Department of Computer Science
Staff-Student Consultative Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on
27th February 2002.
Student Representative Present: Jay Badiyani (Msci CS/EE1), Zijing Jia (CS/EE2),David Tamman (MSc IT), Michael Kashi (MSci CS4), Adam Pitera (MSc IS), Clare Gryce (MSc CS), Paul Whitehouse (MSc CS) ,Susannah Moat (MSci CS2), Greg Paperin (Msci CS2), Chris Davis(Msci CS3), Mark Delacour (CS3), Chris Walker (Chair and Union Council)
Staff Representatives Present: Julie Burke (Undergraduate Administrator), Jill Saunders (Departmental Administrator),Stephen Hailes (Programme Director, MSc DCNDS), John Washbrook (Director of Studies), Steve Wilbur (Head of Department), JJ Giwa (Departmental Officer), Barry Stein (Technical Support Group), Bernard Buxton (Programme Director, Mres CVIPGS), Robin Hirsch (Departmental Undergraduate Tutor)
1.Robin
Hirsch proposed to the committee that Chris Walker (Union Council) chair
the meeting.
The committee
agreed.
2.Apologies
for Absence.
Graham Roberts, Tim Rudge, Lisa Pretorious, Angel Sastre,
3.Notice
of Any Other Business
Lab Access
4.Approval
of minutes of the meeting of November 15th 2001.
Chris Davis and Jag Krishan (DCNDS) were actually present at the November 15th meeting. Apart from that, the minutes were APPROVED.
5.Notice
of minutes of meeting between a delegation of student representative and
Robin Hirsch 29/11/02.
6.Matters
arising
7.Web-based
course evaluation forms.Does anyone
have any comments to make on the way this process went?
Comments
from Students
Susannah Moat said that the web based questionnaires were convenient but do students fill them in?Claire Gryce said she couldn?t access the form after Christmas and the deadline was too early.She asked if students could access the forms from home and some students said they had.John Washbrook commented that the forms need to be filled in when the course is finished and that the results should be on the web.
The date for final submission should be moved after the last day of term. For the current term the deadline is 27th April 2002.
John Washbrook, is anyone concerned about security?Not really, processing costs £1 per sheet and faculty are interested in seeing how it goes for the rest of the college.
8.The
Joint Staff Student Committee.College
has asked us to make sure that the Departmental SSCC is aware of the existence
and Terms of Reference of the JSCC.The
JSCC Terms of Reference are on our web page at:
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/ug/sscc/Joint_Staff_Student.htm
(Jill Saunders)
Undergraduate
Issues
9.Possibility
of having more than two SSCC meetings a year (Susannah Moat)
Susannah- Could we have more meeting so that issues can be followed up quicker?
John Washbrook suggested that the students make proposals when the meeting be held.
Robin Hirsch?s opinion was that it was not a good idea as we may end up having ?meeting for the sake of meetings?.Steve Wilbur added that Student Reps need to be chosen earlier in the year.
10.Worries
about half of 2B13 - still no access to handouts and lack of practice questions.
(Susannah Moat)
Already
been resolved
11.Second
Year Tutorials
Greg Paperin made us aware
that students are not getting much help in tutorials.Many
tutorial groups are not proper tutorials and are time wasting.Chris
Walker asked whether it was a problem with the tutors or the students.
Greg said that tutor don?t seem to have the time to help students.
Robin pointed out the purpose of Tutorial Groups.
1st Year - Pastoral Tutor Groups.
2nd Year -Transferable skills.
Greg Paperin stated that students still want subject orientated help.Robin said the will consider but nothing is definite -will be discussed another time.
Chris Walker commented that students and tutors need to have a basic outline is what a tutorial is as all tutors seem to see it differently.
12.B46.Any
possibility of the provision of notes of the provision of notes or a clear
syllabus? (Susannah Moat)
Some students consider B46
to be like an ?A? Level Revision course. They are getting frustrated and
are finding that lecturers are not giving them the notes. It?s not very
helpful.Bernard Buxton said that
it was surposed to have been improved and be harder.ACTION:
Robin Hirsch to liaise with Sean Holden (MACS Tutor) to ask for syllabus
or books for students to read and not attend lectures.
Bernard Buxton added that 4th Year courses need the knowledge taught on B46.
13.Room
assignments should be made with consideration of the number of students
(Mark Delacour)
Database classes still don?t fit in the room.Why wasn?t it noticed earlier?Jill Saunders apologised, she never realized the numbers were so high.Room bookings are made during the summer therefore by Christmas it was too late.Before Christmas we were trying to run two courses.
Also, there are broken chairs in G22 - Robin Hirsch informed students that they need to email building-faults@cs.ucl.ac.uk to report any problems.
Mark Delacour suggested that we could have collaborated with Imperial College.John Washbrook said it not that easy and its been tried before.Steve Wilbur said that he tried very hard to find somewhere for students to go and was sorry that it never worked out.
14.Not
getting lecture notes until weeks into the course. (Mark Delacour)
Students would really like lecture notes during the lecture and not weeks after as happens in some cases.Robin Hirsch said he would pass the message on.
15.Print
Quotas - Don?t seem to have had correct allocation given.Running
out of printer quotas fast.The
majority of the students are not willing to pay around £15 extra
for extra quota (Michael Kashi).
Barry informed us that students are given 100 each for the first term.On the first day back after Christmas it changed to 200.Usage still current. If there are problems like this in the future students need to e-mail request.The Services Committee set the quota, if there is strong feeling it will need to be directed towards theServices Committee.Students are encouraged to use the line computer and only use the laser printer for final copies.
16.More
student meeting places, availability of rooms. (Chris Davis).
Chris Davis asked how can students book the library?JJ. Giwa told us that you need to e-mail room-bookings@cs.ucl.ac.uk and get a lecturers consent as someone needs to be responsible for the room.
Robin Hirsch suggested that perhaps Group Project Supervisors could make the booking.If they are not available JJ Giwa said students can arrange it through the Departmental Office.
17.Can
we be taught C++?
Robin directed us to the FAQ web-site on SSCC.Mark Delacour said that Employers don?t hold it highly if you teach yourself.Susannah asked if the first year programming course could replace some of the Java with C++. Robin said that there are no volunteers to teach it but its an interesting idea.Bernard agreed that Employers want to see it on paper.
18.Coffee
machine - great, but any chance of milk (small UHT pots) (Chris Davies)
JJ Giwa told us that UHT milk cost 1/3 more than powdered milk.
MSc Issues
19.Why
do we pay for some notes and not others? (Lisa Pretorius)
Robin informed us that it is our policy to charge for notes. JJ Giwa tells us that it all depends on the amount of notes, if it cost over £5 to copy the students charged and the department does not make a profit.
Any Other Business
Lab Access
For the labs to stay open late there needs to be a designated person.
Would the students object if labs were open from 7-9pm instead of 7-10pm.Jill Saunders handed out some figures confirming that few people stay after 9pm.
The labs cannot be left unattended and the designated person needs to be a first-aider.
Robin asked if Security have
the power to watch the labs and JJ informed us that the labs are out of
their area.
JJ and Jill Saunders will
look into a way of solving it. (ACTION)
20.Date
of next meeting
To be arranged.