UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
College of Arts Management Group
Minute of Meeting held on Wednesday 16 September 2015 in
Room 208, 4 Lilybank Gardens.
Present:
Professor R Ó Maolalaigh (Convenor); Professor L Abrams; Miss L Broe; Professor D Broun; Dr B
Burns; Professor K Crameri; Professor D Heddon; Professor D Eleftheriotis; Miss L McGarry (Clerk);
Dr P Morris; Dr C Panayotakis; Dr F Rowan; Ms G Shaw; Professor JJ Smith; Dr D Spaeth.
Apologies:
Professor K Lury; Dr J Huggett
The Convenor welcomed Professor Lynn Abrams to the meeting, attending in place of Dr
Huggett. The Convenor also welcomed Dr Fraser Rowan back as a member of CMG.
ACMG/2015/01
TRM
The Convenor welcomed Miss Ashley Theunissen to the meeting to provide an update on TRM.
Miss Theunissen informed CMG that the service had officially launched on Monday 31 August, after
one month of training. The launch of the new system had been delayed due to further developments,
as a result of queries that had arisen during testing, and it would likely be early-mid January 2016
before it was ready.
Miss Theunissen reported that there had been a large volume of emails to the generic address since
July and that the team would be set up in Supportworks as soon as possible. Miss Theunissen was
pleased to report that the team was settling in well and invited colleagues to come and meet them. The
team would be attending the School ArtsLab roadshows when possible.
Miss Theunissen pointed out that this was a busy time for the team given that there were various major
deadlines for funders in September and October. Miss Theunissen reminded colleagues to submit
applications for the BA Post-doc scheme to the team by the end of the day, or the end of the week if
they needed more time, but to give Miss Theunissen an idea of what they would be submitting.
The team could now finalise PAFs and provide institutional approval. They now saw more negative
contributions due to applications being costed on a FEC basis which meant work had to be done to
balance portfolios. Miss Theunissen suggested that this might encourage staff to go for something for
which they could apply for buyout, and there needed to be School discussion regarding the most
appropriate funder to apply to and the most appropriate use of time. Miss Theunissen reported that
there had been a high success rate amongst applications to the RSE and AHRC, crediting the work
carried out by Professor Lury, Professor Broun and Professor Smith for RSE grants, looking at
applications before they were submitted. Miss Theunissen asked Heads of School to ensure that
colleagues within the same subject areas were not in competition with each other as there had been a
recent surge in applications from one subject area being submitted for the same scheme which would
be in direct competition with one another at the funder review meeting.
Miss Theunissen pointed out that the RSIO grants team had experienced issues with people waiting
until immediately before the deadline before submitting applications, and asked for CMG approval to
enforce a rule that the College Research Team must be informed of an intention to submit and
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provided with costings for research applications at least one week prior to the deadline. CMG agreed
and Heads of School were asked to communicate this within their Schools.
ACTION: HOS
Miss Theunissen informed CMG that the team would continue to be taken out of the office at times for
further training but would endeavour to respond to all enquiries within 48 hours of receipt. She asked
that colleagues continue to use the generic address rather than going directly to specific members of
the team.
The Convenor commended Ashley and the rest of the Research Team.
ACMG /2015/02
Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 30 June 2015
The minutes of the meeting held on 30 June were received and approved subject to the following
amendments:
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Under ACMG/2014/134.03, the reference to English for Academic Purposes should be
changed to English for Academic Study.
Under ACMG/2014/138.02, the reference to the Learning and Teaching plan should be
changed to NSS Action Plan.
Under ACMG/2014/138.03, Dr Panayotakis would take over advising for English Literature
and English Language.
Under ACMG/2014/143, £4.2 million should be changed to £1.2 million.
ACMG/2015/03
Matters Arising
ACMG/2015/03.01
Court Update
The Convenor was yet to receive KPIs from Professor Juster.
ACMG/2015/03.02
REF Reviews
The Convenor reported that it had been agreed to extend the reporting deadline to the October
meeting of SMG.
ACMG/2015/03.03
College Secretary
The Convenor informed CMG that Mr Chris Andrew had been appointed as College Secretary
and would begin on Monday 12 October. He had received an initial induction to the College
the previous week.
