Faculty of Engineering
Faculty
Board
ENG08-M2
Minutes of the meeting of the Faculty Board held on 12
November 2008.
Members: Professor Steve Rothberg (Chair), Dr Lisa Bartlett, Mr Edwin
Bowden-Peters, Professor Adam Crawford, Dr Paul Cunningham, Professor Tony
Croft, Dr Sandie Dann, Professor
John Dickens, Dr James Flint, Dr Matthew Frost (ab), Mr
Matt Gibson,, Dr Jane Horner), Mr Julian Mackenzie, Mrs Stephanie McKeating (ab), Dr Danish Malik, Dr
Zoly Nagy (ab), Mr Mohamed Osmani, Professor David Parish Professor Rob Parkin, Professor
Shirley Pearce (ab), Dr Jon Petzing, , Professor Chris Rielly, Dr Andy Stapley (ab), Professor Richard Stobart, Mr Tony Sutton, Professor Tony
Thorpe, Professor
Observer: Wg Cdr Angela Hawley
Apologies for absence:
Mrs Stephanie McKeating,
Dr Andrew Stapley, Dr Matthew Frost, Dr Zoly
Nagy, Ms Christina Zhang.
In
attendance: Ms Marie Kennedy
Also in
attendance (for item 4): Professor Chris Backhouse, Director of Internationalisation Strategy
1.
Welcome
New members were
welcomed to the Board, and previous members thanked for their co-operation helping
to ensure that in future, the Board had a more appropriate turnover of members
each year.
2.
Minutes
(ENG08-M1)
The minutes
of the last meeting were confirmed.
3.
Matters
arising from the minutes:
.1 Car
parking issues
NOTED
that, on days when a number of departmental open days were taking place, a shuttle bus service would operate for most
of the day between Nanpantan and campus; in addition, visitors could use the Kinch service on campus without charge.
.2 Graduate
destination statistics for 2007
NOTED that the Careers Centre was not allowed to survey any students not included
on the HESA target list. Although these targets omitted international and
part-time students, this did not account for the whole of the discrepancy
between the Careers Centre’s data and the known Faculty intake. Some of the difference might be because there
had recently been an increase in students opting to take the placement year.
.3 International
Repository
NOTED that departments could introduce the Repository as part of their induction
for new staff.
4.
Internationalisation
Strategy (ENG08-P18, tabled)
Professor
Backhouse was welcomed to the meeting. The
strategy had three main elements:
1. On-campus
experience
Examples
included language tuition for students for whom English was not their first
language, and tuition in a range of other languages. The Students’ Union had its own
internationalisation agenda, one strand of which was its recently-introduced
‘Universal Thursday’ social evenings, intended mainly for
international students, which had proved very popular. The
2.
Outward mobility
Details
of best practice in departments would shortly be circulated. The University intended in the near future to
translate marks for students studying at institutions overseas before they
departed, rather than when they returned.
The Students’ Union was also active in promoting outward mobility,
for example through the recently-established Erasmus Association.
3.
International partnerships
Memoranda
of Understanding had been signed with a number of other institutions, and
arrangements had recently been made for BUE staff to register for research
degrees at Loughborough at reduced rates.
In
addition, the University was encouraging internationalisation of its curricula,
and was continuing to arrange graduation ceremonies in other countries.
5. SEFS (Science and Engineering Foundation Studies) Programmes
Annual Report (ENG08-P12) (agenda item taken out of
turn)
Student numbers had
increased in recent years to more than 200 pa. Limits
on numbers, to be introduced from 2009-10, should improve intake quality. The International variant would cease at the
end of this academic year, when the University would enter a partnership with
HoDs
were asked to encourage admissions tutors to give more consideration to
applicants with good A-Level grades in the ‘wrong’ subjects, and to
those with other qualifications such as BTEC, in preference to offering places
to those with poor A-Levels in standard subjects.
Comparisons
of final degree classifications between SEFS students and direct entry students,
to see how well the former subsequently performed, were not straightforward,
but the AD(T) would obtain data to see if any
conclusions could be drawn.
ACTIONS: HODs/ AD(T)
6. sigma (Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics
Support) Annual Report (http://mec.lboro.ac.uk/documents/6th_mec_annual_report.pdf,
and ENG08-P19,
tabled)
Data
showed that 40% of students who used the Mathematics Education Centre were from
the Faculty and 28% of visits were made by Engineering
students. Teaching innovations such as
electronic voting systems had proved very popular with Engineering
students.
The CETL
had instituted a number of initiatives that aimed to overcome problems of
student engagement with, and lack of enthusiasm for, the subject of Mathematics; one of these was a short video, produced by
Engineering students, to encourage others to use the MEC and MLSC.
It was
clear that both the quality and quantity of work undertaken by each of the CETLs based at Loughborough was impressive, whether pedagogical
research, teaching, or teaching support.
The University was now devising sustainability plans for when HEFCE
funding for all 70 CETLs ended in 2010. These included the Statistics Advisory
Service for Loughborough’s postgraduates and finalists, which was wholly funded by sigma.
