STAFF STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

Meeting on Monday 23^rd February 2009 at 1pm in Room1.20 Malet Place Engineering Building

Staff Present

Graham Roberts (Departmental Tutor, Departmental Equal Opportunities Liaison Officer, Director of Studies, Chair), <st1:personname w:st="on">Chris Neil</st1:personname> (Undergraduate Administrator), JJ Giwa (Departmental Administrator, Facilities Management and Operations), Patricia Fenoy (Departmental Office Administrator), Robin Hirsch (MSc CS Programme Co-ordinator)

Student Representatives Present

Ala Al-Shaibani (MSc CS Rep), Antonio Garcia (MSc VIVE Rep), Andrew Sweet (MSc VIVE Rep), Aigul Abaganova (3rd Year UG Rep), Rami Al-Maarri (3rd Year UG Rep), Sanjay Bhatt (MSc DCNDS Rep), Raunuk Gupta (2nd Year UG Rep), Min Park (2nd Year UG Rep), <st1:personname w:st="on">Shanon D'Souza</st1:personname> (2nd Year UG Rep). 

1.            Apologies for absence.

Nicola Jarvis (Departmental Administrator, Academic Policy and Operations), Ihe Onwuka (4th Year UG Rep), Shah Mahmood (Graduate Research Student Rep), David Nee (MSc CSML Rep)   

2.            Notification of any other business.

None was reported at the time. 

3.            Approval of minutes of the last meeting (28th Feb 2006)

The Chair, (Graham Roberts), signed the minutes of the last meeting and asked representatives who have read them to sign them as well.  No comments or feedback was given. 

4   Matters arising from last minutes:

4.1 Budget for enhancing the student common room (all reps)

The Reps have been discussing various options for enhancing the Common Room via email and via a Moodle area that they have had set up for this purpose.   JJ clarified that the amount that had been allocated was a one-off sum and this was not an annual budget.  The Reps informed the committee that no decision had been made yet by students as to what they would like to spend the money on and that feedback from students was slow to come in. 

The Reps also commented that they had been informed that some of their suggestions would not be permitted on health and safety grounds, such as a microwave and a kettle.  Graham noted that there is not much that can be done about health and safety rules. 

ACTION – Reps to feedback when it has been decided how they want to allocate the funds. 

4.2 Availability of past exam papers (Nicola Jarvis)

Graham noted that the past exam papers should now be available via the UCL Library website and that if any students find any to be missing they should notify Nicola Jarvis. 

4.3 COMP3005 coursework (Graham Roberts)

Graham approached the lecturer of COMP3005 [Mark Handley] regarding the late submission of coursework.  The lecturer said that it had now been marked and was ready to collect from his office.  The Reps asked if there was a departmental policy on when lecturers should return coursework and Graham told them that this is already in place.  The Reps noted that feedback from the coursework is useful for revision purposes as were model answers for coursework.  They suggested that lecturers could also give feedback for coursework during lectures

JJ offered to help track down lecturers who have not returned coursework by the deadline if students are having trouble getting in contact.  Graham also asked the Reps to remember to collect their coursework from their tutors as many students are forgetting to do this.

The Reps asked if there could be a central place to collect coursework to avoid having to find the correct lecturer.  Graham responded that coursework marks are seen to be confidential and due to data protection requirements it was not possible to have a central store where students collect their own work.  The Reps suggested the Departmental Office as an alternative location, but JJ informed them that this had been tried in the past and had was not successful as the majority of students did not collect their work; leading to p<st1:personname w:st="on">rob</st1:personname>lems storing, and later on shredding, the work that was not collected.  Graham noted that the increasing use of Moodle would help reduce the need for students to collect paper copies of coursework at all. 

The Reps commented that the COMP6005 projects were not returned initially and when students enquired later on in the year they were told that they had been shredded as they were not collected by the deadline. 

ACTION – Graham to raise these issues at the next Teaching Committee Meeting. 

4.4 Keyboard cleaning in labs (Graham Roberts)

Graham noted that since the last SSCC meeting some of the p<st1:personname w:st="on">rob</st1:personname>lem keyboards in the labs had been replaced.  He reminded the Reps that the best thing to do if dirty/faulty equipment is found is to send an email to request@cs.ucl.ac.uk to let them know straight away.

5. Chairs of Boards of Examiners Reports for 2007/8 (Graham Roberts)

Graham informed the Reps that these reports are now available for review on the web and that there is a link directing students to them from the SSCC web pages. He noted that the feedback from the External examiners on exam board procedures, the quality of the exam papers and the marks achieved by students were positive. Graham suggested that students look at the comments made for their degree programmes. 

6. Any Other Business.

6.1 Presentations

The Reps commented that introducing presentations in the first and second years of the undergraduate programmes would better prepare students who are short of these skills when they are needed in the third year.  They also mentioned that students in other departments are asked to do presentations of their work regularly each term and that Computer Science students should be asked to do this as well as they are often weak in this area.  Graham noted the comments and responded that the transferable skills workshops run by Licia Capra in the second year might be extended to include presentations.

The next meeting is due in November 2009. In June 2009 there will be end of year wrap-up sessions for each undergraduate year, providing a forum similar to that of the SSCC.