UNCONFIRMED
ASSOCIATE COLLEGE PARTNERSHIP
Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday the 12th of May at Abingdon and Witney
College, 10.00am – 1.15pm, Abingdon Campus
Present:
Abindgon & Witney College:
Emma Barwell (EB) for Marketing Group only
Steve Billcliffe (SB)
Jim Evans (JE) replacing Dennis Carey
Carole Kane (CK)
Brooklands College:
Mary Herbert (MH) standing in for Fiona Ross
Oxford and Cherwell Valley College:
Bill Hunt (BH)
Melanie Towle (MT)
Oxford Brookes University:
Andrew Bird (ABi)
Liz Browne (LB) for Steering Group only
Janet Cox (JaC) – LLN
Lorna Froud (LF) for agenda item 3, Steering Group only
Adam Lambert (AL)
Diana Rayner (DR) representing APQU
Martin Twycross (MTw) for Marketing Group only
Progress South Central:
Fay Croft (FCr)
Solihull College:
Frances Clarke (FC)
Ruskin College:
Chris Wilkes (CW) standing in for Audrey Mullender
In attendance
Peter Knipp (PK) Oxford Brookes University (minutes)
Apologies:
Aylesbury College
Sarah Newall (SN)
Brooklands College:
Fiona Ross (FR)
Oxford Brookes University:
Sally Tait (ST)
Swindon College:
Simon Clarke (SC)
1
STEERING GROUP Chair: Bill Hunt
1.
Introduction and apologies
BH welcomed partners to the final meeting of the academic year and
initiated an introduction round as there were new attendees to the group.
2.
Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The minutes of the last meeting were confirmed as accurate.
Check on actions:
Steering group, 3. Employer engagement:
FCr pointed out that partners could get more copies of the employer
engagement booklet from her.
AL stated that the OEP research will be published in June and copies sent
to the partners.
Marketing Group, 2. Joint promotional campaigns:
BH thanked all partners who had previously sent information on their HE
marketing campaigns. OCVC have appointed a new Marketing Manager
who has been tasked with processing this information.
3.
Oxford Brookes Careers Service (Lorna Froud, Head of Careers Centre,
Oxford Brookes University)
LF introduced the Brookes’ Careers Service and explained the two major
roles Careers has.
1) Student centred: Delivery of a variety of courses on various
modules to help students to gain knowledge about the labour
market and how to make themselves employable.
2) Employer centred: Working closely with employers to find out
what they expect from graduates to help tailor applications.
Careers also act as a broker for getting students to help voluntary
organisations.
LF explained that Careers will soon have a “destination software”
(obtained from the University of London) available, which then will help to
obtain more detailed information about students and where they go after
their degree.
LF mentioned that partners could then also make use of the data obtained
as it covers Franchise Programmes.
AL confirmed that all students enrolled at partner colleges can make use
of the Brookes Careers Centre.
It was agreed that it was important that partner colleges made sure
students knew about the Brookes Careers service.
ACTION: AL to check with partners what information was already in place.
LF offered to add partner colleges centrally to the distribution list of the
Careers newsletter so that partners could send it to targeted students.
LF further offered that Brookes Careers could visit partners to advise their
students.
ACTION: AL / JC
It was requested that the newsletter would also be linked into the new
ACP webpage.
It was felt that it was useful to get the partner college careers advisers
together with Brookes Career practitioners and hold a joint careers
meeting to share good practice and co-ordinate what is offered to Brookes
students.
ACTION:
2
JC to obtain careers contacts in the colleges and pass on to LF.
For visit requests from Brookes Careers to the partners please liaise with
LF and AL.
4.
ACP Website update
The intended website will deliver information for college staff, students,
alumni and employers and will sit within the Oxford Brookes website to
enable long term sustainability.
The ACP partners have commented on the development of the ACP
website. Tenders for the project manager post have been invited and it is
hoped that Progress South Central funding will be secured to support this
project.
ABi thanked partners for responding with ideas for the website. ABi further
thanked Progress South Central for supporting the project financially.
