Faculty of Science
Faculty Board
SCI05-M1
Members: Professor K C Parsons (Chair), Dr K S F Brooke-Wavell,
Dr S D Brown (ab), Professor P W H Chung, Dr A C Croft, R J Dawson, Professor J
P Feather (ab), Professor R H J Grimshaw, J F Harper, J Harrison (ab), Dr M C
Harrison, Professor R A Haslam, Dr G Havenith, Dr S N B Hodgson (ab), Professor
R S Kalawsky (ab), Dr A Kay, Professor F V Kusmartsev (ab), Dr P A Lawson, Professor
C M Linton, P Lund (ab), Professor V McKee, I R Murray (ab), Dr L R Mustoe, Dr
K U Neumann, Professor P C B Page, Professor A C Pugh, Dr W G Salt (ab), M
Squelch (ab), Professor Sir David Wallace (ab), Professor P Warwick (ab), Dr D
R Worrall (ab)
Apologies for Absence: Professor J P Feather, Professor R S
Kalawsky, J Harrison, Dr S N B Hodgson, Professor F V Kusmartsev, P Lund, I R
Murray, Dr W G Salt, Professor Sir David Wallace, Professor P Warwick
In Attendance: H L Rees, Miss M T Whyte (Secretary)
05/1 Minutes
SCI04:M3
The Minutes of the Fortieth Meeting of the Science Faculty Board, held on 3 November 2004, were confirmed and signed.
05/2 Matters Arising from the Minutes
Further to Minute
04/42.1, the ADT confirmed that procedures were in place to ensure that
students’ fee status was accurately assigned.
05/3 Dean’s Report
i. The Dean confirmed that the University had successfully bid for two Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Dr Croft was congratulated for the success of the joint bid (with Coventry University) for the university-wide provision of mathematics and statistical support. The Centre would receive £2M capital funding and £2.5M recurrent funding for 5 years.
ii. Some staff from the Departments of Computer Science and Information Science had re-located to Holywell Park and the Research School of Informatics was operational. A Director had been appointed and would take up the position in August 2005. In the mean time, Professor Charles Oppenheim had been appointed as temporary Director.
iii. ESRI had appointed a new Professor who would transfer from Derby with his research group. His main area of research was vision/medical informatics which would link closely with the work of the Research School of Informatics.
iv. The Dean had initiated the procedure for the appointment of the next Head of IPTME.
v. The PVCR was holding a Development Fund to which departments could apply if they wished to appoint individuals who would enhance the RAE position.
vi. The Strategic Review Group was considering possible models for Virtual Research Schools, previously discussed at Faculty Board and Senate. The following Schools were currently being proposed: Health & Life Sciences, Systems Engineering, Materials, Sustainability. Directorate had already commented on a draft proposal for the Research School of Health and Life Sciences. A more detailed paper would be presented to the Faculty Board in May where a full discussion would take place.
vii. The Strategic Review Group was considering proposals regarding a University-wide Graduate School. It was expected that the Graduate School would provide a focus for postgraduate activity at a high level but would not interfere with departmental activity.
viii. The University would be invited to submit bids for £12M under SRIF3. The PVCR was chairing a Working Party of which all three ADRs were members. £6M had been notionally allocated for a new building in the area of Health, Exercise, Sports Science and Biosciences. Parts of the Faculty’s health bid would be integrated into the project which, although led by the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences’ requirements, would essentially be a cross-Faculty initiative. Departments would be invited to submit equipment bids on a competitive basis for the remainder of the fund.
ix. The Faculty’s diary of events continued to develop. The BAAS and the WI were sponsoring Question Time – Intelligent Machines on 23 February. National Science Week would take place 14-17 March, incorporating included practical sessions for school children and prestigious lectures (including the Sir Nevill Mott Lecture organised by the Department of Physics). As part of the Year of Einstein, the Institute of Physics’ “Lab in a Lorry” would also be visiting the University.
05/4 Associate Dean’s (Research) Report
i. Applications for the Faculty Small Grants and Travel Fund had been received. Results would be announced immediately after the next Directorate meeting.
ii. The
ADR would circulate information relating to various funding opportunities.
ACTION: ADR
iii. Full Economic Costing of research proposals had to be implemented in the next academic year although some retrospective funding was expected in July 2005. The overhead figure would be increased to 80%. Equipment costing over £50K would be reimbursed at 80% up to £50K and 100% over and above £50K. The University would provide guidance and training to staff who prepared research proposals. Staff from the Research Office were willing to visit departments to speak about the new requirements.
05/5 Associate Dean’s (Teaching) Report
05/5.1 Student Recruitment 2005
SCI05-P1
The Faculty’s UK/EU undergraduate applications were up 14% on the previous year (University 15% increase). All departments had shown an increase except for Computer Science where applications had decreased by 13%. Computer Science applications had decreased nationally but the University’s drop was a concern and the department urgently needed to revisit its portfolio of programmes. The department was aware of the situation and had held a number of internal meetings to discuss options for new programmes. As the position became clearer, in the next few months, the Faculty may need to consider making a proposal to the University to increase intake targets in other departments to compensate for the likely shortfall in Computer Science.
International
undergraduate applications were holding steady although both Computer Science
and Information Science had experienced a drop.
International postgraduate applications had increased. However departments were urged to exercise caution as detailed analysis showed that more applications were from countries with historically low conversion rates. Applications from China (high conversion rate) had decreased.
