UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
College of Arts Management Group
Minute of Meeting held on Thursday 22 October 2015 in
Room 208, 4 Lilybank Gardens.
Present:
Professor R Ó Maolalaigh (Convenor); Professor L Abrams; Miss L Broe; Dr B Burns; Professor K
Crameri; Professor D Heddon; Professor D Eleftheriotis; Professor K Lury; Miss L McGarry (Clerk);
Dr P Morris; Dr C Panayotakis; Dr F Rowan; Ms G Shaw; Professor JJ Smith; Dr D Spaeth.
Apologies:
Professor D Broun; Dr J Huggett.
ACMG/2015/18
Jane Chilton (Communications Officer) Introduction
The Convenor welcomed Ms Jane Chilton to the meeting as the new Communications Officer for the
College of Arts, replacing Mr Nick Wade. Ms Chilton outlined some of her plans for working with
the College, pointing out that she was keen to have a balance between written articles and videos on
the web and that she would be looking to link current news stories with relevant studies from across
the College, using the example of the recent coverage of the demolition of the Red Row flats. Ms
Chilton would also be happy to do interviews with academics for the College website.
ACMG/2015/19
Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday 16 September 2015
The minutes of the meeting held on 16 September were received and approved subject to the
following amendments:



ACMG/2015/06.04, amendments to be agreed with Professor Crameri
ACMG/2015/11, amendments to be provided by Dr Morris
ACMG/2015/12, amendments provided by Dr Burns
ACMG/2015/20
Matters Arising
ACMG/2015/20.01
TRM (ACMG/2015/01)
The Convenor confirmed that the new rule for providing the College Research Team with an
intention to submit and costings for research applications one week prior to the deadline had
been communicated throughout the College via Heads of School, the Research Team’s first
newsletter and the College Research web pages.
ACMG/2015/20.02
REF Reviews (ACMG/2015/04.04)
The Convenor thanked the relevant Units of Assessment for the work that had been
completed towards the REF Reviews. It had been agreed that feedback to recommendations
would be submitted in time for the November meeting of SMG in order to allow for
discussion of these at CMG and within the schools.
ACMG/2015/20.03
P&DR (ACMG/2015/06.02)
The Convenor reported that the completion rates for P&DR as of Wednesday 21 October was
87% and asked Heads of School to work to ensure that those P&DRs which were still
outstanding were completed as soon as possible. He thanked Heads of Schools for their hard
work on this.
ACMG/2015/20.04
School of Modern Languages and Cultures (ACMG/2015/06.04)
Professor Crameri reported that at the end of the recent Study Abroad event there had been an
uptake of 100 licences for the Rosetta Stone Initiative, which equated to 20% of the target for
the next six months. The School of Modern Languages and Cultures was now looking to
target students in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences and the College of
Social Sciences as well as any other relevant students who did not attend the Study Abroad
event.
ACMG/2015/21
Convenor’s Business
ACMG/2015/21.01
College Secretary
The Convenor reported that Mr Chris Andrew had written to Central HR to inform them that
he would not be taking up the role of College Secretary having received another job offer.
Miss Liz Broe had agreed to take on the role of College Secretary on a temporary basis until it
went out to market again in the New Year. CMG expressed their thanks to Miss Broe for
taking on this role. The Convenor also thanked Miss Broe and Ms Shaw for their support in
dealing with College Secretary issues over the past six months. The Convenor confirmed that
the College would make arrangements to backfill the Head of Finance role.
ACMG/2015/21.02
College International Lead
The Convenor informed CMG that having monitored the workload of the College
International Lead, he had agreed to increase the fte of the role from 0.2 to 0.3, and provided
some backfill. CMG approved this change.
ACMG/2015/21.03
Business Development Manager
Following discussion with Professor Lury and Dr Rowan, the Convenor proposed to change
the job title and description of the Business Development Manager role to the role of KE and
Impact Manager. The Convenor tabled the revised job description, explaining that one of the
main responsibilities would be the management of the Impact Case Study pipeline. Professor
Heddon suggested that this change should be communicated throughout the College.
ACMG/2015/21.04
HATII REF Reviews
The Convenor had raised with the VP for Research the need for some form of REF review for
HATII which was not submitted for REF2014. The VP’s office had agreed with this and a
paper would go to SMG to address this issue.
