Present: Liz Bacon, Dean of School (Chair) Yvonne Fryer, Senior Lecturer Cos Ierotheou

School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences

Minutes of the first meeting of the School Board in the 2012-13 academic session, held on Friday 30th November, at 14:00, in Room 003, King William Court, Greenwich Campus

Present: Liz Bacon, Dean of School (Chair) Yvonne Fryer, Senior Lecturer Cos Ierotheou, Director of Learning and Quality Andrew Kao, Researcher Choi-Hong Lai, MSc Programme Leader George Loukas, Lecturer Lachlan MacKinnon, Head of Smart System Technologies and Creative Digital Technologies Virginia Malone, Information Services Manager Peter Morris, Director of Collaborations Frank Razaghzadeh, Support Manager Jason Scates, Network Infrastructure Master

Student Representatives: Abimbola Kareem, Year 2 Representative

12.1.1 Apologies for Absence Jane Bland, Campus Head of Student Affairs Phil Clipsham, Head of Computing and Information Systems Alex Fedorec, Senior Lecturer Ed Galea, Director of Research Veronica Habgood, Director of L&Q School of Health and Social Care Mary Kiernan, Postgraduate Coordinator Asif Malik, Senior Lecturer Tony Mann, Director of Resources Robert Mayor, Associate Dean of the Business School Kevin Parrott, Head of Mathematical Sciences Karen Richardson, Academic Services Librarian George Samakovitis, Senior Lecturer Vitaly Strusevich, Statistics Research Group Leader

12.1.2 Minutes of the Previous Meeting The minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 15th May were agreed as an accurate record.

12.1.3 Matters arising from the Minutes Actions completed, the following are on-going: Collaborations [12.2.10] Head of CIS and Head of SST/CDT to write a set of procedures regarding moderation. Action: Director of Collaborations to find document from May/June 2012 to include with the handbook.

12.1.4 SMRD Dean of School went through the SMRD by section and asked the group if they had any comments.

The following points were discussed:

 School profile section to include a sentence to mention events such as the Maths arcade. Action: Director of Learning and Quality to add sentence mentioning Maths arcade in the SMRD.

 Review method and the introduction from Director of Learning and Quality for appendix 6.

 Programmes with a low progression rate. Head of Smart System Technologies and Creative Digital Technologies raised the issue that we may need to produce a document regarding KPIs and KIS data and explained that if a student doesn’t progress internally they are marked a fail. Action: Query regarding failure rates for programme transfers to be raised at SMRD meeting on the 14th December.

 Surveys. It was noted that resources and timetabling have improved. Virginia Malone, Information Services Manager informed the group that there are funds for more ILS resources, should the students require a particular book/DVD lecturers should inform Karen Richardson who will ensure better availability. Action: ILS rep to inform CMS staff of ILS resources and the possibility of ordering more resources should they be required. Head of Smart System Technologies and Creative Digital Technologies noted that CDT students have improved studio time and access to cameras.

 External Examiners report. 15 credits of employability material was discussed. Head of Smart System Technologies and Creative Digital Technologies noted the attributes are embedded and therefore are covered in syllabus delivered by the approved centres.

 Programmes at approved centres. Director of Collaborations noted over the past two years every QA visit has included PAB and SAP reports and the issues of performance are discussed which has resulted in considerable improvement over time.

 Employability was discussed including the number of placements and sandwich students.

 Research and Enterprise. CHL noted a student was missing under NAMRU.  Articulation Agreements Action: Director of Learning and Quality to follow up with Simon Jarvis re: articulation agreement with Tsinghua University.

 Reporting was raised by Director of Collaborations noted where a course is taught at numerous approved centres then just looking at aggregated statistics for the course as a whole rather than at the statistics for individual centres does not provide any useful information that can be followed up by the School with those centres where student performance on the course appears to be below the required threshold. Director of Learning and Quality suggested it was unhelpful to have the breakdown by course for Collaborations. Action: During SMRD meeting, mention reporting across all centres not being meaningful and there is a need for cohort analysis to be provided.

