Professor Malcolm Eames

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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SENATE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2012 IN 0.22, LECTURE THEATRE, LAW BUILDING AT 2.15 PM

Vice-Chancellor P Professor D Kelly P Ms Lynne Allery P Professor Martin Kitchener P Mr A Arya P Professor Peter Knowles P Professor G Attard Dr R Langford P Professor David Barrow Mr Ron Leach Professor Gary Baxter Professor Mike Lewis Dr Roger Baylis Professor Justin Lewis Professor David Boucher A Professor NV Lowe P Professor P Bowen Professor G Maio P Dr P Bowman Professor Chris McGuigan Professor George Boyne Mr P McNee P Mrs S Burgess P Professor Keith Meek P Ms E Button A Professor P Milbourne P Dr Alistair Cartwright Professor B Paul Morgan Dr Catherine Chabert P Miss Claire Morgan Dr Tinna Clouston P Dr Heather Moyes Professor Amanda Coffey A Dr D Murphy Mrs J Cormack P Mr Harry Newman P Professor Simon Cottle Mr S Noble Professor Martin Coyle Professor R J Parkes Ms Cari Davies P Mrs Janet Peters P Professor Russell Davies Professor Ole Petersen A Professor Sioned Davies Professor Patricia Price P Professor Stephen Denyer P Professor Frank Sengpiel A Professor Peter Donnelly A Dr Z Sobiesierski P Mrs Patrizia Donovan P Professor P Stephens P Ms Helen Evans P Dr P Sutch P Mrs E Evans P Miss H Sweetland A Professor Derek Gallen Professor A Tanesini P Professor Walter K Gear Professor Hywel Thomas P Professor C Gorrara P Professor Terry Threadgold P Dr K Greenland Professor Elizabeth Treasure P Ms Jane Henderson P Professor Chris Webster Professor K Holford A Professor Tim Wess Dr J Hunt P Professor Roger Whitaker Professor Sheila Hunt Professor James Whitley P Professor Dylan Jones P Professor Ed Wilding P Professor Phil J Jones Professor Malcolm Williams Professor David Wyn Jones A Dr S Willams P Professor Martin A Kayman Dr H Worthington

In attendance: Mr RP Evans, Dr S Hybart, Mr H Jones, Mr DH Lloyd, Mrs S Orton, Mr OR Thomas, Dr CB Turner and Ms M Zdybel.

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503 PRELIMINARIES NOTED that the Chair welcomed everyone to the first meeting of Senate of Session 2012-13. 504 MINUTES 504.1 Minute 497.3 – Student Discipline Procedure NOTED .1 a question regarding a point raised by a member of Senate regarding the length of the review period in the Student Discipline Procedure and whether it had been included in the revised procedure; .2 that the change approved at Senate in June 2012 related to the ability of a student to make their own representations and that the question regarding the length of the review period would be looked into. Secretary’s Note: Subsequent to the meeting the Secretary was able to confirm that, following the meeting of Senate in June, the Vice-Chancellor determined that, whilst the point raised was entirely valid, it would be appropriate to monitor the operation of the changes agreed by ASQC before introducing further change. This explained why the procedure had not been changed. The Director of Registry, Governance and Students has given a personal undertaking to monitor the operation of this aspect of the procedure to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. It will be made clear to suspended students that they have the right to make representations within the two month review period. If it appears that affected students are being in any way unfairly disadvantaged, the matter will be referred to ASQC and Senate for further consideration. 504.2 NOTED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2012 (paper 11/983) were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 505 ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR 505.1 Potential collaboration NOTED .1 that the University was in discussion with the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath on the possibility of a regional partnership to work together on research collaborations and other matters such as joint appointments of staff; .2 that the rationale behind the proposal was that it was difficult for even large civic research-intensive universities to compete on an individual basis with the top institutions in the country or internationally;

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.3 that such collaborations did not preclude similar collaborations with HEIs in Wales or the inclusion of other Welsh HEIs on particular projects; .4 that recent meetings with Welsh Government officials appeared to indicate that cross-border collaborations would be acceptable as long as there were identifiable benefits for Wales; .5 that the different funding constraints on Welsh institutions was recognised; .6 that similar collaborations were happening elsewhere in the UK and this collaborative approach appeared to be favoured by the Research Councils. RESOLVED .7 to support, in principle, further discussions on this collaborative initiative. 506 THE WAY FORWARD - PRESENTATION BY VICE-CHANCELLOR Received and considered paper 12/347 ‘The Way Forward’ – together with a presentation by Vice-Chancellor. ‘ NOTED 506.1 that the Way Forward document had been discussed and developed through a number of fora and that Schools had been asked to develop an academic statement that would form the basis of a statement by the three Colleges which would be included in the document; 506.2 that the aim of the document was to provide a roadmap that would be reasonably short and deliberately aspirational but would clearly signpost the strategic direction of the University; 506.3 that the document, and accompanying Key Performance Indicators [KPIs], would be reviewed annually to ensure that it remained fit for purpose; 506.4 that it was important to state what kind of university we are and what we want to be, clarifying both our identity and obligations and committing to principles that would define our behaviour; 506.5 that institutional autonomy and self-determination was an important principle, since evidence showed that the most successful institutions had a large degree of autonomy; 506.6 that knowledge transfer would form part of all the areas of ambition; 506.7 that work on identifying investment needs, including staffing requirements, was underway; 506.8 that the suggested KPIs were not yet fixed and that suggestions were welcomed; 506.9 the following comments by Senate members on specific points:

