University of Glasgow
Academic Standards Committee
Minute of Meeting held on Friday 16 November 2012 at 9:30 AM in the Melville Room
Mr Razvan Balaban, Dr Barbara Burns, Professor Frank Coton, Professor Christine Edwards, Professor Neil Evans, Professor Thomas Guthrie (Convener), Mr Matthew Hastings, Professor Bob Hill, Dr Martin Macauley, Ms Helen McAvoy (vice Mr George Tait), Dr Penny Morris, Dr Karen Renaud, Dr Bill Stewart.
In Attendance:Ms Helen Butcher, Dr David Bain (for item ASC/2012/25.1), Mr Gavin Lee (for item ASC/2012/25)
Apologies:Dr Jack Aitken, Professor John Briggs, Dr Kenny Brophy, Professor Phil Cotton, Professor Alice Jenkins, Dr Kevin O'Dell, Ms Anna Phelan, Dr Joanne Ramsey, Mrs Eleanor Waugh.
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 5 October were approved as a correct record.
ASC received an update on discussions between the Clerk of Senate, Vice Principal (Learning & Teaching), the Convener of ASC and the clerks of both ASC and ARSC regarding the development of joint generic regulations for PGT and MRes degrees.
Given the wide range of views expressed by the Deans of Graduate Studies during consultation, in particular concerns over the different standards applied to independent work and taught credit in the regulations; the question of combining standard taught PGT degrees involving 120 taught credits and a 60 credit dissertation/independent project with other types of MRes degrees involving more independent/research work was reviewed.
It was concluded that the current PGT regulation, which applied to a large majority of the University's postgraduate student cohort, was operating well and therefore should not be de-stabilised. Instead, concerns relating to the incorporation of degrees with more research content could be addressed by the development of a separate variant of the generic regulation.
ASC agreed that ARSC should be invited to develop a second generic regulation to accommodate Masters degrees which contained more than a third of research/independent work (current MRes degrees operating under the PGT regulation would remain in that framework).
Action: Clerk of ARSC
It was noted that in follow up to the above report RIO had been invited to review their traffic light system for reviewing viability of proposed new programmes. In addition, the process for notifying key course changes to relevant parties had been referred to a new Working Group established by the Vice Principal (Learning & Teaching) which was considering Programme Plan and Programme Specification data. The Convener, who was a member of the Working Group, reported that the question of updating data across plans, programme and course specifications had been identified as a significant issue to be addressed.
ASC approved the new membership for 2012-13 for recommending to EdPSC for final approval.
The Clerk of the Quality Officer's Forum, Mr Lee, gave an introduction to the CAMS which had been presented to the Committee. ASC was reminded that the scheduling of the annual monitoring process had been revised to bring forward review of reports and follow-up actions. Accordingly, Colleges had for the first time been required to submit reports to ASC in Semester 1. It was reported that in two cases Colleges had struggled to gain completed School Annual Monitoring Summaries (SAMS) which had in turn caused delay in the preparation of the CAMS. In one case, Social Sciences, the CAMS had not been completed for ASC, and in the other, Science and Engineering, the report had been submitted late.
The SLSD team (Student Lifecycle Support & Development) had submitted a response to two CAMS where issues had been raised regarding the operation of MyCampus (Arts, and Science and Engineering) and these papers were also provided to ASC.
Mr Lee reported on the themes that were present across the three CAMS received so far.
Concerns relating to support for learning and teaching were commonly raised particularly in relation to rising student numbers and the need for physical subject-based locations for students and staff; the pressing need for subject-based administrative support; the need for more support for GTAs and increased support for academic staff.
In terms of the impact and use of technology, issues were raised relating to i) technology-enabled learning and teaching and ii) the impact of MyCampus. Challenges were identified in developing wider use of technology which highlighted the need for development of University policy in relevant areas, and improvement in support systems for delivery of technology systems. Ongoing challenges following the introduction of MyCampus included the impact on Advisers and other academics' workload, difficulties in extracting information, and timetabling challenges.
Concerns regarding Estates and IT equipment commonly related to teaching accommodation (timetabling, availability of suitable accommodation and logistics of accommodation locations across the large campus) and repeated many issues raised in past years.
Finally, it was observed that there was evidence of some improvement in the annual monitoring process. The College of Arts was particularly commended for its effective response to the revised reporting timescales. Improved student engagement through SSLCs and other means was also noted.
Mr Lee agreed to draw up a full list of follow-up actions arising from the CAMS and to circulate this to members out of committee in order for follow-up to commence quickly. Following review of each of the reports as minuted below, ASC agreed that actions should cover the following areas:
- Estates: accommodation for learning and teaching: 1) various practical issues associated with the allocation of teaching space; 2) overall capacity for the University as a whole.
