ROYAL (DICK) SCHOOL OF VETERINARY STUDIES
LEARNING AND TEACHING COMMITTEE
Meeting of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
Learning and Teaching Committee
held on Wednesday 4 June in Seminar Room G.01
MINUTES
Present: Susan Rhind (Chair), Nicki Reed, Susan Orr (minutes), Lindsay Dalziel, Catriona Bell, Guraa Bergkvist, Fiona Brown, Paddy
Dixon, Kevin Eatwell, Danielle Gunn-Moore, Neil Hudson, Alastair Macrae, Jessie Paterson, Geoffrey Pearson, Claire Phillips,
Alessandro Seguino, Darren Shaw, Rachel Whittington
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Tim King, Simone Meddle, Donald Yool, Sally Argyle, John Mosley, Andrew Gardiner, Kay Aitchison,
Stacy Eastman, Thalia Blacking, Anna Meredith, Jo Spiller & Eoghan Clarkson.
2. Minutes of meeting held on 23 April 2014
The minutes were approved as a correct record.
3. Matters Arising (not considered elsewhere on agenda)
There were no matters arising.
OPEN BUSINESS
For Approval
4. Curriculum Items
a. New course approval: AHWFS GEP for HKU students (no EMS requirement) (Paper 1)
The attached course proposal was for a version of the AHWFS GEP course which excluded the EMS requirements. This version
of the course was proposed for Hong Kong University students studying at Edinburgh for the GEP year. No HKU students were
expected in 14/15 but this course would be included in a separate Degree Programme Timetable for future HKU students.
Around 1 or 2 HKU students were expected to come to Edinburgh each year on this programme.
b. Farm Animal Year 4: changes to assessments/ exams for 14/15 (Paper 12)
The attached paper outlined a change to the Farm Animal assessment for 14/15, whereby 2 short answer questions would be
moved from the exam into the in-course assessment. This would help students to better prepare for the short answer questions
in the exam. The weighting of the in-course assessment would change from 10% to 20%.
ACTION: Approved. It was noted that a change of this sort would be beneficial to students in other courses, for example
AHWFS 4/ VPH (this would be taken forward by DS and AS).
The OSPRE element of the Farm Animal course currently comprised 2 x 15 minute stations on the cow and the sheep
respectively, each of which was marked out of 10. At present, students were able to pass if an overall mark of 10/20 was
achieved. It had been suggested by the External Examiner that the pass mark should be 4 or above for each station, rather than
a cumulative pass mark of 10 for both stations. If a student achieved less than 4 on either station, they would be expected to
resit the station in question. The issue of problems with standardisation of the assessment was discussed.
ACTION: Approved in principle by L&TC although this proposal to be taken to the new BVM&S Assessment Executive for final
approval.
1
c. Reviewing past exam papers
DY had raised the problem of students on the Dog & Cat course looking at previous exam papers which were out of date in
relation to the current course content. There was a need to ensure students were aware of which past papers were suitable for
revision purposes.
ACTION: course handbooks and EEVeC course links to include information on the use of past exam papers in relation to
changes to course content. Course Organisers to reiterate this information in introductory course lectures. IS to be asked to
include a note on stored past papers to this effect.
d. Professional Development Course (Paper 16)
This course had run for the first time in 13/14. It was required for students resitting without Special Circumstances and optional
for those resitting with Special Circumstances. Currently, the course had a requirement of a 75% attendance rate: it was
proposed to decrease this to 60% as of 14/15 (equivalent to missing 3 of 8 sessions), with the caveat that an extra piece of selfreflective work would be submitted for each session missed.
