UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

BOARD FOR THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES
19 NOVEMBER 2008
(2.00PM – 5.00PM)
MINUTES
UNRESERVED BUSINESS
(APPROVED)
Chair / Dr Burnett, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Comparative Studies
Present / Dr Chaudhuri, Mr Freeman, Dr Fumagalli, Mr Hall, Dr Higgs, Professor Hulme, Mrs Lefley, Mr Leighton, Professor Martin, Dr Röhrig Assunção, Dr Soysal, Mr Wilson
Apologies / Miss Dillon, Professor Dews, Professor Vergo
Absent / Dr Cardew, Professor Cox, Dr Fry, Professor Rubin
Secretary / Mrs Turton, Academic Officer for Humanities and Comparative Studies
STARRING OF AGENDA ITEMS
Noted / Items 4 (Matters Arising) and 15 (Student Business) were additionally starred. The unstarred items on the agenda were then deemed to have been received or noted and approved as appropriate. Item 14 (EL108) was withdrawn. / 47/08
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
Approved / The minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2008. / 48/08
MATTERS ARISING
Reported
Reported / Curriculum Review (M 36/08)
The group had met three times and had reported to Faculty Steering Group. Topics discussed included first-year provision, departmental curriculum reviews, the interdisciplinary agenda, involvement of External Relations at faculty level, and development of new courses. Uncapping of student numbers on modules would be complete from 2009/10, and was already largely in place. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor had reiterated the need for uncapping.
Noise and Theft in the Library (M 46/08)
This had been referred to the Library Committee, which had reported that there was no evidence of a theft problem. The Librarian had met with research students from Philosophy to discuss noise levels, and reported that action had been taken in the form of additional notices and staff patrols. / 49/08
50/08
MEMBERSHIP AND TERMS OF REFERENCE (FBHCS/08/19)
Approved / 51/08
MEMBERSHIP OF ACADEMIC OFFENCES AND PROGRESS PANEL (FBHCS/08/20)
Approved / 52/08
DEAN’S REPORT
Reported
Reported
Reported
Reported
Reported / Capital Investment Plan
A special meeting of Council had approved a loan facility with Lloyds Bank which could be drawn upon for capital projects over the next five years. The terms of the loan facility were favourable and there would be an affordability assessment for each project. Council would consider priorities for capital projects at its next meeting. One major project would be a combined extension to the library and new student centre.
Timetabling 2009-10
A review group had been established to improve the timetabling process. It had already been agreed that information on modules would be required much earlier than in the past.
Faculty Recruitment Group
Representatives from Art History, History, Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies and Philosophy would work with External Relations to address recruitment issues from a Faculty perspective. The Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor had announced a target of a 25 per cent increase in Home/European Union undergraduate students for Humanities and Comparative Studies departments in 2009-10.
Holocaust Memorial Week in January 2009
The event would be organised by the Head of History, who was hoping for considerable involvement from the whole of the academic community at the University. The aim would be ‘to create a thought-provoking and inclusive programme’ involving the University, the Students’ Union and the local community. The national theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 would be ‘Stand Up to Hatred’. Events at the Colchester campus, in the week commencing 26 January 2009, would reflect this aim of remembering the victims of Nazi persecution and other genocides as well as highlighting the extreme consequences of hatred.
National Student Survey
The Higher Education Funding Council for England was concerned lest institutions and individuals within them should unduly influence students in completing the National Student Survey. / 53/08
54/08
55/08
56/08
57/08
REPORT OF DEAN’S ACTION (FBHCS/08/21)
Noted / 58/08
PROPOSED NEW COURSES (FBHCS/08/22—27)
Approved / All the new courses were approved subject to minor amendments. It was reported that Humanities and Comparative Studies heads had agreed that four-year variants incorporating a year abroad would in future be available for all Humanities and Comparative Studies BA courses, in addition to existing study abroad options within three-year courses. The four-year variants could be approved by Dean’s Action in future as there was an agreed framework for such courses. It was noted that the MA Wild Writing was a unique offering. There was discussion of the 90-credit MA dissertation in Philosophy which had a lower word limit than in some other departments which awarded fewer credits for the dissertation. The Philosophy Department explained why shorter dissertations were appropriate for the discipline.
Recommended to Senate:
that the following degrees be approved with effect from October 2009:
BA Modern History (Year Abroad)
BA Philosophy and Film
MA Creative Writing (full-time and part-time)
MA Philosophy, Politics, and Environmental Issues (full-time, part-time, and modular)
MA Philosophy, Sociology, and the Environment (full-time, part-time, and modular)
MA Wild Writing: Literature, Science, and the Environment (full-time and
part-time) / 59/08
60/08
61/08
62/08
63/08
64/08
65/08
ISSUES FROM UNDERGRADUATE EXTERNAL EXAMINERS
No items to report.
NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY/STUDENT SATISFACTION STUDENT (FBHCS/08/28)
Reported
/ Humanities and Comparative Studies departments had obtained generally good scores. Several departments performed less well on marking criteria and feedback than in other areas. History were considering putting the marking criteria on the marking sheets. Philosophy noted that the marking criteria were printed in the departmental student handbook but that many students were surprised when this was pointed out. Thus the Department had decided to e-mail that page of the handbook to all students. The usefulness of feedback varied from module to module, so staff would be sharing best practice. LiFTS noted that students were relatively dissatisfied with workload, but it was not clear whether students felt there was too much or too little work. Assuming the former, LiFTS planned to reduce the number of texts on various modules next year. The Department had also decided to put the marking criteria on the website that students had to use to print their cover sheets. The Department had already reduced the number of essays for second-year modules so that markers would have time to give more feedback on each essay. / 66/08
MARK SACKS MEMORIAL PRIZE (FBHCS/08/29)
Approved / Professor Sacks had been an esteemed colleague in the Philosophy Department for many years. It was fitting that his work should be commemorated with a prize, and this was unanimously agreed. / 67/08
PROVISION OF MATERIAL FROM THE COURSE MATERIALS REPOSITORY (FBHCS/08/30)
Reported / The Board was not in favour of minimum requirements because there were many variations between modules and departments. It was not clear what was meant by ‘on-line materials in the Library’. Student representatives were in favour of standardised Course Materials Repository materials for every module, to include items such as the syllabus, essay titles, deadlines, lecture notes, a link to the departmental handbook, etc. The student representatives noted that some links in the Course Materials Repository did not work. Some staff preferred not to add links because of the amount of maintenance required. / 68/08
STUDENT BUSINESS
Reported / The student representatives intended to seek student views on the issue of uncapping. Some students preferred modules to run with very small numbers as this might increase their choice of modules, though this would also mean that choice would be limited in another way because of capping. The students expressed a wish for student representatives to be included at Faculty Steering Group. It was suggested that the students should raise this matter directly with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor. The students reported dissatisfaction with plans to reduce the number of contact hours on CS141 and the introduction this year of the same practice in second-year Literature modules. It was noted that in both of these cases, the previous arrangements had involved more than the standard two hours per week, and staff took the view that this was normalisation of teaching load/burden for students rather than cutting provision to a previously unknown level. / 69/08
Angela Turton
Assistant Registrar
December 2008