ACMG/2015/21.05
Ancestral Studies
CMG had previously agreed to fund a 0.5 University Teacher position and a Development
Officer post in Ancestral Studies. Following a meeting between the Convenor, Professor
Abrams and Dr Nyree Finlay, it was agreed that the University Teacher post was not feasible
at this time. The Development Officer post would go ahead as planned.
ACMG/2015/21.06
College Research Integrity Champion
As there had been no applicants to the role of College Research Integrity Champion, the
Convenor would approach potentially suitable members of staff to fill this position and
welcomed suggestions from CMG.
ACMG/2015/21.07
Project Development Board Update
The Convenor thanked the workstream leads who had held Open Meetings throughout
September. The Convenor had recently met with Mrs Ann Allen who had suggested Mrs
Eleanor Magennis (up to Christmas) and possible Mr Martin Munro (in the New Year) from
Estates and Buildings to support the Project Development Board. It was intended that another
meeting of the Project Development Board with the Architect be held to discuss the feedback
gathered at the Open Meetings.
ACMG/2015/21.08
Overspend on Budgets
With reduced REG income and the likelihood of cuts in the forthcoming spending reviews,
the Convenor highlighted the need to manage finances very carefully. Where indefensible
overspends in budgets occurred in Schools over the course of the year, the Convenor was
considering passing these on as cuts in budget to Schools the following year.
ACMG/2015/21.09
FAPESP
The Convenor informed CMG that in January 2015, the University signed a 5-year research
agreement with one of Brazil’s leading research funders, the Sao Paolo State Foundation –
FAPESP. Both parties would commit up to £100,000 to support research co-operation
projects, with £10,000 being committed by each College. The College already had links in
San Paolo in English Language but could potentially expand these. Dr Morris would
represent the College on the group that had been set up to assess applications. The Convenor
asked Heads of School to cascade this information within their Schools.
Action: HoS
ACMG/2015/21.10
Common Purpose
The Convenor reported that Common Purpose had a new Study Abroad scheme which would
take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next year. The University of Glasgow would have 25
places on this scheme at a cost of c. £700 each, and the Convenor had indicated that the
College of Arts would be interested in participating in this.
ACMG/2015/21.11
League Tables
The Convenor reported that the College of Arts had moved up three places from 61 st last year
to 58th this year in the THE World Subject Rankings.
ACMG/2015/21.12
KPI Six
The Convenor indicated that the College must decide how to measure KPI Six for continual
improvement in the quality of research outputs, i.e. an increase on a year by year basis in the
number of 4* outputs. Following some discussion, it was agreed that a Working Group
would be required and the Convenor agreed to speak to Miss Ashley Theunissen about setting
this up.
Action: ROM
ACMG/2015/21.12
LKAS
The Convenor informed CMG that the LKAS Fellowship and Leadership schemes would
soon be launched. The College had provided feedback on paperwork related to the schemes
to the VP for Research and a revised paper would go to SMG. The College of Arts was likely
to have up to six fellowships and CMG had already agreed to use most of these in connection
with recommendations arising from the REF reviews. CMG would however have to decide
how to prioritise these fellowships across the 11 Units of Assessment in Arts. Following a
lengthy discussion during which suggestions were made as to how best to prioritise these
fellowships, it was agreed that the Convenor would discuss this further with Professor Lury
after the meeting.
ACMG/2015/21.13
P&DR
The Convenor informed CMG of discussion at a recent SMG meeting about P&DR and the
huge amount of time that this took, particularly for reviewers and moderation panellists. He
thanked all those who had taken part in the moderation process, particularly Professor
Eleftheriotis who had sat on three out of the four panels. In terms of performance assessment,
the Convenor reported that the University Services and the College of Medical, Veterinary
and Life Sciences had achieved the expected results pre-moderation and he expressed concern
that this had not happened within Arts. The Convenor tabled updated graphs showing
moderation results and thanked Miss Lisa Gallagher for the huge amount of work she had put
into these. These graphs showed that the College was still sitting above the expected results
for performance assessment levels post moderation and the Convenor asked CMG for their
views on this. Following lengthy discussion, where it was suggested that work should be
done with reviewers to show them where performance assessment levels were out of line, it
was agreed to revisit this item at a future meeting of CMG.
