This document supplements the Core guidance for General Board Learning and Teaching Reviews, which is the primary source of information about the review process.
Every Review Committee includes at least one member appointed by the General Board (who may be a serving member of the General Board), who normally acts as Chair to the Committee. You will have been appointed in that capacity.
As with any similar event, the role of the Chair is to: ensure that proceedings go smoothly, that participants are informed of the objectives of the exercise, and that the desired outcomes are achieved. In this case, the institution should be given an opportunity to discuss its activities in a constructive and open manner with a committee of academic peers. The tangible outcome of the review is a report which contains recommendations for action.
If this is the first time that you have acted as Chair of a Learning and Teaching Review Committee and would find it helpful to have a briefing session with a member of Educational and Student Policy, please contact Ms Alison Burgess (ajb206@admin.cam.ac.uk).
Educational and Student Policy will inform you once the membership of the Review Committee has been approved. It will also arrange a meeting between the Review Secretary, the Head of the
Institution (HoI) and a member of the Section to discuss the review process in general, and the production of the submission in particular. It is particularly important, in the interests of fairness and transparency, that the institution is aware of, and understands, any special terms of reference for the review.
The Review Secretary will contact you to discuss the timetable for the review, and will liaise with the institution and Committee to set dates for the initial meeting and visit. The Secretary will also make all arrangements with the External Reviewer.
If you have doubts about whether the submission is sufficiently descriptive and evaluative, the
Secretary can work with the institution either to redraft the submission (if that would be a minor task), or to produce further documentation.
You might feel that further documentation is necessa ry to the Committee’s understanding of some of the topics of interest. The Secretary will obtain this additional information.
Once you are satisfied that the document is intelligible and contains all the required documentation it can be circulated to the Review Committee.
After reading the submission you may wish to arrange meeting with the Chairman of the Council of the
School; this may include the Head of the Institution, the Review Secretary and the Secretary to the
Council of the School.
There are various ways in which you can arrive at a list of issues that the Committee may want to pursue with the institution:
 the terms of reference set by the General Board may draw specific issues to your attention;
 you and the Secretary may draw up a preliminary list after the first reading of the submission;
 the Review Committee may be requested to suggest issues by circulation before the first meeting;
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 individuals or bodies who have been canvassed for views about the institution might raise issues;
 the Review Committee may generate a list at its first meeting.
Some issues may be resolved quickly and removed from the list. In such cases the Committee may invite the HoI to submit a written response, or to meet with you and/or the Secretary, in advance of the visit.
The final list of issues contains those that the Committee will pursue with the institution during the visit: it should be made available to the HoI prior to the visit. It may be useful to allocate different issues to different meetings, and for various Review Committee members to lead particular meetings.
You may want to hold a short meeting of the Review Committee at the start of the day to finalise the agenda for each meeting, and to be clear about when particular issues are to be discussed.
Some Chairs ask the institution to organise an open meeting at which all members of the institution are invited to put views on any issue to the Review Committee. If you do this, you will need to make sure the meeting is adequately facilitated and that all those present understand the purpose of the review.
At the end of the visit the Chair should present a summary of the Review Committee’s findings to the
HoI (and others at their discretion). You can also use the session to resolve outstanding issues which simply require information.
Please convey the positive findings as well as any problematic issues. Thank the institution for their help and tell them what the next stage of the process is.
The HoI may want to answer the recommendations there and then. Although it is useful to hear and defuse any particularly passionate views, avoid rehashing all the evidence that the Review Committee has considered during the day. Everyone is tired by this stage: it is not the best time to debate the findings.
If there are conflicting views, you should mediate between Review Committee members to produce a final draft of the report on which, if possible, all can agree.
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