- Administrative support: it was suggested that additional administrative support might be provided for advisers, this investment would free up advisers' time and would allow administrative staff, who would have regular experience of records maintenance on the system, to work on MyCampus (which entailed a higher degree of records maintenance related to the advising function). This would leave advisers to focus on academic advising of students and their pastoral role.
- General Staffing levels: considering the need to address very stretched staffing levels, and flagging up to the College of Arts the request for increased support for GTAs.
Dr Bain introduced his report. It was noted that there had been a good response rate from the Schools with positive feedback on the new format of the reports. Dr Bain also reported that colleagues had appreciated receiving feedback on actions progressed following the previous annual monitoring reports noting that this process had improved greatly and that some progress had been made on items of concern highlighted in the last round. Changes to the University's Standard Student Questionnaire were cited as an example, and it was also pointed out that in the ongoing development of the SSQ it would be important to ensure that Subjects were granted some flexibility to set their own questions.
There was plenty of evidence of good practice across the College during 2011-12, good feedback from external examiners and positive feedback from students.
Principal concerns focussed on the same issues as last year:
- The operation of MyCampus continued to frustrate staff. ASC noted that the response from SLSD suggested that the system was working better in 2012-13 and included a recommendation that more administrative staff should be made available to support academic advisers.
- The need for subject-facing support staff was strongly reiterated and it was suggested that while support staff were working extremely hard, their current centralised locations caused higher workloads for them and their academic colleagues.
- GTA students were identified as a valuable resource which with further investment provided an excellent opportunity to increase staffing levels.
It was acknowledged that issues relating to staffing levels and structures required resolution at College and School level.
Professor Evans introduced his report. The College had achieved the key aim of improving the process by presenting the CAMS to ASC in Semester 1 and it was noted that the new forms had been well received by Schools. Many items of good practice were identified across the College showing the growing use of technology in teaching and learning activities which would enhance the student experience in many areas.
Concerns were raised surrounding the following:
- Resourcing for staffing - very high staff workloads were consistently reported with the need to provide support, recognition and career development to staff with the primary function of Learning and Teaching. The need to improve recruitment procedures to speed up the appointment process was also identified.
- Issues relating to teaching and learning accommodation involving capacity of rooms, booking systems and various problems with venues.
- The need was identified for development of University policy to support current developments in learning technology. Areas such as recording lectures and the use of webinars were highlighted.
ASC noted the comment on page 6 relating to the Code of Assessment which reported concerns over the regulations permitting reassessment to achieve higher grades. It was agreed that further clarification was needed as current regulations only permitted reassessments where the overall course grade was below the threshold standard (D3 at undergraduate level and C3 at postgraduate). Professor Evans agreed to follow this up.
Action: NE
Dr Macaulay introduced his report and suggested that there had been a better engagement with annual monitoring at local level in the current round. He also drew attention to informal levels of student engagement involving small groups and direct student communication with staff which were a useful mechanism for gathering student views and dealing with issues before any formal processes such as SSLCs were engaged.
The key themes of the report were highlighted as relating to ongoing frustration with MyCampus, the need for increased teaching administration to provide the most efficient operation of MyCampus and to support the increased workload on Advisors in particular. Inadequacies with accommodation for learning and teaching had also been highlighted again showing limited availability of adequate accommodation and logistical issues relating to the spread of accommodation. It was also pointed out that local accommodation helped to foster a local subject/school identity for students. Mr Hastings from Registry confirmed that lack of suitable accommodation also affected examinations where there were challenges to the timetabling process with increasing student numbers and a growing demand for special rooms to accommodate students with disabilities.
Deferred - no report available.
The Semester 1 PAG had considered one proposal from the College of Arts. ASC approved the recommended introduction of the following new programme in 2013-14:
MLitt Theatre Studies.
ASC considered the report from the Semester 1 PAG for MVLS which had considered proposals for major changes to two current programmes in the College. In both cases concerns had been raised during review of the proposals.
ASC confirmed the PAG's recommendation that the proposed changes to the MSc (MedSci) Behavioural Sleep Medicine should not be approved. The programme was in the process of being withdrawn and the proposed change was to allow the assessment requirements to be reduced for the small number of outgoing part-time students. After review of the proposal, the PAG had considered that the reduced assessment requirements would be too light for a Masters level award and therefore agreed that it would be inappropriate to implement the change.
