Faculty of Science
Faculty Board
SCI06-M1
Minutes of the Meeting of the Faculty Board held on 25 May 2006
Members: Professor Ken Parsons (Chair), Dr Helmut Bez (ab),
Professor Jon Binner, Dr Katherine Brooke-Wavell, Dr Steve Brown (ab),
Professor Paul Chung, Dr Tony Croft (ab), Dr Holger Dullin (ab), Professor Roy
Faulkner, Professor John Feather (ab), Dr Martin Harrison, Professor Roger
Haslam (ab), Professor George Havenith (ab), Dr Tom Jackson, Professor Feo
Kusmartsev, Professor Chris Linton, Peter Lund (ab), Liam McGuire (ab), Dr
Roger Mortimer, Ian Murray, Dr Les Mustoe (ab), Professor Phil Page, Professor
Shirley Pearce (ab), Dr Iain Phillips, Dr Gareth Pritchard, Professor Clive
Pugh, John Richardson, Professor Sameer Singh (ab), Dr Gerry Swallowe, Dr John
Terry (ab), Professor Peter Warwick
Apologies for Absence: Dr Helmut Bez, Dr Tony Croft, Dr
Holger Dullin, Professor John Feather, Professor Roger Haslam, Professor George
Havenith, Professor Shirley Pearce
In
Attendance: Anne Lamb, Heather Rees, Miranda Routledge (Secretary)
06/1 Minutes
The Minutes
of the Meeting of the Science Faculty Board (SCI05:M3) held on 10 November 2005,
were confirmed.
06/2 Dean’s
Report
i. Industrial Action: The University was hoping
that all staff would set examination papers.
ii. University Strategy: A
Senate/Council Away Day was being held on 19 June to discuss the next
University Strategic Plan for submission to HEFCE. At the Away Day, the various initiatives that
had been discussed at Strategic Review Working Group would be explored
further. Delegates would be split into
groups and the Dean outlined the themes that would be discussed.
iii. Faculty Financial Position: For
2005/06, the 9-month position was a projected deficit of approximately
£800K. For 2006/07, the Faculty was
forecasted a deficit of £668K. This was
an improvement on the current year but could only be achieved if student
recruitment targets were met.
iv.
v. Dean, ADR and HoD Appointments: All Faculty appointments were following due process and the
outcomes would be announced shortly.
vi. Internationalisation: The Dean, ADT and HoD of Physics were going to
The Dean
wanted the Faculty to be proactive, selecting key institutions and making an
approach. The first step towards this
was for each department to select 3-6 institutions with whom they would like to
develop links in either teaching, research or both. This would form the starting point of a
Faculty contacts list. This supported
the apparent trend of international institutions (the
The Dean
confirmed that some Faculty funding may be available for initiatives which
supported the International Strategy.
vii. Staff Recruitment: The University had
approved a number of Faculty posts in the current academic year, for which
there had been a lot of high quality applicants.
06/3 Associate
Dean’s (Research) Report
i.
RAE 2008: Panel
criteria had been published and the University was beginning preparation in
earnest. There would be a mock exercise
one year before the real assessment and departments were expected to submit
draft RA5s by the end of October. The Faculty
had set an internal deadline of 31 July and all draft submissions would be
reviewed by an internal panel. All staff
seemed to be on board with what was required of them. The Deanery visits in June would pay
particular attention to the 2006 PRPs as this would be the last chance to
influence individual RAE profiles.
ii.
Research
Income: The six-month figure for new grants awarded in 2005/06 stood
at £2.3M. It seemed unlikely that the
final figure would match that of the previous year (approx £10M). Most staff across the Faculty appeared to be
applying for funding and, to date, 173 applications for funding had been made
in 2005/06.
iii.
Faculty
Small Grant and Travel Fund: The Directorate had considered
the latest applications and the ADR would contact all applicants to inform them
of the outcome of their bid. The fund
represented approximately £40K of the Faculty Strategic Fund each year and the
Dean welcomed comments on the process.
06/4 Associate Dean’s (Teaching) Report
i.
Student
Recruitment 2006
SCI06-P1
UK/EU UG: The Faculty intake quota for 2006/07 had increased
to 727 (697 original quota + 10 ASNs + 20 Sports Scholars). Applications were down by 16% which would
make it considerably more difficult to meet the targets than the previous year -
HoDs/Admissions Tutors would need to be flexible in terms of vireing numbers
between departments. Conversion rates
had remained stable (20.8 in 2006 compared to 20.6 in 2005).
The University Open Day on 22 June was an opportunity to
make an impact on next year’s student recruitment.
[Howard
Jones was present for a small discussion – took place at 06/7 but minuted here.]
The University had experienced a decrease in applications
for 2006 intake. This was almost
certainly due, in part, to the introduction of top-up fees. It was noted that several other universities
in the region had also suffered a significant drop and so there may be some
element of an “
International UG: Conversion rates had dropped
from 19.1 in 2005 to 14.1 in 2006 but overall numbers were small.