ABi reported that Brookes was expecting quotes from agencies/designers
for the production of the ACP webpage shortly. The aim was to have the
partnerships page up and running by September.
ACTION:
ABi to liaise with FCr regarding costing.
5.
Pre-election Budget ASN proposals
AL reported that the University has submitted a proposal to HEFCE for
additional student numbers (ASNs) made available for institutions to bid
for in the Pre-election budget.
HEFCE will make decisions at the end of May. The University has
included the following franchise programmes in its proposal:
FD Computing (A&W College)
FD Motorsport (OCVC)
FD Motorsport (Brooklands College)
FD Early Years (Solihull College)
FD Business (Solihull College)
FD Business (Swindon College)
AL brought to the attention of the partners that, if successful additional
student numbers were only valid for three years teaching.
ACTION:
AL to liaise with partners to inform them of the outcome.
6.
Update on the work of Progress South Central LLN
FCr presented an LLN update paper previously circulated to the Group.
Progress South Central (PSC) is currently developing work to support
progression by apprentices to higher education. This includes work JaC is
undertaking to survey the 13 apprentices employed by Brookes.
FCr reported to ACP members that a bursary scheme for FE practitioners
working in higher education has just been launched by PSC. There are
eight £250 bursaries available for partners to bid for.
ACTION: JaC to distribute bursary application information electronically.
FCr invited partners to attend to a free evening conference hosted by PSC
in July ‘The 14-19 Dimension –Diplomas and Diversity’.
LB asked if she could be sent information on the 14-19 Diploma University
entry requirements PSC have put together.
ACTION: FCr to send LB 14-19 Diploma higher education admissions
3
information.
7.
FD fees information for staff advising potential students
AL informed the group that the agreed tuition fee for full time FD students
at partner colleges will be £2000 from the academic year 2011/12
onwards.
The fee for part time FDs will raise to £900.
A new means tested FD bursary will also be introduced.
AL made partners aware that students must be assessed by the student
loans company.
ACTION: Partners to hand out the information to students and advisers
and link information on their web pages.
FURTHER ACTION: AL to have separate conversations regarding fees
for the Cert Ed PTTLS + DTTLS.
ACTION: AL to include information on BA top up year and re-circulate.
8.
Franchise programme admissions and enrolments meeting (19th May
2010, Oxford Brookes)
AL confirmed that a meeting will be held in May to find ways to improve
admission and enrolment procedures and provide updates on recent
developments. In future admissions staff at the colleges will be able to go
online and make decisions directly on the Brookes PIP pages.
MARKETING WORKING GROUP Chair: Steve Billcliffe
1.
Last minutes and matters arising
SB passed over this agenda item in order to have the presentation
(agenda item 2) straight away. After EB’s presentation the minutes were
agreed as accurate.
2.
A&W College Progression Campaign
EB, A&W college presented the outcomes of the college’s “Home grown”
progression campaign, looking at Level 3 progression to college HE
courses.
The aim of the campaign was a 50% increase in the progression rate of
A&W students by reaching out to current and previous students.
Key marketing lines used were: study at home (current economical
climate), better job prospects, start in FE and get a HE degree.
CK remarked that it was vital for a campaign like this to have programme
managers support, as well as advertising and reminding students
constantly of the options and opportunities.
AL offered that Brookes recruitment could help to advise the targeted
cohorts of students at an earlier stage.
3.
Employer Engagement (Martin Twycross, Senior Employer
Engagement Manager, Oxford Brookes University)
Oxford Brookes University’s Employer Engagement project is a HEFCE
funded initiative with available employer engagement ASNs and funding
until July 2011.
The Chair welcomed MT to his new role and invited him to work closely
together with the partnership.
MT introduced himself briefly talking about his background as business
sales professional. MT confirmed that he wanted to work closely with the
partner colleges. As he was new to the role he was now working his way
through the tasks ahead and meeting up with the relevant stakeholders.
LB offered to share Westminster Institute’s framework for validation of
single modules. LB recommended that this information should be visible to
employers in order to tailor courses / modules to their demand.