7. Constitution
and powers of the Board, and briefing note for members
(ENG08-P7)
Noted. Members were asked to suggest issues for
discussion which the Board might not otherwise consider during the year.
8. Periodic Programme Review:
Department of Chemical Engineering (ENG08-P8)
The
Department was thanked for its succinct and positive response to the
Panel’s report. Members welcomed
the Department’s initiative in recruiting a retired industrialist to help
with design teaching, especially as many engineering departments struggled to
recruit staff who were sufficiently experienced to
teach this subject, now that fewer industrially-experienced engineers moved
into academic careers. It was noted that
the engCETL had successfully bid for a project to encourage more recent
graduates to make contributions to teaching.
The Learning and Teaching Committee had recently considered all five PPR
reports; its main
concern was to identify any generic issues, particularly those that related to
assessment and feedback.
9. Reports from Faculty Officers
.1 Dean
NOTED:
(a) The Sunday
Times’ University of the Year
All staff had been awarded an extra
day’s holiday in recognition of the University’s recent success in becoming Sunday Times’
University of the Year, following on from other
national awards including the THES Best Student Experience for the third year running, and in maintaining generally high
positions in various national ‘league tables’.
(b) Faculty
developments
i.
Discussions were taking
place regarding a possible new School involving the Departments of Aeronautical
and Automotive Engineering and Materials.
ii.
Two staff had recently been
funded to develop a new DL programme in Risk and Reliability, and the
University had made further strategic investment in additional staff in the
areas of Building Energy and REST. In
addition, a Special Advisory Group of industrialists had been established to
consider ways to enhance teaching and research in Systems Engineering.
iii.
A new Interdisciplinary
Centre for Biological Engineering would shortly open at
iv.
The Manufacturing
Technology Centre, a collaborative project with Nottingham and
v.
The Faculty had recently
appointed a replacement Marketing Manager.
vi.
The recent staff survey had
provided some very positive results, that were gratifyingly above those usual
for UK HEIs (including 1994 Group universities) for
this type of survey. Feedback sessions
would shortly take place with all staff in departments, to gain a better
understanding of the key issues for staff.
vii.
The Faculty was making a
number of submissions for EPSRC and Leverhulme
Fellowships, and the process was expected to inform similar bids in future
years.
viii.
The University had made a
£3 M bid for the highly competitive KTA funding, and was a partner in a further
three collaborative submissions, one of which was led by Loughborough.
ix.
The University would be
able to make comparisons with other HEIs when REF results
were published on 18 December.
x.
Members believed that
possible threats to the Faculty’s teaching and research activities as a
result of the University hosting an Olympic team on campus during 2012 were
mainly space-related. They included the probable
use of teaching rooms during term-time, which would impact on all teaching at
all levels; the availability of
accommodation for short courses;
graduation ceremonies; and hall
accommodation – forward planning would be essential if students were to
be concentrated in halls during this period.
Another factor was the total size of the team including support staff.
xi.
Opportunities, regardless
of the team’s country, included enhancing both the internationalisation
strategy and Loughborough’s profile.
There might also be marketing opportunities for team members considering
their future careers. Loughborough as a
town should also benefit from any hosting.
(c) Faculty
AD(T)
Noted that Professor John Dickens had been appointed for a further term.
(d) Faculty Board:
elected departmental representatives
Noted. Noted also that Senate
might be asked to consider a proposal to allow members to stand for re-election
for a second term, to provide the Board with valuable experience.
.2 Associate
Dean (Research)
NOTED:
(a)
Research
Excellence Framework
The PVC(R)
and other Loughborough staff were due to attend a meeting in January which
would provide feedback from the pilots conducted in 2008. The University was quite well-represented on HEFCE’s recently-established Advisory Board, with
four members, who covered the three Faculties.
The greater use of bibliometrics in future remained
contentious, and was likely to disadvantage Engineering
subject areas, but HEFCE was keen to implement it asap. Citations would be of increasing importance,
and members were asked to encourage their colleagues to maximise their
opportunities for citations by ensuring that all their publications were
available on the Institutional Repository
ACTION: All
It
should be possible to link the Repository to the Publications Database from
2009, when IT Services hoped to enable the two databases to run from a single
location. However, a practical solution
was still needed for the problem of earlier publications for which staff no
longer retained pre-production final proofs, perhaps by links from the
Repository to the Database. The AD(R)
would make inquiries about possibilities.
ACTION: AD(R)
Other bibliometric issues included the journals that were not
currently on the World of Science database, and the possible
‘half-life’ and the delayed impact, of citations.
(b) Recruitment
A
private consultancy report had suggested that the numbers of research student
applications and PGRs from
(c) Research Degree Regulations and Code of
Practice on Research Degree Programmes
(ENG08-P9)
The proposed
regulations were similar to the current regulations. However, the Director of
Research would be replaced by a
Director of Research Programmes and although only one
additional would normally be permitted, departments
would be able to make a case for having Directors of Research Programmes.
