Education Zone (18th October 2017)

Sam opened the meeting and ran through the apologies.  The committee introduced themselves and their roles. 

There has been good recruitment of the open places and the remaining places are being promoted at Course Rep training and will be elected in the next Education Zone meeting.  The Senate representation from the Education Zone will be elected at the next meeting.   

3.1 FNEE Faculty Officer: Adam has been as active as possible, the elections went really well, the main area of focus is on improving feedback from students to staff.  Attending the Faculty Programme committee and hoping to put several plans in place this year.

3.2 FHS Faculty Officer: Rebecca is focusing on the NSS this year, alongside the AD and Head of Nursing, they have attended lectures to gain more information and gather feedback.  Aiming for more PAT sessions and skills sessions.  Rebecca is also tackling the negativity to Heath Sciences and trying to boast pride and positivity in the faculty.  A Christmas event is being organised and they are launching a hashtag.

3.3 VP Student Communities: Arun introduced his role to the committee and ran through some of his plans for the year.  He will be looking at nursing as well following on from Rebecca’s report.  He is also working on diversity in course content.  He will be talking to ADs and he encouraged the committee to approach this issue from SSLCs as well as from the higher faculty level.  ACTION: Arun to circulate more details around this project. 

3.4 PGR Officer: Giles updated the group on the current PG issues, including fixed desks for humanities researches and issues around graduation ceremonies.  He is also involved with a survey on tracking doctoral students and building another system based on that feedback.  The Freshers Programme for Postgrads this year went well with a couple of very successful BBQs.  Giles asked for Postgrads to be added as a standing item on the agenda. 

3.5 FSHMS Faculty Officer: Adrian has been waiting for the majority of his team to be elected.  He will be arranging a meeting with the AD and all the reps.  As a result of the NSS the Faulty are looking at bookable office hours and Adrian is taking forward an idea of an office hours tab on staff pages.

3.6 Joint Honours Officer- Matt is meeting with the Graduation team about giving JH students the option of picking their ceremony, he is emailing the FARs to make sure that JH reps are invited to SSLCs and has had some positive conversations with the Academic Presidents about creating more JH roles.  Matt also has created a new JH facebook group for reps. 

3.7 FH Faculty Officer- Petra has already attended a FPC, there has been a majority move to Turnitin across the faculty and she is working on improving year aboard.  The launch date for the Humanities Peer mentor scheme has been set for the end of October. 

3.8 VP Education – Sam updated the group on the term so far.  First round of grant funding went well.  He is working on the free printing service, although this has taken on two strands now, the free printing is currently on going and waiting on the university’s legal team.  The other strand is the university’s printing contract, which is going out to tender, of which Sam is involved in the process.  There has also been a Freedom of Information Act request about the cost of printing at the university.  Training is under way for course reps, and Sam ran through the co-option policy.  The website has now also been updated, so when you log on it shows who your Course Reps, AP and FO is.  Sam thanked the webteam for working on this over the summer.                

Sam discussed the idea of holding rep surgeries following on from responses from the NSS, also taking the Education Zone on the road to all the sites.  The committee decided that the next meeting would be held at Boldrewood campus.

ACTION : Kate to find a suitable meeting space. 

The group discussed rep drop in which have had a mixed attendance in the past.  However, it is a potential idea to take forward and will encourage reps to become more visible. 

Rebecca mentioned the student forums in HS and how they have worked really well. 

The rep drop ins would require good advertising, halls were suggested as a place to start.

ACTION: Sam to look into organising rep drop ins at Halls.

Sam updated the group on the Laptop usage in the Bridge and the current Union study spaces.  Following on from visits to other unions over the summer Sam explained to the group that the space we currently have is not a suitable space to be offering.  The group discussed the need for informal study space, such as sofas and coffee tables, as the university should be providing more formal study space.  The group agreed that getting feedback from students about what they want is the first step.  The group suggested the issue being raised at SSLCs, and asked course reps to speak to their fellow students. 

A consultation event was decided as another method to promote a short survey.  Handing out hot drinks on the redbrick in exchange for filling in the survey. 

ACTION: Sam to draft a survey and arrange a date for the consultation.     

Agenda item rolled over to the next meeting

7.1 You Make Change - there is a current YMC around the university scrapping bursaries/scholarships, however Sam is waiting on more information and will bring that to the next meeting. 

7.2 Action Plans - Winter Graduation has been completed. Printing: ongoing and mentioned in VP Educations Officer update. Study spaces: discussed during item 5 of the agenda

Sam asked the committee to make sure they increase the positive comms around academic reps, so if anyone makes positive change please let the representation team know. 

It was suggested that FOs could attend other FPCs to get ideas and encourage more joined up representation.  For example, Health Sciences and Medicine.

ACTION: FOs to share details of their FPCs.    

Sam spoke about AQSC which is a group that meets to discuss the quality of degrees, the VP education normally sits on this board, however Sam is requesting that we have an extra seat which could be attended by a nominee from the Education Zone. 

ACTION: Sam to update group once the request has been approved.