UHISA Executive Committee
UE13/14-XX-XX
UHISA President Report
Section 1
This first section of my report covers my activities from Student Council in November until the last UHISA Executive meeting in March and is primarily for the benefit of those reading this who do not sit on the UHISA Executive Committee.
Representation:
DSC Steering Committee
This meeting of the developing and supporting the curriculum enhancement theme on the 18th November was held in Edinburgh as an institutional team meeting to gather the team who focus on the development of the current enhancement theme at each institution to spark discussions and develop each others understandings through a range of sessions/workshops. Each institution was also encouraged to bring along the student member of the team so it was really interesting to be hearing so many of the student perspectives in relation to the enhancement themes and how students should/could be further engaged.
LTQC
On the 19th November the Learning Teaching Quality Committee discussed a number of items including changes to the regulations as had been advised by the regulations working group. These updates appear to be satisfactory however I requested they be presented using gender neutral terminology to ensure relevance to all students.
Quality Monitoring Dialogues
Over the course of the two days 20th and21st November I participated in the annual quality monitoring dialogues held in Inverness. As there were two sessions running parallel Dain and I each saw different subject networks. The subject networks I helped to review were Humanities and Gaelic, Computing and IT, Creative and Cultural Industries and Business and Leisure. This was an excellent opportunity to meet a range of staff and get a good feel for the overall experience of studying at UHI rather than focusing on my personal experience so far.
Crichton Lang Catch up
Dain and I continued to have our monthly catch up meetings (22nd November and 19th December) with Crichton Lang and have discussed the strategical aspects of UHISA in addition to a number of options to improve the effectiveness of the current student representation within UHI committees.
FE Student Representative Interviews
On the 7th November, I was part of the panel interviewing candidates for the role of FE student representative to sit on UHI Court and the FE Regional Board as this is the first time the position has been created and there isn’t currently a system to allow a vote to take place across all FE students at all of the academic partners. This appointment was an entirely interim measure and a system to allow an elected representative for the next academic year will be developed.
Student Development Fund – Grant Making Panel
It was great to be a part of the panel distributing grants from the student development fund held on the 14th November, particularly to see the range of activities that are available to UHI students and the level of enthusiasm for people to do something extra.
Student Representation Project
I’ve had a great a great deal of on-going involvement with the student representation project including a number of meetings and panel discussions.
Market Research Company Interviews Presentations
On 2nd December it was great to be joined by both Brian Curren (WHC rep) and Aisling (Perth rep) particularly at such short notice for the presentations from each of the market research companies shortlisted to be awarded the tender, after a lengthy discussion the tender was awarded to Axiom.
Market Research Company Presentations
On the 19nd December Dain, Alan and myself all had a brief meeting with the appointed market research team to introduce ourselves and get to know the Market researchers who will be coordinating the focus groups and the online surveys.
Staff Challenge Fund Assessment Panel
The 5th December saw six bids being considered by the scrutiny panel with four being successful with the full funds being allocated. The successful projects titled:
· The student perspective on Videoconference Teaching: Identifying environments and behaviours for successful engagement
· Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative: Making the most of the University’s range of delivery methods.
· The UHI Postgraduate Virtual Community
· Student Representative Conference (Shetland College)
If you would like any further information on these bids please let me know and I can forward you the relevant summaries.
Student Conference Scoping Group
A group comprised of both staff and students met on the 12th December to discuss the aims and logistical requirements that would need to be met to facilitate an effective student conference to benefit the outcomes of the student representation project. This group suggested un/suitable timings and considered ways to minimise the logistical difficulties regarding travel and specific requirements the chosen location would need to fulfil to remain accessible to all students.
Project Board
At the project board meeting of the 3rd of February the board was provided with a progress report of the project so far and asked to discuss the timeline for the further development of the project to ensure the project stays on track. A number of different issues were discussed, particularly the timing and purpose of the student conference given the logistical and time constraints the project is facing aswell as the implementation of the market research (focus groups and survey) as well as the process for electing the next FE representative for UHI court and the FE regional Board.
Academic Council
In general this meeting of Academic Council on the 12th December was to note and approve a number of papers that had already been seen at a number of other committies, however a change to the regulations regarding academic misconduct was not approved due to discrepancies I highlighted between the regulations themselves and the examples used to demonstrate the implementation of the regulations. These will be corrected and returned for approval at a later meeting.
UHI Principal and Vice Chancellor Appointment
The 11th of December saw the appointments committee long list 14 candidates from the 75 applications that were received for the post of UHI Principal and Vice Chancellor.
UHI Chair Appointment
There have been a number of impromptu meetings due to the on-going developments during this period of transition.
UHI Court
Before the UHI Court meeting on the 17th December I met with Emma Lawrie the FE student Representative. An item regarding the development of student residences throughout the whole UHI partnership received particular scrutiny from me, resulting in a student representative being brought onto the project board that it developing this initiative. I also provided a written update of UHISA’s activities since my last report to court.
