Student Services
Committee
SS03-M3
Minutes of the Thirty-third Meeting of the Committee held on
5 November 2003.
Professor Morag Bell (Chair)
Mr M Brown Mr
J Burnard Mrs N
Honey
Mr H E Jones Professor
R Kalawsky (ab) Professor M R Lister
(ab)
Mrs W E Llewellyn Mr
M Moghal (ab) Mr H M
Pearson (ab)
Mr A Steeles Mr
J M Town Ms R A
C Warren (ab)
Mr A J Westaway (ab)
In attendance: Mr C Dunbobbin Committee Secretary, Mr D
Jackson, Mrs J Ellis
Apologies for absence were received from: Professor R
Kalawsky, Professor M R Lister, Mr H M Pearson, Ms R A C Warren
03/16 Minutes
The Minutes of the Thirty-second
Meeting held on 4 June 2003 were confirmed as a true record.
03/17 Matters Arising
(i)
Mental Health Policy for Loughborough
Mrs Llewellyn reported that a
Student Guidance and Welfare page on the University's web site had been
created. The page included links to all of the services under the SG&W
umbrella, and to policies, including the Code of Practice on Mental Health. Mrs
Llewellyn would arrange for the establishment of the page to be announced on
the Lboro Noticeboard.
(ii)
Guidelines for Following Up Absent Students
It was agreed that this item would
be carried forward to the next meeting when Professor Lister would provide an
update.
(iii)
Universities UK Report
Mrs Llewellyn provided an update
on progress in implementing the main recommendations of the Universities UK
Report on the retention of non-traditional students.
·
There was little progress to report on the proposed
relocation of the English Language Study Unit (ELSU) to the Herbert Manzoni
Building. However, a lack of space continued to be an issue in all of the
student services departments.
·
Following a three-day inspection at the beginning of June
2003, the Careers Service had been successful in obtaining the National Quality
Standard for Guidance and Information Services. The Committee offered its
congratulations on this achievement.
·
Reminder emails about the services offered by the
University’s student services departments had not been sent to 'vulnerable'
students as originally planned due to problems associated with targeting in an
acceptable way some of the groups identified as vulnerable. Instead, a mass
email would be sent to all first year students. It was suggested that such an
email might also be helpful to non-first year students, and Mrs Llewellyn
agreed to consider further mass emails to other student groups later in the
academic year.
Mr Jones noted that prior to the
start of the 2003-04 academic year, introductory sessions had been provided for
new mature students for the first time, and these had proven very successful.
(iv)
Moving Towards a Centre for Faiths and Spirituality
The Executive Management Group had
considered the report prepared by the working group to investigate this issue,
and had encouraged the group to meet again to develop further plans.
There were two issues facing the
Chaplaincy: In the short term, a lack of space was causing problems at critical
periods such as Friday lunchtimes when Muslim users of the Chaplaincy were
being forced to pray in the corridor. This was agreed to be unacceptable
especially as the University’s facilities for Muslim students were highlighted
in recruitment material. In the longer term, Phase 2 of the EHB redevelopment
plan would render the Chaplaincy homeless. The Space Management Committee was
considering alternative sites for when this move became necessary.
It was likely that the working
group would propose that a new building should be constructed to house a Centre
for Faiths and Spirituality, and it was due to meet again, with architect John
Warren, to take advice on what might be possible with a new build. However
there were doubts as to whether a new building was realistic – it was noted
that those institutions with very good multi-faith centres tended to have a
strong institutional history of faith provision. At Loughborough, it was felt
that the conversion of an existing building might be more likely.
It was agreed that the working
group would report again to EMG following its forthcoming meeting.
(v)
University Corporate Identity
It was noted that standard letter
templates in Arial font had been agreed, mounted on the Media Services web
pages, and announced on the Lboro Noticeboard. University papers were also now
being prepared in Arial, and work had begun on updating system-generated and
standard letters to students.