ACMG/2015/03.04
P&DR Launch Events
Heads of School informed CMG that they had communicated the information presented at the
P&DR Launch events to all staff who were unable to attend.
ACMG/2015/03.05
College Newsletter
The Convenor reported that work was being done on the College Newsletter and the aim was
to distribute this around the beginning of the semester if possible.
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ACMG/2015/04
Convenor’s Business
ACMG/2015/04.01
QS University Rankings
The Convenor informed CMG that the QS University rankings had been published the
previous day. The bad news was that despite improving in four of the six metrics, the
University had dropped to 62nd place from 55th place last year. This seemed to be due to a
change in the methodology for citations. The good news was that Arts had benefitted from the
changes to how citations were calculated and was therefore the only area to make an
improvement, moving up an impressive 30 places from 106th to 67th. This meant that Arts and
MVLS were the only Colleges to be in the top 100. Arts at GU was joint 2nd in Scotland with
St Andrews behind the University of Edinburgh which was 20th. Arts at GU was 11th in the
Russell Group and 12th in the UK.
ACMG/2015/04.02
Project Development Board
The Convenor informed CMG that a meeting of the Project Development Board (PDB) had
taken place on Tuesday 25 August. This meeting had highlighted some challenges and the
Convenor had spoken with Mrs Ann Allen about the need for more support for the PDB. Mrs
Allen was considering ways in which all PDBs could be better supported.
The first workstream open meeting would be held on Thursday 17 September and these
meetings would continue throughout the rest of the month. The Convenor recognized that the
timing of these meetings was not ideal but the PDB felt that it was better than consulting in
August and over the summer period in general. The Convenor also planned to devote some
time to this topic at College Council meetings.
ACMG/2015/04.03
Business Cases
The Convenor thanked CMG for their input to two recently circulated business cases and
provided an update on these:
1. Despite initial losses it had been agreed that Translation Studies for delivery in Nankai
should go ahead. It was expected that within ten years this should break even.
2. The joint fractional appointment with the College of Social Sciences had been agreed at
0.2 fte but not 0.5 fte as had been requested. The Convenor expressed thanks in particular
to Professor Eleftheriotis for his input on this business case.
The Convenor informed CMG that, with the retirement of two members of staff in the
Hunterian, Professor David Gaimster was keen to collaborate with the College of Arts to
develop two curatorial posts: one in Mackintosh Studies and the other in Roman Archaeology.
The latter would be in keeping with REF Review recommendations. CMG agreed to consider
business cases for these posts at a future meeting.
ACMG/2015/04.04
REF Reviews
The Convenor referred to the email communication of 11 August and reminded CMG that
there were two more rounds of REF reviews to be completed before June 2016. The College’s
feedback to recommendations from the first round of reviews was now due to be reported to
the SMG meeting on 21 October, not the September meeting as originally scheduled. The
SMG meeting would take place one day before the October CMG meeting meaning responses
would have to be dealt with outside of CMG. The Convenor had therefore agreed the
following timetable with Professor Lury:
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responses from Heads of School and REF Champions due by 1 October;
Head of College and Dean of Research to meet in early October to agree response;
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Dean of Research to finalize feedback, confirm with Head of College and send to
CMG for approval on 13 October, asking for final tweaks by 15 October;
Dean of Research to get feedback from RKEC on 14 October;
Head of College to check and forward to SMG on 15 October, in time for SMG
meeting on 21 October.
The Convenor informed CMG that 12 months after the submission of the College’s response
to panels’ recommendations, the relevant Heads of School would be required to report against
progress at a CMG meeting at which the VP of Research would be present. A Mini-REF
would then take place approximately two years after the REF reviews.
The Convenor referred to a summary of the lessons learnt which he had circulated to CMG
and reminded Heads of School that these should be cascaded throughout their Schools.