ACMG/2015/22
Schools’ Business
ACMG/2015/22.01
School Strategic / Action Plans
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) had provided its draft Action Plan
for 2015-2020, and it was noted that The School of Culture and Creative Arts had also
provided its draft Action Plan prior to the meeting but that in error this had not been
circulated with the other papers.
Professor Crameri informed CMG that the SMLC plan provided was not the final draft and
that this was still out to consultation within the School. The School would devote some time
to discussing this at its next meeting and there would be School-wide consultation. Professor
Crameri indicated that she would appreciate feedback from CMG on the specificity of
actions. CMG provided Professor Crameri with some suggested amendments.
The Convenor indicated that this item would remain on the CMG agenda for the next meeting
and asked the other Schools to provide their draft action plans.
ACMG/2015/22.02
School of Humanities / Sgoil nan Daonnachdan
Professor Abrams informed CMG that she had set up a short-term working group to look at
areas around work-life balance and workload issues within the School of Humanities / Sgoil
nan Daonnachdan identified in the last staff survey. The Convenor added that a member of
staff had offered to run lunchtime Mindfulness classes and asked if CMG would be
supportive of this. CMG supported this proposal in principle. The Convenor would discuss
with HR the possibility of doing something more broadly on Mindfulness across the College.
ACMG/2015/23
Research
ACMG/2015/23.01
REF Review Action Plans
Professor Lury thanked colleagues for their support in meeting deadlines for key work in
relation to the REF reviews. Professor Lury had met with colleagues from the relevant Units
of Assessment for consultation on the action plans and had provided CMG with the latest
versions of the plans for Archaeology, Music, Philosophy, and Theology and Religious
Studies prior to the meeting for further consultation. Professor Lury pointed out that more
work was needed on the Archaeology Action Plan.
Following lengthy discussion on each of these action plans it was agreed that these were not
quite ready to go to SMG. CMG recommended changes for each plan.
ACMG/2015/23.02
CAP Review
Professor Lury informed colleagues that she would prepare a report on the CAP Review for
the next meeting of CMG in November.
ACMG/2015/23.03
College Research Strategy
Professor Lury informed colleagues that the draft College Research Strategy would be
submitted to CMG for its November meeting. There was a need to think about how KE and
Impact worked with Research and where responsibilities should lie within Schools. There
was a clear feeling that Schools should have Research Champions and Impact Champions.
ACMG/2015/23.04
RKEC
Professor Lury suggested that there might be a review of the constitution of the Research and
Knowledge Exchange Committee and informed colleagues that she was considering inviting
one or two Early Career Researchers to attend future meetings.
ACMG/2015/23.05
REF Submission Strategy
Professor Lury had provided colleagues with a paper prior to the meeting outlining four
scenarios for the REF Submission Strategy to maximise 4* outputs, and asked CMG for their
views on these scenarios. Following some discussion it was agreed that Heads of School
should consider these scenarios with colleagues in their Schools and send brief comments to
the Convenor and Professor Lury with their School view.
Action: HoS
ACMG/2015/24
Learning and Teaching
ACMG/2015/24.01
NSS Action Plan
Dr Spaeth provided CMG with the College of Arts’ NSS Report and Action Plan which had
gone to the October meeting of the Education Policy and Strategy Committee (EdPSC). Dr
Spaeth pointed out that feedback and assessment was the priority within this Action Plan.
CMG approved the plan.
ACMG/2015/2015/24.02
Advising Report
Dr Panayotakis provided CMG with a report on the new Advising system in the College of
Arts, commenting that this had been a great achievement. The report outlined the successes
of the new system as well as the issues experienced during the transition from the previous to
the new system, and provided a list of actions needed. The Convenor thanked Dr Panayotakis
for the report and for his positive and patient work over the last few months, and agreed with
the actions outlined in the report, with the exception of the action in relation to honorarium,
which was to be revisited.
ACMG/2015/25
Graduate School
ACMG/2015/25.01
AHRC and College Scholarships
Dr Burns informed CMG that information on AHRC and College scholarships had been sent
to the Schools. The timetable would be tight, as always, but timelines were dictated by the
AHRC competition and were similar for all institutions. Caps for the number of candidates to
be submitted by each Subject Area were based on subject size and historical success, but the
system allowed for some flexibility and Schools should let Dr Burns know if they had
difficulty distinguishing between high quality candidates and if they wished to exceed their
cap.
