SCHOOL OF SCIENCE SCHOOL BOARD
Minutes of the First Meeting of the School of Science School Board 2011/2012 session Thursday 24th
November 2011 in Blake B028 Commencing 14:00
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WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
The Chair welcomed members to the meeting with a particular welcome to Mike Sharp
from Engineering and Elinor Thompson attending her first School Board as an Early
Career Academic. The Board also took this opportunity to thank Ms Nazanin Zand Fard
for her contribution to the Board over the past years as a PhD representative.
PRESENT
Prof. Martin Snowden (MS)
_ (Chair)
Dr. Richard Blackburn
(RB)_(DL&Q)
Prof. Pat Harvey (PH)
(Professorial Rep)
Mike Sharp (MS)
(Independent
School of Engineering)
Dr Richard Anthony (RA)
Dr. Jeremy Everett (JE)
(Head PCE)
Dr. Elinor Thompson (ET)
(Early Career Academic)
Prof. Steve Wicks (SW)
Director of Research
Ms Nina Hughes (Student
Rep) (NINA)
Dr Samer El-Daher (SED)
(Head LASS)
Mr. Fakhar Khalid (FK)
(Programme Leader)
Mr. StevenWilliams (SW)
(Technical Rep)
Miss Nicola Hunn (NH)
(School Admin Rep)
Ms Nazanin Zand Fard
(Student Rep) (NAZ)
Mr. Brian Banks (BB)
SQAO (Notes)
APOLOGIES RECEIVED FOR ABSENCE
Dr. Lucie Pollard (LP)
Prof. Steve Leharne (SL)
(Director of Finance)
(Professorial Rep)
Dr Paul Amuna (Health & Dr Mike McGibbon (MM)
Safety)
Employability
Dr Mark Edwards (ME)
Mrs Veronica Habgood
Quality Enhancement
(Independent
School of Health)
Ms. Lynne Spencer
Steve Mann (SM) PhD
(OSA)
Rep
Rahul Sahni (RS) Student
Prof Steve Leharne (SL)
Rep
(Professorial Rep)
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Dr. Dave Wray (DW)
(Director R&E)
Prof. Alfonso Jimenez (AJ)
Mr. Andrew Larkin
(ILS)
Laurence Ohia (LO)
Student Rep
TO AGREE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF 25th May 2011
Minutes of the Third meeting of 2010/11 were agreed.
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4.0
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Mtg
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Item
5.1
02/11
05/25
05/25
12.2
2.1
3.1
05/25
4.1
Action
Richard Anthony to follow up on risk assessment and insurance
form completion
BB to review the membership of School Board
BB to add Steve Wicks to the distribution list
MS & LP to investigate the transport needs and its provision for
staff and students after evening laboratories.
Mike McGibbon and Yvonne Pendry to produce an Executive
Summary of the CEIAG Action Plan
Progress
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
SCHOOL MONITORING AND REVIEW DOCUMENT (SMRD) Dr Blackburn
(Document Supplied)
The board thanked Dr Blackburn for compiling the SMRD which takes an overall view
of all the annual reports and student feedback from which an operational strategy is
derived with a view to further improve the student experience. Members of the Senior
Management Team (SMT) will meet with Deputy Vice Chancellors Tom Barnes and
Simon Jarvis to discuss the SMRD and the School’s strategy plan.
The Board approved the SMRD.
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FINANCE (Report Supplied) Dr Pollard
Dr Pollard provided a detailed report of budget against spend for the first quarter. The
Board were pleased to note that finances are stable and in a healthy position in line with
phasing. Forward planning has been enhanced now that staff are using the new funding
request forms. The Board was asked to remind staff to submit any equipment
maintenance costs to the next meeting of the School’s resource committee scheduled for
the 14th December.
MS advised the Board that Neil Garrod had three quarters of a million pounds available
for bids on projects that would enhance the student experience. The Dean would like to
discuss any proposals before submission.
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HEALTH AND SAFETY (H&S) (Report and Meeting minutes supplied) Dr Anthony
Dr Anthony advised that the new H&S manuals have been produced and will be
maintained electronically on the School’s web site. Security of the School’s laboratories
has been reviewed and it was recommended that the School’s access policy be revised.
The costs of this will be taken to the School’s resources sub-committee as soon as a final
quote has been received. The Board asked if this policy should be applied across the
campus.
The new policy on accident reporting has meant that more accidents are being reported
but these have all been very minor. There have been no incidents of theft reported. The
Board were concerned that some laboratory users were not adhering to the Personal
Protective Equipment policy (PPE) and the Board confirmed that any member of staff
found not compliant would face disciplinary action.