ACMG/2015/04.05
Impact
The Convenor tabled a paper on Impact which had been presented by Professor Jon Cooper at
a SMG Roundtable (SMGr) meeting in August. The importance of establishing an Impact
Case Study pipeline had been emphasized via P&DR with Heads of School and Deans and the
Convenor was now able to confirm that the long-awaited Enlighten repository would be
available by the beginning of October. There would be a light touch audit of each College’s
Impact pipeline in March 2016; therefore it would be important to establish this before
December 2015.
ACMG/2015/04.06
College Research Integrity Champion
The Convenor informed CMG that RSIO had been provided with feedback on duties
templates and Ms Shaw had received the revised drafts the previous day. These revised drafts
were tabled at the meeting and the Convenor explained that CMG had to decide who the
Research Integrity Champion (Grade 10) would report to and which grade the School Integrity
Advisers should be.
Dr Burns reported that there had been a lot of debate at the Working Group meeting about the
grade of the Advisers given that senior members of staff had other commitments. It had been
suggested that if it was a matter of disseminating practice and regulations, the Adviser could
be a more junior person reporting to a more senior person.
It was agreed that training would be required for the Champion and the advisers but that it was
difficult to source Arts-related training. It was suggested that training be provided on a joint
basis for Scottish universities through the SGSAH. Professor Heddon agreed to raise this at
the next SGSAH Executive Meeting.
ACTION: DH
Ms Shaw informed CMG that the role of Champion would be advertised first followed by the
School Adviser roles. The College was required to provide an update at the next SMG
meeting. CMG was asked to provide the Convenor with suggestions regarding the Champion
by Friday 25 September.
ACTION: ALL
ACMG/2015/04.07
E-Learning Innovation Officer/ Web
The Convenor informed CMG that the Colleges of Social Sciences and MVLS each had two
e-Learning officers or their equivalent and he felt that Arts was missing out by not having one.
This was evident in the fact that Arts seemed to be less successful in applications for online
learning projects. The Convenor felt that there was also a need to develop the web presence of
the College and suggested that an e-Learning Officer could be employed to also support the
College web development. Dr Rowan suggested that this person could also have a role in
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Social Media management while Dr Spaeth pointed out that the College would need a clear
idea of the type of person it was looking for, i.e. would this be a strategic or a support role?
Dr Burns, Dr Spaeth and Dr Rowan agreed to meet to discuss this role further while CMG
agreed to consider a business case at a future meeting.
ACMG/2015/04.08
CAG: College Advisory Group
The Convenor asked CMG for their thoughts on the potential creation of a College Advisory
Group (CAG) which would consist of the Head of College, Heads of School, Deans, College
Secretary, College Head of HR, College Head of Finance, Heads of Subject and School
Convenors. The intention was that this Group would meet once per semester as a means of
opening up two-way communication. The Convenor wanted to set this Group up as early as
possible and suggested that the first meeting could be arranged as a social meeting. CMG
agreed that this was a good idea and Ms Shaw suggested that it could be arranged as a ‘World
Café’ type event with different Group members speaking on different topics.
ACMG/2015/04.09
New Communications Officer
The Convenor reported that Ms Jane Chilton had been appointed as the new Communications
Officer for Arts, replacing Mr Nick Wade. Ms Chilton had previously worked at the BBC and
Sky News and the Convenor suggested that it would be useful to invite her along to a future
CMG meeting as an introduction to colleagues.
ACMG/2015/04.10
Ethics Reviewers
The Convenor informed CMG that Dr Iain Banks had been in touch with him to request more
Ethics reviewers / assessors. There had been some issues during the summer which had left
the College open to criticism and complaint and these had to be addressed. The Convenor
suggested that a way to resolve the lack of reviewers would be to expect members of research
committees in each School to become Ethics reviewers. This would help to lessen the
workload and make it more manageable. CMG agreed with this as a way forward.
ACMG/2015/04.11
Graduation Ceremonies
The Convenor informed CMG that he was a strong supporter of Schools taking a central part
in graduation ceremonies but felt that that the College should also be represented at what was
the pinnacle of the academic year. The Convenor suggested that the Head of College attend
the ceremonies in future to present higher degrees such as PhD, MPhil and possibly all PG
research degrees, explaining that this also related to the visibility of SMG members within the
College. CMG agreed with this proposal and it was suggested that the Head of College should
also present Teaching and Good Service awards.
