Annual Programme Review and Evaluation
Generic Institutional Issues: Overview
2006-2007
[Available at www.cardiff.ac.uk/regis/ifs/programmes/review/index.html)
This Appendix draws together the generic institutional themes emerging from APRE
in 2006-2007. There were three significant areas - Learning and Teaching and
Office Accommodation, Student Administration and Support, and Library, Pool Room
Support and Blackboard – that drew comments from Academic Schools. Two other
issues were raised and will also be forwarded to the appropriate Directorate for
comment and action. APRE Sub-Committee will receive the responses from the
Directorates as part of its work in 2008-2009.
1.
Learning and Teaching and Office Accommodation (21 submissions)
As in 2005-2006, School comments on the issue of learning and teaching
accommodation centre on the availability of space in general, of appropriatelysized teaching rooms, office accommodation, and the general fabric of rooms.
The issue of the availability of space is the most commonly highlighted issue
by Schools. As one School puts it, "Space continues to pose a significant
problem for the School, especially in terms of increased student numbers…..
The school is currently operating with a shortfall of 40% of space as indicated
by the University Space allocation formula. This position is untenable and
makes any expansion of activities very difficult indeed." Another School
comments as follows: "Space restrictions on the Queen's Buildings site are
still considered severe. Recent planned growth of the School has not resulted
in any greater buildings allocation from the University."
There remains an issue about the availability of another large capacity lecture
theatre on the Cathays site. One School, noting the Great Hall development,
comments that though it might meet their needs in the future, much would
depend on its availability. If, as they suggest, it is only available for teaching
two days a week, this would be insufficient for their needs, "let alone those of
other large schools which intend using it."
For other Schools, the key issue is the lack of suitable and flexible teaching
space for small (and large) group tutorials and seminars. One School
comments: "The School would very much like to provide some multipurpose
social/ work/ meeting/ group/ surgery/ tutorial space to enable students to
interact with staff and fellow students during unallocated periods in their
timetable." Others refer to the shortage of suitable space: "The availability of
small group teaching rooms is an increasing problem in scheduling our tutorial
classes."
The issue of the standard of the teaching estate in general on the Heath Park
campus, and especially Tŷ Dewi Sant is highlighted by relevant Schools:
"There remains insufficient teaching space in Tŷ Dewi Sant although
there has been some improvement in working with the central room
booking system."
"There is a concern about the lack of space, general ambience and
general condition of Tŷ Dewi Sant."
In regard to the Cathays site, one School comments: "Floor 5 of the
Humanities building remains vulnerable to the weather." Another notes
inadequate temperature regulation in lecture theatres (E/0.15 is most
frequently cited).
For a small number of Schools, office space remains a major issue. For one
School, the problem was characterised as follow: The lack of office space in
the Main building has meant that some teaching staff are now located in a
separate building, this makes them far less accessible to the undergraduate
students."
In regard to accessibility matters, one School notes that "considerable
difficulties are experienced when the Centre attempts to achieve suitable
conditions for its disabled students in matters controlled at University level,
notably Security and Estates."
The issue of timetabling is raised by one School: "The process of timetabling
rooms and teaching activities continues to be fraught with difficulty with some
Schools appearing to block book whole lecture theatres with no real regard to
their actual needs on the ground. A tremendous amount of time and effort is
wasted on this whole activity from April to September. Maybe better or
revised guidance to School timetabling officers is required."
In their 2005-06 submission, one School highlighted a particular issue in
regard to congestion, safety, and the time taken as 250+ students tried to
leave a lecture theatre and a similar number trying to enter it. In its 2006-07
submission, the same School expresses its "dismay" that this issue remains
unresolved.
2.
Registry Issues: Student Administration and Support (20 submissions)
In contrast to previous years, where the focus of School comments on
institutional matters was almost exclusively on learning environment matters,
a significant number of issues related to student administration are highlighted
by Schools in their 2006-2007 submissions.
General
A number of Schools make general comments about their dealings with
Registry. These comments focus mainly on the issue of inadequate
communication and procedures. Three Schools characterise the problem in
the following terms:
"The School has faced a range of time consuming problems in its
dealings with REGIS. These problems are having an adverse impact
on student recruitment, on the administration of teaching and on
students' perception of the efficiency of the School's and university's
operations."
"It would be helpful to have a less formal relationship with Registry –
through specific staff – to minimise duplication of material in
discussions and minutes or BoSs, sub-groups, T&L committees,
awaydays etc."
"We suffer from inadequate servicing at the level of the university in a
number of areas including SIMS provision and communication and
support from REGIS during enrolment and harmonization."
