Faculty of Science

Faculty Board

SCI06-M2

Minutes of the Meeting of the Faculty Board held on 17 November 2006

Members: Professor Ken Parsons (Chair), Professor Jon Binner, Miss Zoe Buckingham, Professor Paul Chung, Dr Tony Croft, Dr Chris Dawson, Professor Roy Faulkner (ab), Professor John Feather, Professor Jerry Griffiths, Dr Paula Griffiths, Dr Diane Gyi, Mrs Janet Harrison, Dr Martin Harrison, Miss Suzanne Hartwell (ab), Professor Roger Haslam, Dr Tom Jackson, Dr Steven Kenny, Professor Feo Kusmartsev, Professor Chris Linton (ab), Peter Lund, Professor Roger Mortimer (ab), Dr Les Mustoe (ab), Professor Charles Oppenheim, Professor Shirley Pearce (ab), Dr Iain Phillips, Dr Gareth Pritchard (ab), Professor Clive Pugh (ab), Dr Louise Reyner, John Richardson, Professor Sameer Singh (ab), Ms Judy Smyth (ab), Dr Gerry Swallowe (ab), Professor Peter Warwick

Apologies for Absence: Professor Roy Faulkner, Miss Suzanne Hartwell, Professor Chris Linton, Professor Roger Mortimer, Professor Shirley Pearce, Dr Gareth Pritchard, Professor Clive Pugh, Ms Judy Smyth, Dr Gerry Swallowe

In Attendance: Mrs Jo Corlett (Secretary)

06/18 Welcome

The Dean welcomed all new members of the Faculty Board.

06/19 Minutes

The Minutes of the Meeting of the Science Faculty Board (SCI06:M1) held on 25 May 2006, were confirmed.

06/20 Matters Arising from the minutes

i British University in Egypt: It was reported that Computer Science were currently the only Department within the Faculty involved with the BUE.

ii Internationalisation: Visits had been made to China and India by Faculty staff to ascertain what opportunities were available for undergraduate and taught postgraduate recruitment. The Dean was preparing a paper on the Faculty’s strategy for Internationalisation.

06/21 Constitution and Terms of Reference of the Faculty Board

SCI06-P7, SCI06-P7a

The Faculty Board received the papers and had no comments to make.

06/22 Faculty Business for 2006/2007

The Faculty Business for the year would mainly focus on

i. RAE

ii. Internationalisation

iii. Sport and the opportunities from a Faculty perspective

iv. Enterprise opportunities to be discussed with the new Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise.

06/23 Dean’s Report

i. RAE Initiatives: The Faculty had identified various opportunities in connection with the RAE and Departments had been asked for initiatives to enhance their RAE submissions. The first iteration of these had resulted in some new staff appointments and the second iteration had been submitted to Operations Sub-Committee and were being considered by the DVC and PVC(R).

ii. Internationalisation: This was on going as noted in 06/20 (ii).

iii. Appointments of PVC(E) and University Marketing Director: Peter Winter had been appointed from the University of Manchester as Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, which is now the University’s third leg of activity with Teaching and Research. He would be invited to speak to either Directorate or Faculty Board. Ian Cairns, from the University of Lincoln, had been appointed as the University Marketing Director. He would also be invited to speak to Faculty staff once he had taken up his post in January 2007.

iv. Finance: Top up fees of £3k per student had been paid for the first time by all new UK/EU undergraduates allowing for strategic funding to be made available for future initiatives. In addition HEFCE had announced that a further £1k would be paid to Universities for all students studying Physics, Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering. This was understood to be for three years commencing in October 2007 for FTEs studying in the relevant subject areas. The additional funding would be income streamed to Departments.

v. Human Resources Committee: The Committee had been reconstituted allowing for representatives from all categories of staff. Faculty staff were encouraged to ensure that all vacancies were filled. The Secretary would follow up with Personnel the action to be taken to fill the remaining vacancies for representatives from the Administrative Services and Operational Services job families. ACTION: JMC

06/24 Associate Dean’s (Research) Report

i. PG(R) Recruitment: Analysis of recruitment over recent years had shown it to have been very strong but it had now levelled off. It had also shown that the ratio of Home/ EU students to overseas students was about 50:50. All PG(R) students registered on 31 July 2007 would be eligible to be counted in the RAE and Departments were encouraged to start looking early for potential research students from the current undergraduate population. Each Department had been allocated two development studentships and in addition some half funded Faculty studentships would be available.

ii. Support for early Career Researchers: HEFCE funding of £15k was available, through the Faculty’s small grants and contracts fund, specifically to support early career researchers. This could be used to enable them to attend conferences at which they were presenting papers but also conferences, from which they could benefit, at which they were not presenting. Information would be sent to HoDs on how the application process would be administered. ACTION: JF