Dr Anthony confirmed that the School was fully compliant with First Aid cover.
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LEARNING AND QUALITY (L&Q) (Meeting minutes supplied) Dr Blackburn
The Board was pleased to note the success of the recent Collaborative Audit and
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congratulated the hard work of all involved.
The School is to relinquish all its foundation degrees to the relevant partner colleges and
at the same time take responsibility of the full delivery of the BSc Biomedical Science
currently being delivered at both the School and Bromley College. At the same time the
Sports Science programmes are cutting their links with the School of Education and from
2012 all Sports Science programmes will be wholly delivered by the School.
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Minutes Ratified
RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE (Meeting minutes supplied) Professor Wicks
A database has been created that will enable individuals to track their bid history as well
as providing other useful data, this will be available via the portal. Changes to REF2014
have been presented and the committee are exploring the revised staff eligibility criteria.
It was noted that research activity would normally move with the researcher and not
remain at previous institutions. Researchers were urged to publish their papers in 2012 to
ensure their registration with REF2014. Academics were encouraged to discover their
‘H’ index. Research clusters will be redefined to bring them into line with REF2014. The
Research and Enterprise Journal is currently with the printer.
Minutes Ratified
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DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: Professor Everett
Pharmaceutical, Chemical and Environmental Sciences (Report Supplied)
The Department welcomed Mr Robert Green as a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science
and Dr Jiayun Pang as Senior Lecturer in Computational Chemistry.
Evening sessions are working well and the Board expressed its thanks to all staff
involved in making these sessions a good experience for the students. This will only help
towards maintaining the 90% overall satisfaction grade in the National Student
Survey(NSS).
The Board congratulated the Department for its successful NSS results.
The student placement scheme has been slow to get under way but an additional
financial incentive towards costs should improve matters.
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10.0 DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: Dr El Daher
Life and Sports Sciences (Report Supplied)
The Department has been involved in developing new markets for its current Masters
delivery as well as developing a new programme at undergraduate level – BSc Sports
Exercise and Nutrition. The Institute of Biology has been in consultation with the
Department in the establishment of new guidelines for programme approval by the
Institute and Dr Christides is continuing to progress the accreditation of the BSc Human
Nutrition programme and the MSc Nutritional Sciences.
This involvement with the professional bodies will enhance the student experience and
the Department is working hard to improve that experience in all areas of programme
delivery and the appointment of three new staff members can only add to that
improvement. Students are coping well with the introduction of evening laboratory work.
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11.0 EXTERNAL EXAMINERS
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The Board endorsed the following approvals for external examiners:
Vicky Kett – MSc Formulation Science
Lorna Cameron – Equine Programmes at Hadlow
Neil Crooks – Fisheries Programmes at Hadlow
Soma Mitra – Foundation Year, BSc Biomedical Science and BSc Nutrition at NYC
Athens
Phil Rogers – MSc Landscape Ecology and MSc GIS with Remote sensing
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12.0 PORTFOLIO PLANNING
The Board noted the following portfolio approvals:
MSc Landscape Ecology with GIS
BSc Aquaculture and Fisheries Management
HNC Chemistry by Distance Learning
BSc Sports Science with Nutrition
The Board noted the following review events taking place this term:
MSc Food Safety and Quality Management
MSc GIS with Remote Sensing
BSc Sports Science
BSc Sports Science with Professional Football Coaching
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13.0 SCHOOL STUDENT EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE (SSEC) Minutes Provided
The Board was concerned that none of the student representatives attended this meeting
and did not submit any apology. MS has written to each representative expressing his
concern and emphasising the responsibility of being a representative.
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14.0 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
The Dean is giving a presentation on the School of Science to the Board of Governors on
the 28th of November. The new Vice Chancellor has changed the planning process and
members of the SMT will meet with DVC Tom Barnes and Director of Finance Reg
Daley to discuss the budget and resource allocation model for next year. The outcome of
this meeting will form the basis of the school planning document being prepared for
February 2012. The Board was asked to discuss their views with MS, LP or SW before
the December 7th meeting. The continuing strategic focus is Recruitment, Retention,
Research and Employability the latter being the School’s weakness and will need a
concerted effort this year. The Vice Chancellor has described his vision for the
University as being smaller with an improved Staff Student Ratio, with all staff holding a
PhD and being committed to research and the University achieving top 50 status in the
media polls.
The PhD students expressed their thanks to Joanna and Richard for the new demonstrator
rota and are awaiting the academic rota for next year’s laboratories. Thanks were also
expressed to the technical staff for their support in the laboratory.
Meeting closed at 16.05
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15.0 DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING
22/02/2012 B028
23/05/2012 B028
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