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 that the use of ‘ranking’ rather than absolute percentage targets for some of the KPIs was preferred since it would give an indication of performance against that of comparators

 suggestions as to how to monitor the success of “engagement” projects

 that the education KPIs did not mention growth or development and that, possibly, the focus should be on quality, but without precluding growth in numbers;

 that the NSS KPI could be remodelled to a ranking rather than a percentage;

 whether the KPIs should also include something on postgraduate satisfaction;

 a suggestion about the inclusion of environmental and sustainability targets recognising that this is an area where the University is doing well, for example with regard to carbon emissions,

 a suggestion to include a target on staff satisfaction to complement that on student satisfaction;

 student employability targets were also suggested as a possible measure/target; 506.10 that targets for widening access and participation should be embedded in other targets rather than being separated out; 506.11 that Council, at its Awayday on 5 November, would also be discussing this draft document. 507 PROPOSALS ON STRUCTURING OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Received a presentation by the Chief Operating Officer on proposals for the structuring of the Professional Services. NOTED 507.1 that it was important that the structure of the Professional Services was fit for purpose and enabled the University to achieve its ambitions; 507.2 that a key element was to improve communication between the Colleges, Schools and the Professional Services; 507.3 that the introduction of the College system also provided a catalyst for looking at the structure of the professional services and ensuring that the ‘layers’ were appropriate to this new structure; 507.4 that proposals to establish 10 Professional Services departments had been circulated and feedback elicited on the proposals; 507.5 that it was proposed that there would be regular meetings of the Heads of the Professional Services and the College Registrars in order to enhance communication and understanding;

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507.6 that this would put subsidiarity into practice and ensure that decisions and activities took place at the right level and by the right people; 507.7 that the principle of transparent budgeting and planning would be embedded in the work of the University; 507.8 that one aim would be to make processes easier for students and thus enhance the student experience; 507.9 a suggestion from a Senate member that ‘international’ should be added to the title of the proposed marketing and engagement division; 507.10 that Senate would be informed of decisions taken on the structure of the Professional Services as soon as they had been made. 508 NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS Received and considered paper 12/310, ‘National Student Survey Results’ and a presentation by Professor Patricia Price. NOTED 508.1 that the return rate of 78% had been the highest achieved by the University (and the second highest in the UK) and that all Schools had achieved at least a 70% return rate; 508.2 that the University had improved it performance in all domains and achieved an overall satisfaction rating of 89%; 508.3 that 13 Schools had achieved a satisfaction rating of 90% and over; 508.4 that trends in performance from 2010 to 2012 compared to performance by other Welsh HEIs and Russell Group comparators indicate that:

 Cardiff was now placed 1st in Wales in six of the eight indicators, an improvement from the previous survey result of 1st in only one indicator;

 Cardiff had improved its league placing for all indicators and was placed 5th overall in the Russell Group;

 That the School of Medicine had, very encouragingly, improved its position from 30th to 23rd in the current survey; 508.5 that School targets had been set to achieve top 10 in sector but the University failed to achieve this aim; 508.6 that the two areas of poor performance were organisation and management and, in particular, assessment and feedback; 508.7 that assessment and feedback performance had been an issue even for Schools achieving a 90% and overall satisfaction rating; 508.8 that action plans to address issues were being developed and would be reviewed first at College level and then within Schools; 508.9 that an NSS action plan for the Professional Services would also be developed;

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508.10 that it was important that best practice in Schools was disseminated and implemented and that the Colleges could assist in this; 508.11 an acknowledgement that it often takes time for initiatives and changes to bed in and have appositive effect on survey returns and that therefore the use of surveys of Year 1 and 2 students might enable the impact of changes to be better tracked; 508.12 that there was a wealth of guidance on the University webpages on good practice in assessment and feedback and on effective pedagogic practice; 508.13 that it was important to inform students of actions taken to address issues raised through NSS and other surveys; 508.14 that it would be useful to examine in more detail the performance of other Russell Group institutions in order to establish some benchmark information. 509 ON-LINE PHD THESIS SUBMISSION Received and considered paper 12/357, ‘On-line PhD Thesis Submission for inclusion in ORCA’. NOTED 509.1 that the Academic regulations require students who have completed their Ph.D at Cardiff to deposit an electronic copy of their thesis in Online Research @ Cardiff [ORCA] as a condition of their being awarded the Ph.D; 509.2 that the thesis is made immediately available online, unless a bar on access has been granted and the onus is on the student to apply for the bar; 509.3 that the default for the access bar is one or two years but can be extended up to five years if a case can be made; 509.4 that this ‘publication’ of a thesis potentially impacts on the possibility of the thesis being subsequently published as a book by such publishers as Oxford University Press;

