University of Leeds
School of Mathematics
Staff Student Forum
25th February 2015
Present: Harry Tong, Jieying Lin, Luke Turner, Alice Poyner, Jagpreet Dhaliwal, Kristian Schneider,
Isabel West, Mathew Duxbury (Chair), Prof Alastair Rucklidge, Dr Margit Messmer, Dr Peter
Thwaites, Prof Jonathan Partington, Dr Evy Kersalé, Dr Georgios Aivaliotis, Dr Samantha Pugh,
Heather Ugarte (Minutes).
1. Apologies for Absence
Runjie Zong, Ingela Ambreen, Milette Riis.
2. Staff Student Forum minutes from November 2014.
The School has looked into the possibility of publishing videos to help students choose modules for
the following academic year. This will be made active on the Maths VLE page in May, around the
same time that online enrolment is opened.
The minutes were accepted.
3. Items from Members
A student representative has had feedback from students on a certain module where they have
homework deadlines that same day as the workshops. This only allows them an hour between
workshops and the deadline in order to then complete the work. The Representative is going to
raise this with the lecturer and see whether the deadline can be changed or the work covered in the
workshop be relevant to the next weeks homework.
4. Snapshot Module Surveys
Each semester the School asks students to complete a snapshot module survey for modules they are
attending. The information is used by the School to see whether any modules have issues and if so
improvements can be put in place during the semester. We like to ask Student Representatives to
take survey results for the modules that they are studying and discuss these with the lecturer. It
would also be good if they could encourage lecturers to do a short announcement regarding the
results and any changes they may be making.
MATH2375 – The lecture notes given out are helpful and the workshops useful, but the lectures are
hard to follow. The lecturer uses powerpoints and does not spend enough time on each point, while
talking quietly and going too fast. From a discussion in the Forum it was decided that the
Representatives would approach the lecturer to request whether he could publish the notes before
the lecture and whether he could base the lecture around his notes.
MATH2391 – The lecture notes are published online but he does not follow them in the lecture. This
makes it hard for students to follow and find the sections being discussed.
MATH1400 – The homework deadline for this module falls on a Monday but the tutorials are on a
Friday. If students have queries they are unable to get help as the University is closed over the
weekend.
5. School’s Action Plan on Learning and Teaching
The School has advertised the Action Plan poster’s around the student area of the School. As well as
advertising the NSS survey, all Representatives should also ask finalist students to complete it.
6. Any Other Business
The School has received a number of comments from students around the new admissions hoodies
and wondered whether a jumper should be introduced for the School. It would be a good idea to
have a competition for students to create a mathematical logo for the jumper, with the possibility of
a prize being awarded.
A Richard Mayne memorial concert will be held on Sunday 1st of March within the University and it
has been advertised to both staff and students within the School. On the 17th March there will be a
memorial bench unveiled for Richard, this will positioned just across from the Union, followed by a
Bake Sale within the School.
There have been discussions within the School around the idea of producing a discovery that will
allow students without mathematics qualifications to take. Representatives felt that it would be
useful for the module to cover statistics and applications of maths within the real world.