ACMG/2015/25.02
Marketing for Programmes
Dr Burns informed CMG that she and Mrs Heather Murphy had met with the Schools to
review registration numbers and consider how best to market their PGT programmes. Minor
changes were currently being made to the titles of some programmes and some new generic
degree titles were also being considered with a view to the US market.
ACMG/2015/25.03
AHRC Cultural Engagement Fund
Dr Burns reported that the AHRC had invited applications to its Cultural Engagement Fund,
to mark its 10th anniversary. The aim of the fund was to provide Arts and Humanities postdoctoral researchers with an opportunity for engagement with the wider cultural and civic
context. 5-6 internships were envisaged for applicants who were either awaiting their viva or
had recently completed their PhD. Dr Burns was in discussion with Glasgow Life who had
collaborated with the university on a similar project in 2012. The application deadline was 27
November 2015.
ACMG/2015/26
SGSAH
Professor Heddon reported that the AHRC had put out a consultation proposal for BGP3. This was
not as radical a shift as from BGP1 to BGP2. However, to be noted: the consultation document
proposed that there would be no funding for separate Doctoral Training Centres. The AHRC would
allow consortia to bid for extra funding for networks. The University of Glasgow would want to
reflect on this in relation to the Celtic Languages DTC. Further, CDA schemes would no longer run
as of next year and the expectation was that DTPs would allow people to apply with external named
partners. The Heritage consortium would continue to be funded separately.
ACMG/2015/27
Internationalisation
ACMG/2015/27.01
IPDF
Dr Morris informed colleagues that she would put together a report on IPDF for a future
meeting of CMG. The scheme was working but there was around £9000 left to award and
more applications were needed. Dr Morris asked colleagues to encourage applications to this.
Following discussion at the previous meeting of CMG regarding Schools setting aside funds
for proposals under £500, Dr Morris reported that two of the four Schools in Arts had
suggested ways they might be able to make funds available for this. It would be revisited
with the other Schools next year.
ACMG/2015/27.02
Principia Network
Dr Morris informed colleagues of the Principia Consortium which brought in international
students from the United States. Students follow the Scottish Enlightenment core course and
other courses from across the University. Dr Morris informed CMG that a range of steps were
being taken to support the consortium partnerships, to increase student numbers and to
encourage more Principia students to take further CoA courses.
ACMG/2015/27.03
Internationalisation Web Pages
Dr Morris updated CMG on progress made with the Internationalisation web pages.
ACMG/2015/27.04
Glasgow International College
Dr Morris informed CMG that she had been working on finding someone to take forward
work with the Glasgow International College. There was a potential candidate for this with
whom Dr Morris would be meeting the following week.
ACMG/2015/27.05
Priority Partners
Dr Morris reported that International Deans would be in touch to find out about existing
connections with priority partners. It would be good to do some mapping at Subject level for
Heads of Subject to look at areas they could potentially link with.
ACMG/2015/28
College Secretary
ACMG/2015/28.01
Service Effectiveness Survey
Miss Broe informed colleagues that a Service Effectiveness Survey would begin on Monday
26 October. This was part of the KPI on service levels and 1900 staff at Grade 8 and above
would be invited to respond to the survey on services including HR, Marketing and IT.
ACMG/2015/29
Finance
ACMG/2015/29.01
Period Two
Miss Broe had provided CMG with the Monthly Income and Expenditure Review for Period
Two, stating that there were was some uncertainty in the numbers and issues with the reports
due to this being the first year in which RUK fees were charged at £9,000 per year but only
£6,750 was being recognised each year. Miss Broe stated that work was being carried out on
the reports to adjust for this. She hoped to be in a position to issue more complete reports in
the next month or two and pointed out that intake for Study Abroad was generally good in
Semester Two.
ACMG/2015/29.02
Course Income
In response to a question raised at the previous CMG about course income, Miss Broe tabled
a paper with a basic calculation of the student numbers required in a 20 credit course to
generate £10,000 of Tuition Fee income.
ACMG/2015/29.03
Budget
As the College was heading into Budget season, Miss Broe pointed out that it would be useful
for colleagues to give her an idea of areas in which they wanted to invest and develop, in
advance of the College Budget Meeting which was scheduled for the earlier date of 4
November this year.
