Law - Frenchay
SU Forum Unconfirmed Minutes
Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 11th February at 13:00 in 2B066
Present:Stephen Mitchell (1st), Alvaro Loxton (1st), Luke Harding (2nd), Chekwybe Udubor (3rd), Brooke Lewis (1st), Rory Jutton (1st), Xin Jhig Lee (3rd), Jisoo Woo (1st), Jamal-Kareem Awolaja (3rd), Tom Roberts (PG), Garazi Garaigordobil Valencia (PG), LousiaWaddell (1st)
In Attendance:Sarah Hickie (Secretary)
Apologies*: Iman Khawari, Sadeta Mujkic, Emily Price, Yagmur Omur, Ahmed Emara, Maarja Junti, Rachel Rowland, Martha Lewis,
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020/1415Welcome and introductions
020.01The Student Chair Jamal welcomed Reps present to the third and final SU Forum of the year.
021/1415Minutes of the previous meeting
021.01Minutes from previous meeting were agreed.
022/1415Matters arising from the previous meeting
022.01In relation to 015.- Reps confirmed the ASC have now been sending Law students emails about specific Law related workshops. Jamil asked the Forum if they have felt the workshops have been more relevant and if anyone had attended. No one present had attended but the group did feel they sounded more relevant. However, Reps still feel the ASC emails do not stand out very much and that including their comms in myUWE/BB announcements could be more effective. They also felt a tab with the ASC timetable on myUWE/BB would be useful. PG students who asked for sessions to help them specifically and for those students rejoiningHE after time out of Education haven’t seen anything relevant to them yet.
Action:Secretary to pass to ASC.
022.02In relation to 014.03b and students requesting lecture capture for Constitutional Law module the lecturer has changed so this hasn’t yet been raised. Jamal reported that lecture capture was actually discussed at SRC. The university is looking to provide lecture capture in all large lecture rooms in the new FBL building, ITS are fully behind lecture capture but some academics are less keen. Deputy Chair Luke Harding pointed out that ITS had said that students needed to keep raising this if they want to see it happen.
Action:Reps to raise at SRSFs
022.03In relation to 018.- this hasn’t been raised. Reps present found they didn’t need to contact their lecturer and their absence wasn’t an issue. They found they had to look things up themselves rather than asking but felt this was a good learning experience.
However, on a related note a Rep reported that Criminal Law exam results had across the board been particularly low this year. Staff have told students
it has been the lowest result for 5 years, with a 48% average. Reps reported staff have decided they may need to start taking attendance at lectures.
Reps reported that the cohort haven’t yet been given any feedback or group feedback as to where the whole cohort went wrong. Jamal offered to raise this with the Programme Manager and ask staff to give reasons why so low and feedback on how the year can improve in future.
Action:Chair to raise with Programme Manager.
023/1415Report from Departmental Committee
023.01Jamal and Luke (Chair and Deputy Chair) gave a brief verbal report. They felt nothing specific to students was discussed at Department Committee that needed feeding back.
024/1415Report from SRC and ASQC
024.01Jamal could only attend for an hour. He raised the fact the meeting was due to discuss APT in light of Student Retention before he left. Secretary explained this discussion was on hold pending further comment from VP Education in light of his project around APT and feedback gathered via SU Forums.
024.02aBoth Chair and Deputy Chair attended the SRC and gave a joint report. In relation to SRC they explained that Derek Norris (Deputy Director - Strategic Business Engagement, ITS) had attended to give an update to students on developments to UWE IT in response to student feedback. These included reducing planned maintenance weekends from two a year to four and making these outside of main term time, rolling out Wi-Fi to all rooms on all campuses and the move away from thin client PCs through replacing all to thick clients. He agreed more and more timely promotion of free Microsoft 365 download was needed. Jamal asked the forum who had made use of the free Microsoft 365 download. The majority of Reps present had.
024.02bLuke, Deputy Chair, explained that ITSwere fully behind the use of lecture capture but felt some academic staff were not keen to use it. He suggested that students need to keep raising the need for it.
024.02cJamal explained that the number of books students can borrow from the Library is still on track to be increased to 25, as an updated borrowing policy is due to be signed off.
024.02dHe also explained that VP Education was lobbying UWE to increase the discount on PG courses for returning UWE students, to 25% discount. The Forum were pleased to hear this.
024.02eFinally Jamal showed the Forum the new online student room bookings form, which JJ, VP Education had promoted in his report for SRC.
025/1415Student Communications and Information Provision
025.01Reps felt APTs were a good way to tell students about support services available.
025.02A Reps perception was that generally students know support exists but they won’t find it until they need to. Jamal made the point that the University is aware some students either don’t seek out support when they need it or don’t know where to go for support as many students leave university without ever having had a support related appointment or speaking to someone about their concerns/reasons for leaving.
025.03Reps felt the Freshers’ Fair was a good place to promote support services available to students.
025.04A Rep explained that first years living in the student village all had to attend a compulsory talk. They suggested one talk about all support services available and seeking support as a concept would be a useful inclusion to this.
025.05Students felt that information about support services was readily available online but that students needed more face to face communications about them.
025.06No Reps present had had an Induction talk from or about any support services at UWE. They all felt some sort of talk encompassing all forms of support was needed. They didn’t mind who delivered this.