Shadow Court Meeting
An additional meeting of the shadow court was called on the 7th February due to a number of pressing issues needing to be resolved to allow for smoth developments through this period of transition.
UHI Principal and Vice Chancellor Interviews
With an incredibly early start at 4am on the 29th Jan to get to Inverness ready to prepare for interviews from 8am I was the student member of the interview panel for the final five shortlisted candidates. These were conducted entirely in person with the International candidates having made the trip in advance to meet with four stake holder groups (Students, academic staff, senior management and externals) the day before to begin settling them into the full process. There were a number of appointable candidates and the student opinion was most definitely taken into account during the final discussions before the unanimous recommendation of one candidate was put to the full UHI Court. After approval from Court the successful candidate was informed and Professor Clive Mulholland accepted the position to become UHI’s new Principal and Vice Chancellor, he will start on the 1st June although he has a number of visits to UHI planned before officially starting the new post. I am confident that he will do an excellent job in this time of many developments whilst maintaining a strong focus of the needs of students.
Conferences and Training Events:
UHISA Student Council
On Thursday 7th and Friday 8th November UHISA held it’s first student council of this academic year. Thursday was a combination of workshops and presentations including: Conor Murray Gauld NUS Scotland’s Education Campaign Convener running an Imagine Tomorrow workshop as part of their national campaign to explore the future of education; a student services presentation from Melissa Schouten to explain how UHI can support it’s students and where to go to access this support; a workshop by the student Representation Project team William and Louise with an update on progress so far and how to get further involved, along with a session on the current challenges of representation; updates from various leads on each of the themes in the student partnership agreement and a workshop around social media and how UHI and UHISA can utilise this to better engage with our students. This was followed by a tapas meal in La Tortilla and the inevitable trip to Johnny Foxes to continue networking and sharing ideas that had occurred throughout the day.
Friday was time for the main business of council and was opened up to VC participants to maximise the accessibility of UHISA’s democratic processes. The opening plenary was delivered by myself and Gordon Maloney NUS Scotland President via a pre recorded video as unfortunately he was unable to attend in person alongside Dr Iain Morrison Dean of Students. Moving on to UHISA’s reports each of UHISA’s officers were held to account and this years operational plan, finance report and last years audited accounts were all approved before electing a chair of council to oversee the motions and debate procedures. Lydia Crow (who has since elected as UHISA post graduate rep in the by-election) nominated herself and was elected as chair for what turned into lively debates on a number of key issues including operational procedures of UHISA, democratic procedures of UHISA and student issues. These debates had a good atmosphere and it was great to see so many of the first time delegates getting involved with speeches for and against a number of the motions as well as engaging with the event through our twitter hashtag as a result of the previous days discussions on social media engagement. Overall this was a very successful event with many delegates keen to get further involved and going back to their campuses to motivate others, also it was commented afterwards that this was the first student council in at least 4 years to have reached quorum so thanks to everyone who helped in advertising and encouraging student to come along.
NUS Scotland Zone Conference
NUS Scotland Zone Conference was held on 25-26 November at Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh, bringing together officers and staff from college and university students’ associations across Scotland to discuss, debate and challenge their ideas on a range of issues, all with the intention of looking ahead to future policies and campaigns for students’ associations and NUS Scotland.
The conference opened with guest speaker, Donald Nicolson, a professor at Strathclyde University and founder of Strathclyde Law Clinic, talking to delegates about his experience of setting up the clinic. Donald also spoke of his time as a student during apartheid in South Africa and put forward the importance of making even small changes and the difference that can make to others.
The plan of work was debated and passed by the delegates present and the Scottish executive committee were held to account answering a range of questions about their work up until now.
After this there were a number of workshops including maximizing the use of social media to engage with the wider student body and opportunities to discuss issues such as sexism and racism in popular culture, a more flexible learner journey, attainment levels, using sports and societies to tackle discrimination and the impact of fees on widening access.
Students from different institutions showcased the work that they had been doing through a new feature at the conference – mini TED talks. Emily Beever from Aberdeen University talked to delegates about their work to create a child-friendly campus and their work with student parents. Kirsty Haigh from Edinburgh University talked about their campaign around moving the University towards greater ethical investments and Aurora Adams from Edinburgh University talked about their campaign to cap international students fees. Kwaku Adjei, from Strathclyde University also spoke about their Arts Festival and the huge impact that had in involving more students.
Zara Kitson, an activist involved in the work of So Say Scotland, talked about her campaigning journey and her experience as a young woman running in local council and national elections. Zara talked about the importance of having fun and listening to your gut feeling and gave an example of a presentation she gave about spooning when a job interview left the topic up to the candidate, this led to a mass spooning being requested during the following question and answer session.
The final session of the conference were the policy cafes which were an opportunity to start discussions regarding future policy and campaigns for NUS Scotland, as part of the annual policy cycle.
NUS Digital Training