UNCONFIRMED

City University of Hong Kong

Department of Biology and Chemistry

BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology, in Applied Chemistry and

in Environmental Science and Management

Programme Committee Meeting

Minutes of the 27th BSc Programme Committee Meeting held on Wednesday, 9 November 2005 at 2:30pm in the Multi-media Conference Room, CYC Building.

Present: / Dr Bruce Richardson (Chairman & Programme Leader)
Dr Doris Au
Dr Michael Chan
Dr S H Cheng
Dr Richard Cheung
Dr H Y Cheung
Dr S G Cheung
Prof W F Fong
Dr Richard Kong
Dr H L Kwong
Dr Michael Lam
Prof T C Lau
Dr D Li
Dr Kenneth Lo
Dr Desmond O’Toole
Dr Bruce Richardson
Prof David Randall
Dr Paul Shin
Prof Nora Tam
Prof Peter Tanner
Prof Lilian Vrijmoed
Dr N B Wong
Dr Y P Shao (AP)
Dr W Y Liu (CS)
Dr H M Chan (SA)
Miss Millie Mark (Secretary)
Mr Chan King Fung, Ben / (AC – 2003 cohort)
Mr Lo Kwok Hong, Andy / (AB – 2003 cohort)
Mr Leung Siu Ning, Jeffery / (ESM – 2003 cohort)
Mr Lo Tso Lun, Larry / (AC – 2004 cohort)
Mr Lam Chek Hang / (AB – 2004 cohort)
Mr Leung Ho Wing / (ESM – 2004 cohort)
Mr Chan Hiu Fung, Jerry / (AB – 2005 cohort)
Mr Ho Chi Fai / (ESM – 2005 cohort)
Mr So Shing Yau, Daniel / (ESM – 2005 cohort)
Absent with apologies: / Prof Paul Lam
Prof Rudolf Wu
Dr Xu Zhengtao
Prof Michael Yang
Dr To-Ming Ho (EF)
Mr Jerry Wong (EN)
Dr K W Chung (MA)
Dr Li Han Xiong (MEEM)
Dr Zhao Yuhong (SLW)
Miss Tam Wai Yan, Gloria / (AB – 2003 cohort)
Mr Chan Wai Sum, Sam / (AC – 2003 cohort)
Mr Yau Chun Wah, Mark / (ESM – 2003 cohort)
Mr Lee Kim Fung, Kelvin / (AB – 2004 cohort)
Mr Ho Yu Man / (AC – 2004 cohort)
Miss Yeung Tsz Kwan, Judy / (ESM – 2004 cohort)
Mr Cheuk Wa Lun, Joe / (AB – 2005 cohort)
Mr Chung Yiu Hing / (AC – 2005 cohort)
Mr Ho Kwun Hung, Johnny / (AC – 2005 cohort)

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C:\Mm\minutes\BSc\Prog Com\PC27min (09Nov05).doc

UNCONFIRMED

Action/Note

Welcoming Remarks
The Chairperson welcomed representatives from the servicing departments as well as all the student representatives to the meeting.
1. / Confirmation of Minutes
M88 / The minutes of the 26th BSc Programme Committee Meeting held on 2 March 2005 were confirmed by adding Dr Ding Li to the list of members present.
2. / Matters Arising
M89 / M57 / Action COMPLETED. The course content of AP3253 Energy, Technology and Environment was revised to remove its overlap with BCH4021 Environmental Pollution. The change has been endorsed by the HoD of both AP and BCH departments for implementation in Semester A, 2005/06.
M90 / M60 / Noting that the response rate of the TFQ exercises in Semester B 04/05, and Semester A 05/06 was rather low, it was suggested that the Chairman should discuss with FSE on how to improve the response rate in the next round of TFQ exercise. Dr Doris Au suggested that the English name of the demonstrators be added to the system for easy identification by students. / BR
(Post meeting note: As advised by FSE, no meeting has been scheduled to review the TFQ exercise since no problem has been raised by FSE departments so far. As such, the Department will need to contact EDO directly to follow up on the matter.)
M91 / M75 / Action COMPLETED. NOTED that eight students from HKIVE had been admitted to the Department.
M92 / M86 / REPORTED by Dr Richard Kong, Final Year Project Coordinator, that the Project Committee felt that it will be inappropriate to include webpage design as a topic for students’ final year project except when the project was hypothesis-driven. AGREED that the nature of a final year project should involve hypothesis testing and data analysis of a scientific subject rather than merely data collection. The objective was to train students’ critical thinking ability.
M93 / M87 / AGREED that splitting of lecture and laboratory component will allow students greater flexibility in choosing courses. However, this may have some implications to class timetabling. It was DECIDED that the Programme Leader will discuss this matter with ARRO. / BR
3. /

Report from Programme Leader

Endorsement of Annual Programme Report 2004/05
M94 / ADVISED by the Chairman that a draft version of the BSc Programme Report 2004/05 was circulated to all members prior to the meeting.
The Committee therefore endorsed the final version of the report for onward submission to FVMC for consideration.

