SCHOOL OF SCIENCE SCHOOL BOARD

Minutes of the First Meeting of the School of Science School Board 2012/2013 session held on Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Blake B028 Commencing 14:00

19/09 WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting.

PRESENT

Prof. Martin Snowden (MS) (Chair)

Dr. Lucie Pollard (LP) (Director of Resource)

Dr Samer El-Daher (SED) (Head LASS)

Prof. Jeremy Everett (JE)(Head PCE)

Dr Richard Anthony (RA)

Dr. Dave Wray (DW)(Director R&E)

Dr Mike McGibbon (MM) (Deputy DLQ)

Mr. StevenWilliams (SW)(Technical Rep)

Dr. Elinor Thompson (ET)(Early Career Academic)

Miss Nicola Hunn (NH)(School Admin Rep)

Mr. Brian Banks (BB)SQAO (Notes)

APOLOGIES RECEIVED FOR ABSENCEMike Sharp (MS)(IndependentSchool of Engineering)

Prof. Steve Wicks (SW)Director of Research

Dr. Richard Blackburn(RB) (DL&Q)

Prof. Steve Leharne (SL)(Professorial Rep)

Mrs Veronica Habgood (VH) (IndependentSchool of Health and Social Care)

Prof. Pat Harvey (PH)(Professorial Rep)

Ms Nazanin Zand Fard(Early Career Academic) (NAZ)

Mr. Fakhar Khalid (FK)(Programme Leader)

Mr. Andrew Larkin(AL)(ILS)

Steve Mann (SM) (PhD Student Rep)

Ms. Lynne Spencer(OSA)

19/091.0

TO AGREE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF 23rd May 2012The Minutes of the Third meeting of 2011/12 were agreed.

19/09 2.0 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

MSSB Minutes 2012 009 Secretary B Banks Tel: 020 8331 8787

There were no matters arising

19/09 3.0 RESOURCES Dr Pollard

The Director of Resources explained that a final version of the School budget had yet to be allocated but that a required saving of £300,000 would be met from the staff payment budget as a result of staff leaving and replacements starting at various times throughout the financial year.

3.1 The Board decided that an all staff e-mail should be prepared outlining the current budgetary position. Action: Dean of Science and Director of Resource

The Board congratulated the Director of Resource as the School returned a balanced budget for the financial year ending 31st July 2012.

19/09 4.0 HEALTH AND SAFETY (H&S) (Report and Meeting minutes supplied) Dr Anthony

Dr Anthony summarised his report that outlined the plan of action initiated in response to the recent Safety Unit Audit.

The Board ratified the minutes of the Health and Safety Committee dated 20/06/2012

19/09 5.0 LEARNING AND QUALITY (L&Q) (Meeting minutes supplied) Dr McGibbon

Dr McGibbon summarised the main issues being addressed by the School Learning and Quality Committee.

The Board noted that the progression and achievement statistics demonstrated that the School is moving towards the University KPIs for the forthcoming session. However there was some concern about the accuracy and completeness of the data. The Dean will contact Christine Cooper to establish the source of the data that will be used to judge the School’s performance and to request that data be supplied in advance of any discussion.

Action Dean of Science to contact Christine CooperIt was also noted that 169 new undergraduate students attended Induction on Monday 17 September. A small number of these are direct entries to Levels 5 and 6. At the time of writing, the number of new Master’s students who will be joining the School is not certain, though it is lower than previous years.The ‘iPad’ project is commencing, where first year students will be provided with an iPad for use in laboratories – and also to provide students with other types of learning experience. Hopefully this will help to increase student engagement with their learning. The Board noted the contribution to this Project by Dr Force expressed their sincere thanks. Dr Blackburn and Dr Pollard continue to support this project.Professional development sessions have been built in to the first and second year programmes, providing a three-year student employability enhancement

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programme.All first year students have been allocated tutors, and initial meetings with tutors have been scheduled – hopefully this will contribute to student engagement, and their eventual successful progression.Examiners have been appointedLiaison with partners will be discussed at a meeting on 26 September.Emma Price, the School’s link person with LQU is leaving the University. Her role will be taken up by Chris Harper and Stephen Naylor. The Board expressed their thanks to Emma for all her support.