Admissions
A number of Schools raise issues in regard to admissions administration. The
following quote highlights the key issues:
"Registry is slow in its distribution of UCAS applications and processing
of School decisions back to UCAS for access by applicants. This could
be costing [us] and other schools the securing of some of the very best
students applying to Cardiff and other high-ranking universities in the
UK……The situation has been so bad recently that it has brought the
University into disrepute with many of these students."
SIMS and Blackboard
One School, noting its reliance on Blackboard for communication and the
provision of support material for students, makes the following point in regard
to SIMS data:
"We have complained about this issue in our previous APREs and last
year again requested that [we] be given write-access to SIMS so that
we could update the records more quickly. The response to our 200506 APRE was: The SIMS user group has considered (March 2007)
improvements to the process that aim to ensure that module data is
updated within 48 hours of receipt in REGIS. This didn't happen and
we have many instances of where it has taken well over a week to
update student records on SIMS even after the programme change
forms were couriered to REGIS! Yet again we make the plea for
selected staff in Schools to be given write access to SIMS!"
Examinations and Examining Boards
A number of Schools raise issues in regard to the administration of
examinations. One School comments as follows:
"A number of errors appeared on the spring semester final exam
timetable, despite us notifying REGIS of requirements on our return of
scheduling information and pointing out errors on the draft timetable
published on 27 March. We received no response despite a number of
emails. The information was corrected only after the intervention of
Head of School."
Some Schools highlight issues in regard to difficulties and errors in regard to
exam results and results notification. In regard to Exam Boards, one School
discusses its lack of confidence in SIMS data. Another School raises the
issue of Welsh-language publications:
"All External Examiners, together with Exam Boards, were
disappointed that, yet again, the Exam Handbooks, University
Committee Pro-forma, Results Schedule, Result Schedule Checklist
etc, produced by REGIS, were in English only. We would ask REGIS
to re-examine this issue, in line with the University's Welsh Language
Policy."
Student Support
One School raised an issue in regard to Student Support: "There was a
pronounced concern in reviews that the Counselling service is overstretched
and not able to deal with the increase in student levels of stress and other
medical conditions."
3.
INSRV Issues: Library, Pool Room Support and Blackboard (13
submissions)
There were rather fewer references to these issues in School APRE
submissions for 2006-2007 than in previous years. However, the following
comments need to be highlighted:
Library
One School makes an explicit link between NSS and library services:
"The NSS for 2007 showed a reduction in the score for Learning
Resources down from 4.4 to 4.3, and the survey reports a number of
negative comments about library resources. We need to ensure that
these resources are maintained at the high level of the past so as to be
able to reverse this situation. The School's reputation at both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels is heavily dependent on the
extent and quality of its library and IT services."
Another School whilst "wholeheartedly" welcoming the refurbishment of its
Library highlighted the need for adequate provision in future projects to
provide appropriate alternative accommodation for teaching activities
disrupted by the building works.
An issue that arose in previous submissions from one School about library
provision is raised again in the following terms:
"This has not been addressed by the University Librarian or by any
other relevant senior officer in the University (including the ViceChancellor, Director and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Estates, School link
Pro Vice-Chancellor etc.)…However, nothing is ever done."
On a positive note, one School comments as follows: "The pressure on
library resources, with the exception of some main texts, appears to have
eased compared with previous years. We very much appreciate the most
helpful and cooperative attitude of the Bute library staff."
Pool Room Support
A number of submissions highlight issues relating to Pool Room Support:
"The response time to handling faults is sometimes unacceptably
large."
"We have highlighted problems in this area in the past three APREs
and, in our last APRE, commented that the creation of the new Pool
Room Support Team under the control of INSRV had apparently little
effect in terms of the occurrence of problems and the speed in which
they were dealt with. Unfortunately this has also been our experience
in 2006-07. …These continuing problems are totally unacceptable and
the university must invest in the staff and spare equipment to address
such problems quickly."
"Several lecturing staff have reported ongoing issues with the use of
pool teaching rooms, including faulty equipment…..Two Glamorgan
Building pool teaching rooms which were due to be upgraded to
include permanent data projectors was not carried out in the assigned
period."
Another School comments on a related issue:
"The recently introduced systems of networked 'Smartboards'… has
allowed an extra dimension to teaching allowing exploration and
interaction with web sites as part of scheduled learning and teaching
sessions. These resources are unfortunately unavailable in many of
the rooms allocated to the programmes in other parts of the Heath Park
campus and this, alongside the disruption and loss of time available for
learning and teaching caused by such allocation has led to complaints
from students and academic staff."