Action/Note

4. / Report from Servicing Departments
The following reports were received from the servicing departments:
M95 / AP / Dr Y P Shao REPORTED that following the consultation with Dr Richard Cheung, course examiner of BCH4021 Environmental Pollution, Dr Andrew Walton (AP) has revised the course content of AP3253 Energy, Technology and Environment in order to remove the overlap between this course and BCH4021. ADDED that Dr Walton was satisfied with the performance of BCH students.
Regarding AP3267 Principles of Noise Pollution, the course was attended by 4 students from BCH. The course examiner did not have any specific comments on the performance of these students.
M96 / CS / Dr W Y Liu gave the following report on CS2363 and CS2161 which were offered to BSAB/BSAC/BSESM students in Semester A 2005/06:
a)  CS2363 Computer Programming – The course was taught by Dr Jean Wang. Dr Jean Wang did not have any specific comments on the performance of the students since there were only four BCH students taking the course.
b)  CS2161 Fundamentals of Web Technologies – The course was taught by Dr Philip Wang and attended by 10 students from BCH department (including 7 from BSAB, 2 from BSAC, 1 from BSESM).Dr Wang commented that no specific problems have been identified from this group of student. Concerning the general performance of the students, the following comments were made:
·  The English standard of BCH students was not high, and Dr Wang had to repeat the course materials a few times in class.
·  BCH students were not good at programming. Therefore, they found it very difficult to understand JavaScript program.
·  The attendance rate of the class was not high. Therefore, students may have missed out on some important announcements made during the lecture, eg. deadline for submission of assignments.
·  The attendance rate for tutorial was general high except for a few students. One BCH student only attended the first two tutorials. One BCH student skipped all tutorials.
Nevertheless, Dr Wang commented that BCH students were hard working and have submitted their assignments on time. They have also actively participated in the tutorial group, asked a lot of questions about XHTML, and paid a lot of effort in designing their homepage. Their overall attitude of study was good.
DECIDED that the Programme Leader will follow up on this matter with the two students concerned. / BR
(Post meeting note: The two students of CS2161 have contacted the Programme Leader concerning their absence from tutorials, and have made assurances that they will attend all future classes.)

Action/Note

M97 / EF / In his report, Dr T M Ho commented that BCH students' attendance was high (almost 100%). They were attentive during class and their overall performance was good. No problem was encountered so far.
M98 / EN / In his report, Mr Jerry Wong commented that no specific problem was encountered in EN2251 Communication Skills and EN3252 Communicating Scientific Knowledge since most of the major assignments will be due in Week 10 or thereafter.
M99 / MA / In his report, Dr K W Chung advised that:
·  MA2172 Applied Statistics for Sciences and Engineering – The course was taken by 101 BCH students. They have shown good learning attitude towards the course.
·  MA2176 Basic Calculus and Linear Algebra – taken by 479 FSE students out of which 34 were from BCH. The lecturer for this course had no comments about the general performance of the BCH students. However, Dr Chung advised that the Mathematics Help Centre was in operation every Monday and Friday evenings from 7.30pm - 9.30pm. If students had difficult in their mathematics courses, they can seek help from the Help Centre.
M100 / MEEM / In his report, Dr Li Hong Xiao advised that no specific problem was identified in BCH students taking MEEM3042 Reliability and Quality Engineering in Semester A, 2005/06.
M101 / SA / Dr Chan Ho Man ADVISED that the course SA3942 Environmental Policy and Ethics was not offered in 2004/05 owing to the fact that it has been changed from an elective to a required course after the restructuring of the BSESM programme. Because the course was not recommended for Year 1 students, and the Year 2 students have already taken it in 2003/04, hence the course was not offered in Semester B, 2004/05.
M102 / SLW / In her report, Dr Zhao Yuhong ADVISED that LW3956 Environment and Law has been running smoothly. Student attendance was generally good and there were a few very good students demonstrating strong interest and capability in learning the subject. She has suggested the Department to consider allowing a block of 4-hour time-slot (ie. a whole morning or a whole afternoon) be reserved for this group of BCH students in the future so that it would make it possible for Dr Zhao to try different learning methods with the group.
DECIDED that the Programme Leader will consider Dr Zhao’s request and reply to Dr Zhao. / BR
5. /
Report on Student Orientation Day 2005
M103 / Dr S G Cheung, Orientation Day Coordinator, REPORTED that:
·  Around 90 students have attended the Student Orientation held on 30 August 2005. A pre-orientation meeting of the Student Mentors and Mentees was arranged by the Department on 20 August 2005.
·  On the day of Student Orientation, Year 1 students were arranged to sit with their mentor group so that they can mix with members of their own mentor group.

