LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS, HISTORY & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Minutes of the first meeting of the Undergraduate Staff Student Committee which
was held at 2.00pm on Wednesday 11 November 2015.
Present:
Student Reps:
Tom Berry
Alexander Lonsdale
Alice Offley
Gwen Moralee
Harriet Dunton
Harry Morgan
Helena Reid
Jonathan Townsend
Lee Bird
Lottie Corking
Lucy Kirkup
Matthew Chandler
Mayowa Idowu
Michael Dolman
Robert Flatly
Programme President
Also attending:
Amrit Malkani
(In place of Sarah Lafferty Student Placement Officer)
Staff:
Uri Gordon
Helen Drake
Frances Seller
Hemisha Dalal
Sharon Reid
Chair
Director of Studies
Departmental Administrator
Employability Development Officer
Librarian
Actions
15/16/01 Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Charanjit Bansal, Abbie McCall, Emily
Widdick, Sam Testro and Josh Knight.
15/16/02 Minutes of the Meeting held on 29 April 2015
The minutes of the last meeting have been approved and prove to be an
accurate record.
15/16/03 Matters Arising from 29 April 2015 Meeting
There were no matters arising.
15/16/04 Chair Report
UG welcomed all members to the first meeting and explained to the new
members the aim of these meetings. UG explained that as this is the first
meeting he had not compiled a report this time, but would use this
opportunity to welcome everyone.
15/16/05 Director of Studies Report
HD introduced herself as the new Director of Studies for the Department.
Outcomes from the NSS and actions taken in Response:
HD explained that the former Director of Studies had been looking at the
NSS results and in response to that she had written a ’35 point plan’ for
the department to follow. Jo Bullard who is the School’s Associate Dean
for Teaching (ADT) was looking at the NSS results for the whole School
and informed HD that the results were an improvement for PHIR across
all questions and she felt that the department is making a lot of effort to
improve, but the results for coursework feedback were disappointing. HD
explained that she will be taking a sample of all coursework feedback and
will be looking through to see whether we are being consistent. The
Department has also brought in a new coursework submission and return
system. This is to ensure that coursework is received on time and that the
work is then handed back to students in a timely manner also. HD wanted
to thank Lisa Jacques for helping to introduce this new system. Apologies
were made on behalf of the Department to students for any mixed
messages from staff to students. A reminder was made that both copies
(hard copy and electronic) should be handed in by the deadline.
Outcomes from Student Module Feedback Questionnaires and actions
taken:
The Department welcomed all of the feedback received for Semester
Two during the 2014-2015 academic session. HD explained that the
department had received feedback on all modules in every semester; this
meant that we exceeded the minimum amount required. This could cause
‘feedback fatigue’ amongst students, but the Director of Studies and the
department are always interested to hear students’ views on that. HD
explained that feedback is scored between 1 – 5 with 1 being the lowest
and 5 the highest. The department did very well across the board in
Semester 2 and almost all modules got an average score of 4 out of 5. In
cases where the score was low the individual tutors had discussions with
the Director of Studies about making improvements. It was also the case
that some tutors involved were no longer teaching the modules this year.
FS/LJ
Module Feedback questions will be circulated to everyone after the
meeting.
15/16/06 Programme President
i) Book Sale went really well raising over £700.
ii) Twitter – Michael is our new Twitter rep and he will be updating Twitter.
iii) Empowerment survey – this is led by VP Education Rep and LSU. The
uptake has been very low from PHIR students. For the Pols and IR only 3
students completed the survey. SR did confirm that in a recent library
meeting a rep did ask students to complete the survey.
iiii) Language Modules – Students have reported that some are finding
the Language modules require more hours of study than other modules.
A student reported that he was on a German module and due to his
previous qualifications it was not possible to admit him to a lower Level.
Due to that and work load associated he won’t be taking another
Language module this year. UG explained that this is the nature of
Language learning and that a 10 credit module is equal to 20hrs in class
and 80hrs individual study and some students find this difficult. UG will be
investigating this further and will be speaking with the Language Centre
regarding flexibility on Level entry.
iv) Phased Coursework Hand-in Penalties – Some students are in favour
of a phased coursework hand-in scale and students would like the
department to investigate this. HD explained that a colleague within the
department is currently trialling this and the findings and possible system
will be discussed further by the Department. Students were reminded that
if they were aware of a reason that would prevent them submitting on
time and it is a valid reason to contact the Module Convenor.
15/16/07 Placements
Amrit Malkani will now be attending the next UGSSLC meetings in place
of Sarah Lafferty.
