University of Glasgow College of Arts Minute of College Council Meeting held on Wednesday 25 February 2015 at 2pm in the Senate Room Convenor: Prof Robby Ó Maolalaigh, Head of College and VP - Arts Present: Prof Lynn Abrams; Dr Sean Adams; Dr Marc Alexander; Dr Wendy Alexander; Ms Liz Broe; Prof Dauvit Broun; Dr Barbara Burns; Prof Gerry Carruthers; Prof Thomas Clancy; Dr Ben Colburn; Prof Kathryn Crameri; Dr Jan Culik; Dr Felicity Donohoe; Ms Ann Gow; Prof Laurence Grove; Dr Jeremy Huggett; Prof Karen Lury; Ms Meg MacDonald; Dr Pauline Mackay; Prof Fiona MacPherson; Dr Catherine Martin; Mrs Pauline McLachlan; Dr Penny Morris; Prof Thomas Munck; Mr Michael Murray; Dr Eanna O’Ceallachain; Dr Costas Panayotakis; Ms Adele Redhead; Dr Fraser Rowan; Prof Philip Schlesinger; Ms Gillian Shaw; Dr Jennifer Smith; Prof Jeremy Smith; Dr Don Spaeth; Dr Helen Stoddart; Ms Val Stringfellow; Prof Michael Syrotinski; Ms Katrin Uhlig Apologies: Mrs Susan Macallan; Miss Laura McGarry; Mrs Jane Neil The Convenor opened the meeting of College Council by asking colleagues to observe a minute’s silence in recognition of the death, on 14 February 2015, of Prof (Emeritus) Cathair ('Cathal') Ó Dochartaigh. Prof Ó Dochartaigh was Prof of Celtic here at Glasgow from 1996- 2004 and laid the foundations for today’s subject area of Celtic and Gaelic. COAC/2014/22 Welcome The Convenor welcomed Dr Penny Morris who was attending her first meeting of College Council as the newly appointed College International Lead. Dr Felicity Donohoe was also welcomed to her first meeting of College Council following her recent appointment as University Teacher in History. COAC/2014/23 Minutes of the Meeting of the College of Arts held on Wednesday 5 November 2014 and Matters Arising The minutes were accepted as an accurate record, with one amendment to COAC/2014/13.02, final paragraph, so that it would read: “Prof Jeremy Smith noted that Knowledge Exchange should be embraced by colleagues.” COAC/2014/24 Convenor’s Business COAC/2014/24.01 Acknowledgements The Convenor paid tribute to Prof Murray Pittock for his strong leadership and dedication during his time as Head of College. College Council wished him well in his new role as Pro- Vice Principal for Special Projects. The Convenor reported that Dr Catherine Martin, College Secretary, would be leaving the University at the end of April to take up a post at the University of Edinburgh. Catherine was thanked for her professionalism and outstanding contribution to the College and the University during her time here. College Council wished her well in her new position. 1 It was reported that the College’s RCMO, Carin Fyfe had also tendered her resignation and would be leaving in 3 months’ time. Carin was thanked for her contribution to the work of the College during her time at Glasgow. COAC/2014/24.02 REF Reviews Following the announcement of the REF outcomes, SMG would be reviewing all 32 UoAs on campus. It was proposed that individual reviews would be carried out in 2 stages, and these were intended to be positive and reflective as we prepare for the next REF. Panels would include three external members, including two REF panellists, and would be chaired by the VP for Research or the VP for Innovation and Knowledge Exchange; these panels were currently in the process of being set up. Reviews were to be completed by July 2015. Four UoAs in the College would be reviewed in the first tranche; Archaeology, Philosophy, TRS and Music. Heads of School and UoA Champions were thanked for their help with this exercise. Prof Fiona Macpherson had been disappointed by the process, suggesting that the permitted 2xA4 pages on the RSIO review form circulated to UoAs had not been sufficient to answer the questions fully. The Convenor noted Prof Macpherson’s concern and responded that only the main headline points had been required at this stage. COAC/2014/24.03 College Council Meetings Given that attendance at College Council meetings tended to be invariably low, the Convenor asked if colleagues would prefer to continue with four College Council meetings per year, as is the current practice, or to reduce the number of meetings and meet only twice per year as required in accordance with the ‘Roles and Responsibilities of the College’ document issued at the time of restructuring in 2010. Following discussion it was agreed that four meetings per year would be preferred, two of which would keep the current format, with the other two meetings adopting a focus on themed discussion. The Convenor suggested that, in future, items for discussion should appear up-front on the agenda and submitted papers should include an executive summary. COAC/2014/25 Research Prof Karen Lury reported that deadline for round 2 of research leave applications is 22 May 2015. In terms of planning research projects and research leave applications, colleagues should note that applications made for the May 2015 deadline should be for session 2016-17. Guidance and forms