SCHOOL BOARD
Minutes of the Medway School of Pharmacy School Board held on Wednesday 7th March
2012
Present
Professor Iain Cumming
Head of School
Dr Buge Apampa
Director of Learning and Teaching
Dr Tara Ghafourian
Chair Staff/Student Liaison
Dr Gurprit Lall
Early Career Academic
Mrs Min Keating
Health and Safety Representative
Professor Alistair Mathie
Director of Research
Dr Ruth Rodgers
Head of Examinations and Assessments
Professor Yuri Ushkaryov
Research Representative
Student representatives
Emmanouil Glinos-MPharm 2
Rosie Wood-FdPP2
In attendance
Dr Sarah Corlett
Jerome Durodie
Dr Tarlochan Gill
Stuart Gill-Banham
Dr Andrew Hall
Professor Janet Krska
Dr Ruey-Leng Loo
Andrea Manfrin
Minutes
Joanna Mowbray
1. Apologies
Debby Dixon
Trudy Thomas
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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. Professionalism and attitudes within Medway School of Pharmacy
Sarah Corlett gave a verbal update on the professionalism and attitudes
questionnaire previously circulated to all students. The project has stemmed from
reports of poor attitudes amongst graduates and negative feedback from placements.
A series of student and staff focus groups took place during November, facilitated by
an external consultant. The topics discussed were based around the questionnaire
giving students an opportunity to expand on their thoughts regarding
professionalism within the school.
The study is now finished and the report is currently being finalised but there have
been some emerging themes;
Students would like the teaching of professionalism to be more explicit
Clear expectations set by the school of what is expected of them
Students would like more support in securing work and pre reg placements
Students expressed concern with frequent changes-timetable and assessments
Students and staff would like to celebrate successes
Action points arising from the professionalism and attitudes report for the
school to implement
Develop professional framework for staff and students
Establish employers group
Address organisational issues
Celebrate successes
4. University of Greenwich strategic plan
The Chair presented slides from the University of Greenwich strategic plan. There
are common themes emerging between Greenwich and Kent. In particular,
commonality in attrition rates-which the school is currently addressing through the
Learning and Teaching committee.
The slides are available on the x:\drive\school committees\school board and staff
are welcome to submit comments to the Chair.
5. Medway School of Pharmacy Plan
The plan has been submitted to the University of Kent as part of the University’s
planning schedule.
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There are three major objectives the school wishes to achieve;
To develop an internationally recognised research reputation that will exploit the
multidisciplinary nature of the school and grow enterprise activity in support of
pharmaceutical industry and the NHS.
Improve the quality of undergraduate provision; decrease the first year attrition
rates; improve the percentage of 1st/2.1 awards; improve further and then
maintain the first time pass rate in the GPhC Registration Exam.
To engage postgraduate students in lifelong learning through registration for
higher degrees and/or CPD, by further development of innovative multidisciplinary
approaches to education and training.
The school plan is available on the x:\drive\school committees\school board
6. Preparation for accreditation 2012/2013
The school will undergo re-accreditation under the new GPhC regulations. The Chair
will submit a request for the visit to take place during January 2013.
In line with her role as Director of Learning and Teaching, BA is now the MPharm and
FdPP programme lead. BA will work with KIC in putting together a school team together
to create the submission documents. In addition the employers group as mentioned in
item 3 will play a part in the way the school analysis’s the current curriculum. A review
of placement function will also contribute.
The Chair will contact other head’s of pharmacy who have been through the process.
PART B: Items for noting
7 Draft minutes of the Learning &Teaching committee 15th February 2012
The Chair highlighted items from the meeting;
National Student Survey 2011 & 2012 (LTC 7-11/12)
The Chair highlighted a number of individual comments from the 2011 NSS survey. The
themes arising were: Academic support (Pastoral care & Placements) & Organisation &
Management (Timetabling)
Planning documents
The school provides two articulated programmes for the Master of Pharmacy (MPharm)
and Foundation Degree in Pharmacy Practice (FdPP) at undergraduate level to both
institutions each academic session
Appeals
Students in Pharmacy were more likely to appeal than students in any other school in
the university It was reported that even considering the results on a per capita basis to
even out student numbers, the Medway School of Pharmacy still accounted for the
highest number of appeals throughout the University of Kent. 90 applications were
received by the Faculty of Sciences, of which 35 were submitted by Pharmacy students,
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77% of them citing new evidence. It was suggested that perhaps students are
submitting concessionary evidence after the concessions committee meeting had been
held.
It was suggested the school thinks about the process that is followed during concessions
committee meetings. Perhaps an increased flexibility in grading concessions may be
necessary as the pharmacy concessions committee may be taking too hard a line when
assessing students’ concessionary evidence and students do not appear to be given the
benefit of the doubt.