DR offered to circulate her “quick guide” to validation to the partnership via
4
AL.
ACTION: DR to forward the quick guide to AL. AL to circulate.
It was felt that the focus should be on including smaller employers in the
region.
ACTION: MT to get in contact with the partners Business Development
Offices and Employer Engagement staff via AL.
4.
Joint promotional campaigns (Discussion of Partner College and
Oxford Brookes marketing events)
The partnership is currently investigating if joint promotional campaigns
could benefit the group and lead to synergies.
The group agreed that it was desirable to link with the Brookes presence
at UCAS fairs. Possible ways of participation were sending staff
representatives, providing literature/information or providing a contribution
to Brookes UCAS subscription.
ACTION: Partners interested in attending contact AL. AL then to produce
an attendance schedule.
CURRICULUM AND QUALITY ASSURANCE WORKING
GROUP
Chair: Melanie Towle
1.
Last minutes and matters arising
The minutes were agreed as correct.
2.
IQER update
BH reported on OCVC’s second development engagement (DE)
scheduled for the 9th/10th November. This time the focus was on student
views and employability skills. How does the college improve its students’
skills for employability and how does the college engage with employers?
Employability is a QAA specified theme for the second visit.
DR noted that OCVC’s DE was the same week as the Brookes
institutional audit.
MH reported that Brooklands college received a limited confidence
decision for their first DE. A follow up review was taking place on the
24th/25th May.
FC reported that Solihull College had their first DE in March. The second
one had originally been planned for 13th December. This visit was now
cancelled as a partner university in question had pulled out of the
partnership with the college. FC highlighted the 4 desirables the college
had to work on:
Evaluation/Moderation, Penalties for late assignments, Spreading the
news on employer engagement, Handbooks for top up degrees and
promotion.
CK reported for Abingdon & Witney College that their summative review
(SR) was completed last year. They are now working on the one
recommendation from the final report:
Support employers with more information/documentation.
5
CW reported for Ruskin College that the second DE visit had taken place.
The college received the recommendation to more focus on self
evaluation and student evaluation.
CW thanked CK for visiting and offering advice.
CK especially thanked BH for the help he was to A&W college through the
IQER process.
MT remarked that this was a very positive example of partnership work.
3.
Curriculum development update
FC stated that Solihull college usually had 3 curriculum development
events per year and invited partners to the event on July the 1st. 8 places
would be available.
ACTION: FC to forward dates and programmes to AL to circulate.
BH confirmed that OCVC was developing a FD Business Enterprise for
2011 in conjunction with Oxford Brookes. This programme will replace the
higher national diploma. BH remarked that employer engagement was the
focus for further developments – “bite size” modules of HE for employers.
LB offered the help of Brookes’ Westminster Institute to write the FD as
Westminster already had enterprise courses. LB further mentioned that a
plagiarism and assessment event was to take place at Brookes on the 8th
July.
ACTION: AL to circulate the programme and invitation of the plagiarism
and assessment event to partners.
AL reported that Oxford Brookes University’s Business School was
interested in developing online Foundation Degree modules and asked
partners if they had any examples of good practice to share?
CK stated that A&W would use DTTELS as a pilot for a programme to go
online.
Partners briefly discussed if mixed courses (a blend of online and face to
face modules) might make more sense.
It was felt to be helpful if somebody with expertise in online module
development could come to a future meeting of the group. The Business
School would then be invited to this meeting.
ACTION:
JC to liaise with FDF to research current status of online FDs.
AL to invite Tom Elsworth (Oxford Brookes University, Business School)
4.
Staff development
MT proposed that OCVC would host an event for HE staff to share good
practice end of November / beginning of December 2010. Possible
themes are: procedures, plagiarism, admissions and enrolments,
assessment, employer engagement, IQER/QA.
It was felt that it would be desirable to have Brookes’ VC or PVC to open
this event.
ACTION: FCr to liaise with BH to get this project started.
5.
A.O.B.
No other business was reported.
6.
Next meeting
ACP Board, 6th July 2010, Oxford Brookes
6