BOARD OF THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Wednesday7 March 2007
(2.00 – 3.45pm)
UNAPPROVED MINUTES
Chair / Dr Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences
Present / Mr Bailey, Dr Fagan, Professor Figlio, Mr Joondan,Dr Maringer, Professor Radford,
Dr Ryan Flood, Dr Speed, Mr Usnitskov, Professor Ward, Miss Warren
Apologies / Dr Francesconi, Ms Garcia Soza, Mr Lepecki, Professor Sanders, Mr Spiliotopoulos, Professor Wright
Secretary / Mrs Sayer, Faculty Administrator
STARRING OF AGENDA ITEMS
Noted / Items starred for discussion in addition to those already starred on the agenda:
Item 6 Report of Dean’s Action Taken on Behalf of the Board
Item 12 Student Matters / 1/07
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
Approved / Minutes of the meeting held on 29 November 2006. / 2/07
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Noted / There were no matters arising. / 3/07
DEAN’S REPORT
Reported / There would be major changes to the way that Undergraduates were assessed following the introduction of the new rules of assessment in October 2007. This included the aggregation of exam and coursework marks as standard to determine course marks, and the condoning of marks ≥ 35% in one outside option for first years. / 4/07
Senate had approved new guidelines for the structure of four year degree schemes. The allocation of schemes to one of the four models required approval by the Faculty Board. Economics schemes are currently based on model 2 and Government schemes are based on model 3. / 5/07
The new template for taught postgraduate rules of assessment asked departments to specify, under section 8.2, which item of coursework would be marked in the autumn term to provide early feedback on performance to students. The requirement was one piece of coursework per postgraduate scheme and might be a piece of formative or summative assessment. / 6/07
A draft policy on the Double Marking of Coursework and Examinations was put forward for consultation to the last meeting of the UndergraduateSchool.Board. The Dean invitedFaculty Board members to advise on a number of specific issues relating to the moderation of oral presentations, peer assessment, placement learning and study abroad work. / 7/07
REPORT OF DEAN’S ACTION TAKEN ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
(paper FBSS/07/01)
Noted / The note regarding the condonement of EC114 in relation to BA Economics and Politics and BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics could not be applied under the new undergraduate rules of assessment. / 8/07
NEW DEGREE SCHEMES
BA English Language, Language Acquisition and Language Disorders(paper FBSS/07/02)
Noted / The Programme Director would be Dr Sonja Eisenbeiss rather than Professor Andrew Radford. Component 04 of year 3 should be identical to component 01 of year 3 and should read ‘1 30-credit or 2 15-credit 3rd year English Language Options. / 9/07
Recommended to Senate
that the BA English Language, Language Acquisition and Language Disorders
be approved for introduction with effect from October 2007. / 10/07
ISSUES ARISING FROM UNDERGRADUATE EXTERNAL EXAMINERS REPORTS
Noted / There were no items to report. / 11/07
ANNUAL MONITORING REPORTS(paper FBSS/07/03)
Received / Annual Monitoring Reports (AMRs) for the departments of Economics, Government, Language and Linguistics and Sociology. / 12/07
Noted / The discontinuation of the BA History and Economics should be considered at the Department’s next periodic review. / 13/07
In relation to the low proportion of firsts, the Department of Government has discussed the need to use the full marking scale at recent departmental meetings. It was widely agreed that numbers did fluctuate and Board members felt unable to comment on this issue without sight of statistics for the last three or four years. / 14/07
The Board identified an example of good practice in the report from the Department of Economics in relation to the Staff/Student Liaison Committee(SSLC) discussion of opportunities for enhancing students’ employability and career prospects. / 15/07
Departments were congratulated on their thorough approach to the production of their AMRs. / 16/07
APPROVAL OF UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMME SPECIFICATIONS
(RULES OF ASSESSMENT IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT)(paper FBSS/07/04)
a) Awards/Changes receiving Dean’s approval by Dean’s Action
Noted / 17/07
b) Awards/Changes for Approval by the Faculty Board March 2007
Received / In addition to the amendments requested in the paper FBSS/07/04, a programme specification for the BA Politics and Law was tabled. (Paper FBSS/07/06) / 18/07
Resolved / that GV545-3-AU Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutions and GV546-3-SP Democracy beyond the Nation State? The case of Europe, to be made optional rather than compulsory. / 19/07
ADMISSIONS STATISTICS(paper FBSS/07/05)
Noted / 20/07
STUDENT MATTERS
Noted / The new four year variant of the existing BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics (International Exchange) was developed in response to the request of an individual student. The process for approving such variants had been simplified in conjunction with guidance from the Quality Enhancement Office and the Dean now had power to take Chair’s action to approve on behalf of the Board. / 21/07
Some students had expressed concern about the examinations for Autumn term courses not being held until the main examination period in the Summer term. It was suggested that they should be conducted at the start of the Spring term or in the last week of the Christmas vacation. This was difficult to facilitate where the academic year was not semesterised and there was widespread concern that it could have a negativeaffect on attendance during the first few weeks of the spring term. It was also difficult to require students to be here during the vacation period. It was suggested that departments may wish to discuss the idea at their SSLCs. / 22/07
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
EARLY ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Further guidance would be circulated in relation to the Senate requirement for early assessment opportunities for Undergraduates and Postgraduates. / 23/07
Cassandra Sayer
Faculty Administrator
March 2007
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