Proposed changes for years 1 - 4 of the BVMS programme were also reviewed, noting that revision to the 5th year of the programme had been approved in 2011-12. While the PAG had found no objection to the proposed changes, concerns were noted at the format of the Programme Specification which was considered to be very detailed, long and not easily readable for students, prospective students and employers. ASC was therefore invited to decide on whether the Programme Specification in its proposed format was acceptable.
Members reviewed the Programme Specification appended to the report and noted that sections 10 (Intended Learning Outcomes), 11 (Assessment Methods), 12 (Learning and Teaching Approaches) and 14 (Programme Structure and Features) were all much longer than standard and contained a great deal of detail relating to the achievement of the practical competencies which had been set by the Professional Body (RCVS). The PAG had been advised that while the RCVS did not dictate the content of the Programme Specification the School had considered it sensible to match the programme ILOs with the stated competencies from RCVS. While ASC accepted this point and acknowledged that more detail than normal would be included in section 10, it was agreed that some revision was required to the document as follows:
Section 10: while there could be reference to RCVS practical competencies, some tidying up was felt to be necessary to ensure that the ILOs followed the University format and also to remove elements of duplication.
In terms of the other sections it was suggested that much of the detail presented should be removed from the Programme Specification and transferred to other documentation aimed solely at current students and staff.
Section 11, it was noted that some time ago the practice of mapping ILOs to assessment methods had been discontinued because this level of detail led to difficulties with keeping Programme Specification data up to date. It was agreed that mapping information should be removed and transferred elsewhere.
Section 12, it was noted that the College Board of Studies had requested some explanation of the non generic items on the list of learning and teaching approaches. ASC agreed that this could be achieved by a much briefer explanation of non standard items under each heading.
Section 14: it was agreed that this section could be made clearer and this could be achieved through i) a serious consideration of reducing the volume of information and ii) by including reference to credit rating to explain the structure of the degree.
ASC therefore agreed the proposed amendments to years 1 - 4 of the BVMS degree subject to revision and resubmission of the Programme Specification in line with the observations noted above.
The Semester 1 PAG had considered one proposal from the College of Science & Engineering. ASC approved the recommended introduction of the following new programme in 2013-14:
BSc (Hons) Computing Science (for partnership with Singapore Institute of Technology).
Professor Hill introduced the above report which contained a number of proposals for ASC to consider. ASC confirmed the following principles or procedures which would be added to the Guide to the Code of Assessment.
- Penalties for late submission of sub-components of coursework
It was agreed that sub-components of coursework should be subject to penalties for late submission in the same manner as full coursework components - essentially a two secondary band deduction per day with a cut-off at five days after which the submission would receive a grade H. In cases where sub-components were marked in percentages, it was agreed that an equivalent reduction would be 10% per day with a cut-off at five days following which the award would be zero.
- Late submissions of coursework being treated as non-submissions
Submissions of coursework later than five days would receive a grade H and guidance was required on the question of when an overdue submission became a non-submission. Non submission of assessments affected fulfilment of the requirements for course credit and therefore it was important to determine when an overdue submission should be counted as a non submission. It was suggested that allowing students to submit late after assessment feedback had been provided to the rest of the cohort could potentially put the late student at an advantage to others as s/he might have access to feedback on the assessment, although this view was not shared by all members. It was pointed out that there was a variety of practice in assessment feedback and the SRC representative observed that students who might have access to feedback would be penalised with the Grade H mark any way. After discussion, ASC agreed that the default position should be that assessments should be counted as non-submissions if they had not been handed in by the time assessment feedback was presented to the rest of the cohort. But it was also agreed that course teams could make alternative arrangements and set non-submission deadlines differently. In such cases it would be necessary to stipulate the alternative arrangements in the course documentation to ensure that students were fully aware of the consequences of delaying submission, and non-submission of work.
- 'Manifest prejudice' where the course threshold has been achieved
Judgement on whether there has been manifest prejudice to a student's assessment performance in cases of good cause, should always be made, irrespective of whether the student has achieved the threshold grade (or higher) for the course (D3 for undergraduate programmes, C3 for PGT programmes). Judgement should be made taking into account the student's overall profile and the requirements of the programme. Where manifest prejudice is found to occur the performance would be set aside, a grade MV returned, and the student offered the opportunity to repeat the assessment where such an opportunity existed.
Action: Senate Office
Schools and Colleges would be notified of the above changes to the Guide to the Code of Assessment.
ASC also reviewed the proposal relating to current terminology in assessment processing where 'exams only' as a form of repeat registration was suggested to be potentially misleading as registration was based on the need for the student to complete the course assessment without attendance, but students could believe that only the examination component(s) needed to be taken. It was agreed that the term should be replaced with 'assessment only' with effect from session 2013-14 onwards.
