Education Zone (5th February 2016)

Minutes

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Name of Committee	Education Zone
Date and time	5th February 2016, 14:00
Place	Students' Union (SUSU)
Present Members (voting)	Physical Sciences & Engineering Faculty Officer Giles Howard Vice President Education Shruti Verma Postgraduate (Research) Students Officer Mike Allwright Education Zone Student Group Representative Michael Sims Engineering & the Environment Faculty Officer Vinnie Sivadev Vice President Welfare Sam Bailey Health Sciences Faculty Officer Daniel Browning Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Officer Bradley Tombleson Emily Stewart
Absent with Apologies	Union President Ben Franklin
Absent without Apologies	Business, Law and Art Faculty Officer Marc Goh Medicine Faculty Officer Fiona Vincent Humanities Faculty Officer Frazer Delves Zehong Au Kelechi Nze Natural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Officer Yousra Hikal Postgraduate (Taught) Students Officer Ruchika Menon
Non-members	Adam Turner

Actions and Decisions

Type	Description	Who
Action	All committee members to send details of employability and enterprise opportunities in their subject area to the VP Welfare.
Decision	The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.
Action	VP Education and VP Welfare to draft a new version of the policy and circulate to the committee for feedback.
Decision	The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.
Decision	The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.
Action	Adam Turner to consult with the MEC, draft a new version of the policy and bring back to the committee.

Welcome & Apologies

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

Officer Reports

The relevant Officers presented their reports to the committee.

Attached:

Employability & Enterprise

VP Welfare provided some background on the work of the working group that is examining everything that SUSU does for employability and enterprise and looking at the opportunities provided by each zone. Course Reps were cited as an example.

Other examples that the committee suggested were the Law society who do a variety of events and activities; Biology Society who do a career day; Cybersecurity and Hackathons that take place; Crimsoc do a live crime scene investigation and the Missing Maps project.
VP education said any other ideas should be sent to VP Welfare.

Action

All committee members to send details of employability and enterprise opportunities in their subject area to the VP Welfare.

Policy for Review: Fair Access to University (1011P17)

Sam was not sure if the University was currently on course to meet its access targets. Emily clarified that the University’s access policy changed yearly.
Shruti said that not having a policy would not stop SUSU from campaigning on widening participation and fair access.
Education Groups officer Mike said that the University was improving. There followed a discussion on the impact that the government’s green paper would have on fair access agreements.
Postgraduate Research officer Mike Allwright said that this policy needed an update.

Shruti asked whether it was necessary to have a policy on this matter and if so should a new one be created.

Decision	The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.
Action	VP Education and VP Welfare to draft a new version of the policy and circulate to the committee for feedback.

Policy for Review: National Student Survey (0809P6)

VP Education noted that the NSS helps the University and the Union. She said the old policy referred to is no longer relevant and that there was no reason to keep the policy. The committee were in agreement with this view.

Decision

The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.

Policy for Review: Supporting the Military Education Committee... (1011P18)

MEC Rep Adam said that MEC events are usually by invitation only and they do not wish for help to publicise them from SUSU. This policy as it currently stands is not useful. He said he will clarify this with the relevant MEC staff and ask what support from SUSU they would appreciate.

Decision	The committee recommended that the policy should be allowed to lapse.
Action	Adam Turner to consult with the MEC, draft a new version of the policy and bring back to the committee.

Feedback & Assessment Changes

Shruti presented a draft of the university’s universal feedback guidelines that is being worked on currently. The committee evaluated the guidance form point by point. VP Education collated the feedback to take the University. The consensus was in favour of the document but urged greater clarity.

End of Year Awards

Shruti provided some background on her reasoning for the awards being done on a per faculty basis and how the process of selecting winners would necessarily be a process that was subjective. Exceptions of awards will be made as necessary on a case by case basis. Invitations for the awards will be sent out a month beforehand.

The committee expressed satisfaction with the categories that had been circulated by VP Education.

10.

Any Other Business

None.

Key: P (Papers Provided), PF (Papers to Follow)