Minutes of Social Policy staff-student liaison meeting 17
November 2011
Present: Richard Parry, Abby Leslie, Kathleen Cousins
The students reported on Designing and Doing Social Research,
Health Policy Analysis/Globalisation and Public Health, Politics of
British Public Services, and International Criminal Justice Policy and
Politics
Designing and Doing Social Research (run by Sociology) was
regarded as ‘too sociological’ in the issues studied and the
intellectual perspective assumed. The arrangements for the group
project had not always run smoothly but some good access to policymakers had been achieved.
RP said that the research methods course was taught jointly with
Sociology but that at present the staffing came from that subject.
Social Policy had emphasized the joint nature of the course and the
need for considerations of policy variables in the topics discussed.
Health Policy Analysis had five Social Policy students but was mainly
geared to the graduate class. This had not caused any problems.
There had been a delay in releasing the essay question but the
deadline had been extended. The Globalisation module had been
more medical and US orientated. The courses had been interesting
and the presentation of material via WebCT had been good.
International Criminal Justice was assessed on coursework only, with
active groupwork. The annotated bibliography exercise was
unfamiliar and some had found it challenging. Generally, the
interesting content and innovative teaching content were welcomed.
Overall student opinion was that there was a positive improvement
between second and third year; students were more respected and
the level of teaching higher. Social Policy teachers were commended
for their open approach, which compared favourably to those from
other subject areas.
RP agreed to convey the specific comments to the course teachers
and encouraged them to be mentioned in student course evaluations.
Minutes of Social Policy Staff-student Liaison Committee 20
March 2012
Present: Richard Parry, Anthea Chan, Abby Leslie, Sophie Marshall
The students reported on Analytical Perspectives in Social Policy,
Children’s Rights, and Social Inequality and the Life Course.
Analytical Perspectives in Social Policy was found to be ‘not riveting’
and potentially dealing with material that should have been covered
earlier in the degree programmes. Attendance at lectures and
seminars had sometimes been poor. Essay length was too short
given the generality of the questions asked and insufficient guidance
.
Children’s Rights was taught with inspiration – most of the students
were from the School of Education and there was a quite rigid
working group arrangement in the first half of the class that some did
not find challenging.
Social Inequality and the Life Course had good material and learning
resources, and an effective division into groups within the lecture.
The essay deadline had coincided with that for the Politics
dissertation. The sign-in process at classes was not much liked.
Attendance had been dwindling in the latter part of the semester
Innovative Learning Week was discussed. Students commented that
it was difficult to build a community in one week although the careers
event had been good for networking. The events might have worked
better earlier in the degree.
RP noted that low or fluctuating attendance was of concern to staff
and did seem to be associated with essay deadlines. Analytical
Perspectives had to deal with a large group of students of varying
backgrounds and that ideally the seminar groups would have been
larger. Courses were using a variety of assessment methods,
including coursework only, and staff were keen to learn from the
experience and insure that instructions, expectations and feedback
were clear. It was not intended to drop examinations entirely.