In response to concerns raised at the last meeting, the ADT had investigated the processing of international applications with the Postgraduate Admissions Office and confirmed that there were no undue delays in the system although incomplete online applications did pose a number of issues which needed to be addressed.
05/5.2 Other Learning/Teaching Issues
i. The University had agreed its position with regard to top-up fees and had submitted an Access Agreement to the Office of Fair Access (OFFA) for approval. The University intended to operate a centrally administered means-tested bursary scheme. In addition, some academic departments would introduce merit-based scholarships for some undergraduate programmes.
ii. The National Student Survey had been distributed to final year students – no feedback was yet available.
iii. A member queried why the timetable for Annual Programme Reviews (APRs) had been changed. The revised timetable did not sit well with the examinations process. On balance, the Faculty Board felt that it would be better to hold the APRs before the Semester One examination period. The ADT would raise this with the appropriate committees/personnel. ACTION: ADT
05/6 Research Assessment Exercise 2008
The Chairs of sub-panels had been announced. Five members of staff from the University had been appointed as Chairs of sub-panels. Congratulations were extended to Professor Feather who had been appointed as Chair of the Library and Information Management sub-panel. Membership of sub-panels was expected to be announced soon.
“Guidance to panels” and “RAE 2008: Equality briefing for panel chairs, members and secretaries” had also been released. The guidance to panels document contained more information about the mechanisms by which sub-panels were expected to assess the quality profile of research. As expected, quality profiles would range between unclassified and 4* and a percentage of the research activity submitted would be assigned to each. Quality profiles would be assessed on research outputs, research environment and esteem indicators. Main panels would be responsible for assigning weighting to the three criteria (research output – minimum 50%, research environment – minimum 5%, esteem indicators – minimum 5%).
The next round of Deanery Visits would need to focus more specifically on helping departments to prepare for the RAE.
05/7 Periodic Programme Review
SCI05-P2
The HoD of Human Sciences presented the Periodic Programme Review report and departmental response for Human Sciences. The report was generally supportive and positive about the work of the department. A number of issues had been raised which were acknowledged by the department and would be responded to in due course.
The PPR report highlighted concerns about the length of time it was taking to refurbish the Wavy Top Building following asbestos removal. The HoD reported that the Deputy Chair of Council had since taken action to approve an increase in the budget which would allow the work to be completed in time for the start of the next academic year.
The PPR report also made reference to the interdisciplinary nature of the department and members of the panel had been surprised at the unusually small staff groups supporting each area. The PPR report had also highlighted a serious issue regarding the department’s vulnerability to staff losses which could affect its ability to continue its interdisciplinary teaching provision. The department was well aware of the situation and, as such, had established a strategy for expanding the staff base, based on increased student numbers. This strategy lay at the heart of the Departmental Development Plan which had been submitted to Operations Sub-Committee in August 2004. The very brief, rather negative feedback from Operations Sub-Committee was considered disappointing, when substantial issues of strategy and planning required a more detailed dialogue with senior management. The issue of dialogue with senior management regarding Departmental level planning and strategy was a concern shared by other departments.
The HoD wished to alert the Learning and Teaching Committee to the current problem for departments in addressing structural issues affecting quality of teaching provision, where these needed to interact with the University’s strategic planning processes.
05/8 Science and Engineering Foundation Studies
Programme
SCI05-P3
The Faculty Board received the Annual Report on the Science and Engineering Foundation Studies programme from the Programme Director. As reported by the ADT, there had been a decrease in applications to the programme. However, this was probably attributable to the fact that some students were applying direct to departments which had introduced foundation years into their degree programmes. The University had yielded an additional 95 students from this route in the 2004 intake. As in previous years, the report highlighted some significant drifts from intended destination, this was particularly relevant in terms of transfers from Engineering to Science. The Faculty had gained 15 students in this way.
05/9 Award of Degrees
SCI05-P4
Faculty Board approved the award of Research Degrees to the candidates listed in the agenda paper.
05/10 Equal Opportunities Plan
SCI05-P5
Faculty Board received a report on the Equal Opportunities Plan 2004 and the Equal Opportunities Action Plan for 2005, approved by Equal Opportunities Sub-Committee on 18 January 2005.
05/11 Award of Degrees
SCI05-P6
Faculty Board noted
degrees awarded by Senate at its (Special) meeting on 26 November 2004.
05/12 Staff-Student Committees
The Faculty Board
noted that reports of Staff-Student Committee meetings had been deposited with
the Secretary as follows:
|
|
Chemistry |
28 April 2004, 27
October 2004 |
05/13 External Examiner Reports
Faculty Board noted that reports of External Examiners, and Departmental responses, had been deposited with the Secretary, and were available for consultation on request. Any major issues had been brought to the attention of the appropriate Head of Department and the Associate Dean (Teaching).
05/14 Any Other Business
Faculty
Web-Pages Project
Professor Haslam reported that he was leading a project to redesign the Faculty and departmental (top level) web-pages. The project was being funded by the Faculty and a number of discussions had already taken place at Directorate and at a meeting of departmental web officers. External website designers would be commissioned to design templates.
Faculty
On-Line Learning Development Officer
Lee Barnett had started employment as the Faculty On-line
Learning Development Officer on 4 January.
Part of his remit was to encourage the use of the University’s VLE Learn
and CAA and to help departments to develop flexible teaching resources. Departments should contact the ADT in the
first instance with ideas about how they could utilise Lee’s time.
05/15 Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 19 May 2005 (start time – 2.30pm)
February 2005
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