BUTEX AGM
Friday 13th December 2013
Friend’s House, London
MINUTES
Present: Elizabeth Harris, Paul Beavitt, Tony Emmerson, Sarah Leach, Julie Leverett, Lucy Stubbs, Amy
Waller, Bonnie Amato, Aurora Pulido-Ortega, Lorraine Kirby, Sue Fidalgo, Sue Bunney, Allison Handley,
Cleome Dakin, Ruth Law, Martin Rogers, Annette Kratz, Angela Koh, Joan-Anton Carbonell, Natalia Rossi,
Rhona Hodgart, Jillian Moskowitz, Jane Atkinson, Rachel Jessop
1.
Matters Arising From The Last Meeting
There were no matters arising from the last meeting.
2.
Annual Report 2013
Members were reminded that the BUTEX Annual Report 2013 had been published and
circulated to members. Should anyone require another copy they should contact Ruth at
info@butex.ac.uk.
3.
Membership Update
BUTEX welcomed the following new members during 2013
Bath Spa University
Edinburgh Napier University
Regent's University London
Deakin University
The Intern Group
Membership currently stands at 84 full members, 11 associate members, and 2 reciprocal
associate members.
4.
Finance Report
The Income and Expenditure Report 1 October 2013 to 10 December 2013 was distributed to
members.
The Income and Expenditure Report 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013 has been
circulated to BUTEX members as part of the annual report.
Tony Emmerson confirmed that the organisation’s finances were in a relatively healthy
position. He noted that finances at this time of year were at the lowest point of the
association’s normal two-year cycle, before both annual subscription income and the biennial
conference income. The organisation’s reserves have been maintained which provides a
cushion and enables it to pay for venue deposits, etc in advance of the receipt of event
income. However Tony wished to note that the organisation’s reserves are not as high as they
have been and that he would need to track finances carefully with the possibility of
recommending an increase to membership fees in 2015 if he felt it necessary.
Tony proposed that annual subscription rates were maintained at £450 for 2014. This was
carried.
5.
BUTEX Priorities for 2014
The priorities for 2014 will be the forthcoming conference and NAFSA events and the
continuation of work on the Standards of Best Practice project.
6.
NAFSA 2014
The stand with adjacent meeting area and notice board facility was extremely well used by
BUTEX members at the 2013 event. As members face increasing budget constraints at their
home universities there has been a trend towards members not having their own institutional
stands but instead using the BUTEX stand as a base. BUTEX is very happy to provide this
service and in line with the increased demand will continue to take extra space at the 2013
event in order to enlarge the size of the meeting area available.
As in previous years BUTEX will pay for Ruth Sheret to work on the stand throughout the
conference with the aim of providing more consistent cover for the stand and enabling the
committee to cover the stand without BUTEX members having to give up their time to do this
for them.
The BUTEX Welcome Meal
Busters Beach House, Sunday 25th May
BUTEX has hired a room in Busters Beach House on the waterfront in San Diego where we will
be hosting pre-dinner drinks and a three-course dinner for BUTEX members attending the
NAFSA convention.
The BUTEX Reception at NAFSA
The Berkeley Ferryboat, Tuesday 27th May
The 2014 Reception will take place aboard the Berkeley Ferryboat at the San Diego Maritime
Museum. As last year, it will be a sparkling wine and desert reception.
Members are invited to sign up as participating institutions for this event. The cost per
institution is £400 and full details of the event and how to confirm your involvement can be
seen at www.butex.ac.uk/event.php?eid=30. The deadline to sign up for this event is the 17th
January 2014.
7.
The BUTEX International Conference 2014
BUTEX is looking forward to hosting its 11th International Conference at the University of East
Anglia. Norwich Cathedral has been booked for the welcome reception and the Sainsbury
Centre for the Visual Arts, a modern art and sculpture gallery on the UEA Campus, will host the
conference dinner.
The pre-conference workshops will be replaced by focus group meetings, and members have
been asked to feedback to the committee regarding topic requests.
Members were encouraged to consider presenting or co-presenting a session for this event.
Details of potential topic areas were distributed and can be seen at
www.butex.ac.uk/event.php?eid=16. The deadline for the receipt of proposals is the 17th
January 2014.
8.
The BUTEX Scholarships
Applications for the 2014 scholarship competition are now being accepted and the deadline
for all applications is the 31st July 2014. As always, please encourage your students to apply.
Following the discussion at the July OGM of various issues relating to the increase of
scholarship applications, it was agreed that BUTEX funds would be used to pay for a web entry
facility on the BUTEX website for the essay competition. This has now been completed at a
cost of £450 (plus VAT) and the committee expect this to significantly reduce the number of
hours it is necessary to spend on the administration of the competition. A further report will
be made at the 2014 AGM when all 2014 scholarship entries will have been processed under
the new system.
The current essay questions (What 5 things would you not study abroad without?) has now
run for a few years and members were asked to suggest a new question to run from
September 2014. Ruth has collated some suggestions from the meeting and if anyone would
like to add to these please send your suggestion to info@butex.ac.uk.
9.
The BUTEX Working Groups / Collaborative Links
Standards of Best Practice Initiative
This project is now underway. Members have been consulted with regard to topic areas of
priority for this project, and the two highest priority areas are now being worked upon. The
BUTEX Working Group has taken the topic of Credit Transfer and Mark Conversion, and a
consortium of Southern Universities is working on the topic of Risk Assessment and Health and
Safety. It is anticipated that both will be complete in time for a pre-publication consultation
session in July, which will be held during the focus group meeting slot on Monday 7 th July prior
to the start of the BUTEX International Conference.
The BUTEX Working Group
The group will meet in January and one of the main items on the agenda will be to discuss the
remit of the group for 2014. The UKHE is now in a position to absorb the work this group
previously undertook relating to increasing outward mobility, and so the working group now
has an opportunity to extend its remit to other matters. The group will next report to the
BUTEX membership at the BUTEX OGM in July.
This group has also taken responsibility for part of the standards of best practice initiative (see
above).
UKHE Outward Student Mobility Programme
The Community of Practice which is linked to the UUK unit has now met three times, with the
last meeting held in October. The October meeting was however fairly short and was largely a
presentation of graduate employment survey data. The next meeting will be in February and
has been scheduled as a longer meeting.
It was suggested by some of the members present that Anne-Marie Graham be invited to the
BUTEX International Conference in July to update BUTEX members on the work of the UKHE
International Unit. The BUTEX committee will be happy to forward this request to AnneMarie.