509.5 that publication through ORCA had been introduced to allow the University to meet its obligations on the publication of research and to enable it to match the practice in most Russell Group universities; 509.6 that there were also concerns over the documents students were asked to sign in relation to intellectual property rights and that this might also have implications for REF. RESOLVED 509.7 that the issue should be referred to the University Graduate College Board for discussion and recommendations; 509.8 that there would be student representation at the Board meeting;

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509.9 that the Board should also consider intellectual property/copyright guidance; 509.10 that the University Librarian should advise the Board on practice in other universities. 510 ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND QUALITY COMMITTEE Received and considered papers 12/368 and 12/367, being, respectively, the Report of Matters Arising and the Minutes of the Academic Standards and Quality Assurance Committee meeting held on 10 October 2012. Arising therefrom: 510.1 Operation of the Quality System – Session 2011-2012 [ASQC Minute 694.1] Received and considered paper 12/331R, ‘ASQC Report to Senate on the Operation of Quality and Standards Processes: Session 2011-12’. NOTED .1 that the Report contained a summary on work in Session 2011- 2012 with regard to the operation and reporting of the following quality and standards processes:

 Programme Approval;  Annual Review;  Periodic Review and Revalidation;  Quality Progress Review;  External Examiners;  Accreditation activity;  Collaborative Provision. .2 that future annual reports would provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of quality processes and identify any particular issues arising from them. RESOLVED .3 to confirm that the Senate has confidence in the operation of the University’s Quality and Standards processes detailed in paper 12/331R and that the processes:

 are meeting their stated purposes;  are operating within their stated cycle of activity; and  that there are appropriate plans for their future development.

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510.2 Annual Programme Review and Enhancement (APRE) Review Cycle 2011-2012 [ASQC Minute 694.2] NOTED that ASQC had approved proposals to update the existing process of Annual Programme Review and Evaluation with a re-titled process of Annual Programme Review and Enhancement and to also take account of organisational changes introduced from September 2012. 510.3 External Examiner Reports [ASQC Minute 694.3] NOTED that ASQC had approved changes to the External Examiner Annual Report Form, for use from the 2012-2013 reporting cycle, and had approved steps to be taken to make the Annual Reports of External Examiners for Taught Programmes available to students. 510.4 University Survey Activity [ASQC Minute 695.2] NOTED that ASQC had approved a core set of module evaluation questions for full adoption in 2013-2014. Schools would be able to adjust questionnaires to take account of local factors including:

 taking account of the requirements of professional bodies;  addressing particular types of module delivery e.g. clinical placements;  using terminology appropriate for non-modular programmes. 510.5 Assessing Work from Students with Disabilities Affecting Written Expression [ASQC Minute 696] NOTED that ASQC had approved policy and guidance relating to assessing work from students with disabilities affecting written expression. 511 CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP Received and noted papers 12/349, Constitution and Membership: Senate, 31 October 2012’, 12/348, ’Changes to Senate Membership’ and 12/351, ‘Report of Outcome of Nominations for Vacancies on Committees’.

NOTED 511.1 that the following appointments to membership of Senate had been made, with effect from 01/08/12 until 31/0715:

Ms Lynne Allery PGDME Dr Anna Cartwright PHYSX Dr Catherine Chabert LEARN Dr Teena Clouston SOHCS Dr Jo Hunt CLAWS Ms Claire Morgan CARBS; 511.2 Academic Standards and Quality Committee

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Professor Simon Noble, MEDIC [Electoral Group A] has been appointed to serve on Academic Standards and Quality Committee, with immediate effect until 31 July 2015 511.3 Governance Committee Mrs Patrizia Donovan, ENGIN [Electoral Group B] has been appointed to serve on Governance Committee [vice Dr Richard Evans, LEARN], with immediate effect until 31 July 2015. 511.4 Academic Promotions Committee NOTED that a ballot to appoint to two vacancies on Academic Promotions Committee was underway. FURTHER NOTED, following the meeting, that the following had been appointed to serve on Academic Promotions Committee with immediate effect until 31 July 2015: Professor Amanda Coffey, SOCSI Professor Daniel Kelly, SONMS.

9 12/402 512 FOR INFORMATION NOTED that the following papers were received for information: 12/350 Chairs Action 11/1026 Council Minutes: 9 July 2012 513 DATES OF MEETINGS NOTED that Senate would meet on the following dates in Session 2012-13:

20 February 2013 12 June 2013