A new service for students who would like more information about
placements or need help to find one is now available called ‘The Place’
based at Stewart Mason SMB0.06. Amrit confirmed that Sarah Lafferty is
still based in the School of Business and Economics (BE001).
15/16/08 Careers and Employability Service
Hemisha Dalal works with Sally Western. Hemisha confirmed that the
Careers and Employability Service still provide various meetings and
consultations for each year group throughout the year. For 2nd years they
put on 4 sessions; at the first session attendance was good, but for the
CV skills and Interview sessions and the one about psychometric tests,
attendance was low. A suggestion was made that maybe 2 nd year
students aren’t fully aware of psycho-metric tests.
Careers and Employability Service took on board students’ comments for
the new newsletter and this included trying to make sections clearer and
to make sure that sessions are updated each week.
UG
A question was asked about first year students and placements, Hemisha
confirmed that summer internships are available.
Positive feedback was received by students regarding the emails that are
sent out to update on new sessions which included the calendar. These
were very useful as students could add sessions straight to their
calendar. This was a trial for this year but it has been confirmed that they
will continue to run this.
A suggestion was made that a session to help 1st year students
understand the recruitment processes for placements would be
beneficial. A possibility would be to get 3rd year and placement students
to help with this.
The Careers and Employability Service are putting on extra advice
sessions on Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings, they have noticed
that more PHIR students are accessing them.
A reminder that the mock assessment centre is open on Thursday 12
November and this will have real companies there who can offer advice.
15/16/09 Items from First Year
i) Students reported that IAS (Introduction to Academic Studies) had two
pieces of coursework required. History students had been allowed to
choose their topic but, IR and Politics students were given a specific
topic. Some students did notice that this was in a subject that they were
not familiar with which made it quite difficult to complete. UG noted the
emphasis in IAS on general academic skills of analysis vs specific
content, and called upon students to trust in their lecturers’ judgment
about the efficacy of the texts they chose for this purpose.
15/16/10 Items from Second Year
i) Students had reported that
 A lot of positive feedback was received regarding the lecturers on
the History of Political Thought module. However some students
did struggle with this module due to the different methods used.
ii) Lecture Capture – Some technical issues with lecture capture. An
important colleague in IT has left which has meant intermittent service. Dr
Christoyannopoulos has used an alternative method of audio capture in
his lectures which has been well received.
iii) EU module is coursework and exam assessed and has an exam in
January (wk. 13). HD will try to get work back to students before the
exam if possible.
15/16/11 Items from Final Year
i) Reading weeks - a possible reading week for final year students. Some
modules currently have an unofficial reading week and this is week 9,
HD
could this be extended to the rest of the
Department? UG informed students that the department scrapped
reading weeks some time ago.
ii) Dissertations – some students feel that they aren’t having enough
contact hours with their dissertation supervisors and that the current
drop-in sessions are not long enough.. History students are given
dissertation workshops which they have found very helpful; Pols and IR
do not have this.
iii) Coursework Hand-in Dates on Learn – No coursework hand in dates
has been published for Contemporary Political Philosophy on Learn. For
some modules it states which week (i.e. week 8) but no actual date.
Specific assessment criteria aren’t always available on Learn pages.
FS
iv) Complaints have been received regarding a specific Dissertation
Tutor
UG
v) It was confirmed that only students who were registered for a specific
module could use the module email list for that module.
FS
vi) Not much information regarding jobs which are relevant to PHIR
degree subjects was available. There is a link on the Careers website,
but could this be included in the careers sessions.
Hemisha
D.
15/16/12 Academic Librarian report
SR reported:
i) A reminder that the library skills workshops are up and running. SR
has left some leaflets. If students want a refresher then please do come
along.
ii) The library is open until 2.00am during term time and will be staffed
until 10.00pm.
iii) A 24/7 service will be running during the exam period from the 4 th
January 2016.
iv) For 2nd and 3rd year students subject guides will be made available on
the Library website.
A student mentioned that for the Yugoslavia module, there were
insufficient resources in the library SR would liaise with the module tutor
to get some books placed in the High Demand section.
15/16/13 Any Other Business
Frances Seller is retiring at the end of the year and she was sad that this
would be her last UGSSLC, UG and the group all came together to thank
SR
Frances for all of her hard work through-out her time in the Department.
UG wanted to officially thank Frances also. She will be sadly missed.
Frances confirmed that a replacement for her post has been found;
Debbie Cattermoul will be joining the department from 4th January. She
has done a very similar job to Frances and worked originally at Leicester
University.
Students were very pleased that UG kept to time and subjects very well.
Well organised meeting.
Date of Next Meeting
24 February 2016