Action/Note

M104 / COMMENTED that the duration of the programme schedule of Student Orientation Day was rather long, and it did not allow time for students to interact with each other and with staff members. It was suggested that the duration of various presentations be shortened.
M105 / Noting that the most useful information delivered on Student Orientation Day concerned the programme requirements, and recommended study plan. It was SUGGESTED that this information can be distributed to Year 1 students prior to the Student Orientation so that the briefing during the Orientation Day can be shortened to allow more time for student/staff interaction. Dr S G Cheung AGREED to consider this proposal.
6. /
Report on CityU Information Day 2005
M106 / Dr Desmond O’Toole THANKED members of staff for helping out on the CityU Information Day held on 15 October 2005. He then gave a short report on the statistics obtained on the Day :
2005 / 2004
No. of visitors to the display booth:
No. of attendees of lab. tours:
No. of attendees of programme talk:
No. of attendees of guest speakers’ talk: / 1500
173
200
106 / 2400
229
480
400
M107 / REPORTED that this year, the venue of the Information Day was changed from the Purple Zone to Chan Tai Ho Multi-purpose Hall. Based on the above figures, it was noted that the number of visitors to BCH booth has decreased, and the number of visitors attending the laboratory tours and talks were also reduced. Yet the Information Day took place on a day when CityU was the only university which was running an information day.
M108 / COMMENTED that one possible reason for the low attendance rate was due to the inadequacy of signage directing visitors to the venue. Besides, acronyms such as FSE or BCH were used on the signage which was a bit confusing for the incoming visitors. Apart from the problem of lack of suitable sign postings, another problem was associated with the distance between the display booth and the laboratories. It was OBSERVED that the Chan Tai Ho Multi-purpose Hall was too far away from BCH laboratories on 1/F and 2/F of Academic Building, thus made it difficult for the department to gather and guide the students to the laboratory tours.
M109 / To this end, some members suggested to ascertain the actual number of students who came to CityU on the Information Day as compared with the number of visitors attended last year. This comparison would give a fair estimate of the real decrease in the attendance rate. If the attendance rate of the whole institution has dropped, then the problem of low attendance rate may not be caused by the change in location.
M110 / DECIDED that Dr Desmond O’Toole will follow up on this matter with FSE. / DKT
(Post meeting note: According to data provided by ADMO and Office of DUE, the number of visitors for the Information Day of 2004 & 2005 were around 14,000. There was practically no difference on the number of visitors between these two years. As a consequence of the numbers being approximately the same, it may be concluded that the location was a problem, possibly exacerbated by poor signage.)

Action/Note

7. / Report on Admission Statistics 2004/05 /
M111 / Dr Kenneth Lo, Admission Tutor, gave a short report on the admission statistics for 2003/04, as detailed below. ADVISED that 5 Mainland students were admitted to BCH, out of which 3 of them were given University scholarship. /
Intake Quota / JUPAS / Non-JUPAS / *Mainland Students / Prog.
Transfer / Athletes (CityU Quota) / Total Admitted
BSAB / 41 / 24 / 13 / 3 / 0 / 0 / 40
BSAC / 31 / 27 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 32
BSESM / 35 / 23 / 10 / 2 / 1 / 0 / 36
Sub-Total / 108
BSAB
(Senior Yrs) / 8 / 5 / 5
Total = / 113
M112 / ADVISED that the quality of the admitted students has improved. The average UGC scores for the BSAB, BSAC and BSESM programmes were 9.2, 9.9 and 10.4 in 2005/06 compared to 8.73, 9.62 and 10.17 in 2004/05.
M113 / SUGGESTED that a survey be conducted to find out the percentage of admitted students coming from Chinese secondary schools which used Chinese as their medium of instruction. /
8. / Report on JSSCC Meeting in Semester A, 2005/06
M114 / REPORTED by Prof Peter Tanner that a meeting of JSSCC was held on 6 October 2005. REFERRED members to the minutes of the meeting and drew members’ attention to the following items:
M55 & M56 / Students’ commendations on the laboratory practical sessions for BCH4022 Environmental Toxicology, and the teaching of BCH4017 Molecular Biology by Dr Richard Kong. /
M64 / Students felt that the Student Mentoring Scheme was very useful for Year 1 students in familiarizing themselves with the University facilities. /
M67 / The Department will distribute the section on programme structure of the Student Handbook to students during the first Mentor / Mentee meeting in August. /

Student representatives were requested to leave the meeting at this point.

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