(vi)
Policy and Guidelines relating to Illicit Drug Use
The Policy had been updated, and would
be sent to the Student Disciplinary Committee for comments before being
recommended to Senate.
03/18 Student Guidance and Welfare
.1 Annual Reports
(i)
English Language Study Unit (2002-03)
(Mrs J Ellis, Head of the English Language Study Unit attended the
meeting and presented the ELSU annual report)
The workload of ELSU had increased significantly in 2002-03, with ten
additional members of academic staff being employed on a part-time basis to
teach on the increased programme of in-sessional courses. Despite the increase
in the number of students attending in-sessional classes, feedback still
revealed high levels of student satisfaction.
Individual help and advice was
provided to students during term-time. However, even though each student was
restricted to a maximum of half an hours assistance per week, the demand for
this service outstripped the 12 hour timetable that was the maximum provision
that could be made available.
A similar number of students took
part in the 2 and 1 week pre-sessional courses as in recent years. However,
there was a large increase in the number of students on the 12, 8 and 4 week
courses. With help from other University departments, ELSU was able to secure
adequate teaching and accommodation facilities. A policy of enforcing the
deposit requirement rigidly, together with a new facility to allow potential
pre-sessional students to pay their deposit by credit card led to an improved
Application to Arrival Conversion rate. The preponderance of Chinese and
Taiwanese students was greater than ever (87.1% were from these countries in
2003, compared to 73.7% in 2002). This raised some difficulties in attempting
to ensure that students spoke English as much as possible outside of the
classroom. However, this was managed well by the Social Tutors, and this was
reflected in the final marks obtained by the students in their end of course
assessment.
One of the problems in running the
pre-sessional courses was that the teaching and residential accommodation was
widely spread around campus. Further, the teaching rooms were often
inappropriate (large lecture theatres for very small groups). There was some
frustration that some rooms had been block-booked for conferences, but were
empty for some of this time, and could have been used for pre-sessional
teaching. It was hoped that better projections of intake numbers would allow
sufficient appropriate rooms to be made available in Summer 2004.
Feedback on the pre-sessional
courses was good, with 80% of students rating the course 'good' or 'oustanding.'
There had been an 11% increase in
the number of UK students supported for dyslexia, dyspraxia or another Specific
Learning Difficulty (SpLD). 70% of students supported in this way belonged to
the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (compared to 66% in 2001-02), and
52.5% of these students were from LUSAD. Restrictions on space meant that it
was difficult to deal with all of these students within ELSU, and a temporary
satellite office was therefore set up from the end of Semester 1 within LUSAD
to cater for the specific needs of these students. LUSAD had been very
supportive of this development, and the temporary satellite office was moving
to a permanent base within LUSAD. Overall student feedback on literacy support
continued to show high satisfaction levels.
The newsletters for international
students had been distributed predominantly by email, and this had proven to be
very successful. Ken Tyler, the International Student Adviser had begun to keep
a record of the provision of advice by email, and 1629 instances of advice had
been provided by this method. Overall, there had been a 73% increase in the
number of students seen by Ken Tyler in relation to visa or general and
academic advice in 2002-03 compared to 2001/02. Student feedback had revealed
very high satisfaction ratings.
The main area of concern for ELSU
was the lack of space – the office accommodation was no longer large enough for
the number of staff employed by the unit. This situation was expected to worsen
as student numbers generally, and the number of international students, and
students with SpLDs continued to increase. It was noted also that a new senior
member of staff was required to take on additional supervisory work within the
unit. A resubmitted request for this post was due to be considered by
Operations Sub-Committee in December 2003.
The Committee thanked Mrs Ellis
and her colleagues for their work, especially over the Summer period, when
there had been uncertainty as to how many students would arrive for the pre-sessional
courses.
The Committee noted that there
were concerns about space in all of the student services departments, and in
some cases, it was felt that the lack of space was restricting the development of
the service. The importance of making representations to the Space Management
Committee on these concerns was emphasised.