ACMG/2015/04.12
Glasgow School of Art
The Convenor informed CMG that the College validated degrees for the Glasgow School of
Art (GSA) and had a joint PGT in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art). The GSA was
keen to develop this partnership with GU, particularly in collaborative research projects.
There were existing links with History of Art and there had been discussions with Music.
Given GSA’s Digital Design Studio, the Convenor wondered if there was scope for
development with the Digital Humanities Network and with HATII. He asked that the
relevant Heads of School take forward discussions on developing partnerships.
ACTION: DE / JH (LA)
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ACMG/2015/04.13
Visitors to CMG
The Convenor proposed that Ms Jane Chilton be invited to attend the October CMG meeting
and that Professor Jim Conroy and Mr Joe Galloway be invited to a future meeting regarding
European funding. The Convenor asked colleagues to send him their thoughts on any other
potential visitors to CMG meetings in 2015-16.
ACTION: ALL
ACMG/2015/05
Finance
Miss Broe had provided CMG with the final Income and Expenditure Review of 2014-15 prior to the
meeting and informed colleagues that the College had finished the year at £1.2 million ahead of
budget. Miss Broe explained that within this figure there were some ups and downs in Schools with
two Schools having met their budget and two Schools having failed to meet their budget in
contributions. Miss Broe pointed out that meetings were still to be held with Schools to go through
this in detail.
Miss Broe informed CMG that the College had been fortunate financially to meet the budget because
of salary savings stating that otherwise it might have been tight.
Miss Broe pointed out that there were targets to make (voids of £400,000) in 2015-16 and asked
people to be mindful that the budget was interdependent. The University’s focus was much more on
contribution now because of investments in the next few years, such as the Western Infirmary site. If
the College didn’t make income, it would be harder to make the bottom line. The Convenor added to
this by asking colleagues to keep a close eye on expenditure and to be focused going forward when
posts became vacant.
It was noted that Professor Smith had some questions regarding the Critical Studies budget for 201415 and it was agreed that discussion on this would be taken offline.
ACMG/2015/06
School’s Business
ACMG/2015/06.01
Action Plans
The Convenor asked Heads of School for an update on their School Action Plans, to which
Heads of School provided the following responses:
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In the School of Culture and Create Arts the draft plan had gone to the School
Council, committees and subject areas. Feedback received had been fed into the plan
which would go to the School Management Meeting later that day.
In the School of Humanities / Sgoil nan Daonnachdan, the plan was still in draft stage
and had been discussed at the School Council meeting.
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures’ School meeting on 30 September
would be used to launch the University Strategic Plan which would then be used to
shape the School’s Action Plan.
The School of Critical Studies’ draft plan had been through general School Council
meetings and had been worked on throughout the summer. The School was starting to
align more with published KPIs and had identified a series of tasks.
ACMG/2015.06.02
P&DR
The Convenor reminded Heads of School that the deadline for completion of P&DR was 20
September although grade nine P&DR forms had to be submitted by 25 September. He asked
the Heads of School for an update on progress to which they provided the following
responses:
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The School of Culture and Creative Arts had completed P&DR for around 80% of its
staff and all grade nine and ten P&DRs were complete.
The School of Humanities / Sgoil nan Daonnachdan had completed most of its grade
nine P&DRs but there could be an issue in meeting the deadline for grade tens. The
Convenor asked that this be prioritised.
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures had completed all grade ten P&DRs
and most grade nines.
The School of Critical Studies had completed P&DRs for the majority of its staff.
ACMG/2015/06.03
School of Culture and Creative Arts
Professor Eleftheriotis informed CMG that he had set up a REF Advisory Group within his School
consisting of four senior colleagues who were either ex-panel chairs or had previous experience of
REF. The intention of this Group was to share knowledge across panels and to explore feedback,
tapping into the knowledge of senior colleagues. Professor Eleftheriotis pointed out that any questions
from REF champions could be sent to this Group.
ACMG/2015/06.04
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Professor Crameri informed CMG that the School of Modern Languages and Cultures now had an
IELTS Administrator in place, Mr Alex Ballantyne.