ACTION: Approved. Attendance monitoring would require alignment and checking with Tier 4 requirements for students
studying away.
For Discussion
5. Course survey: circulation of free text comments and timing of survey (Paper 2)
It was decided that course surveys would be released to students on the last day of teaching for each course. The issue of this
meaning students would not be able to comment on the degree examination was acknowledged however it was felt that waiting
until this time, especially in semester 2 would lead to even poorer response rates.
Course Organisers would review the free text comments, remove any unprofessional comments and forward comments on
individual members of the course team to the individual and their line manager.
ACTION: A question to be added to course surveys about the availability of library and e-resources.
6. Teaching components: all courses (Paper 3)
The attached numbers had been considered in the context of EAEVE accreditation criteria. Years 3 and 4 were more lecturedominated, which was problematic in terms of the overall balance of the curriculum and in light of the EAEVE criteria. This
would be fed into future planning around the curriculum, specifically clinical skills elements for action in time for the 2014/15
session.
ACTION: The attached table to be updated with revised data for Year 1 tutorials.
7. Clinical Skills Planning (Paper 4)
The attached paper outlined future planning for the Clinical Skills curriculum. The mapping of current clinical teaching across all
years was almost complete gaps and duplications were being identified. Year Leaders and Species Leaders would be appointed
to have an overview and enable a joined-up approach across the curriculum to ensure all areas were covered. The Professional
& Clinical Skills team were available to be trained to deliver teaching on any areas that were lacking and to relieve pressure on
clinicians. Links with anatomy teaching were under discussion, including using new immersion and 3D printing techniques.
Approval for a half-time veterinary nurse post to help facilitate practicals and work in the clinical skills labs was being pursued.
The aim was to embed new elements of clinical skills teaching into the 14/15 curriculum.
The Clinical Skills Committee would meet again on 26 June.
ACTION: any staff interested in volunteering as a Year Lead or Species Lead to contact CB. Any further comments or
suggestions on the attached paper welcomed by CB.
2
8. EMS Skills Monitoring (Paper 5)
AG had been piloting the use of the RCVS student experience log for use with EMS placements. The log was free and assisted
students with creating their own learning objectives for EMS. It had been proposed that small group meetings with students
would be set up to review their EMS experience. Comments and suggestions welcome (to AG).
ACTION: implications for Personal Tutor system to be discussed further with GTP and relevant materials to be included in PT
briefing sessions.
9. Curriculum and Assessment Development: priorities 14/15 (Paper 14)
Any suggestions for additions to the attached list were welcomed (to SMR).
SA would chair the new Assessment Executive and was currently recruiting members.
NR raised the issue of consistency of taught parameters (i.e. heart rates/ respiratory rates) across all courses. The Clinical Skills
Committee had compiled a table of agreed parameters and it was agreed that this should be approved and circulated for use as
the definitive version, to be used in teaching from day one of year one.
ACTION: CB to circulate table to all course organisers for comment before generating a final agreed version. A caveat to be
added to explain necessary variations used and the names of all course organisers added to the document. Final version to
come back to L&TC for approval prior to circulation to all course organisers for session 14/15.
10. Course Organiser and Exam Board Chair roles (Paper 17)
Additions to the attached paper include:



Course organisers would be jointly responsible for setting exam questions in liaison with exam board chairs.
Course team would be responsible for designing examinations and these would be reviewed by the Assessment
Executive.
Course Organisers and/or Exam Boards Chairs would attend Special Circumstances Committee.
ACTION: paper to be updated and recirculated. Further comments welcome (to SMR).
11. Edinburgh Student Experience Survey Results
The ESES for 13/14 had returned a low response rate of around 20%. The results aligned well with NSS results: vet students
rated the School highly on teaching whilst issues of central support (i.e. Disability support, International student support) were
less highly rated. The greatest negative response (across the whole University) related to the question ‘I feel my views are
listened to and valued.’ The School continued to work hard to assure students that they were listened to and their feedback was
considered and responded to (see Item 19c below).
Further suggestions for improving communication on student feedback included:

Producing printed materials (fliers/ bookmarks) listing changes made each year in response to student feedback,
highlighting key changes for each year group. These could also be a feature on the NVS plasma screens.

Holding a post-exam discussion with students to explain how exam boards were run and assessments reviewed.

Introductory sessions at the start of each academic year which would include a summary of changes made since the
previous year as a result of student feedback.

Publicising the actual number of respondents to an individual survey question (i.e. ‘ only 3 students of a total 150
students felt that x was a problem’.)
For Information
12. Payments for Lecturers/ Tutors/ Demonstrators (Paper 6a & 6b)
http://intranet.easterbush.mvm.ed.ac.uk/vetschool/vto/tutoring-demonstrating/
3
A process for appointing and paying external teaching staff was now in place and information was available on the School
intranet at the link above. Course organisers were required to inform VTO staff at the start of each academic session which
external staff would be used to teach that year.
The attached paper 6b outlined the model for payment of external teaching staff used by Medicine and Biomedical.
ACTION: School to adopt the same payment model as Medicine with the additional requirement that external teaching staff
to be asked to either provide MCQ questions on their section of the course or assist with marking for the course. Course
organisers to advise returning external staff that there had been a change to payment rates and that marking/ provision of
questions would now be expected.
13. Release of final Degree Programme Results (https://www.eevec.vet.ed.ac.uk/secure/page.asp?id=y5rdpr14)
ACTION: the above link to be updated with dates for release of results as well as contact details for staff available to speak
with students on these dates.
14. Overseas resit exams & Special Circumstances deadlines
Students were now able to request to take resit exams in either British Council offices or other universities (USA). Students
resitting overseas would be required to begin their exam at the same time as those sitting it in the UK, regardless of the time
difference.
All students had received an email from Student Services reminding them of the deadlines and process for submitting a Special
Circumstances case.
15. Approved changes to standard Course Survey template (SSC2)
It was noted that some changes to the SSC2 course survey had been approved as some questions on the standard course survey
were not relevant for this course.
16. Pre-Vet MOOC
The new Pre-Vet MOOC, run by JP and offering students an oversight of the experience of studying veterinary medicine, was
now in its third week with 11,000 participants and new participants still enrolling.
Standing Items
17. Staff Updates/ Replacement Personal Tutors (Paper 8)
Sue Kempson had retired and Johanna Baily had returned as a part-time lecturer in Anatomic Pathology. There was an ongoing
need to identify retired staff who had acted as Personal Tutors to ensure they were replaced and to identify new staff who could
take on a Personal Tutor role.
ACTION: GP to check if JB able to take a half group of tutees.
18. Staff Development
a. Updated VMED workshop calendar (Paper 11)
SA and SMR would be running a Clickers workshop in the summer (details to follow).
A workshop would be run on feedback at the request of the small animal surgeons. Any other groups who would like bespoke
sessions were asked to contact CB or SMR.
19. Student Experience
a. Student Support & Advisory Group/ SAMO/ Fitness to Practise/ Progression Committee (Paper 9)
Updated numbers to the end of May were attached.
4
Two students seen by the School Academic Misconduct Officer had been referred onto the College Academic Misconduct Officer
over issues of plagiarism, although these were related to cultural issues which precluded a full understanding of what
constituted plagiarism. This was being dealt with by the professional studies team.
b. House & Personal Tutor Update
More Personal Tutors would be recruited for session 14/15. Three compulsory Personal Tutor training sessions would be held in
June, September and December.
c. ‘What Matters To You?’: collected comments (Papers 10a, 10b and 10c)
The attached papers outlined the process for collecting and responding to student feedback. Roshni Hume, Student Experience
Officer, was monitoring the comments and a small group would meet at intervals to discuss the comments with a student
representative. The result of these discussions would be communicated to students via EEVeC and regular reminders were
being sent to students to encourage them to offer their comments and feedback.
20. VSC
SMR had met with Stacy Eastman who as due to step down as President of VSC. Thanks and congratulations were extended to
Stacy for her hard work as President in 13/14. The President for 14/15 would be Rob Ward.
Progress was being made on jackets for final year students. SE would speak to Aileen Brown about progressing the building of
on-campus kennels.
A White Coat Ceremony was planned for incoming Year 1 and GEP students in late summer/ early autumn. Other years would
receive their White Coats during their introductory session with the Year Director in September. The format of the presentation
of the coats was yet to be decided.
21. College UG Studies Committee
SMR confirmed that the posthumous award of a BSc to Josh Munro had been approved by CUGSC.
22. Library Report
FB reported that CABI had sent log in details to allow Final Year students to access Vet Resources for one year post-graduation.
TALIS resource lists had been created for several courses. A list had been created for Final Years which included a selection of ebooks available to access off-campus. The list had so far received 190 page views and 105 clicks through to the e-books.
23. Admissions Report
The acceptance rate for SEU offer-holders had increased from 69% in 12/13 to 78% in 13/14. The data on full fees places was
not yet finalised as offers were still converting.
Feedback sessions with MMI interviewers had been completed and useful feedback had been received and would be used to
inform the structure of the stations for 14/15 interviews.
An occupational health questionnaire had been sent to all Unconditional Firm offer-holders and this was returned directly to
Occupational Health for assessment. Around 65 forms had already been assessed and an expected total of 210 would be
assessed by the time of completion.
There was a University UG Open Day on Friday 13 June. No tours would take place on campus due to Final Year exams; all
activities would be based in the Central area.
A Widening Participation event had been held for secondary school S1 and S2 pupils who had visited the campus for talks, tours
and a workshop. This had run successfully for a second year.
A further Widening Participation event would be held week beginning 9 June. There would be two ‘Pathways & Parents’
evenings run by the University which would offer various sessions including a vet-specific Q&A session.
5
24. Digital Education Unit Report
EC sent the following report:











