ASBS had confirmed that on PGT programmes where discrepancies were noted for a dissertation marker then all the dissertations in that marker's sample would be second marked. 

A collated response to the various issues raised would be brought to the November meeting of ASC. 

As concerns regarding English language skills had been raised across AMRs for a number of years, the issue would be flagged to EdPSC.

Action: Clerk

One issue that had been raised with ASC on a number of occasions was the desirability of students being granted continuing access to Mahara following graduation. BVMS students completed a substantial professional portfolio on Mahara and continuing access to this would be of benefit to them as their careers progressed. Through annual monitoring other areas had raised the same issue reflecting the fact that the use of Mahara was increasing across the University. ASC had referred the issue to the VLE Board which had given the development a low priority due to the small number of students that would benefit and the fact that the purchase of some hardware might be required. For the current meeting, ASC received a fuller response from the VLE Development Board Convener, setting out two possible courses of action and supporting the suggestion that the issue be referred to EdPSC. (See minute ASC/2020/5.4.2.) ASC members agreed that this issue should be highlighted to EdPSC given the increasing number of subject areas expressing interest in the use of Mahara and the growing importance of preparing students for employment after graduation.

Action: Clerk

Ms Butcher introduced a report on the PSR of Computing Science which was run as a pilot of the proposed revised process for PSR from 2020-21 onwards.

The PSR took place in March 2020 and the Senate Office welcomed the School's positive engagement with the pilot. Informal feedback indicated that the School found the amended format of the Reflective Analysis had encouraged more forward thinking, though its preparation still represented a considerable workload. Feedback from the Review Panel suggested that the structure of the review had led to a stronger focus on enhancement.

The reviews scheduled to take place in 2020-21 would take place on-line if necessary. There would be a focus on improved availability of data to support Schools and Subject areas in their preparation: Planning, Insights and Analytics would be working closely with the areas under review in the coming session in order to put in place arrangements for those areas to access appropriate data in a timely way.

ASC agreed to approve the recommendation that the revised approach taken in the pilot in March 2020 be applied for the PSR reviews scheduled for 2020-21. In view of the fact that the finalised outcome report from the Computing Science review had not yet been made available to ASC, approval of its format was deferred.

ASC noted paper ASC 20/05 which set out the overview of PSR activity during 2019-20 and the revised schedule for 2020-21 and future years. The changes reflected the impact of industrial action and the Covid-19 pandemic. It was noted that the review of Philosophy, which had been suspended in March 2020 due to industrial action, would take place in spring 2021 in accordance with the previous PSR process. 

ASC/2020/5.3.1 Economic & Social History

Dr Ballance had reviewed the report and found the commendations and recommendations to be appropriate.

Dr Ballance noted three areas of interest:

• Return rates from on-line course evaluation were low. There was a discussion about ways of improving return rates. It was agreed that making feedback compulsory could be counter-productive and ASC noted that advice was available from the Senate Office on improving return rates for on-line evaluations.
• Concerns had been noted about students not always receiving a receipt for submitted coursework, raising the question of whether there should be a standard approach to this across the University. ASC noted that as most assessment was now completed electronically this should no longer be an issue.
• In ESH it appeared that the extent to which students were required to participate in groupwork was variable. The generic undergraduate regulations currently included the requirement for students to achieve at least a grade of D3 in a piece of independent work in order to qualify for an honours degree and this raised the question of whether there should be a similar requirement in relation to groupwork. Members felt that groupwork was not a matter for regulations but, rather, something to be developed as a graduate attribute.

Dr Ballance noted that some issues that had been highlighted during the review were not captured in the recommendations or commendations. While this was appropriate for this review, there might be value in formally noting them for the purposes of identifying common themes across the various reviews taking place in any given session. The issues in this case were: mental health difficulties, the difficulties of managing fluctuations in PGT numbers, writing support for international students, the alignment of assessments with ILOs, administrative support, and shortcomings with the workload model. Ms Butcher agreed to consider including in the amended PSR process a category of issues to be logged though not categorised as a recommendation for specific follow-up.

Action: Ms Butcher

In discussion, it was noted that Recommendation 1 concerning clarification of the role of Advisors of Study appeared to be a local issue and ASC's view was that it should be addressed for the attention of the School rather than for the Clerk of Senate (ASC was not aware of similar concerns having been raised in other areas). The Convener also suggested that the inclusion of a recommendation for an overall strategic plan might be useful for bringing together a number of different areas noted in the report as being under review/development or of concern and which may touch upon the issues highlighted by Dr Ballance.

Subject to these comments, the report was approved for onward transmission to relevant officers responsible for taking forward the recommendations. ASC agreed that, in view of the current heavy workload associated with the response to the pandemic, ESH should be invited to consider whether it would be more constructive to provide formal responses to the recommendations in 12 months rather than in the usual six months.

ASC/2020/5.4.1 Celtic & Gaelic

The six-month update report from the review of Celtic & Gaelic had been received under Summer Powers. Updates had been requested on four recommendations, the responses to which were now accepted as satisfactory. 

ASC/2020/5.4.2 School of Veterinary Medicine

The six-month update report from the review of the School of Veterinary Medicine had been received under summer powers. Updates had been requested on 10 recommendations, the responses to which were now received. The responses were accepted as satisfactory (or superseded) with the exception of Recommendations 6 and 10, where progress had been impacted by the pandemic and so an update was requested in 12 months. For Recommendation 5, concerning the demand for student access to Mahara after graduation, the Convener of the VLE Development Board had provided a response indicating two possible solutions: using other software or setting up a second instance of Mahara that did not rely on the GUID. Both would have significant cost implications. Members agreed that this matter should now be highlighted to EdPSC.