could be found at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/arts/research/informationforstaff/researchleave/ The College had submitted 5 Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith applications to a meeting convened by the VP Research. Under the new process all 5 were advertised to recruit the best candidates. Following this process 4 applications went forward to the final selection. Of these two applications, based on project and quality/fit of the student, candidates were selected (one from CCA and one from Humanities). Across the University a total of 10 awards were made (resulting in 2 per College and 2 reserves). The College received 10 applications for Leverhulme Research Centres and 3 had been selected to go forward to the University selection procedure. The College was not successful at this second round stage; however, there was some Arts presence in the top-ranked bid being led by Professor Lee Cronin (Chemistry). 2 Dr Marc Alexander had agreed to act as the College’s interim Ethics Officer while Dr Iain Banks was on Research Leave. Dr Alexander was thanked for his collegiate assistance, and Ashley Theunissen was also thanked for her help with progressing applications. Prof Lury gave an update on the Transforming Research Management project activities. New processes were being introduced and there would be new resources to support research management at College level. College was in the process of recruiting a Research Manager and two Project Co-ordinator posts within Phase I of the project to commence on 1 July. Phase II would commence 3-6 months later. Individual meetings had taken place with staff whose roles were likely to be affected by the implementation of the project. Professor Lury reminded colleagues that REF required articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN that are accepted for publication from 1 April 2016 to be Open Access. It was disappointing that the College had the lowest rate across campus for completing the process. The Library could be contacted for assistance with this. Dr Fraser Rowan was currently working hard on monthly KE themes, blogs and engagement with industry partners; a number of KE activities were ongoing across College. COAC/2014/26 Graduate School Dr Barbara Burns gave an overview of scholarship opportunities and provided a paper which gave information and details of relevant web links. Dr Burns thanked all colleagues involved in the AHRC/College scholarship process, and also those who took time to provide statements of support. The annual Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) would be launched on 9 March and run until 18 June 2015. All students enrolled on a full time PGT programme, as well as final-year part-time students, would be encouraged to participate. The 2015 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) would be launched on 10 March and run until 14 May 2015. This survey runs every two years and results feed into a wide variety of initiatives and policies which impact on the day-to-day experience of research students. Dr Burns would be circulating reminders via Schools, and colleagues were asked to encourage all PhD students to take part. Dr Burns reported that the PG Careers Focus was currently running. This was a series of training events concentrating on career planning, employability, CV preparation and interview practice for both academic and non-academic jobs. Details and registration instructions could be found at: http://moodle2.gla.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4367 (enrolment key: artstraining). Colleagues were asked to encourage students to take advantage of this initiative. COAC/2014/27 Learning & Teaching Dr Don Spaeth, Dean of Learning & Teaching, referred to his circulated report and drew particular attention to various initiatives: In 2014 two members of the College of Arts received a Teaching Excellence Award: Adele Redhead in the Individual Excellence category, and Katrin Uhlig in the Early Career category. Dr Spaeth congratulated and paid tribute to each of the recipients, and the Head of College presented each with a certificate in recognition of their significant contribution to the student experience and to learning and teaching. 3 Nominations for College Teaching Excellence Awards in the current session were now invited. All staff employed on University of Glasgow contracts who teach or support student learning were eligible to be nominated. The awards acknowledged the wide range of teaching that takes place in the University and the different ways in which excellence may be recognised. The VP for Learning & Teaching, Prof Frank Coton, had issued a call for proposals for new MOOCs. These can provide a means of reaching a much larger audience than our normal courses, whether to encourage people to apply to study at Glasgow, to enhance the University’s reputation, eg by highlighting areas of research excellence, or by helping applicants to prepare for study.