06/25 Associate Dean’s (Teaching) Report

i. Intake Statistics 2006

SCI06-P8

Generally recruitment in the Faculty had been extremely good. Admissions teams in Departments had all worked very hard to ensure the high levels of recruitment. There had been an undergraduate intake of 725 Home/EU students against a target of 727, despite the fall in applications of 16%, with an overseas intake of 101 against a target of 74. Postgraduate taught recruitment was a difficult area with applications declining both nationally (14%) and internationally (11%). A further difficulty was the significant variation in conversion rates across different countries. Nevertheless intake figures were 77 against a target of 87 for Home/EU students and 152 against a target of 153 for overseas students, significantly greater than expectations.

ii. Programme Development – Opportunity for new Degrees

It was reported that the University was keen to consider the opportunities for new degrees and that current suggestions included History, Law, Architecture, Health and Community Studies, Pharmacy and Music Technology. Faculty Board members made the following additional suggestions and comments:

a. Chemistry had discussed the possibility of a Pharmacy programme and it appeared that there might still be a niche market for this. However there would need to be sufficient resources pumped into any new programme to ensure its success. There were also some concerns about finding sufficient suitable placements, which was a compulsory element of MPharm degrees.

b. Information Science wanted to carry out a SWOT analysis on their current programmes and talk to other universities, students and employers before making any decisions. However pump priming would be needed for this.

c. Physics suggested there was a market for programmes in Astronomy and Cosmology.

d. It was also suggested that the only Research School without core underpinning programmes was Health and Life Sciences. With clear 'health' expertise across all three Faculties, ranging from 'soft' social science activity through the spectrum to hardcore engineering, it was an obvious area for development. Almost all (if not all) Science departments could contribute e.g. maths biology, health informatics, human exposure to different thermal environments, biochemistry, ergonomics, physics/optics, psychology. It might be possible to re-package some current content to hit an existing or emerging market. This could also lead to the possibility of enhancing existing links to foreign Universities that have research-based components and could be a source of overseas research students.

e. Computer Science wanted to explore the options with Computing and Art and Design.

f. There were some concerns about the timetabling issues associated with further joint ventures and collaboration across Departments, without further resources being provided.

g. Local competition for new programmes should be considered e.g DMU currently have a successful Music Technology course.

h. It would be helpful to have someone to investigate the viability of the above programmes on behalf of the Faculty.

iii. Recruitment 2007: Undergraduate application figures for 2007 had not been verified but first indications were that they were well up on 2006.

iv. National Student Survey: The Faculty and the University had once again done very well in the NSS. However in 2007 there would be increased competition as more Universities would be participating. Departments are urged to continue trying to improve feedback to students on assessment and ways of doing this had been discussed with all Teaching and Learning co-ordinators. Departments would, in future, be expected to respond to NSS results at either the Periodic or Annual Programme Review meetings.

v. CETL: Dr Tony Croft presented a summary of the current activity of the SIGMA – CETL, Mathematics Education Centre which was awarded £4.85 Million in 2005, in conjunction with Coventry University, to develop a Centre for Excellence in the University-wide provision of mathematics and statistics support. The MEC had moved to newly re-furbished facilities in Schofield and the existing drop-in centre in the Sir David Davies building had also been upgraded. Additional staff had been taken on, including a Senior Research Fellow in Mathematics Education, and a Statistics Advisory Service had been set up for postgraduate and final year students in any discipline. Provision for students with additional needs, or who were Maths anxious had also been substantially enhanced, In addition several PhD students were being funded at Loughborough, Coventry and Birmingham Universities.

The CETL was developing mathematics support provision at other Universities and there was widespread dissemination activity across the UK and beyond. Departments were told that Loughborough was the leader in the UK in this field and all students should be encouraged to make use of the facilities and support provided. It was noted that statistics support for students conducting final year projects was available. Students should be encouraged to seek advice early in their project.

There were also opportunities for staff interested in short term secondments to the CETL in order to develop mathematics or statistics support or improve the teaching and learning of mathematics or statistics within their home department.

vi. Other Teaching and Learning Issues:

a. Loughborough had been voted the University which offered the best Student Experience at the THES awards.

b. In the Teaching Quality league table, Loughborough were sixth overall in the rankings. High rankings in this and other league tables were clearly important for recruitment as it has a positive effect on conversion rates.

c. Additional HEFCE funding was to be used to create a network of learning spaces for students across the University. One of these would be in the foyer area of S building.

d. The Dean thanked the AD(T) and the Admissions Tutors for all their hard work throughout the year.

06/26 Research Assessment Exercise 2008

The University was going through a mock exercise and all Departments had submitted their RA5s and received comments back. Departments were also carrying out analysis on the current outputs and final decisions would then have to be made about which staff to submit. This would be in line with the University Equal Opportunities policy. After this there would be six months to improve the submission, so that it could be presented in the best possible way, with evidence to support the statements made.