Action: Clerk

ASC/2020/5.4.3 Short Courses

Update responses had been received from Short Courses in relation to a number of recommendations. ASC was satisfied with all the responses except that it was noted that there appeared now to be an impasse in relation to Recommendations 5 (concerning the possibility of students on non-credit bearing courses having access to Moodle) and Recommendation 14 (concerning the accessibility of all learning spaces). In both cases, work had been done on understanding the issues but further progress depended on resourcing that was beyond the scope of the PSR process. It was agreed that both issues should be noted for highlighting to the Review Panel when Short Courses was next reviewed.

Action: Senate Office

ASC/2020/5.4.4 Undergraduate Medical School

Under Summer Powers ASC had received the six-month update report from the review of the Undergraduate Medical School. Further updates had been requested for seven recommendations. From the responses that had now been received, it was clear that the timescale had been unrealistic and little progress had been made. It was agreed that update responses should be requested in relation to Recommendations 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to be submitted to ASC in May 2021. 

ASC received the report of new programmes and programme amendments approved by College Boards of Studies for introduction in 2020-21. 

Ms Butcher introduced the draft Annual Report which had been prepared with Professor Fischbacher-Smith, Vice-Principal (Learning & Teaching). The report covered all summaries of Institution-led Reviews of Quality outcomes undertaken during Session 2019-20. This included a summary of Periodic Subject Review outcomes, noting recommendations, commendations and good practice.

This year the report also reflected the impact of industrial action and the institution's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of key priorities for 2020-21 session, the new Learning & Teaching Strategy and associated action plan were highlighted.

Professor Morrison commended the excellent report. In relation to the response to the pandemic, (section 2.2) she suggested that in view of the rapidly changing situation the report should moderate the reference to face-to-face teaching.

ASC agreed to endorse the report, noting that it was also required to be signed off by Court before being submitted to SFC.

ASC received the Joint Board report and approved:

• The remit and membership of the Joint Board for 2019-20, and
• The appointment of an ETS staff member as an Associate University Lecturer.

ASC noted that there had been discussion around the possibility of restructuring the Bachelor of Theology as a four-year programme incorporating a part-time ministry training module. This would involve 90 credits being studied each year and the remainder of the student's time being given to ministry work. The idea was in the early stages with no definite proposal being developed yet. ASC noted that if ETS wished to bring this forward early consultation with the Academic Collaborations Office and the Senate Office was advised.

ASC approved as Associate University Lecturers the listed recently appointed members of staff.

It was noted that the reports from November 2019 and April 2020 both referred to the issue of gender balance, with ETS continuing its efforts to increase the participation of female staff on an expanded Senate and moves to expand the role of a female member of staff to include academic counselling. Professor Morrison, the Convener of the Joint Board, advised ASC that this was an issue that was frequently raised at the Board and efforts were on-going to address gender imbalance in a number of different ways.

ASC approved SRUC's proposal to separate its Institution-led Review process from its revalidation procedure as outlined in the presented report, for implementation in 2021-22. No programmes were due for revalidation during session 2020-21. 

ASC noted the report of the meeting of the Joint Liaison Committee held on 27 November 2019 and approved:

• The remit and membership of the Joint Liaison Committee for 2019-20, and
• The appointment of SRUC staff members as Associated University Lecturers.

The remit and composition for 2020-21 was approved. 

The membership for 2020-21 was approved. 

ASC received audit reports from the Colleges of Arts, MVLS and Social Sciences. The report from the College of Science & Engineering would follow at the next meeting. ASC noted that the audit revealed variation in the quality of the paperwork presented. For Arts, in most cases it was reported that the documentation had not been completed to the required standard whereas in Social Sciences in most cases documentation had been satisfactory. For MVLS, it was reported that while the documentation had been satisfactory, in a number of cases comments had been passed back to the School on clarifications needed.

Dr McCarthy advised ASC that the Arts audit indicated that the documentation was unsatisfactory even where only minor issues had been identified. It seemed likely that this was similar to the issues noted on the MVLS audit though they had been recorded there differently. Dr McCarthy noted that the auditing process was undertaken carefully, involving the Dean of Learning & Teaching, and that training had recently taken place for the clerks and conveners of School Boards of Studies in order to ensure clarity about the requirements.

There was a discussion about whether there would be value in course approval activity being audited by a different College. It was agreed that this would give an interesting insight in how different areas operated. However, members felt that there was value in Colleges knowing what was happening in their own Schools and having the on-going dialogue about the requirements. It was also felt that coordinating the audit by other Colleges may add unnecessary complication to the process.

It was agreed that the audit reports should be shared with the respective Deans of Learning & Teaching.

Action: Clerk

ASC noted that the reports of the PSRs of Sociology and Theology & Religious Studies had been approved under Summer Powers subject to minor comments which had been forwarded to the Panel Conveners. The finalised reports would be available to ASC at the next meeting. 

ASC noted that the full responses to the recommendations made at the Politics review in Spring 2019 had been considered under Summer Powers. Further responses for four of the recommendations had been requested and would be received by ASC in March 2021.