Blackboard
A number of Schools raise issues in regard to Blackboard:
"Blackboard support from INSRV is still far from ideal, with staff having
to wait for excessive periods to have modules created or access rights
changed. [School deleted] made the strategic decision to pay for
significant in-house Blackboard support, but use of this resource is
compromised constantly by the lack of access privileges afforded to
our staff. While [School deleted] appreciates the need for system
security, the overriding priority must be the effective use of Backboard
by staff and students. Therefore we are still pushing for appropriate
administrator privileges for our own staff, to enable us to be less reliant
on the INSRV Blackboard support."
"There are worrying signs that Blackboard is now 'creaking' from heavy
use across the University."
The issue of a Welsh-language version of Blackboard is again raised by one
School, although it acknowledges that the University has "finally obtained a
Welsh version of Blackboard which we are using widely in the School."
Other Generic Issues
Although the main generic institutional issues highlighted in the APRE of
2006-2007 fall into the three categories discussed above, a few other issues
which will be drawn to the attention of the relevant Directorate were
highlighted by Schools.
4.
PRCOM and INTER
One School raised issues in regard to the "visibility given to the European
dimension within the marketing efforts of the University……There is an
inadequate focus on European opportunities……PRCOM and INTER do not
share our strategic vision and do not contribute to its realisation."
Another School noted the following problems in regard to Welsh language
web pages: "There is no change; indeed, the situation has deteriorated since
last session. Despite a flood of e-mails to PRCOM, suggesting what should
be prioritised, the University website remains an embarrassment. It certainly
does not conform to the University's Welsh Language Policy. The situation is
extremely acute in the context of recruitment at all levels."
5.
Human Resources
One School raised the issue of the staffing difficulties experienced by a small
School: "The impact of maternity leave and illness impacted seriously on the
School in the academic year. The current University devolution of the costs of
illness and maternity leave impacts disproportionately on small Schools and
might encourage Schools to discriminate in appointments. We would request
that the APRE Sub-committee requests an urgent review of the current
practice."
6.
Conclusion
This document has drawn together the main generic themes emerging from
APRE in 2006-07.
The generic themes that have been discussed here form a critical evidence
base for the development of enhancements at University level to the learning
and teaching experience of students.
It is now a vital part of the process that generic issues are reported to relevant
Directorates of the University, and they in turn are asked to report back on
developments in the following APRE cycle. In addition, one Directorate has
asked to see submissions as they are made so that relevant institutional
issues can be followed up immediately.
In the next APRE cycle, further enhancements to the process of considering
the generic institutional issues will be made, especially in regard to the way
the issues are translated into evidence for those responsible for the delivery of
services to the University community, the way evidence is considered when
prioritising enhancements to services, and in the way progress and
developments are reported back to Schools in succeeding cycles.
APRE Sub-Committee
April 2008
Generic feedback from the Annual Programme Review and Evaluation
Committee – 2005-2006
Ref: NP/SG/APRE0807
Response from INSRV to the issues raised both in the generic document and
in the collated comments from Schools
This document provides a response to the issues raised in 2005/6 relating
specifically to provision by Information Services, building upon the update provided
to the Committee on issues from 2004/5.
Library Provision
Funding for Information Resources
The budget for 2005/6 was increased when compared with 2004/5 by £250K as a
special capital supplement. However, funding difficulties were still experienced by
several Schools in 2005/6. The continuing inflation rate of 8% for information
resources required cautious management of expenditure, since future increases
always need to be budgeted for in the current year's allocations.
In 2006/7, approximately the same additional capital funding was available to
supplement the baseline budget, but for 2007/8 the prospects are worse, with
effectively a stand-still budget. Despite positive US exchange rates, and a predicted
inflationary increase for this year of 6%, this will still involve a cut in real terms.
Opportunities are being sought for cost savings through reduction in the number of
duplicate journal titles held, but this will be limited, leaving some Schools with very
small allocations for books.
Overall, the IR budget compares less well with Russell Group Libraries in terms of
expenditure on information resources per FTE user (2nd in 2001/2, , 12th in 2005/6
compared to the 20 Russell Group Universities), but it is not 'woeful'. This comment
is more likely to be related to the difficulty in freeing up funding for new journal
subscriptions when the suppliers place a strict limit on the amount of cancellations
which can be made in any one year.