It was noted that it was important
consider the issue of space for ELSU and the other student services departments
in the context of the University’s overall policy on the recruitment of
international students, and students from non-traditional backgrounds. The
Registrar offered reassurances that long-term strategy documents in this area
were being drawn up, and it was hoped that these would assist in obtaining the
appropriate resources to develop these services.
(ii)
Disabilities and Additional Needs Service (2002-03)
(Mr D Jackson, Head of the Disabilities and Additional Needs Service
(DANS) attended and presented the DANS annual report)
2002-03 had seen an increase in
the number of students assisted by DANS. The absence of one member of staff due
to illness for a large part of the year had placed additional pressure on other
members of the DANS team, but student needs had still been met, and student
feedback revealed very high satisfaction levels.
The department had been involved
in two externally funded projects aimed at improving provision for disabled
students. One project, led by Loughborough College, was based on the
development of a web-based Progress File, to help support disabled students in
their transition from Further to Higher Education. The other project, based in
the Faculty of Engineering involved the development of a web-based audit tool
to allow academics to improve the accessibility of their teaching methods.
The Head of DANS had been involved
in developing objectives for the Leicestershire Partnerships for Progression
Steering Group, a cooperative venture with Leicester and De Montfort
Universities, aimed at widening participation in Higher Education for students
with disabilities. Funding was available for the next three years, and it was
envisaged that disabled students at all three Universities would be involved as
mentors to disabled secondary school children.
During the year, many of the
department's activities had centred on ensuring the University achieved
compliance with the SENDA legislation. Amongst many other achievements in this
area, the SENDA Development Group had been established to oversee the implementation
of SENDA within the institution.
An updated version of the Tiger
Braille Embosser had been purchased to enhance the services available to
blind/partially-sighted students. The University now boasted one of the most
sophisticated braille systems available for Mathematics and Engineering.
Space was identified as the most
pressing issue for DANS. The department was at its capacity in terms of the
number of staff that could be accommodated in the existing office. This issue
would have to be addressed if the service was to continue to be able to meet
student needs.
The Committee noted that the
University was fortunate to have such good student support services, and
congratulated DANS for its work over the year, particularly that related to
raising awareness of SENDA.
03/19 Hardship Funds
(i)
Annual Report of the Hardship Fund Panel (2002-03)
Mr Jones presented a report on the
allocation of Hardship Funds in 2002-03, and thanked Loughborough Students
Advice for its continued excellent service in effectively managing the
application process. 673 students were awarded grants from the Hardship Funds
in 2002-03, from a total of 760 applications received.
(ii)
Financial Statement on Hardship Funds 2003-04 to date
As anticipated, the sum allocated to
the University had been reduced from £440,000 to £369,000. This made it more of
a challenge than ever to ensure that the funds available were targeted towards
the most vulnerable groups, where they were needed most, and steps had been
taken to 'tighten up' the applications process in order to deter frivolous
applicants. The allocation of funds was spread evenly across the academic year,
as far as was possible, although some of the money was ring-fenced for
distribution through the various Hardship Fund Bursaries, and also to assist
students in meeting the cost of educational psychologist assessments. Mr Jones
invited members of the Committee to sit in on one of the fortnightly Hardship
Fund Panel meetings to get a flavour of how applications were considered.
(iii)
Financial
Statement on the University International Hardship (Emergency Payments) Fund
2003-04 to date
Mr Jones expressed concern that
the number of applications to this fund was increasing, and the problems being
brought by international students were becoming more complex. It was agreed
that it would be important for the University to monitor the issue of
international students and tuition fee debt.
It was noted that the increasingly
diverse student population, and in particular, the increase in international
students created a number of new challenges. Staff Development had offered some
training to Hall Wardens on interacting with international students, and it was
suggested that such training could usefully be extended to all student support
services staff in a customer-facing role.
03/20 Recycled Paper
The Committee received a paper
from the Director of Media Services on a proposal that the University use
off-white, recycled paper as standard, as it was more suitable for students
with some disabilities.