Action: Personal tutors to advise their tutees that all concessionary evidence is
submitted in a timely manner for consideration by the School concessions
committee. Guidance is available on all student notice boards and Moodle.
TESTA
A number of staff and student sessions are taking place, co-ordinated by Judy CohenCurriculum and Educational Developer UoK
Draft minutes of the Staff Student Liaison Committee 22nd February 2012
Disruptive Students: One student representative brought further attention to the bad
behaviour of some students during labs and lectures, in particular with regard to the
Pilkington open space. A discussion followed with all Representatives agreeing that
warnings made by lecturers about being asked to leave the session be carried through
to discourage such behaviour. ANL asked whether this would be agreeable to students
as a whole. All Representatives felt that the minority of badly behaved students should
not be allowed to compromise the learning of others. It was suggested that peer
pressure could be beneficial in helping to tackle this problem. One student
representative suggested a 30 second warning be made at the start of each lecture. One
Representative asked for standards to be set to ensure all staff act in the same way. All
Representatives felt that interactive lectures and those where a short break was given
in the middle helped to keep the group more focussed.
The Chair commented this issue will be dealt with under the professional
framework
Printing Credit: The 3rd year representative informed the group that printing was less
expensive with Greenwich than Kent and printing credits with Greenwich is better if
school could supply for the next academic year. The Chair requested more detail to
make a decision.
4th Year Elective
The 3rd Year Representative asked whether it was usual for students to not get their
first choice. TG confirmed that the performance of students in all ASc electives is
roughly equivalent; and an assigned elective would not be detrimental to their degree.
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8. Draft minutes of the Research and Enterprise committee 22nd February 2012
Research funding and contract officer
Helen Leech, research associate at the school will be providing maternity cover for
Karen Allart- research funding and contract officer UoK.
Funding opportunities
The Chair referred to the UoK document for recording funding applications and
successes. It was noted the figures are sometimes misleading as UoK splits the
amounts into Research and Enterprise depending on the nature of the application.
The Chair reported that 2010/11 was successful in term of grants applied for and
awarded. According to Kent Research Services data, total of 1.5 million was applied
for during this period and just over £600K awarded.
For the 2011/12 session, applications totalling 2 million have already been
submitted. However, the success rate to date is quite low because decisions have not
been made yet on most of these applications.
In summary, the school has already made more grant submissions for more money
than the whole of 2010/11, with 5 months still remaining in this academic financial
year.
REF
The school is unclear in regard to its position regarding submissions for REF 2014.
Following discussions at University level it was clear Greenwich and Kent are not
comfortable with the school submitting exclusively with either institution.
To date there has been no specific guidelines from either institution on the way
forward. It was agreed the request for clarification would be taken to the next Joint
Pharmacy Planning Committee.
The Chair will continue to summarise the schools outputs and provide guidance for
staff at school level.
Strategic health
The following events have been scheduled for all academic staff;
NIHR research funding workshop-2nd April 9.30-12.45 Canterbury
CLRN expanding research activities/network session-28th June Medway
Further information, programme and agendas will be circulated in the next few
weeks. Staff should contact Karen Allart or Helen Leech if they have any queries.
PhD
As part of the Vice Chancellors research initiatives, Greenwich is introducing a
scheme to support up to 120 PhD studentships throughout the University.
Applications are to be made to the Vice Chancellors office by 27 February. KIC, AM
and JK will review school applications before submission.
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It was noted the University of Kent is increasing its PhD studentships from 30 to 100
for 2012 intake. The details of the application process have not been released, at
present.
9. Draft minutes of the Health and Safety Committee 1ST February 2012.
Fire wardens
Following recent office moves there is a vacancy for a fire warden on the 3rd floor,
Anson South. The Chair will approach Tracy Joseph to request undertaking of this
task. The committee also discussed the issue of the third floor not having a direct fire
evacuation access.
The Chair to liaise with Greenwich facilities management.
Safety statement
The annual safety statement is currently being prepared and will be discussed and
signed off at the next health and safety meeting.
The DSE officer reported there are 26 outstanding PhD and staff responses to
complete the DSE assessment. It was noted the requirement is to make contact on
three separate occasions. It is then assumed there are no issues to be reported.
Personal emergency plan
The Chair has received training on the University of Kent PEEP procedure. The
procedure would now be included in staff inductions. Further information is
attached to the minutes and is available on the x:\health and safety committee.
AOB
Examination timetable to be finalised and circulated by the end of March
Date of next meeting
Wednesday 18th July 2012 2pm
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