Improving the availability of items on reading lists
Information was circulated to all Library representatives and Heads of School in July
2007 promoting the use of the VLE for making reading lists available to students. All
modules in Blackboard now have a reading lists tab which can be used by tutors to
link to electronic versions of their reading lists, wherever they are held. Where the
reading material itself is available electronically, library staff will work with tutors to
provide direct links to the text.
Further e-books have also been ordered, some through an all-Wales purchasing
consortium which will provide access to all texts purchased by other members as
well as Cardiff's selection. 1700 e-books are now available to Cardiff's students.
The provision for purchasing multiple copies of textbooks is held at the same level as
in the previous year.
Special Collections and the Library as a research resource
Current library accommodation is full, including the stores, which makes it impossible
to relocate more original source material in the libraries for easier access. Although
the area devoted to SCOLAR has been enlarged by the new facility at Newport
Road, and a small area within ASSL now meets BS5454 for archival storage, the
only solution to the lack of space will be to implement the recommendation of the
Library Review to establish a smaller number of larger libraries. By reducing the
current duplication of circulation and service point space, more room can be
provided for collections and their use, even within a similar overall area.
Additionally, several digitisation projects have been identified which will bring more of
the University's primary research resources into the public eye during 2007/8.
Some space has also been saved by Cardiff University's participation in a
collaborative retention scheme, which ensures that some journal back runs can
safely be discarded in the knowledge that secure copies are available in the UK.
Improvement in the Learning Environment
Similarly, there is little scope to provide different kinds of study spaces without major
refurbishments. Three libraries have undergone improvement programmes in
2006/7, at Biomed, Aberconway and the Duthie Libraries. In the latter two, self
service issues and returns will be implemented for the 2007/8 session. Funding has
been obtained from the Wolfson Foundation to redevelop the Trevithick Library in
2008.
Further developments are being discussed for both phases 1 and 2 of the Library
Review, both of which will report at the end of 2007.
Pool Room support
IT/AV equipment in Pool Rooms
Since 2005 67% of pool room equipment on the Cathays campus has been
replaced, and 100% replaced at the Heath campus. The new Que interface is being
installed in all rooms upgraded by INSRV and ESTAT to make the systems
consistent and simpler to use. This has been completed in the Glamorgan building
and all Schools are advised to use the same equipment standards even where the
work is commissioned independently. Evidence that this investment is paying off is
that the number of fault calls logged in the first week of the session was 35 in
2006/7, but reduced to 12 in 2007/8. The remaining older equipment will be
replaced as soon as capital funding is available.
With the current level of fault reporting, the level of staffing in INSRV Pool Room
Support is now considered to be a reasonable operational minimum at Cathays Park,
although it does rely on close collaboration with School technicians to provide an
effective service. Following additional training sessions both for technicians and
teaching staff, partnership working with INSRV has improved considerably. There
are still some issues at the Heath Park campus, and further improvements are
necessary in the handling of help desk calls, but these are in hand.
Blackboard
Enrolment delays
Any delays in enrolling students leads to problems in them gaining access to the
VLE, Blackboard, which was a major problem with some cohorts in 2006/7. With the
introduction of online enrolment in 2007/8 it is anticipated that the number of
reported problems will be significantly reduced. However, students changing
modules or courses may still experience delays while the changeover process, which
requires policy decisions to be made, is completed by the Schools and REGSS.
Student enrolment is a major process which is being reviewed by the MWE group
looking at the student life-cycle (Learning and Teaching Portal Services
Implementation Group) to see whether it can be streamlined further. There are still
issues with students being issued with ID cards promptly, which leads to problems
with library use, but it is anticipated that this will also be addressed by the above
group.
Availability of modules for students resitting exams
In line with University policy, students are permitted to see the content of modules
they studied during their course, since 'expired' modules are effectively frozen as a
permanent record of course content. However, although they still have access to the
interactive elements, their tutors do not, therefore they cannot obtain online support
from their tutor. Technically this could be changed, but the University would need to
amend its policy in this area.
Collaboration with students in other universities
As a licensed product, Blackboard is only available to current staff and students of
Cardiff University. If students from other universities were to require access, even
for temporary periods, the supplier of Blackboard would need to be consulted, and
Cardiff University would need to establish a procedure similar to that for staff to
determine when students could legitimately be enrolled. If this increased the FTE
count for Cardiff's students, there could be increased licensing costs for Blackboard.
Welsh language
The Blackboard modules used by Bangor University have been translated into Welsh
and made available to Welsh HEIs from September 2007. This is to be evaluated
with the School of WELSH to assess the feasibility of using the translation in Cardiff.
