School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences s1

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

Draft Minutes of the 12th meeting 2011/2012 of the Computing and Mathematical Sciences School Board held on Wednesday 1st June 2011 at 2.00pm in room QM 369

Present:

Liz Bacon (Chair) Ala Al-Zobaidie Andrew Stanley Bob Dolden Chris Koulopoulos Cos Ierotheou Frank Razaghzadeh Lachlan MacKinnon Mona Ghassemian Peter Dench Peter Morris Phil Clipsham Yasser Ades Yvonne Fryer

Secretary: Marilyn Greenaway

11.12.1 Apologies for Absence Ryan Flynn Jason Scates Kevin McManus Tony Mann Miltos Petridis

11.12.2 Minutes Minutes from the meeting held on 29th March 2011 were a true and accurate record.

11.12.3 Matters arising FR gave an update on ILS labs and mentioned he is going to follow up the noise issue in the labs with ILS as the main problem seems to be there, not the CMS labs. [11.11.16] Action: It was noted that LB will speak to Heather regarding the timetable schedule and if necessary speak to Tom Barnes regarding Term Semesters.

11.12.4 Update on recruitment LB gave an update on recruitment and mentioned that recruitment stopped in January this year due the number in applications as the School recruitment predictions were that it had reached its target figures. However looking at the recent student numbers for the CST, now SST dept, which are low, the School has decided to re-open recruitment for this course to try and make numbers viable.

11.12.5 NSS response rates LB reported on the NSS and mentioned that the response rates were slightly up on last year for the School overall, however some departments have improved, others have dropped quite a bit. Discussion took place on how to improve the response rate and various ideas were put forward.

11.12.6 Employers Advisory Panel LB explained how the Employers Advisory Panel is engaging with us, and how they are enthused with GWizards. Employers are very keen and willing to assist our students in gaining employment and have offered their assistance in the following areas:  Master classes  Mock interviews for students  Offering students advice on careers  Guest lectures  Internships, placements  Offering tours for students around employer sites e.g. BT

LM mentioned we should take advantage of the Employers’ support as our students will very much benefit from this.

11.12.7 Student Survey Results LB gave an update on the Student Survey results and showed the report that Ray Stoneham had produced. LB mentioned satisfaction had dropped slightly, and that the analysis by stage of study shows that stage 1 and stage 3 students are slightly more satisfied than stage 2nd year students who were the least positive. Discussion took place about an online survey for our collaboration centres which will be discussed at the next Learning and Quality meeting.

11.12.8 Update on lab provision FR gave an update on lab provision and reported that 216 will become a training section for learning tree and short courses. Work on the fire door in 440 will take place in a few weeks, and 116 and 103 will be updated shortly after.

Discussion took place regarding setting up an exams lab and FR will speak to LM to discuss this further.

Action: FR to speak to LM about setting up an exams lab. FR reported that £250,000 in new equipment has been invested in the new studio, and every major request has gone through.

11.12.9 School Budget FR gave an update on the School budget and mentioned the School is in a healthy position at present due to the collaborations income.

Discussion took place regarding iPADS and FR asked HODs to identify staff who needed one. FR also reported that there are 10,000 texts available to use to send information to students and this cost only £400. Although cheap, the committee agreed that staff will need to seek permission to send texts to students and that any member of the management team could authorise their use.

Action: FR to alert staff of text messaging which will need to be signed off by a member of the management team.

11.12.10 Collaborations PM produced the collaborations report and gave an update on the following:  Approved centres  Authorised list of programmes  Proposals for new centres  Future Growth  New Initiatives

PM reported they need to have a period of consolidation and mentioned that he expected a slow increase in the next couple of years. PM mentioned that we have lost the Copperbelt centre in Zambia, however this has been replaced with Cyber Academy which will run a new top-up degree in Computer Systems and Networking.

E-Thames Graduate School had also been approved and are expected to have around 200 students a year on both of the BSc and MSc programmes, over 4 intakes per year.

11.12.11 Health and Safety FR reported he would look at placing the bags of shredding in a secure area, the floor in Peter Morris room and the crack down the wall in Cos’s room.

Action: FR to look at the floor in PM room, the crack down the wall in Cos’s room and look into placing the shredding in a secure place.

11.12.12 Minutes from the School Learning and Quality No mins available.

11.12.13 Minutes from the School Research Committee Minutes from the meetings held on 10th May and 22nd June were noted.

11.12.14 Minutes from the Technical Resources Committee No meetings have been held since the last Board.

11.12.15 Minutes from the Health and Safety Committee Action: FR will follow up the action from the H&S committee with regard to the air condition on 2nd floor.

11.12.15 A.O.B. No A.O.B