Physical Sciences and Engineering

College Forum

Members of the BLS College Forum are notified that the next meeting will be held as

shown below:

Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Queens Building S/1.29

Attending:Chair – Vice President Education – Sophie Timbers (ST), Vice President Heath Park – Katey Beggan (KB), Vice President Postgraduate – Katie Kelly (KK), Bob Lark (BL) – Dean of Education & Students PSE, Andy Lloyd (AL) – Education Support, Mohanad Hanafy (MH) – Chemistry, Nerys Griffith (NG) – Physics & Astronomy, Linda Davies (LB) – Libraries, Vanessa Yau (VY) – Computer Science & Information, Rhys Wilcox (RW) – Earth & Ocean Sciences, Freddie Saunders (FS) – Education Exec, James Daly (JD) – Education Exec, Sheilla Mamona (SM) – Mathematics

  1. Welcome and Introduction

ST: Introduces herself, her role and explains the purpose of the College Forum

BL: Introduces himself and explains his role as the College Dean (PSE) for Education and Students.

ST: Informs the Forum that the government has recently released a Higher Education Green paper setting out the vision for Higher Education. Currently only applies to England as HE is devolved in Wales but it is worth taking note of.

  1. Tabled Items
  1. Updates from Chairs

VY: Reading week in the School, catching up with coursework. BL responds by saying it has been trialled previously within ENGIN and did not work because there are a lot of 10 credit modules needed to get the work fitted into a shorter time frame. Reading weeks essentially rely on the structure of the programmes

FS: Have 10 deadlines for coursework in a very short space of time

SM: Students will miss lectures to get course work done, up to 18 hours a week of lectures and seminars

ST: Explains that the issue is the reverse within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences not having enough contact hours

MH: Suggests that the material could be condensed down to enable a reading week

JD: Quantity of work is considerable

ST: Asks that Chairs go back to their Student Staff Panels (SSPs) and put a PSE reading week on the agenda

BL: Will catch-up with Schools individually to determine the need for a PSE reading week

BL: Schools should try to avoid where possible having submission deadlines at the same time. There is a concerted to move away from having submissions which are just 5% or less with more formative essays as the standard – which Vanessa agrees with

VY: Asks whether it is possible to have a microwave in Trevithick

ACTION: BL will look into this

VY, FS and SM share their struggles of getting feedback from their peers

MH: Chemistry have big posters outside the large lecture theatres and a feedback stall in the Chemistry building

BF: We can share the You Said, We Did templates if that would be helpful?

ST: Offered her and the Students’ Union’s help if anyone needed it

VY: Should be a level of accountability for the Student Academic Reps to ensure they are doing their jobs properly

NG: Having a mentor scheme would be very beneficial. Students have fed back saying that the 0.03 redevelopment in main building has been very beneficial. BL adds that the redevelopment was on the School’s initiative, it wasn’t part of any University project

JD: In Geology field work funding has come under review and students are being kept in the dark about it. There have been considerable restrictions on distance of travel

BL: Seems that students are in need of an update. There are bigger issues around costs of trip and provision is different to what it was in the past.

RW: Dissertation deadlines are the same but receiving the dissertation back varies

JD: In Geology there are 6 deadlines in one week

BL: Need for a consensus on changing hand-in times

JD: Has been a surge in applications after the course change. Asks about whether there can be water fountains installed in the main building.

LD: There have been numerous attempts at installing water fountains but it is really difficult to do so with the age of the building. LD states that she can check minutes from a Customer Services committee to see

SM: Issues within the school have been addressed. There is a new career advice concern however amongst students. Used to have a member of staff with CV support but a revision for that being provided has been made.

BL: This issue was raised as part of the ARE (Annual Review and Enhancement) process. The change has happened because of a staff absence.

SM: Back-to-back lectures are often on the other side of campus and are sometimes more than ten minutes’ walk away. No access to recording lectures because the new building will have state of the art facilities – but that is five years away. What happens in the mean time?

BL: A business case has been submitted for mobile recordings, rather than installing brand new equipment that is custom to a give lecture theatre.

ST: The roll-out recognising what lectures need updating for learn plus.

F: asks how the updates are assigned

BL: If the facilities aren’t there then lecture capture is explored, but it is still in a trial period

ST: It is part of a wider effort to make sure Schools can adapt and allow lectures to teach in a variety of ways

MH: Chemistry are having forums so students can feed back. 10 student volunteers sit on a University strategy meeting, long-term plans for the school.

The schools engage with students on strategy really pleases ST

MH: Large and small Chemistry lecture theatres have been renovated over the summer which is very positive. There has been feedback about the quality of lab supervisors hasn’t always been positive.

ST: Needs to be a sensitivity in approaching this

BL: Can the feedback be given to the supervisor first?

FS: When there is an issue it can be very difficult. Especially if its only in a group of 15 people, feedback can be identified

SM: There is one module where the teaching is conducted by a PhD student

BL: Opportunities available for PGR students to enhance their skills.

LD: Libraries are currently spread over 14 different sites, the plan is to bring them under one room to a central library but the plans are ongoing. Libraries are always happy to attend Student Staff Panel meetings. LD attends the Engineering SSP for example

  1. VP Education Update

ST: All the projects that she is working on can be found by heading to Cardiffstudents.com and flicking on ST’s photo. From Monday 4th January the ASSL will be open 24 hours as part of a pilot until June 2016

  1. Assessment and Feedback Project

AL: The University is trying to identify what feedback helps you learn best. Feedback is not limited to written feedback on an essay or exam – it extends to verbal feedback as well and discussions with lecturers and personal tutors as to how you can improve as a learner.

  1. Libraries Update

LD: Libraries staffing has been restructured in line with the College – subject librarians, and customer service manager. Greater consistency for libraries as well. More education resources. This year there is greater access to WILEY EBA, lots of research material available. The more hits materials get the more likely libraries are to buy the resource.

  1. Periodic Review

BF: Need Student Reps for Periodic Review which takes place in Architecture and Earth and Ocean Sciences this academic year. Periodic Review is a very thorough quality assurance process that every school has to undertake every five years to ensure courses are in line with the Quality Code. We need volunteers for the process

Next PSE College Forum takes place 03.02.2016

Queen’s Building S/0.38

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