College of Life and Environmental Sciences: Biosciences

Postgraduate Student-Staff Liaison Committee Meeting

Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday7April 2011, 10.30 am, GP328A

andvideolinked to Tremough

Present: Prof Tamara Galloway, Director of PG Studies (Biosciences Exeter)

Dr John Hunt, Director of PG Studies (Biosciences Tremough)

Bev Harris, Student Representative, Exeter

Devi Newcombe, Student Representative, Tremough

Chris Coles, Student Representative, Tremough

Apologies:Dr Nikki King, Dr Andrew Pye and Miss Claire Guy

Reporting:Postgraduate Research Administrator (CLES Exeter): Sarah Mudge

Agenda Item / Comments / Action
11/1.0 /

Minutes of the previous meeting (10.11.10)

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved and there were no
matters arising
11/2.0 / Report on discussion of SSLC business at College Research
Committee (or equivalent)
It was agreed that student representation on this committee be increased by two for Exeter (ideally one representative from Hatherly and one from the BioCat building) and one for Tremough. Also one rep be recruited for MRes students at Exeter and one at Tremough. / BH and DN
11/3.0
11/4.0
11/5.0
11/6.0
11/7.0
11/8.0
11/9.0
11/10.0
11/11.0 / New and revised programme development
JH enquired as to where MSc student fall and TG confirmed they were within the
Education team, but that MRes students fit within the PGR team, and that as
stated above would be invited to be repreented on the SSLC Committee.
Teaching (including the dissemination of good practice and programme
and module evaluation)
JH said he thought writing-up PGR students should not be allocated teaching/
marking to enable them to write up their thesis without any distractions and to
complete on time and that 3rd year students should not be overloaded with
teaching duties. TG agreed entirely with this suggestion.
Assessment and feedback
JH said that some PhD students had to wait an unreasonable amount of time
for feedback from their supervisors. TG referred to the TQA manual where it
stated that supervisors should respond in a timely manner. Concern was raised
about the time of response from Supervisors in relation to chapters given to
them for checking prior to submission of a thesis. It was agreed that if a student
was experiencing problems in this area they should speak to either JH or TG
who would assist with trying to resolve the matter.
Hopefully with the introduction of MyPGR to all postgraduate students from
October 2011 it will provide a means for checking how long responses are
taking between supervisor and student.
Academic support
Nothing to report.
Organisation and management
Nothing to report.
Learning resources (including Library, IT and other teaching/learning
Resources)
Nothing to report.
Employment, Employability and Personal Development
BH raised the concern that many of the ERDP courses run are not suitable for
Biosciences PGR students. DN completely agreed with this comment. A general discussion took place on running more specialist courses within Biosciences and it was agreed that more specific specialist training should be provided by the supervisor. It was also agreed to look at members of staff who could offer specialist training with a view to providing training.
Reports and responses to internal and external systems of accountability
TG explained that the procedures re termly and annual report may be changed.
TG and JH to discuss this.
Any Other Business
DN asked if there had been any progress regarding joining the Biology and CAM PhD rooms as at present the Biology room is overcrowded and the SSM room is empty. JH said that he would make investigations and find out what is happening.
DN asked why it took over 12 months for the leak in the ceiling to be fixed. Concern was expressed about the length of time it took to get problems such as this to be sorted. It was agreed that Helen Ratcliffe be forwarded a copy of these minutes so that she is aware of the situation and the concern of the Committee.
DN was also concerned about the poor control of airflow/temperature in the PhD room. This was reported over 12 months ago to Helen Ratcliffe but the problem has not been sorted. JH reported that the design of the building in general was not good, with fixed windows, and as Tremough was classified as a “Green Campus” the use of air conditioners was severely restricted. JH suggested that a schedule of temperature variations be kept for 6 months and then sent to Helen Ratcliffe.
BH raised the problem of the new system for ordering goods for labs. This is now done by the CLES Finance team and is not working well, with late and long delivery times.
JH raised the question of an extension to the submission time for PhD students now having to undertake teaching duties. There is discrepancies between research council funding, NERC 3 years (with the option of applying for an extra 6 months of funding under exception circumstances), EPSRC 3 years and
BBSRC 4 years. TG explained that a PhD in 3 years is considered a good PhD. The student is training to be a researcher in 3 years. JH said that supervisors should not be giving projects to PhD students which could not be easily completed within a 3 year period, but should be of quality and quantity which provides good PhD training.
JH enquired if the College has budgeted for 6 months extra funding per NERC student should the need arise. It is confirmed that this is the case.
The meeting closed at 11.45 am. / NK
TG & JH
TG & JH
JH
SM
DN

Page 1 of 2

SSLC 07/04/11