STAFF STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

Meeting on Monday 5^th March 2007 at 2pm in Room 1.03 Malet Place Engineering Building

Staff Present

Graham Roberts (Departmental Tutor, Departmental Equal Opportunities Liaison Officer, Chair), Robin Hirsch (Conversion Programmes Co-ordinator), Chris Neil (Undergraduate Administrator), Jill Saunders (Departmental Manager), Steve Hailes (Director of Studies, Deputy Head of Department), Denis Timm (Head of Technical Support Group), Peter Rounce (Director of Services), JJ Giwa (Departmental Administrator, Facilities Management and Operations).

Student Representatives Present

Natasha Rooney (MSc Computer Science Rep), Alex Gillis (1st Year UG Rep) , Jeremy Proctor (1st Year UG Rep), Ali Adeli (3rd Year UG Rep), Ian Stanton (3rd Year UG Rep), Stefanie Foerch (2nd Year UG Rep), Lukasz Muziol (2nd Year UG Rep).

1.         Apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Orlando Doehring (MSc IS Rep), Zara Ahmed (Maths and Computer Science Rep), and Nicola Jarvis (Departmental Administrator, Academic Policy and Operations). 

2.         Notification of any other business.

Lockers

Drinking Water Facilities
Lack of Coffee Machines

These items were addressed during the course of the meeting.

3.         Approval of minutes of the last meeting (29th November 2006)

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved. 

3.1.     Minutes should be signed by chair and at least one student representative.

The Chair, (Graham Roberts), signed the minutes of the last meeting and asked representatives who have read them to sign them as well. 

4.         Matters arising from last minutes

4.1.     Feedback from 2nd year students on content of MATH6301/B45. (Robin Hirsch)

Feedback received was positive overall for the MATH6301/B45 course.  Computer Science Department taking over the course from the Mathematics Department also had good feedback from the Student Reps. 

Less positive feedback for MATH6302/B46.  Here it was felt that, despite a good syllabus, the mathematics was only put into a Computer Science context sufficiently in the problem classes. 

Feedback forms were not previously available for the course as this is down to Mathematics Department, but CS feedback forms will be made available this year. 

Action: Jill Saunders to make Feedback forms available

4.2.     Prices in 5th Floor Cafe and student union providing the service instead. (JJ Giwa)

The Student Union would not like to take over the task of managing the 5^th Floor, (Roberts Building), Café. 

Current providers are willing to re-consider prices if they are given a list of items that students consider expensive. 

ACTION: Student Representatives to email JJ with list of expensive items. 

4.3.     Asking college safety officer about lockers in the lift lobby areas. (JJ Giwa)

JJ confirmed that putting lockers in the lift lobby areas would not meet Fire Safety Regulations. 

It was reported that lockers have appeared on the first floor, (MPEB), but that these do not belong to the Computer Science Department and are not for CS Student use. 

It was suggested that the lockers may be able to be situated in the Student Common Room. 

ACTION: JJ to find out if lockers in the Common Room are a possibility

4.4.     MScCS term 2 timetable clashes. (Natasha Rooney)

The Students raised concerns about being unable to attend all of their classes due to timetable clashes.  The group agreed that timetable clashes were a concern and students should report them to JJ.

ACTION – Any details of clashes should be forwarded to person doing timetable for next year, (JJ Giwa). 

4.5.     Teaching C before the 3rd year. (Graham Roberts)

There is some support for introducing the C programming language before the third year as part of the computer architecture strand but it would require some changes to existing modules. The teaching cttee will monitor the idea.

4.6.     2006 exam papers available in the library (Graham Roberts)

It was noted that there was a delay with the 2006 exam papers being available to students but that they are all now accessible via the library web pages. 

4.7.     Extending March exam period (Graham Roberts)

The Student Representatives expressed their concern over the timing of the March exams. 

The Chair informed the group that extending the March exam period to allow more revision time between exams would not be a possibility unless more funds are made available to hire exam halls. 