The Board ratified the minutes of the L&Q Committee dated 25/04/2012 and 30/05/2012

19/09 6.0 RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE (R&E)(Meeting minutes supplied) Dr Wray

Dr Wray outlined the content of the minutes and summarised current R&E bid activity. Research clusters have been reorganised into research groups.

The Board ratified the minutes of the R&E dated 06/06/2012 and 18/07/2012.

19/09 7.0 DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: Professor EverettPharmaceutical, Chemical and Environmental Sciences (Report Supplied)

The Department was disappointed with recruitment this year and is establishing new initiatives to improve next year. Progression is good and already approaching KPI as isAchievement. Work continues on improving the NSS score and undergraduate employability. There have been a number of staff changes this year.

Professor Everett expressed his thanks to Dr McGibbon for deputising as Head of Department.

19/09 8.0 DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: Dr El DaherLife and Sports Sciences (Report Supplied)The Department was disappointed with recruitment this year and is establishing new initiatives to improve next year. Progression and Achievement have improved but further work is required to meet KPI. Work continues on improving the NSS score and undergraduate employability. There have been a number of staff changes this year which will be challenging for the Sports Programmes.

The Dean of School recommended that the Heads of Department meet with Robert Mayer of the Business School to learn from his success with the NSS.Action: Heads of Department

19/09 9.0 EXTERNAL EXAMINERS

The Board endorsed the following approvals for External Examiners:

Peter Bush to replace Paul Lowe at the ESONiek Buurma to replace Anna Croft for Chemistry and Pharm Sci at MSASimon Diyall to replace Michelle Gibbs for NutritionFrank Chambers to replace Paul Rooney for Geography and Environmental

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SciencesNick Mount to replace Graham Ferrier for GIS programmesGraham Holloway to replace Jonathan Knight for Natural Resources

23/05 10.0

PORTFOLIO PLANNING

The Board noted the following portfolio of approvals and reviews :

Approvals and Reviews due this year:

Programme Date of review/approval

Details

P11123P11124

17/10/2012 HND & BSc International AgricultureDraft Documents with SQAOPanel TBA

P02123P02510P02532

31/10/2012 BSc Geography, BA Geography, BSc Environmental SciencesDraft Documents to be with SQAO by 30/09/2012Panel TBA

TBA08/11/2012 BSc Equine Sports

Therapy and RehabilitationDraft Documents with SQAOExternal nominatedChair: Colin AllenIndependent Karen Cleaver

P12815 06/12/2012 FdSc Sports CoachingDocuments to be with SQAO by 30th SeptemberPanel TBA

P11462 TBA MSc Sustainable Futures

19/09 11.0

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

11.1 Dr Pollard considered the School should become more pro-active with regard to Public Relations especially to seek sponsorship for Year 2 iPads in 2013/14.The Dean proposed a meeting with Caron Jones to consider ways of improving Public RelationsAction: Dean of Science and Director of Resource to contact Caron Jones

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11.2 The Board expressed its thanks to Mr Birchall for his support of the MSA students on their recent visit.

Meeting closed at 15:30

DATES OF THIS YEARS MEETINGSSchool Board 21st November 2012

22nd May 2013

Learning and Quality

24/10/201220/11/2012 - Tuesday19/12/201216/01/201327/02/201321/03/2013 - Thursday24/04/201315/05/2013

Programme Committee Meetings

PCES

LSS

13/11/201229/01/201330/04/2013

15/11/201231/01/201302/05/2013

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ACTION SHEET for the first meeting of the School of Science School Board in the [2012-13] academic session on 19th September 2012

MINUTEMinute No.

ACTIONBrief/concise description of

action to be taken

RESPONSIBILITYName

ProgressOptional –to check status of actions

19/09 3.1 The Board decided that an all staff e-mail should be prepared outlining the current budgetary position.

Dean of Science and Director of Resource

Complete 20/09/2012

19/09 5.1 To contact Christine Cooper to establish the source of the data that will be used to judge the School’s performance and to request that data be supplied in advance of any discussion.

Dean of Science

19/09 9.1 To meet with Robert Meyer of the Business School regarding his success with the NSS

Heads of Department

19/09 11.1 To arrange a meeting with Caron Jones to consider ways of improving Public Relations

Dean of Science and Director of Resource

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