Learning and Teaching Committee
Curriculum Sub-Committee
Subject: Committee
Effectiveness
Origin: Secretary
The
following request was circulated to Committee Secretaries by the Academic
Registrar on 29 May 2009:
Following
discussions at Audit Committee, all formal committees are being asked to review
their effectiveness on an annual basis.
I would be grateful if you could add this item to the agenda for the
last meeting of your committee this academic year, or if it is now too late for
that meeting, to the agenda for the first meeting in 2009/10. In subsequent years, please include it on the
agenda for the last meeting of the year.
As
committees vary a great deal in the way they operate and the nature of their
business, we are not currently being prescriptive about how effectiveness
should be considered and a light touch approach is entirely acceptable. However, to provide some guidance for you and
committee chairs, you might wish to consider the following:
1.
Is
the purpose of the committee clear and do members feel that it has fulfilled
its purpose effectively in the last year (views of those outside the committee
but affected by its operation should be taken in to account if at all
possible)? If it has not been effective,
why not?
2.
Is
the committee operating in an effective way in practical terms? E.g. do
agendas/papers provide appropriate information in a helpful format, are the
right people present for discussions and decision-making, are the frequency and
length of meetings optimal or is there scope for enhancement?
3.
Do
communications and operations relating to the committee work effectively? E.g. is the committee being made aware of the
right issues/items, are the committee’s decisions being communicated
appropriately to the right individuals/other committees and are they being
acted upon? Are the right
individuals/other committees receiving effective reports on the work of the
committee (again comments from outside the membership of the committee itself
may be helpful here).
In the
light of experience, we may issue more detailed guidance next year on
effectiveness reviews, but I hope the above is helpful for now. We are conscious of existing workloads, so I
would emphasise that the above process is intended to be light touch and
hopefully to result in improvements in committee operation which could save
time in the long run.
Author
– Jennie Elliott
Date
– September 2009
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