Professor Crameri also informed CMG about the Rosetta Stone Initiative to give students the
opportunity to learn a language online. This initiative was intended to support international student
mobility and was targeting people form the Schools of Law, Medicine and Engineering. It was funded
by the University and would begin rolling out in October. The languages being piloted were French,
German, Spanish and Portuguese and there was the potential for more languages to be added
afterwards. There was a target to give out 500 licenses from October for six months across the
University and Professor Crameri asked colleagues for any feedback on how to let students know
about the Initiative.
ACMG/2015/06.05
Critical Studies
A query was raised about LKAS fellows being transferred to ECDP. Ms Shaw responded that she was
trying to get guidance on workload reductions for ECDP colleagues and agreed to contact Central HR
about this on behalf of CMG.
ACTION: GS
ACMG/2015/07
Research
ACMG/2015/07.01
Research Strategy CAP Review
Professor Broun reported that Professor Lury would provide the Research Strategy CAP
Review document at a future meeting of CMG.
ACMG/2015/07.02
Research Deadlines
Professor Broun reminded colleagues of the following research deadlines:
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Research Leave (Round 1) – 16 October 2015
Strategic Research Allocation (Round 1) – 18 September 2015
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ACMG/2015/07.03
ArtsLab
Professor Broun spoke about this semester’s seminars and workshops. This includes the next
phase of the collaboration with Education Scotland, and workshops on European funding. A
new initiative is to hold seminars and workshops in Schools on preparing a research
application and on publishing strategies with an eye on 4* outputs. The Schools roadshow
held in June is also available to repeat.
ACMG/2015/08
Learning and Teaching
ACMG/2015/08.01
NSS
Dr Spaeth referred to the NSS 2015 report circulated to CMG prior to the meeting, stating that
while there was a lot of good news, there was also clearly still some work to do. He
recommended that colleagues refer to the first diagram within the report to see the work that
had to be done.
Dr Spaeth congratulated the four / five subject areas that received top / joint top in the UK and
gave special mention to the School of Modern Languages and Cultures which had made a
substantial improvement since last year, giving credit in particular to Dr Jackie Clarke.
Dr Spaeth pointed out that the area that needed more work for virtually every Subject in the
NSS was assessment and feedback. This would be a priority in the coming year and Dr Spaeth
hoped to draw upon the LEAF project from last year.
Professor Smith congratulated the Theology and Religious Studies Subject Area which had
done very well and had shown improvements over last year.
The Convenor pointed out that SMG was keen to have celebratory events for Schools that had
done well in the NSS and asked CMG to send him ideas by Friday 2 October about how best
to manage these events.
Action: All
ACMG/2015/08.02
Workload Model
Dr Spaeth tabled a revised version of the Workload Model stating that some of the numbers
had changed as had the first paragraph which explained more fully how the numbers added up.
The numbers had been increased for the Deans, the Director of ArtsLab and the Chief Adviser
of Studies.
Dr Spaeth pointed out that to the total number of hours for each role, 513 hours should be
added for research. The totals showed that some roles were working more hours within a year
than had been allocated, particularly the Heads of School.
Following some discussion about the recording of hours for Heads of School, it was agreed
that Dr Spaeth and Ms Shaw should contact the Workload Model Board to ask how this time
should be recorded. CMG agreed to accept totals for all roles except the Heads of School until
clarification was received.
Action: DS / GS
Professor Crameri asked that in the first paragraph, the reference to R&T and UT staff be
changed to Teaching and Scholarship staff. The Convenor pointed out that the Research
Integrity and ECDP Champion roles would have to be added to the table and asked that
anything paid be removed or highlighted.
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ACMG/2015/08.03
Admissions Update
Dr Spaeth reported that Arts admissions were below target on Home / EU students but above
target on RUK students, and the College had met its target on international students. Overall
student numbers were marginally below target which could be accounted for due to a drop in
admissions for MA Psychology.
ACMG/2015/08.04
L&T in 2015-16
Dr Spaeth informed CMG of his plans for L&T in the coming academic session:
 feedback was a key area to work on and Dr Wendy Anderson would take this on;
 a potential review of Level Three, looking at how joint boards deal with candidates,
and discretionary exams;
 hoping to use virtual peer assisted learning using social media as support for first year
students.