It was recognised that the use of
recycled paper and pastel paper were distinct issues, as recycled paper was not
necessarily any less white then non-recycled paper. However, both recycled and
pastel paper were around 20-25% more expensive than standard white copier
paper. Nevertheless, some Universities had switched to using recycled paper
despite the additional cost, for environmental reasons.
A tender was currently out to
determine whether recycled and pastel paper could be obtained at a reasonable
cost. The Committee agreed to await the result of this tender round before
considering this issue further. However, it was noted that pastel paper was
available at competitive prices from the Print Unit, and that students and
Departments could purchase this paper for use in their own printers, or could
submit files to the Print Unit to be printed on pastel paper.
Mr Jackson agreed to contact all
Heads of Academic Departments to raise awareness of the issues in this area,
and to encourage Departments to make student handouts and other such materials
available on pastel paper. In addition the DANS web pages would be used to
notify students of the availability (and potential benefits) of pastel paper,
and the Director of Media Services would be asked to take additional steps as
appropriate to raise awareness in this area.
03/21 Any Other Business
The Director of Residential and
Commercial Services tabled a paper on discussions that had taken place
regarding proposals to change David Collett Hall from a 38 week catered hall,
housing a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate students, to a 31 week
hall, accommodating mainly first year undergraduates. The proposed changes
would involve moving the existing 150 postgraduate student places in the hall
to off-campus halls and other accommodation, and reallocating these places
primarily to first year undergraduates, thereby releasing 150 undergraduate
places in other halls across campus, which would then be used to accommodate
returning undergraduates.
The motivation behind the proposal
was concern about maintaining the high quality of the ‘Loughborough Student
Experience.’ It was felt that the experience was dictated to a large extent by
halls of residence, and that it was under threat as the numbers of
undergraduate students increased, while the number of hall places remained
static. As a consequence, the numbers of returning students in halls had
decreased markedly in recent years, and there was a feeling that the hall
experience had changed for the worse, as all halls had fewer returning students
to organise events and activities, and to offer a more mature, stabilising
influence. A number of groups, including Loughborough Students Union had, as a
result, lobbied for a larger number of returning students to be allocated
places in hall. The proposed changes to David Collett would have a significant
impact on the make-up of that hall, but would allow a larger number of
returning students to be accommodated in halls across campus.
It was noted that care would need
to be taken to preserve the ‘Loughborough Student Experience’ for postgraduates
and international students. It would be important to guarantee these students
accommodation, even if it was not on-campus hall accommodation. Mr Jones noted
that the timing of any decision was also very important, as publicity material
was already being sent to prospective postgraduate students for the 2004-05
academic year, with information about David Collett according to its existing
use. If the proposed change was to occur in Summer 2004, a decision would have
to be taken very quickly, so that this material could be amended.
The Committee supported the
proposal, and felt that the change should take effect from Summer 2004, as there
was already a strong feeling that the inbalance between new and returning
students in halls was adversely affecting the student experience. However, the
Committee was also very sympathetic towards the position of the Warden of David
Collett, and his concerns that his work and that of others in developing David
Collett as a multi-cultural, multi-age hall would be lost. Despite this
conflict, it was felt that the wider aim of restoring the former ratios between
new and returning undergraduates in all halls, was an extremely important issue
that had to be addressed.
It was agreed that Mr Brown and
Mrs Llewellyn would communicate with the Warden of David Collett off-line, and
explore ways in which his achievements in relation to the hall, could be maintained
and built upon, despite the proposed change. It was suggested, for example,
that the hall could retain its international flavour by housing predominantly
international undergraduate students. As such, it might be feasible to maintain
the hall as a 38 week let. Mr Brown also undertook to consult with the
International Office on the implications of the proposal for the accommodation
that would be available to international postgraduate students.
03/22 Dates of Meetings in 2004
Wednesday 3
March 2004
Wednesday 2
June 2004
Author: C.Dunbobbin
Date: November 2003
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