked against high quality, successful peers). Once the value per FTE academic is
established by bench-marking, the School should multiply by the number of research
active faculty members to obtain a target. This will be communicated to the Dean,
Faculty Director for Research and PVC Research.
It was noted the school needs to be clear on research expectations of staff. The
Chair will review subject group targets.
7. Draft minutes of the Health and Safety committee 11th April 2012
The committee met on 11th April 2012 to review and agree the safety statement. The
document was submitted to UoG safety unit at the end of April.
8. Draft minutes Learning and Teaching committee 16th July 2012
 A summary of the module evaluation comments are available on the shared
drive/school committee/learning and teaching
 Most module monitoring reports have been completed. The Chair will indentify
good practice points and circulate to all staff.
 A summary of external examiner reports were reviewed at the committee. There
were some requests made, which the school will address. Full reports are
available on the shared drive/school committee/learning and teaching.

AOB
It was noted the Graduate Studies Committee should to report to the school board.
MSc in drug delivery will be launching in September 2012, with over 20 students signed
up. Scott Wildman is the programme lead and will be emailing staff requesting
volunteers to contribute to module content. At the moment the content is biological
science based, but could open up to chemistry and clinical. The programme may be
studied either one year full time or two years part time, either at the school or by
distance learning.
Date of next meeting
2012/2013 school committee dates to be confirmed.