ACMG/2015/08.05
Advising System
Dr Panayotakis reported that the new advising system had been a success and that positive
feedback had been received from many students. There had been a lot of work for the
advising team and the absence of the sixth Senior Adviser was felt. Dr Panayotakis would
provide a report on the new system to the October CMG meeting as previously arranged.
The Convenor thanked the advising team on behalf of CMG.
ACMG/2015/09
Graduate School
ACMG/2015/09.01
PTES Results
Dr Burns reported on the PTES results, stating that results for overall satisfaction in Arts had
increased from 76% last year to 81% this year, which was above the GU average. However,
Arts was still behind the Russell Group average by 2.1%. Individual feedback had gone to
Schools and work on action plans for PTES and PRES was to begin. Dr Burns suggested that
these results should be included in the College celebration for the NSS.
ACMG/2015/09.02
Supervisor Training
Dr Burns informed CMG that supervisor training sessions had been scheduled for October and
November and that information on this would be circulated at College Council and by
email. Dr Burns would be in touch with Heads of School to discuss how they could encourage
attendance at these training sessions by those who had not responded so far.
ACMG/2015/09.03
Community Building
Dr Burns informed CMG that the community building Heritage day trip which had taken place
in the spring would be scheduled again for October. Dr Burns would like each School to offer
one idea for a trip and would be in touch with School PG Convenors to discuss this.
ACMG/2015/09.04
Study Space
Dr Burns reported that there was likely to be a shortage of study spaces for externally funded
students in the October 2015 intake. Dr Burns asked Schools to consider offering any space
that was not being used, and stated that the College too would investigate all possible means
of addressing this situation.
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ACMG/2015/10
SGSAH
Professor Heddon informed CMG that the next AHRC competition would launch on 1 October 2015
and that there were fewer awards in the pipeline this year. She pointed out that it was useful to see
increasing awareness of tie-in with the SGSAH by academic staff writing grants across
Scotland. Professor Heddon reported that all AHRC-funded students had been sent a letter of Terms
and Conditions of award and this included attendance at induction. There were some potential clashes
between these inductions and activities organized by subject areas at GU, however, the induction
should take priority over GU activities.
ACMG/2015/11
Internationalisation
ACMG/2015/11.01
International Partnership Development Fund
A document outlining the IPDF guidelines for inclusion on the Arts Internationalisation
webpages had been circulated to CMG prior to the meeting. The process outlined in the
document followed University guidelines although Dr Morris pointed out that there had been a
slight tweak under point three where the College was suggesting that it would not accept
applications after April. This was because the amount of funding available to Arts was more
limited than in other Colleges.
The guidelines suggested that for any proposals for sums under £500, funding should be
sought from the Schools rather than the IPDF and Dr Morris asked for feedback. The
Convenor pointed out that CMG had agreed that internationalization had to be invested in.
Following some discussion about this, the Convenor asked heads of school to think about how
this suggested approach would affect their Schools and CMG would revisit this discussion.
ACMG/2015/11.02
Glasgow International College (GIC)
Dr Morris informed CMG that other Colleges were recruiting students via the GIC and that it
appeared to be a successful route for the College of Social Sciences. The College of Arts
would be likely to recruit greater numbers for undergraduate studies and it was suggested that
a generic Arts course be developed. The Convenor added that there had been substantial
income for other Colleges recruiting through the GIC. CMG agreed with this proposal.
ACMG/2015/11.03
International Conference
Dr Morris informed CMG that the European Association for International Education (EAIE)
Conference was currently going on and that she had been approached by different people
about potential collaboration with Arts.
ACMG/2015/11.04
Summer School
Dr Morris reported that there was a strong interest in Creative Writing for the Summer School
for next year or the year after. A summer school on Scottish culture was being developed by
the College of Social Sciences, with planned College of Arts input, for University of
California students who would also be following two maths courses.
It was confirmed that Summer School courses would have to go to Board of Studies for
approval.