International PGT: Applications had decreased but
the efficiency of processing had increased with the number of offers remaining
similar to the previous year. It was a
particular concern that applications from
[Howard
Jones was present for a small discussion – took place at 06/7 but minuted here.]
The University had entered the financial game with regard to
international recruitment and therefore had to respond to market forces (e.g.
scholarships and flexibility with regard to English Language proficiency). There were a number of examples of good
practice in the Faculty where departments had linked with overseas
institutions.
ii. Annual Programme Review [SCI06-P2]:
NOTED
iii. Online Learning Development Officer Report [SCI06-P3]:
NOTED
06/5 Disability Discrimination Act
James Kirby, Head of DANS, attended for this item.
Faculty Board was briefed on the amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005, including the differences between DDA and SENDA, and the University’s increased responsibilities. James Kirby was responsible for student issues in relation to the DDA and Lesley Mansell was responsible for staff issues.
Departments would require guidance on what their specific responsibilities were. The most effective approach would be to provide departments with a number of options from which they could choose the most appropriate to suit their local needs.
The Dean queried the
financial resource available for disability-related initiatives. The University received a disability premium
through the HESA return and some disability capital was available. It was commented that the University would
benefit from a more co-ordinated approach to resources.
06/7 Widening Participation
Howard Jones, Student Recruitment and Admissions Manager, and Mark
Lister, Acting Widening Participation Manager, attended for this item.
The University Widening
Participation (WP) Office ran a number of successful outreach activities
including University Experience Days, Student Shadowing Days and Master Class
Packages. The team had started to work with
younger students (Year 8 and Primary Schools) to educate and enthuse pupils
about studying beyond compulsory education.
This was a particularly important activity for science disciplines
across the country. The Faculty already
participated in many of the current initiatives and was congratulated on its
current WP activity; Chemistry and Physics, in particular, had been very
involved. The WP Office was also working
with Mathematical Sciences and the MEC to get various initiatives up and
running. Dave Worrall represented the
Faculty on the WP Team. Examples of
Faculty good practice, organised through the WP Office, included “Rocket
Science Day”, “Floating Bodies Day” “Family Science Evenings” and school visits
to departments. The Faculty also
co-ordinated its own activities including a comprehensive programme of events
during National Science Week and activities at
The University’s Access
Agreement required the development of outreach activity. Current performance indicators in this area
were not in the University’s favour. The
data for the 2004 intake showed that the number of disabled students had
increased but the number of students against all other metrics had decreased,
and was lower than the benchmarks set by HEFCE.
The WP performance indicators affected the HEFCE grant and so the
University needed to intensify efforts in this area. The WP Office was expanding its activities to
work with NAGTY (
A number of HoDs queried the
resource available to departments for WP activities. The University received approximately £1.3M
from HEFCE (retention money), the majority of which was fed straight into the
RASCAL model. The remainder was split
between disability and WP activity. The
WP portion was distributed to departments by (postcode-driven) formula, rather
than in relation to WP activity. HoDs
commented that, if the distribution of funds was activity-driven, it might
encourage more participation from departments.
In response, the Student Recruitment and Admissions Manager explained
that whilst the WP Office could, on occasion, provide some resource to cover
the cost of running events, it was not currently possible to compensate
departments for staff time. The Dean
commented that the HEFCE funding for WP lay in Foundation degrees but the
University had, so far, chosen to validate programmes in feeder colleges rather
than to develop its own. This strategy
may be re-visited at a later date.
Nationally, 85% of secondary
schools had been awarded
06/8 Award of Degrees
SCI06-P4
Faculty Board APPROVED the award of Higher Degrees to candidates.
06/9 Careers Service: Destinations Survey
SCI06-P5:
NOTED
06/10 Faculty
Board Membership
It was NOTED that there were
6 vacancies for elected members (3 in Human Sciences, 1 in Information Science
and 2 in Mathematical Sciences) and up to 8 vacancies for co-opted members in
the 2006/07 session.
06/11 Award of
Degrees
Faculty Board NOTED degrees awarded by Senate at its (Special) meeting on 1 March 2006.
06/12 Programme Proposals
It was NOTED that programme proposals (as listed in
the agenda) had been circulated to members for approval. No comments had been received.
06/13 Staff-Student
Committees
It was NOTED that reports of
Staff-Student Committee meetings had been deposited with the Secretary as detailed
in the agenda.
06/14 Chair’s
Action: Appointment of Prizes Assessors
It was NOTED that the Dean had
taken Chair’s Action to approve Prizes Assessors for the Faculty.
06/15 Associate
Dean (Teaching): Action Between Meetings
It was NOTED that the ADT had
taken action between meetings as detailed in the agenda.
06/16 Valediction
for Retiring Members
The Dean thanked retiring members.
06/17 Provisional
Calendar of Meetings for 2006/07
Thursday 9 November 2006
Thursday 24 May 2007
Miranda Routledge
June 2006
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