 Overseas NSS was discussed amongst the group including the low response rate from collaborative centres.

SMRD was confirmed to submit subject to the changes identified above. No further comments were made. Director of Learning and Quality noted that the SMRD shows that our KPIs are improving as a school. Dean of School thanked the school for improving the KPIs and thanked the contributors to the SMRD and the hard work of staff.

12.1.5 Update on Programme Reviews Review dates were confirmed. Postgrad has been postponed to spring in preparation for 2014/15. It was agreed that Collaborations should be involved with the programme review so their perspective is taken into account. A set of agreed titles went to APC in September; a proposed further reduction is being put on hold. Director of Collaborations noted MSc Computer Systems and Network Engineering is going to PIBT in Sri Lanka. Director of Learning and Quality is awaiting the agreement of words that are allowed in titles from the Engineering School.

12.1.6 NSS Planning Discussion took place and it was confirmed that it is important to engage the students as soon as possible. Head of Smart System Technologies and Creative Digital Technologies confirmed he has discussed this with his staff members, it will be discussed at stage committees and sessions for students to fill in the NSS will be carried out in the New Year. George Loukas, Lecturer suggested that student reps could talk about the NSS. Director of Collaborations noted that centres in London (link colleges) are not involved.

12.1.7 Recruitment Discussion took place. Dean of School informed the group nationally applications are down 8.4% and Greenwich applications 11%.It was established we are expected to increase points from 240 to 260 and recruit an extra 50 students for Sept 2013. It was confirmed that work is taking place in schools to ensure they academically improve their

score and that CMS have been given a list of schools that we need to engage with. Stockwell Street expansion and film and TV were discussed.

12.1.8 National Centre of Excellence for Schools Dean of School announced CMS has become a National Centre of Excellence for supporting School teachers in teaching computer science and explained the background. Dean of School hopes this will facilitate relationships with local schools which will ultimately be reflected in the recruitment of high quality students. Dean of School said she needs to form a board of around 4 – 5 to take charge and get events planned a.s.a.p.

12.1.9 School Budget Director of Resources note on the budget was read and Dean of School explained that in terms of meeting the budget this year, we should be ok. Dean of School noted that recruitment, retention and employability are key. Director of Collaborations announced that they have almost met the collaborations income planned for the year, just after the first semester which is excellent news.

12.1.10 Collaborations A Collaborations report was shown, Director of Collaborations explained that centres have grown and organisations are setting up more centres with good recruitment rates. Collaborative centres will be made aware of the current staffing situation in the Collaborations office.

12.1.11 Health and Safety No items raised.

12.1.12 Minutes from School Learning & Quality Committee No minutes available for meeting that took place 14th November 2012. These will be at the next board.

12.1.13 Minutes from School Health and Safety Committee Meeting to take place 17th April 2013.

12.1.14 Minutes from School Research Committee Minutes from 1st May 2012 were presented and noted.

12.1.15 Minutes from the Technical Resources Committee Minutes from 24th May 2012 were presented and noted.

12.1.16 Minutes from Recruitment and Marketing Committee Minutes from 26th September 2012 were presented and noted.

12.1.17 Minutes from Student Experience Committee Minutes from 8th May 2012 were presented Virginia Malone, Information Services Manager is happy to be a rep on the student experience committee. She also noted the issue with DVD rental and explained they have rooms available for groups to view the DVDs in the library. Opening hours of Stockwell Street are still under discussion.

12.1.18 Minutes from Portfolio Planning Group Minutes made available for meeting that took place 8th May 2012 with minutes of board.

12.1.19 Any Other Business Dean of School thanked Director of Collaborations, who is leaving the university end of Dec, for this contribution over the years.

Secretary: Stephen Higgins Tel: 8503 Email: [email protected]