Education Zone (31st January 2018)

Sam opened the meeting and ran through the apologies.  Melanie Yu was introduced to the group as the Education Zone Clubs and Societies Representative. ACTION: Kate to add Clubs and Socs update to standing agenda items.  

The Zone had been sent Officer Reports from JH Officer, FPSE, FSHMS, FH and FM Faculty Officer ahead of the meeting.

All Officer reports attached.   

FNES

Adam has been working on a new feedback system in biology.  Also working with the faculty to create a faculty version of the VC address. 

FHS

Heath Sciences recently had a Faculty Forum, the NHS is turning 70 this year, Jess (Nursing AP) is organising an afternoon tea, they are currently looking at online assessment for students on placement – making it more specific and less generic and looking at the Blackboard site for the faculty.  The 1^st badge ceremony took place and nursing ran a meet your rep series on social media introducing the course reps for nursing.  The VC also came and spoke to the 1^st years about the restructure.    

VP Education

Round 2 of grants will be open soon. 

Action: Sam to send a list of Education affiliated societies to Melanie.

Sam informed the group that the Unions statement about the All Student Vote is due to go live tomorrow.

The Study Space survey closed just after the exam period and there is lots of data to work thought- more information to follow.

Printing – Free Printing has been given the go ahead just waiting on some contract clarifications, with regard to university printing, Sam confirmed that the costs should be going down.     

PGT Officer-

The PG committee have worked with Union staff to bring You Are More Than events to PGTs. 

Inga is implementing a buddy scheme for international masters students and looking at the language used for PG phrases. 

PGR Officer -

The PG committee have worked with Union staff to bring You Are More Than events to PGRs.

Giles is part of the group looking at PGR tracker 2 – which is currently on hold due to the restructure.  There has also been discussions on PG representation at Faculty Executive Board and looking at bursary regulations and making sure they make sense.

Sam ran through the proposal that was presented at the last meeting, but spoke to the group about putting the proposal on hold as the University has still not confirmed the structure of the faculties and it may cause confusing around how our representation structure works. The group discussed the implication of the restructure on the current role of AVP, and it is unknown what will happen to FPCs.

Action: Adrian to investigate what will happen with Social Sciences.

The new structure would hopefully ease the workload for Faculty Officers, although the Faculty Executive Board has not been confirmed, but we are hoping for 3 positions, PGT, PGR and UG.           

The Education Zone bylaw needs updating, which will be in line with the potential structural changes, this can begin when University Senate has confirmed the structure. The Student Academic Representation Policy also needs rewriting, so this can be done in line with the bylaw.  

The Zone agreed to take the proposal forward once University Senate has confirmed Schools/Departments. 

The committee voted to support the NSS. 

Flora updated the group on the work that the Union have been doing going into this years NSS. 

There has been a lot of work on making students aware of the academic reps, there was also a union staff consultation on what their views are.  The next step is speaking to students in the faculties.  The How Are We Doing? Survey has also just gone live to gather feedback.

The group then discussed the concern that people may use the NSS as a tool to vent about the VC and his pay.  The university will be holding student forums, which will allow this feedback to be given in the correct channel. 

The group also discussed the importance of the NSS in league tables and the role of academic reps in giving out information but not coercing. 

The SSS will also be going ahead this year again, but this time open to all students who are not final year students. 

A petition had been submitted to the Union from a student around the inconsistencies in retaking and the weighting of exams vs coursework.  The group discussed the issue however it was decided that Flora and Sam would look at the regulations in more detail and speak to the Exams team to clarify.

ACTION: Sam and Flora to produce a clearer document to bring to Education Zone to discuss this issue.     

The Spring Elections are now open.    

Sam updated the committee on a few You Make Changes that have come through around the library.  There have been a few positives already around changes in the library as a result of You Make Change submissions, including phone charges available for loan and labelling of plug sockets for easy reporting.  There are also plans to refrub floors 2 and 5.   

There has also been a YMC about exams in lecture theatres and students having to get up each time someone on their row leaves, which is very disruptive.  Sam hoped that this issue would be eased for next year anyway as the large cohort will be graduating, however it is something to keep an eye on.  Sam will keep the Zone updated.     

Sam asked the zone if anyone was interested in being part of the process for rewriting the bylaw.  Giles, Petra, Chloe and Adrian all indicated an interested.

ACTION: those interested in being part of rewriting the bylaw to contact Kate or Sam. 

Adrian spoke to the group about his Student Voice Improvement Plan, (circulated to group) please send any feedback to Adrian. 

Petra spoke to the group about online module choices, there will be some changes announced soon, so Petra asked the group the best ways of feeding these back to students.  TV screens, Facebook pages, all student emails and lecture slides were suggested. 

Timetabling have also set up a working group and are looking for student representation, if anyone is interested please let Matt know. 

The group voted on Winchester School of Art as the location for the next Education Zone meeting.  Date tbc.