The UNIVERSITY of GREENWICH

D R A F T

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

Minutes of the School Board, Wednesday 7 December 2005, 14.15, Room QM 063

Present: Jane Longmore (Chair) Amanda Kneller (Secretary) Lorraine Lacey June Ernstzen Christine Morgan Alev Adil Alessandro Benati Mick Bowles Noel Campbell Harry Derbyshire John Dunne Sue Golding Peter Humm Rebecca Harrison Gareth Jenkins Peter Jones Maria Kaspersson Stephen Kennedy Michael Langan Denise Leggett Stefan Manz Mairead McClean Craig Morris Xose Rosales Gauti Sigthorsson Silvia Stanton Douglas Stuart Ros Davies Sid Jayakumar Sue Edwards Suzanne Healey Dev Moodley Louise Bell Carolyn Brown Fiona Devlin Pippa Guard Edward Phillips Stephanie Polski John Williams Paul Wingrove Lucy Yeatman Michael Zell

Apologies: Richard Wild Caroline Smith Simon Dye Sandra Clarke Sasha Ricketts Steve Peacock Thomas Acton Bridget Leach Selina Goulbourne Andrew Dawson June Balshaw Zoe Pettit Nandini Dasgupta Alisa Corfield Caroline Searchfield Vicki Joyce Susan Rowland Corinne Palmer-Brown Terry Cannon Jenny Bavidge Sally Alsford Angela Laycock Jim Urpeth Zoe Pettit Ian Thompson Bob Tsukada Bright Cecile Laval Mavis James

1. Chair’s Announcements:

Welcome back to Sid Jayakumar and in absentia - Mavis James. Welcome to Stephanie Polski – Lecturer in Film Studies. Thanks to Noemi Almeida and Val Osborne for their assistance in the Admin Team.

2. Minutes of Meeting 26/10/05:

Agreed as a correct record with one amendment:

DL requested addition to paragraph 4 of the Vice Chancellor’s Visit: “The VC acknowledged good teaching is as essential to the work of the university as research.”

3. Matters Arising:

1 4. Approval of External Examiners:

The Chair emphasized the role of External Examiners as vital to the work of the school and asked for negotiations with examiners to be given the highest priority. Colleagues must take responsibility for providing the Learning and Quality Office with the relevant documentation.

Approval was granted for the following appointments:

Dr Ian Waters - BA Hons Criminology BSC Criminal Justice Studies

Mr Darren Royston - BA Hons Dance and Theatre Performance

Professor Jonathan Ree - MA Philosophy

Mr Stephen Parrott - MSc Criminal Justice Studies MA International Criminology

Additional responsibilities for existing external examiners:

Mr Anthony Corcoran - Foundation Degree Performing Arts WKC Foundation Degree Music Production WKC

Dr Edmund Cusick - MA by Research

Dr John Rees-Smith - Chief Undergraduate External

5. Minutes of UG Staff/Student Committee 30/11/05

University constitution encourages attendance of student reps at school boards. However, students are reluctant to attend. The Chair proposed to supply School Board minutes to subsequent Staff/Student Committees as a compromise. Debate ensued on the best way to proceed.

ACTION: Chair to ask UG and PG senior tutors to arrange the attendance of student representatives at the next School Board.

Student Conduct: The new students’ disciplinary procedure has had approval and is available from the intranet and at School Reception. A panel will meet weekly to address submissions.

Changing Fees: The Chair requested board members to remain abreast of available information to ensure we pass on the most accurate information to students. Prof SG requested an increase in the amount of instalments available. SE clarified restrictions as due to credit licence legislation rather than university bureaucracy. The Chair confirmed a tougher line is being taken towards chronic debtors this year and while financial hardship cannot warrant submission of an extenuating circumstances claim, in genuine cases of need, support and help including financial advice and Access to Learning Fund are available. With overseas students, a requirement of their entry visas is agreement they have enough funds to complete their course of study.

2 Self-service hand-in of coursework: Business and CMS have pilot schemes in place to test the validity of this process.

ACTION: The Chair to inform the next UG S/S meeting the situation is still under discussion.

6. Minutes of PG Staff/Student Committee 14/11/05

While students had difficulties with administrative areas of the university, they praised the quality of teaching and course content. EP acknowledged the huge task carried out by registry staff and queried whether the school could supply a person to welcome students during induction week rather than having security personnel standing guard.

ACTION: JD and JW to draft a response to the Postgraduates Staff-Student Committee.

ACTION: JL to convene a group to improve students’ induction experience.

7. Learning and Quality Committee 23/11/05

Last LQC requested discussion Of the first National Student Survey. As a public survey with the results widely available, this will be highly influential to the public’s perception of us. The board agreed action needs to be taken by departments in explaining the purpose and significance of the survey to students.

8. School Assessment Working Group

The Code of Practice is being revised to align our assessment procedures with the university regulations. The Chair confirmed working groups will continue to develop the Code and the final draft will be considered by School Board before the ultimate version is published.

The Board discussed the following:

 Advice to give students on late coursework: should students abandon the work or be encouraged to complete it for possible submission later in the year?

 Extenuating Circumstances: Where students do not submit an EC form, should staff still provide feedback?

 Plagiarism: The three points from the paper will be discussed further.

PJ requested all items for next SAWG be delivered by Tuesday, 13 December.

9. Research Committee

No matters for approval or further discussion.

10. Health and Safety

To prevent users suffering frost bite, The Chair advised Prof. SG to contact Facilities Management to stop the air conditioning coming on in the performance space, each evening at 7.30.

3 LY: Overcrowding continues to be a problem but is shifting from being an issue of H&S to one of retention.

SE: encouraged new, returning or relocating staff to have a DSE assessment of their work space.

11. AOB:

The Chair paid tribute to everyone’s hard work this term.

Date of next meeting: Wednesday, 8th February 2006 at 2.15 in QA063