025.07Reps felt PAL services should be used to reinforce where to go for support.
Action:VP Education and VP Community and Welfare to consider.
Action:Secretary to pass feedback to Communications Officer.
026/1415Reflection on the Rep System
026.01Reps present felt the best bits of the role included being able to go back to students with responses to feedback and when students were grateful of this.
026.02Reps felt payment encouraged students to become a Rep.
026.03aSome Reps present highlighted the fact that they felt some Rep peers only came to the first round of meetings, whether SRSF or SU Forum, and then stopped attending or engaging with the Rep role. Concerns were raised that these students would potentially be able to still submit Rep Goals and have being a Rep on their CV, gain a Rep Certificate ,have being a Rep on their HEAR and work towards Bristol Futures Award. A Rep asked what the Reps Team do if a Student Rep stops engaging with their role.
Secretary responded that if a fellow Rep or staff member came to the team with concerns about a Reps attendance the Reps term start a process that they were looking to formalise. This involves going back to staff to check what steps they have taken to support the Rep to engage with the role and making suggestions for what other support may be needed, contacting the Rep directly and then if needed supporting staff to elect additional Reps to make up for lack of engagement by other Reps.
026.03bSecretary asked the SU Forum if they remembered receiving a Student Rep agreement. None present did.
Action:Secretary to email SU Forum the Rep Agreement (that was sent to all Student Reps).
Action:Secretary to email SU Forum the Student Reps complaint procedure draft that the Representation Team use as a guide for handling complaints about Student Rep engagement.
026.04Some Reps raised the fact their SRSFs were not in their timetables and it would be useful to have them in their timetables. Secretary explained that UWE colleagues were looking to ensure all students had their SRSFs in their timetables but that this relied on SRSF Chairs setting their SRSF datesand then making contact with Academic Services who would book rooms and request for them to be included in student calendars. They had to do this before a deadline which they may not have done.
Action:Secretary to pass feedback to Student Partnership Officer.
026.05Reps appreciated the use of doodle polls to try to ensure the maximum number of Student Reps could make SU Forum meetings. However, they suggested that inviting students to SU Forums in the form of a calendar invite that ensured they were then in their student calendars would be useful. However, Secretary noted this would not mean they would be in their myUWE calendar as the two systems aren’t linked automatically. It would only show up on an outlook calendar, where no other timetabled activity appears. She explained the reasons why SU Forums aren’t in myUWE calendars. This is due to needing to be flexible with timetabling them to suit the majority in order to be fair –due to them having to be at department level
which is due to resource. This then doesn’t leave enough of a window to request they appear in myUWE calendars, which is a long process in itself.
026.06A Rep raised the issue or Reps not engaging with their role, as she was now working hard alongside only 2 other Reps despite on paper there being 10 in total for her cohort. Secretary explained that Reps could always approach either the team or their teaching staff if they were feeling a pressure due to this. However, she noted that perhaps this needed to be made more explicit in training – so Reps felt empowered to raise concerns and knew what would be done if they did.
Action:Secretary to email SU Forum the Student Reps complaint procedure draft that the Representation Team use as a guide for handling complaints about Student Rep engagement.
026.07Reps made the point that the voice of the cohort is lacking or underrepresented when Reps don’t attend meetings.
026.08Reps felt that students generally didn’t make use of their emails being on myUWE, as no Reps present had had emails from students giving feedback. Reps felt more promotion of the fact emails were on myUWE is needed. They also felt that Reps needed a more anonymous but still digital way of giving feedback and asked if a form could be included on myUWE where students can submit anonymous feedback directly to Reps.
Action:VP Education and Student Reps team to consider all feedback on the role and recommendations made at SU Forum.
027 /1415Student Rep Conference
027.01Reps were reminded of and invited to the Student Rep Conference, which will be held on Friday 27th February in the ECC on Frenchay Campus. The day will last from 11:00 - 16:00 (although you can just attend the morning or the afternoon) and a free buffet lunch will be provided! There will be a choice of 4 workshops to attend. This day provides a wonderful opportunity to enhance your skills and share your experiences of the year so far. You can find more information
028 /1415Student Rep Notices
028.01Nominations for the Student Rep and Student Led Teaching awards are still open. Nominations can be made on the Student Rep webpage, along with full details of criteria for each category.
028.02 The National Student Survey (NSS, for final year undergraduates) and Student Experience Survey (SES, for all other years) are now open. All students are encouraged to fill in their survey and have their voice heard. In addition to this, there are prize draws for iPad Minis for those who complete their relevant survey plus the Students’ Union will receive £1 per completed survey for your new SU building.
028.03Secretary explained that myUWE announcement training had been offered and drop in type sessions run across campuses with mixed success and attendance. She explained that for next year the team hoped to launch this training sooner or incorporate within fundamental Rep training. She asked if this was something Reps would still be interested in and if there was a need for further sessions. There was limited interest due to the timing of the year.
028.04 UWESU Elections are now open! Any student can run for one of the full time sabbatical positions or one of the part time office positions in the forthcoming UWESU Elections. Full details about each role and the nomination process are on Nominations opened on 3rd February and close 26th February.
029/1415Student Matters
029.01No Reps had any student matters to report at this forum.
030/1415Time and date of next meeting
SU Forum:To be confirmed
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