School of GeoSciences
MSc Committee Meeting
2 December 2009, 2.30 p.m.
Room 3, Crew Annex
Minutes
Present: Dr Mat Williams (Chair) (MW), Dr Simon Allen (SA),Dr Sarah Vaughan (SV), Prof Paul
van Gardingen (PvG), Mr Salman Hussain (SH), Dr Mark Wilkinson (Mark W), Prof Andrew
Curtis (AC), Dr Xiang Yang Li (XYL), Dr Chris McDermott (CMcD), Dr Ron Wilson (RW), Dr
Emily Brady (EB), Dr Neil Stuart (NS), Sarah McAllister (SM), Christine Wilson (CW), Connie
Fox (Secretary)
Apologies: Dr Lynn Staeheli, Dr Oliver Knox, Prof Mike Summerfield, Prof John Grace, Dr Claire
Haggett, Frances Stratford
1. Welcome
The Chair welcomed the members of the Committee to the Meeting.
2. Approval of Previous Meeting’s Minutes
The Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
3. Matters Arising from Previous Minutes
The Chair went through the items for action stated at the last meeting.
i.
Both AC and SA would be interested in introducing an applicant deposit payment
system for their programmes. They will look into the information provided by
Caroline Keir regarding this system as adopted by the MSc GIS. They would specify
their own amount of deposit and will let SM know their specifications.
Action: PDs, SM
ii.
SM and the PG secretaries had prepared a spreadsheet with information on Exam
Board arrangements but will finalise it for circulation as soon as possible.
Action: SM, CW and CF
iii.
SA confirmed that MSc Environmental Sustainability programme is already in the
Ecology and Management exam board cluster.
iv.
Some PDs agree that minimum IELTS requirement be increased to level 7. Others say
that may result in the loss of students. Further discussions will take place and SM will
produce a paper.
Action: SM
v.
vi.
Future graduation arrangements will be made as soon as graduation dates are
published by Registry.
GeoSciences courses may be offered as electives to LLM students but
no guarantee is made.
vii.
Transkills workshops were run this academic year but in future these
workshops would be best offered in Weeks 3 and 5.
4. The role of Chairs of Board of Examiners & Assessment Officers (AOs)
MW summarised the role of the Chairs & Assessment Officers as follows:
i.
Chair to hold meetings each semester to review exam questions for all courses
prior to sending to external examiners.
ii.
Chair to hold a first exam board to confirm marks for courses. This will incorporate
the ‘Special Circumstances’ discussion as part of the Agenda. All course organisers
will be present at this exam board. Before the exam board meeting the secretaries will
have sent to the AOs the marks and histograms for every course and AOs can decide if
further moderation is required. To meet University regulations, marking on some
courses should be shared across the course team. Week 11 was set as the latest handin date, marks from COs after 3 weeks and AOs to check the marks on the 4th week.
iii.
Chair to hold a second board to confirm progression. At least one external examiner
should be present. Both external examiners must have had sight of the students’ work.
The external examiners may hold an interview with a selected number of students to
get an overview of the MSc programme as a whole.
iv.
Chairs to hold a final board to discuss dissertation marks and award degrees.
Dissertations are double marked and the AOs will review the moderation process and
may require independent marking if needed.
v.
Towards the end of the semester (week 10), Chair to convene the staff-student liaison
committee meeting, with PDs and class representatives present.
5.
PGT Preliminary Targets 2010/11
SM distributed the PGT figures of intake for the past three years and proposed that the
same numbers as 2009/10 be submitted to College Office for 2010/2011. AC
questioned the figures for GeoSEAD as he believes that overseas students on this
programme outnumber UK/EU students. He also asked for information on the
financial arrangements between Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh University for
this programme.
Action: SM
6.
PGT Open Day
SM had distributed the programme for the Open Day. MW requested suggestions,
ideas, photos etc for his brief talk on the School’s MSc PGT Programmes.
7.
Study Space for PGT Drummond Street
NS reported the students’ requests for study space: minimum 4-6 desks, Ethernet
connections, pin-coded door and lockers. MW and SM have met up with Tracey Dart
and the suggestion was to move some postgraduates from a room in the basement and
make this room as PGT room. Students should be asked to keep the study rooms tidy.
A list of study rooms available for MSc students, both at Crew and Drummond St, will
then be produced.
Action: SM
8.
Student Feedback on Courses
SM circulated the new School’s Course Evaluation form for undergraduate courses
and invited comments from PDs how it can be adjusted to MSc requirements. There
was a discussion on how best to get feedback from students and one suggestion was to
have marks on WebCT only available to the student upon completion of the
questionnaire. SM will ask Eduardo for his advice on this procedure on WebCT but
this matter will have to be discussed more fully with the PDs before it is effected.
Action: SM
9.
A review of dissertation database
In the first week of Semester 2, MW will remind all staff that the web-based
dissertation database exists and for them to consult it to make sure that they are
satisfied with their entry.
Action: MW
10.
AOB
AC: The UG/PG timetable with the Block systems is incompatible with the other Schools
in the University and this creates problems with Maths and Physics departments which
are closely linked with MSc Exploration Geophysics. AC was asked to give his
suggestions.
MW: MW asked for suggestions for the School’s response to NERC ERFF regarding future
skills for their 8 critical areas.
SA:
Some courses have to put a cap on student numbers, for example, Participation in
Policy Planning in which students are divided into groups for a given project. The
limit is ideally 25 students but will be sensitive to requests for a place.
SM:
New courses: Environmental Governance, Understanding the City and Food Security
have all been approved by the Board of Studies and awaiting Final approval to run in
2011/2012.
SH:
Make sure that SAC MSc PDs and secretary are included in the PGT mailing list.
Sarah will contact IT.
PvG: Is there connection between underperforming students and late admissions?
SA:
Class size issue: erosion of identity, affecting students’ perception of postgraduate
courses, educational debate whether teaching is downgraded by large number of
students. EB and SH concurred and their solution was to have after course sessions
with their own students.
The Chair thanked everyone for coming and the meeting was adjourned at 4.30.
Date of next meeting: 27 January 2010, 2.30 p.m., G.10 Drummond Annex, Geography
Minutes
Action
Action by
3i
Introduction of applicant deposit
payment – PDs to opt in or out
Circulate spreadsheet with Exam
Board arrangements
SM will produce a paper on IELTS
requirement
Check GeoSEAD students’ numbers
classified according to UK/EU and OS
and financial arrangements with
Heriot-Watt University
Follow-up study space arrangements
for PGT Drummond Street. List of
study rooms to be made available to
MSc students
Comments from PDs re adjustments to
new School’s Course Evaluation form
and procedure for getting back
feedback from students
Circulate information to members of
staff re dissertation database at the
beginning of Semester 2
AOB
i. Alternative to Block system for
Exploration Geophysics
courses
ii. Suggestions for response to
NERC ERFF
iii. SAC PDs & secretary to be
included on mailing list
PDs
3 ii
3 iv
5
7
8
9
10
SM, CW,
CF
SM
SM
SM
PDs, SM
MW
AC
PDs
SM