Members expressed some concern about the requirement for a year two
review with an independent assessor: it was not clear how long the
student’s report needed to be, nor whether the assessor could be the same
as in year one. The Faculty had
expected a ‘light touch’ second year review, and to hold a meeting
only if there were any concerns on either side, especially as any
under-performance should have been identified at the end of the first year, and
it would be difficult to terminate studies at the end of the second year. Departments with a large number of research
students were therefore likely to resist any requirement for a full report as onerous
and unnecessarily bureaucratic. Students
were also likely to find the suggested format onerous. The Board therefore suggested that the year
two meeting should only be held by exception, when concern had been expressed
on either side.
AGREED
to report back that the Board was unhappy with a universal formal meeting at
the end of year two as unnecessarily bureaucratic, and to question what
Research Office was likely to do with information gathered in that way.
ACTION: AD(R)/ Secretary
.3 Associate
Dean (Teaching)
(a) Recruitment
2008/09 (ENG08-P10)
Noted that data were provided by the Planning Office on 31 October.
UK/EU UG
Intake
targets had been increased during the summer when it seemed the University
would under-recruit international students, but a higher than usual proportion
of CIs, CCOs, Clearing and
SEFS students had led to the recruitment of an additional 400 students, the
largest-ever intake for the University. The 2009/10 intake would therefore be limited
to current numbers.
2009/10 UCAS
applications data for
The
University had admitted 35 DTUS students in 2008, but changing student preferences
meant the 2009 intake was likely to be lower.
Intake
was less than in 2007.
PGT FT International
Intake
was slightly higher than expected, with a greater percentage of Chinese
students than anticipated.
UK/EU PGT
Intake
had remained relatively stable across recent years.
PGT PT
Recruitment
was largely in WEDC and CREST; better data would be received when
populations were known.
(b) National
Student Survey 2008 results
Results
were again very good: the University was in the top 10 universities for all subjects,
and fourth among the campus-based ‘old’ universities, using the
‘overall satisfaction’ criterion.
Assessment and feedback remained the weakest area across most of the
sector, for all subjects.
It was
reported that, acting on its own NSS results, a competitor institution was now
providing all students with summary feedback on their examinations, via a template completed by internal
examiners. Some members had reservations
about the usefulness of such feedback, despite the fact that providing individual
feedback to students took considerable staff time and effort. Loughborough’s own CoP
required that generic feedback be posted on Learn where the examination
comprised 100% of a module’s assessment.
Members believed
it would be useful to ascertain (perhaps through SSCs)
the type of feedback students most valued, and then for the engCETL (which was
already developing a partially-automated process for feedback) to develop appropriate
toolkits to provide this. It would also be
helpful for members to receive a copy of the analysis of students’ open
comments, which the Faculty Quality Enhancement Officers had recently conducted.
ACTION: HoDs/ MK
10.
NOTED that the main issue for UK HEIs remained the extended masters
qualifications. It was likely that these
would be regarded as equivalent in
A number
of
11.
engCETL (Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) Annual Report (ENG08-P11)
Noted that the CETL was currently
redeveloping some tools, which it hoped to demonstrate to departments during
December; that it had developed some 100
projects which it would shortly roll out across the Faculty, and that it hoped
to obtain funding to develop more interactive teaching than the standard
lecture/tutorial pattern. It would also
like staff to inform them of any innovative ways in which existing tools were
being used.
The CETL
now had six PhD students, all of whom were progressing well; the system of dual supervision across
departments was also working well. The
CETL now had a number of publications in engineering subjects, had received a
number of inquiries from people interested in working at the University, and
had raised its international profile.
The
ending of HEFCE funding in 2010 meant the CETL now needed a strategy to ensure
its continuity.
12.
Award of
research degrees (ENG08-P13)
APPROVED the following awards:
Doctor of Philosophy:
Civil and Building Engineering:
R J Hawley
B Li
N Naismith
R Wackrow
Electronic and Electrical
Engineering:
A Ogunsola
M T
V Sharma
H Zamzuri
Wolfson
P P Hodgkins
K Kamal
P N H Thomas
D M
X Zhang
13. Personal titles
Congratulations
were offered to members of Faculty who had been awarded Personal Readerships:
Dr Vince
Dwyer, Reader in Electronic Devices
Dr Ricky Wildman, Reader in Experimental Mechanics
14. Membership of the Board (ENG08-P14)
Noted.
15. Representation on other Committees
(ENG089-P15)
Noted that Dr Dave Twigg, in his role as AD(T) for
BUE, was an ex officio member of
Learning and Teaching Committee, and was also the Faculty representative on the
Academic Misconduct Committee.
16. QAA Institutional Audit 2008
Noted the
publication of the report and University response.
17. Prizes Committee (ENG08-P16)
Noted.
18. Curriculum Sub-Committee
Noted.
19. External Examiners’ reports
Noted.
20. Staff Student Committees
Noted.
21. Date of the next meeting
1.15 pm on Wednesday 20 May 2009, in the Council Chamber.
A sandwich lunch will be served at
1 pm.
Author – Marie Kennedy
Date – November 2008
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