Faculty of Humanities
Undergraduate Student Committee Meeting
Wednesday 9th November 2005, 1.00 p.m. in 3rd Floor Committee Room, Simon
Building, Brunswick Street
MINUTES
Present:
Professor Kersti Börjars (Chair), Beverley Heinze (Secretary), Diana
Leitch, Sheila Padden (Library), Tammy Goldfield (Careers and
Employability Division), Neil Ferguson (Head of Academic Services),
Emma Lewis (Sabbatical Student Intern for Humanities), Matthew
Granger (Faculty Officer, Humanities), Andrew Cunningham
(History), Samantha Cohen (Social Sciences), Frances de Alwis, (BA
Econ), Rebecca Bell, x (Religions and Theology), z (MBS), Alexander
Levy (Policitcs and History), Yvette Bello (French and Spanish).
Apologies:
Guy Percival (IT), Katherine Wohlman (Music)
1.
Faculty Provision
Professor Börjars welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the
nature of Faculty provision for students.
2.
Library
Diana Leitch, Head of Information Resources and Assistant Director of
the John Rylands Library, ran through the new library opening hours.
The main library is open to 11.30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday inclusive.
This will extend to 7 days a week after Christmas until after the
January exams and again after Easter until after the June exams.
Opening
hours
can
be
viewed
online
at
http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/opening/
Academic liaison librarians are appointed to each School, (Sheila
Padden is the librarian for Humanities with special responsibility for
the Schools of Arts, Histories and Cultures and Languages, Linguistics
and Cultures. Electronic dialogue is possible between librarians and
students through the online facility ‘ask the librarian’.
There are plans to open a café in the library, at the moment only water
is available. It was agreed that the possibility of vending machines
would be investigated.
BA(Econ) students are still experiencing difficulty accessing
recommended texts, due to the large number of students on the course.
This will be raised at the BA (Econ) Programme Committee on the 23rd
November. It is increasingly likely that electronic books will become
available.
The library has a small training room that can be used for drop in
sessions across the whole year and to provide training in library
technique and information skills sessions.
Reading lists should be communicated to the librarians by academic
staff and the academic liaison librarians will memo old and new
members of staff to explain the facilities. The degree of staff turnover
following the coming together of the two universities requires formal
communication.
It is intended to extend the space allocated to the short loan collection
next summer. The question of which books go into short loan is
decided through liaison with academic staff. Currently the return time
for a short loan book is 11.45 a.m. Since this is between lectures, the
librarians will look at moving this to 12 noon with the Head of Public
Services and consult other Faculties. Short loan fines were discussed
and it was agreed that these were set (and effective) in making people
return the books.
3.
IT
Students feel that the printing services are over-priced and have
requested ‘at cost’ printing. Diana Leitch will raise this with the
Director of IT Services and Beverley Heinze will speak to the Head of
Faculty IT provision Guy Percival.
Students of the old Victoria University of Manchester (VUM), cannot
access their email using the web programme. Beverley will raise this
with Guy.
4.
Careers and Employability Division (CED)
The University Careers service has been ranked 12th in a recent THES
survey of the top 200 universities in the world. The service has a large
and diverse portfolio which includes delivering the accredited Career
Management Skills course as well as sessions within individual
disciplines. They also run the session on Employability for the
Humanities Faculty Personal Development and Successful Learning
course and the prestigious Manchester Leadership Programme.
Traditionally the science and larger fairs take place in the autumn
whilst the Kaleidoscope and media courses take place in the spring.
There may be the possibility of mini events in the autumn although all
events cannot take place at this time because of resourcing constraints.
Students
can
register
www.manchester.ac.uk/careers.
graduates are registered.
for
email
vacancies
Currently 15,000 students
at
and
The CED can also help with placements both in the UK and overseas.
For example language students can ask for help in tailoring their CV or
with telephone interviews.
Information on career paths for different degrees should not only be
aimed at final year students. Second year students can greatly benefit
from this and may use it to influence their choice of course units in
their final year.
Next Meeting
15th March 2006.
In the meantime, please contact Beverley Heinze regarding any issues
of concern with Faculty provision of facilities for students.