Education Zone (13th May 2019)

Sam ran through the apologies, and welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Sam to feedback on meeting with Security about access to rooms. –

Sam attended the meeting with Security however it turns out that security are limited to how they can help.  The proposal instead is to condense our clubs and societies use into fewer buildings, which should ease the access problem.  Alongside this Evie is also looking the spaces that our clubs and societies actually need.

Sam to set up a google drive for the papers and documents for ease. –

This was sent around to everyone.

Sam to produce a recommendation on Democratic event scheduling.-

The recommendation was sent to Democracy Zone. 

Sam informed the zone that for the last senate there was a FB event and social media promotion.  The group then discussed the impetus for students to attend senate.  What is the impact for students? Are meetings too long? What is the motivation for a student to attend?  The group also discussed the current lack of PGR representation at Senate.  Sam agreed that Senate needs to be looked at and highlighted the union’s lack of decision-making processes.  Another point was raised about the suitability of the locations of these events as well as a lack of presence from the student media teams who could be covering these events and questioning sabbatical officers more.  

Parth to speak to Swathy in more detail about this issue.

Swathy to take issue to the JH group.

Parth updated the zone, Swathy is taking the issue to the next JH working group meeting and will report back once this has happened.

Those that were received were added to the google drive and circulated. 

1. FAH Faculty Officer

2. FELS Facutly Officer 

3. JH Officer 

The PGR reps in attendance updated the zone:

The Doctoral college have been making a real effort to tackle mental health this year for PGRs. 

PGR Tracker – is changing and there are ongoing project meetings about this.

The problems with demonstrators was raised again this year, whether they are paid or unpaid, this is being looked at again.

Space is also the other issue being looked at for PGRs, social spaces rather than working space.

The return to work policy is being reviewed for PGRs to offer more support to those who are returning to work either from parental leave or suspension.

Most of these are ongoing projects which they will continue to work on next year.

The clubs and societies inductions are taking place this week, this is for the new committees to attend after their AGMs and make sure they have all the information they need for the year ahead. 

The Academic Integrity stance is a first from the Zone, something more formal was needed on this issue.  This will enable SUSU and the university AI network to tackle the issues for next year. 

The changes to the by-law reflect a truer picture of what our course reps are doing; they are representing students beyond that of the purely academic role.   The new faculty level PGT reps will also be elected in Autumn, this will mirror the structure with the PGR reps. The group then discussed what the zones may look like next year.  There are still ongoing discussions over the structure and nature of the zones.    

No real updates here so due to time constraints the zone moved on.  

The issue for PGRs is not study space but social space, this is something that can be passed over to next years VP Education and Democracy to take forward alongside pushing for more study space for UG students. 

Sam thanked everyone for their support this year and congratulated those who have been elected for next year, and wished those in the summer elections good luck!