Action: SLSD and Registry
Following Senate's approval of the proposals for criteria to be used when considering whether to promote students in the discretionary zones for Honours classifications or PGT awards of merit and distinction, guidance was drafted for inclusion in the Guide to the Code of Assessment. ASC was invited to review the draft guidance.
Members agreed that further examples on the use of the unrounded mean should be added to the guidance, and that it should be noted that the current example demonstrated the effect of the unrounded mean through an extreme scenario which was unlikely to occur in reality. It was also agreed that the final sentence in the section on Exit Velocity was not necessary and should therefore be removed. Once finalised the guidance would be added to the Guide to the Code of Assessment and circulated to Colleges, Schools and assessment officers.
Action: Senate Office
In response to a query, it was confirmed that discretion could not be applied to the grade awarded for the dissertation on Masters awards. This principle had been agreed on the basis that the dissertation was considered to be one of the defining elements of a Masters degree and therefore an appropriate level of performance was required in order to achieve recognition through merit or distinction.
ASC received and noted a report detailing the PSR reports due for submission during the current session. These included full reports of reviews scheduled to take place during 2012-13 plus various follow up reports. Two ASC reviewers had been allocated to each report.
ASC/2012/29.2.1 Electronics & Electrical Engineering
ASC received the 12 month update report detailing progress to date with actions arising from the review of EEE held in February 2011. It was agreed that the subject area should be commended for their full and appropriate response to the review recommendations.
In noting the response from the School to recommendations 1 and 2, it was noted that this highlighted the need for staff to have both their Research Division and Teaching Discipline automatically flagged on staff web pages. ASC agreed that this would facilitate understanding that 'discipline' in the School of Engineering was equivalent to 'subject' in the teaching context and therefore agreed that action should be sought from IT Services and/or HR systems to ensure that automatic flagging of both Research Division and Teaching Discipline was effected on University staff web pages.
Action: Clerk to refer to Directors of IT Services and HR
It was agreed that updates on further progress should be sought for recommendations 3 and 4 (noting that revisions to programme specifications were scheduled for November 2012); and recommendation 20 regarding a more permanent solution to the issue of social space for students. Recommendation 21 related to the need for grades from ERASMUS institutions to be included on student records and there was some concern that the response from the Head of Registry did not cover this issue. This would be checked further with Registry.
Action: Senate Office
ASC/2012/29.3.1 Central & East European Studies
ASC reviewed the report on progress with actions taken in response to recommendations 1,2 and 4 from the review of CEES and confirmed that these showed good progress and that no further follow-up was required.
ASC/2012/29.3.2 Music
In considering the follow-up on progress with recommendations 4, 5 and 8 from the review of Music, concern was expressed particularly in relation to recommendation 5 concerning the maintenance of musical equipment in the Concert Hall which did not appear to have been resolved. It was agreed that the Subject should be asked to confirm whether the question of responsibility for musical equipment in the Concert Hall been resolved and if not, whether there was there still a need to pursue this.
Action: Senate Office
In relation to recommendation 8, it was noted that staff workloads were was an underlying issue, and this resonated with the resource issues that had been raised in the annual monitoring reports considered under ASC/2012/25 above.
ASC/2012/29.3.2 Urban Studies
The report on progress with recommendation 1 from the review of Urban Studies (development of a Learning and Teaching Strategy) was reviewed. ASC agreed that as work on this was ongoing, and a strategy was not yet in place, there should be a further update in 6 months' time (to be reported to ASC in May 2013).
Action: Senate Office
ASC approved the request from the Scottish Agricultural College (known since October 2012 as SRUC, Scotland's Rural University College) for the interim use of a changed title for the BSc/BSc (Hons) Applied Bioscience pending revalidation during 2012-13. For publicity and admissions information the following title would be used:
BSc/BSc (Hons) Applied Animal and Plant Science.
ASC approved the following new staff of the Free Church College to be recognised as teachers of the University:
Rev. AJ MacDonald, MA
Rev. Dr D Ford
Rev. Dr J Ross
ASC noted the report from the College of Science and Engineering which confirmed the College Management Group's agreement to extend the SIT Collaboration Agreement to include undergraduate programmes in Computing Science. (Approval of the proposed programme BSc (Hons) Computing Science for delivery at SIT had been granted following PAG review in October - see minute ASC/2012/26.3 above).
There were no items of reserved business.
The next meeting of the Academic Standards Committee will be held on Friday 15 February 2013 at 9.30am in the Melville Room.
Created by: Ms Helen Butcher