06/27 Current and future CIS Projects

Val Blackett, Director of CIS, and Tricia Breen, CIS Project Manager, attended for this item.

SCI06-P9

The above paper provided a brief update on Stage 1 of the LUSI (Loughborough University Student Information) Programme which was to develop and implement a new core system to cover student administration from initial admission to graduation. Stage 2 would begin later this academic year with a vision of a one-stop shop for students with a move to VLE and student self service facilities. A more detailed briefing had been arranged on 15 December 2006 for staff across the University.

It was confirmed that the finance project to implement Agresso was on-going.

The Steering Group for the Moodle project (open source VLE) had met and the team established. The project proper would begin in January 2007, but preparatory work had started and staff were reassured that there would be student representation on the Steering group with Faculty representation on the working groups.

For the future, there was a plea from HoDs to prioritise access to CIS systems for staff off campus and to progress the staff portal/ virtual one stop shop to enable better management and executive reporting facilities. In addition there was support for prioritising the web content management project and the single smart card project.

06/28 Equal Opportunities

Lesley Mansell, the University’s Equality and Diversity Adviser, attended for this item.

A briefing paper on the Business Benefits of Positive (Equality Diversity) Action had been circulated prior to the meeting and a presentation was made of the paper. It outlined the reasons for ensuring that HEIs take pro-active steps to reduce institutional discrimination under three main headings Legislation, Social Context and Quality.

Details were given of the main equality legislation introduced during the last thirty years and it was pointed out that all HEI’s were at risk if they did not comply with this legislation as they could face legal challenge. Within the social context positive action should lead to attracting people from more diverse backgrounds, access to a wider pool of talent, improvements in staff and student recruitment, a more positive experience for both staff and students and social advancement and social change. There could be many benefits of positive action such as a diverse workforce with the best skills, improvements in staff morale and trust, reduced staff turnover, a stimulating productive working environment, enabling staff and students to fulfil their potential and there could also be financial benefits.

At Loughborough there were many examples of good practice including policies and codes of practice, job evaluation, the Two Tick disability symbol, DANS and “Confide” together with the harassment and bullying panel.

Building on these positive initiatives would contribute to portraying an image which was vibrant, contemporary and supportive for staff, students and for current and potential funders. Loughborough University had made a commitment to equal opportunity and diversity and it also recognised the need to change. However, there was also a need to acknowledge that remaining the same was not progressive. Taking positive action in line with current equality and diversity legislation was a long term process, which could only be beneficial to the organisation, its staff and students.

06/29 Periodic Programme Reviews

SCI06-P10

Faculty Board RECEIVED a copy of the report and departmental response from the Periodic Programme Review of the Department of Computer Science. The outcome had been very positive and the Department were addressing the issues raised.

06/30 Award of Degrees

SCI06-P11

Faculty Board APPROVED the award of Higher Degrees to candidates.

06/31 Faculty IT Support

Dr Steven Kenny had taken over the co-ordination of Faculty IT support from 1 August 2006 and he would be the Faculty’s point of contact with Computing Services. He reported that it was the aim of Computing Services to roll out wireless networking to lecture theatres and Departments and that it was already on line in the Stewart Mason Building and the library. High performance computing facilities for the University were being co-ordinated centrally.

06/32 University’s Corporate Strategy

SCI06-P12

Faculty Board considered the draft Corporate strategy document for 2006-2016 but had no further comments to add to those already submitted to Strategic Review Working Group by Directorate. Further information was requested on the Centre for Academic Practice and Student Learning.

ACTION: JMC

06/33 Faculty Board Membership

SCI06-P13

Faculty Board NOTED the Faculty Board membership for the session 2006/2007.

06/34 Membership of the Ethical Advisory Committee

Faculty Board NOTED the election of Dr G Ragsdell to the Ethical Advisory Committee.

06/35 Programme Proposals

It was NOTED that programme proposals for the PG Certificate in Maths Support for Students with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia in HE/FE had been circulated to members for approval. A number of positive comments had been received.

06/36 Associate Dean (Teaching): Action Between Meetings

It was NOTED that the AD(T) had taken action between meetings as detailed in the agenda.

06/37 External Examiners’ Reports

It was NOTED that External Examiners’ reports and Departmental responses had been deposited with the Secretary.

06/38 Staff-Student Committees

It was NOTED that reports of Staff-Student Committee meetings had been deposited with the Secretary as detailed in the agenda.

06/39 Prizes

It was NOTED that the Sir Robert Martin Faculty Prize had been awarded to Ausra Glozeckaite (Mathematics finalist).

06/40 On Line Learning Development Officer Report

SCI06-P14

The OLDO report was NOTED.

06/41 Dates of Future Meetings

Thursday 24 May 2007 at 2.30pm in the Council Chamber.

Jo Corlett