The Chair also reminded the Group that the Department has no control over the main exam period in May as these are timetabled centrally by the Exams Department in the Registrar’s Division.  

4.8.     Maths for students without standard entry requirement (Graham Roberts, Robin Hirsch)

The Chair observed that this issue has consequences with regard to recruitment and has been discussed in a recruitment context previously.  The 1^st Year UG Representative fed back that students find the maths involved with the first year to be quite difficult and suggested extra lessons for students who need them. 

The Director of studies noted that it is not possible to teach the A-Level syllabus, but help should be provided for specific problems.  It is also expected that students work on gaps in their knowledge in their spare time. 

The Student Representatives were made aware that not all students have an A-Level mathematics qualification, (e.g. students who studied Access qualifications) and that the mathematical ability of first year students is varied.  The Chair noted that there is no easy way to address this problem at present but the situation will be revisited at a later date. 

4.9.     Space on feedback forms (Nicola Jarvis)

The Chair observed that there is a character limit on the online course feedback forms and this has led to some students having difficulty with the feedback process. The problem appears to be caused by database constraints on certain fields of the feedback form. 

It was noted that the Department is already looking into the problem and in the meantime students can email their feedback to the Chair who will collate any information. 

4.10.  Lab timetables (Nicola Jarvis)

The representatives were informed that the change over of lab timetables in now in progress and should soon be completed. 

5.     National Student Survey (Chris Neil)

There was insufficient information submitted by Computer Science students last year.  This year an appeal has gone out and the Student Representatives were asked to remind and encourage other students to participate. 

6.     Combination lock on room 6.23 (Lukasz Muziol)

The Committee was informed that an order had been placed for a new combination lock for the Silent Study area.  JJ informed the group that confirmation of the order had also been received. 

The Head of Technical Support Group indicated that students could get access to room 6.23 on an individual basis by contacting him in the meantime.

7.     Fourth Floor wireless unreliable (Lukasz Muziol)

The Representatives noted that the signal strength for the wireless routers on the fourth floor is weak.  The Head of Technical Support Group responded that access points are due to be replaced later in the week and this should help the problem. The Reps also asked for further LAN cables in the first floor labs and were advised to contact the Helpdesk to get these. 

8.     COMP2009 Software Engineering syllabus (Lukasz Muziol)

The representatives gave feedback that the Software Engineering part of the COMP2009 syllabus only mentioned one approach to Software engineering.  They also mentioned that the module had received some negative feedback last year. 

ACTION –Issue to be discussed and Teaching Committee Meeting (Graham Roberts). 

9.     Any Other Business.

The possibility of obtaining Lockers for student use was discussed.  It was noted that although other departments have installed lockers in corridors, that this is not believed to be permanent or to meet Fire Safety approval.  The Departmental Manager asked the representatives if the Student Common Room would be a suitable location to put a set of Lockers and they agreed that this would be a suitable place. 

ACTION – Lockers to be installed in Student Common Room, (JJ Giwa)

The lack of drinking water in the Department was discussed.  JJ Giwa informed the Committee that she had previously corresponded with the Estates and Facilities Division and estimated the cost of providing two solutions to the problem; installing water pipes in the common room and providing a refillable water cooler machine. 

The estimate for the Water Cooler machine was £270.00 +VAT per year, plus water bottles at £10.00each.  The estimate for the installation of water pipes in the common room was £2,079.75, (£1,500.00 parts and labour plus VAT).  Other possibilities were also discussed such as a coffee machine, but it was pointed out that Coffee Machines need to be plumbed into mains supply.  The Student Representatives all agreed that lack of drinking water is a major issue and should be given priority despite cost.  It was decided that the possibility of installing a Water Cooler be explored further and noted that students could use the drinking fountains in the Roberts building in the meantime. 

ACTION – JJ Giwa to explore installation of Water Cooler in Common Room. 

10.  The next meeting is due in November 2008. In June 2008 there will be end of year wrap-up sessions for each undergraduate year, providing a forum similar to that of the SSCC.