ACMG/2015/12
Risk Register
The topic agreed for this meeting was Global Reach and Dr Burns provided CMG with details of what
she would be taking forward with the PGT Working Group:
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International Media Plan - focus on advertising programmes with capacity for growth;
Domestic Media Plan – investigate offering PGT diplomas (no dissertation) in a number of
strategically chosen subjects which might be of interest to domestic market;
Conversion – it had been agreed to return to the provision of monthly data updates by MaRIO
so that subjects could monitor applications and engage in targeted conversion activities;
Badging – explore potential of offering some generic programme titles to appeal to the US
market.
It was agreed that the next meeting should cover Research.
Miss Broe reminded colleagues that the next CMG meeting would be around the time of the annual
audit.
ACMG/2015/13
HR
ACMG/2015/13.01
Promotions
Miss Shaw reminded colleagues that last year individual promotions sessions were held in
each School instead of the usual College event and asked for views on how this should be
done this year. CMG agreed that there was a preference for School level sessions.
ACMG/2015/13.02
Aurora Programme
Miss Shaw informed CMG that there were two places to be filled in the College for the Aurora
Programme Offered by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Last year colleagues
from the School of Humanities / Sgoil nan Daonnachdan and the School of Critical Studies
participated. This year participants would come from the School of Modern Languages and
Cultures and the College Office.
Miss Shaw confirmed that Professor Abrams had been an Aurora mentor last year while
Professor Heddon had been the College Role Model. Professor Heddon would continue in this
role.
ACMG/2015/13.03
Visa Legislation
Miss Shaw informed CMG of changes to Visa legislation around minimum earnings for
colleagues and stressed that Schools would have to be careful around advertising to make sure
that the minimum earnings requirement was considered. In terms of time-sensitive
appointments, Schools would have to ensure that the period was as correct as possible or they
could be faced with additional visa costs, changes in criteria which maybe more expensive
and/or make candidates ineligible. There were also a finite number of visas available so we
should attempt to be precise with the date.
ACMG/2015/13.04
Equality and Diversity Training
Miss Shaw reported that the completion rate for the College of Equality and Diversity training
was 69.5%. the target for the University was 90% Miss Shaw informed Heads of School that
Mrs Fiona Gehrmann would be in touch with them regarding those who had yet to complete
the training.
ACMG/2015/13.05
Maternity Leave for College Scholarships
Miss Shaw informed CMG that she had heard from the Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU)
that the three other Colleges would try to mirror RCUK entitlements for maternity leave for
scholarships. The College of Arts did not currently provide for this. Dr Burns added that this
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was on the Deans of Graduate Schools’ agenda for the coming year. Miss Shaw agreed to
provide an initial response to the EDU about this on behalf of CMG.
ACTION: GS
ACMG/2015/13.06
College Nominations
Miss Shaw informed CMG of an issue which had arisen recently in relation to a Visiting
Professorship which had not been recorded and asked colleagues to ensure that the appropriate
process for nominating visiting professors was followed.
ACMG/2015/14
BDM
Dr Rowan provided a report on feedback from Industry Day 2015. Some of the feedback was that the
event was an effective PR tool and a good opportunity to publicize what the College does. However,
there wasn’t the same degree of theme lead buy-in as with the previous event in 2013 and some of the
issues raised were that people felt that they were being spoken to, presentations were too long, and
there was not enough opportunity for networking. In future, Dr Rowan suggested that rather than
having eight theme leads there could be theme advocates for subject areas or units of assessment.
The Convenor thanked Dr Rowan for his report and congratulated him on the event.
ACMG/2015/15
College Nominations
CMG approved the nomination from the School of Culture and Creative Arts for a Visiting Professor
and asked that the process for assigning an email address to visiting staff be checked.
CMG approved the nomination from the School of Critical Studies for an Honorary Research Fellow
for three years in the first instance, on the condition that the full nomination form was provided by the
School.
ACMG/2015/16
AOCB
ACMG/2015/16.01
International Congress
The Convenor congratulated College of Arts colleagues on the four major international
congresses that had taken place in 2014-15.
ACMG/2015/17
Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting would be held on Thursday 22 October.
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