ACMG/2015/30
Risk Register
At the previous meeting of CMG it had been agreed to cover Risk Three - Failure to reach
targets/maximise research income. This would be covered via the draft College Research Strategy to
be submitted to the November meeting of CMG. Miss Broe reminded colleagues that the Risk
Workshop would be held separately to CMG this year and that a date would soon be confirmed for
this. It was agreed that Risk One – Failure of IT systems (including data integrity) and
implementation of new research management system – would be discussed at the November meeting
of CMG. Miss Broe asked CMG to send her any new risks they wished to discuss.
Action: All
ACMG/2015/31
HR
ACMG/2015/31.01
Recognition and Reward
Ms Shaw reminded CMG that the meeting to review applications for Recognition and Reward
had been scheduled for Tuesday 15 December. Ms Shaw asked colleagues to think
strategically when putting staff forward for Recognition and Reward and to consider staff
who had achieved outstanding or perhaps excellent in their P&DR. The process was not open
to Professorial staff.
ACMG/2015/31.02
Promotions
It had been agreed at a previous meeting of CMG that sessions on Promotion should take
place at School level again this year and Ms Shaw would be arranging for session to take
place in December. Professor Heddon would support these School sessions with the Heads of
School.
ACMG/2015/31.03
ECDP
Ms Shaw reported that she would be meeting with Heads of School, Mrs Lesley Cummings,
Professor Michael Syrotinski (as College ECDP Champion) and Professor Dee Heddon
regarding ECDP process.
ACMG/2015/31.04
Academic Returners Policy
Ms Shaw reported that the College would write to people currently on Maternity Leave to
alert them to the Academic Returners Policy. So far no applications had been received for
this.
ACMG/2015/31.05
Long Service Awards
Ms Shaw informed CMG that the Long Service Awards which were usually organised by
Central HR were now to be delivered locally. These awards applied to only two people in the
College of Arts this year, both in the School of Culture and Creative Arts and a School /
College event would be held to present these awards.
ACMG/2015/31.06
Maternity Leave
Ms Shaw reminded colleagues that as discussed at a previous meeting of CMG, the College
of Arts Maternity Leave entitlements for Scholarships did not currently mirror AHRC
guidelines. Dr Burns and Mrs Adeline Callander would work on a policy for this and would
make a statement to the Equality and Diversity Unit confirming Arts’ intention to mirror the
AHRC guidelines.
ACMG/2015/31.07
Extended Workforce Policy
Ms Shaw reported that most of the challenges with the Extended Workforce Policy had been
resolved. Ms Shaw would be attending a Lessons Learned meeting with HR Recruitment and
the HoSAs in the upcoming weeks regarding this.
ACMG/2015/31.08
GTA Policy
Ms Shaw reported that as a result of this Extended Workforce Policy implementation there
were a few changes required to the wording of the College GTA document and that this
would have to be revisited. The School of Critical Studies also had a broader policy for
working with GTAs within the School and a similar document would be developed for the
College.
ACMG/2015/32
BDM
ACMG/2015/32.01
BDM Update
Dr Rowan had provided colleagues with a BDM Update paper prior to the meeting. He
reported that he would review the objectives of his new role with Ms Shaw, Miss Broe and
the Convenor and would provide a further update at a future meeting of CMG.
ACMG/2015/32.02
Engaging the Non-Academic Community
Dr Rowan had provided colleagues with a paper on the process of engaging with the nonacademic community prior to the meeting. He informed CMG that he was aware of contracts
being signed or written by colleagues across the College and stressed that any future contracts
as a result of engagement with externals should be passed through him. No-one in the
College had approval to sign legal documents on behalf of the University, including
Memorandums of Understanding, Memorandums of Agreement, Collaboration Agreements,
etc. The Head of College had authority to sign off on low-level procurement agreements but
this was rarely exercised.
ACMG/2015/33
College Nominations
CMG approved the nominations for Honorary Research Fellows in the School of Humanities.
CMG requested that the nominations from the School of Culture and Creative Arts for an Honorary
Professorial Research Fellow and a Visiting Professor be resubmitted on the correct form via the Head
of School.
ACMG/2015/34
AOCB
There was no other business.
ACMG/2015/35
Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting would be held on Wednesday 18 November at 2pm in Room 208, 4 Lilybank
Gardens.