EC was attending the vet VIP summer school "Use of Virtual Patients and Problems in veterinary basic science" in
Budapest.
EC had met with JS to discuss the School’s use of EEVeC and other LTS-supported tools.
The DEU was assisting CB and Professor Sarah Baillie of Bristol University in redeveloping the EMS Driving Licence and
other EMS resources.
The DEU was continuing to support the creation of the ‘Final Year (2014-15)’, and ‘BVM&S Common Resources’ Learn
courses.
The 3D scanner had arrived, and Brian Mather had been experimenting with scanning different objects, including skulls
and bones.
Deliver of the 3D printer was awaited.
BM was investigating possible uses of 3D printing and Augmented Reality for teaching.
BM was working with SA and an external developer to create a virtual pharmacy in Second Life.
At TK’s request, the DEU were investigating the possibility of installing a video camera at Langhill, to help students see
demonstrations more clearly.
The DEU was working with LD, RW and the EB IS Team to investigate the possibilities of videoing practical exams as an
alternative to using volunteer observers.
The DEU now had a noticeboard in the 2nd floor central corridor which would be used to highlight technologies that
could be used for teaching.
25. EEVeC/ IS Update
JS sent the following report:

The Year 5 Rotation Feedback form had been updated as there were some required changes needed for the
forthcoming academic year starting mid-June.

The rollover of EEVEC would take place on Tuesday 17th June this year. Sally Tait had confirmed that this date would
suit the new Year 5 start. Course content would be available on LEARN so the most important issue was to ensure that
Exam Results were available to Year 5 (then graduated) students from the 18th June (the Exam Results viewer would
not be affected by the rollover anyway).
ACTION: URGENT - rollover of EEVeC to be confirmed with JS (is this just final year)? EC to be asked to add all staff to all
course LEARN courses for info if necessary (the ‘Content Collection’ area on LEARN contained all course materials and all staff
already had access to this). Information/ training sessions on LEARN would be made available for staff over the summer.
26. QA update
The VMQAC would now meet three times a year and the next meeting was scheduled for 1 July.
27. Clinical Skills Committee report
There were no further updates.
28. EMS Committee & Updates
There were no further updates.
29. Report from University/College Committees/Educational Meetings:
a. March/ April Senate newsletter - http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/AcademicServices/Committees/newsletter.pdf
b. Enhancement Led Institutional Review - http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/qualityunit/institutional-review-elir/overview
The above was for information only. SMR confirmed that the School would have minimum involvement in the 2015 ELIR.
6
30. Accrediting body issues
a. RCVS & AVMA Report: https://www.eevec.vet.ed.ac.uk/secure/page.asp?ID=ei000014
b. NAVLE: LEARN discussion forum (Paper 15)
The students were growing more active in supporting their cohorts in taking the NAVLE exam. Tracy Hill had agreed to be staff
mentor for this group.
RESERVED BUSINESS
For Information
31. Update on Intercalating Students for 14/15 (Paper 7 - CLOSED)
The attached paper was an update on returning 13/14 intercalating students and those intending to intercalate in 14/15.
32. AOB
DS reported that from October 2014, SSC2 would be more electronically based with regards to submissions and feedback, using
new tools available on EEVeC to deliver these.
Date of next meeting: Tuesday 8 July, 2pm, Boardroom
7