University of Leeds
School of Mathematics
Staff Student Forum
The minutes of the Staff Student Forum which took place on Wednesday 6th March at 2pm in the
Leonard Rogers Room (8.22d) in the School of Mathematics.
Present:
Students: Lorraine Robertson (Yr 2 Maths), Jennifer Williams (Yr 1 Actuarial Maths), Kellie Appleby
(Yr 2 Actuarial Maths), Jonathan Pennells (Yr 4 Maths), Zishaan Asif (Yr 1 Maths w/ Finance), Adam
Elliott (Yr 3 Mathematical Studies), Jessica Bird (Yr 1 Economics & Maths), Megan Jennett (Yr 3
Economics & Maths), Katherine Fodor (School Rep).
Staff: Prof C. Taylor, Dr M. Messmer, Dr E. Kersalé, Dr G. Aivaliotis, Miss H. Ugarte.
1. Apologies for Absence
Dr M. Speight, Dr S. Pugh, William Porter
It was reported to the meeting that some of the Student Representatives (4) with poor
attendance/inclusion were no longer representatives. This is so that Representatives that put in the
work get recognition for it.
2. Approval of Staff Student Forum minutes from February 2013
The minutes were accepted after a discussion on some of the items:
A correction was raised for point 5, in regards to the MATH2525. The students explained that there
was no structure to lectures, and that students were not aware of what formulas should apply to.
The Snapshot surveys had been organised for Representatives to collect and consult the lecturers
about. The majority of these had been collected. A representative explained that one of their
surveys had been reported on but another module had yet to do so and they had a complaint in
there results. Students that attend the coding theory module did not complete the survey as they
felt that they could raise issues in the lecture.
The Media policy has now been published on the School’s webpage, the Representatives were asked
to reinforce this policy and publish it to students via their Facebook page.
Interviews had been held for the Actuarial Science and Geometry position. Only one candidate was
interviewed for the Actuarial Science position and we are still waiting to hear whether they have
accepted the position. No students turned up to the Geometry presentations but it was felt that this
may be due to them spanning a few hours. In the end the staff felt that they had offered the role to
the candidate who gave the best presentation.
The end of year Programme meetings will be held in the last 2 weeks of the semester, this will be
advertised to students before the Easter break.
3. The School’s Action Plan
It has been noted that students who study on LUBs modules require more skills in essay writing. It is
felt that students who are parented by the Business school are given a module to help with
referencing/quoting/report writing skills, and students who straddle the two subjects miss out. The
plan is for the school to create a specific section in a module to aid with this. It was noted that
Maths & Music students are given help with this via a compulsory module in year 1.
The Maths at work programme is in place and going okay, the project section has just been
completed. The single honours and joint honours programme changes have now been completed
and rolled out to every year group. Staff have been informed that they should give an introduction
to lectures or tutorial or workshops with common mistakes that students encountered on the recent
homework. A Representative reported that one module chose to do this in the practical.
4. Survey on Final Year Projects
The final year projects (MATH3000, MATH3082, MATH3083, MATH3422, MATH3423, MATH3752,
MATH3753) are under review as the University feels that they should be worth more credits and
more like an end of degree dissertation. Thank you to Adam Elliott for writing the survey, as the
results that have come back are useful to work on and encompass a wide variety of students and
opinions. Students that have taken the 15 credit modules were happy with them, and there is
particular sway to students wishing to do the project one their own rather as part of a team. Some
students felt that the amount of work that is required for the projects does not show in the 15
credits that are awarded for it.
If all final year students were required to study on a high credit project then the amount of
supervision that they would require would increase, causing a strain on academic staff. An idea was
raised for maybe starting the project in a group environment and when the knowledge required has
been taught, each student completing their own piece of work.
5. Items from Members
The Education Officer has a query for Maths students on what software is required on University
computers. A Rep’ raised the problem that most students don’t know how to install Latex onto
laptops so it would be useful to have that information somewhere.
Students are still having issues with MATH2525. There are concerns over the homework that is due
in on Friday, as there is two questions in the work that covers topics which have not yet been taught,
but will be taught the day before the homework is due in. There is still no visible structure to the
module. One of the Representatives reported that she was having a meeting with the lecturer to
discuss the snapshot survey results, she will also look at addressing the issue with the homework.
The Green Impact team has noticed that the School uses a high amount of paper for lectures. The
issue with this is that the majority of notes are available electronically and some students prefer to
take their own notes rather than what is provided. The Green Impact Team proposed an opt out
policy for students to state whether they would like the notes, with this the lecturer will know how
many to produce, hopefully reducing the amount of wastage. The only problem with this idea is
how and when you ask the students to opt out and it was raised whether it would be possible to ask
this question in the module surveys.
6. Any Other Business
There was no other business to report.