Janet Peters, Neil Penry and Tony Morgan
Information Services
October 2007
GENERIC FEEDBACK FROM THE ANNUAL PROGRAMME REVIEW AND
EVALUATION COMMITTEE (2005/2006)
Ref: NP/SG/APRE0807
Response from ESTAT to the issues raised both in the Overview and Feedback
document and in the collated comments from the Schools.
The issues raised relate specifically to the university pool rooms that come under
central control and are used to support teaching. ESTAT engaged with the schools
directly in preparing this response. They were asked to elaborate on the issues that
they had raised and to comment on whether or not performance had improved in
subsequent academic sessions. The response to this consultation was low, with
only two schools responding.
Teaching Space
Since the academic session 2005-6 there has been significant improvement in the
provision of teaching space. In 2007, refurbishment activities to the university estate
have seen the introduction of a new optometry building increasing the portfolio of
pool rooms. The new building houses a lecture theatre (capacity 150) and two
seminar rooms (capacity 25). Further developments include building the new
Swansea Graduate lecture theatre, refurbishing the Great Hall at the Students Union
to incorporate a 400+ lecture theatre.
Continued efforts remain focused on providing both an efficient and effective use of
the university's estate.
In academic session 2006-7 a teaching needs analysis was undertaken. This
exercise helped to determine how well the class sizes required matched the room
size availability. The results of the teaching needs analysis revealed that at the
Heath Park Campus there are enough pool rooms to satisfy demand, but this can
only continue with flexibility in terms of timing. The analysis further revealed that for
the Heath Park Campus there is no justification for departments booking external
space. Whilst the teaching needs analysis revealed that at Cathays Park there is
pressure on small rooms (up to 20).
A Room Utilisation Survey was undertaken in November 2006. Seven of the largest
pool rooms were surveyed over a typical week. Revealing that 37% of hours booked
were not utilised, highlighting the problem with the block-booking of rooms.
Further engagement with the schools will continue in future academic sessions to
ensure that teaching resources, which come under central control, are used
efficiently.
Room / Facility Accessibility
Since academic session 2005-6 there has been a planned programme of works to
the university estate to ensure that buildings and facilities are accessible. The
investment made since 2005-6 has been over 1.5m. This has been invested across
both the Heath Park and the Cathays Park campus. Improvements have been made
by installing automatic entrances, ramps, induction loops, adaptations to toilets,
improved lighting, and stair lifts.
Office Space
The division maintains data on space for the majority of the estate. This data shows
the user of the space and what the space is being used for. The data facilitates a
space allocation model for its accommodation, taking into account relative factors.
These factors being: the type of activity requiring the space; staff and student
numbers; and research targets. The model identifies short-falls in accommodation
and informs the decision making process when deciding to provide additional
accommodation. The space allocated to schools and departments is controlled
locally. The schools and departments determine how they want to use the space.
Room Temperature
Each centrally controlled pool room displays telephone numbers for reporting faults
within the pool rooms. It is recognised that the level of fault reporting may increase
at certain times of the year and prove to be a challenge to the operators, the system
and the labour force in times of increased demand. Every effort is made to receive
and process each maintenance fault efficiently. The introduction of a new Physical
Resources system will improve the response times in relation to receiving and
processing the maintenance requests.
As received by APRE Sub-Committee on 15 February 2008.
Response from Director of PLANN (12 February 2008) to the issues of national
and international league tables and National Student Survey raised by Schools
in the APRE 2005-2006 cycle
The UK League tables are largely based on data submitted by institutions to the
Higher Education Statistic Agency (HESA) in the area of numbers and types of
students and staff, and financial data. HESA data is drawn directly from the
University's central systems, and the University ensures that this data is as accurate
as possible. A group of Directorate staff responsible for HESA returns meet to coordinate submissions (e.g. ensuring that students aren't returned where we don't
have staff). The membership of this group is being extended to include
representatives from School Managers to provide a School perspective on these
data returns. Once the data is submitted, HESA is free to provide this to league
table providers. The University has no control as to how the league table providers
use this data to compile their rankings (e.g. in terms of choice of indicators,
methodology, weightings etc), although Cardiff does attempt to influence the tables
via consultations and membership of advisory groups.
With regard to the National Student Survey (NSS), data is increasingly being used in
UK league tables and, although the value of this data is questionable (particularly
when being used to compare institutions), the University attempts to ensure that all
subject areas meet the minimum threshold requirements for respondents as failure
to register a score against this indicator can have a negative impact on rankings at
subject and institutional level. Matt Sims (REGSS) can provide further information.
As received by APRE Sub-Committee on 15 February 2008.