Senate Minutes 19 February 2020

Minutes Of The Meeting Of The Cardiff University Senate Held On Wednesday 19 February 2020, In Room 0.07, Hadyn Ellis Building At 2.15 Pm

Attendance

In Attendance

Ms Deborah Collins, Ms Katy Dale (Minutes), Ms Hannah Darnley, Mr Rhodri Evans, Dr Julie Gwilliam, Ms Selma Lendelvo, Ms Sue Midha, Mr Erold Naomab, Ms TJ Rawlinson, Mr Richard Walters, Dr Simon Wakefield, Mr Rob Williams, Mr Simon Wright (Secretary)

836 Welcome And Introductions

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting and, in particular, the colleagues from the University of Namibia attending as observers.

837 Apologies For Absence

NOTED that the apologies received would be recorded in the Minutes and members were reminded to sign the attendance register.

838 Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of Senate held on 06 November 2019 (paper 19/369) were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

839 Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

840 Declaration of Interests

The Chair reminded members of their requirement to disclose any direct or indirect interests which could influence their judgement. Disclosure of interests should be made before an item was discussed and the individual concerned should either withdraw from the meeting or not take part in the discussion, as appropriate for that part of the agenda.

NOTED that no member disclosed any interests.

841 Vice Chancellor’s Report To Senate

Received paper 19/370 ‘VC Report to Senate’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

841.1  that the process to appointment replacements for the Pro Vice-Chancellors of Education and Student Experience (previously Student Experience and Academic Standards) and the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences had commenced and proposals were detailed in the paper;

841.2 that Senate were welcome to offer comments on the job roles and descriptions, along with proposing names for these roles;

841.3 that the Vice-Chancellor wished to extend the role profile for the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Education and Student Experience to include research and/or scholarship activity to allow applications from all career pathways;

841.4 that Ordinances prescribed the Vice-Chancellor could renew the appointment of Pro Vice-Chancellors and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and also confirmed the maximum terms of office for these roles;

841.5 that individuals undertaking these roles were encouraged to continue with their research, and the expectation was they would return to their schools at the end of these executive or senior managerial roles;

841.6 that a University incident management group was meeting weekly in relation to the Coronavirus;

841.7 that meetings had been held with staff and students regarding industrial action, and the University’s key aim was to ensure students’ academic and support needs continued to be met.

842 Admissions 2019 End Of Cycle Report

Received paper 19/374 ‘Admissions 2019 End of Cycle Report.' Professor Rudolf Allemann introduced the paper.

Noted

842.1 that the paper provided an overview of the admission cycle for entry in the 2019/20 academic year;

842.2 that details of applications for the 2020/21 academic year had been included in the Vice-Chancellor’s report, which indicated that, as of 17th January 2020, there had been an increase in both the number of applications received and offers made;

842.3 that the second phase of the First Choice programme had been successfully implemented, and Professor Allemann thanked all who had been involved;

842.4 that a number of schools remained reliant on clearing to fill places and the University was looking to reduce this reliance in the long term;

842.5 that the average tariff scores had decreased, which was in line with the sector, and the decrease in tariff score was less than other Russell Group institutions; the University planned to maintain tariff in the immediate future and would actively seek to increase it in future years;

842.6 that the University continued to hit and often exceed its target admission intake;

842.7 that the time to process applications had reduced in most schools; where there had been an increase in time, a specific reason has been identified (e.g. due to an unexpected increase in demand);

842.8 that the University has been collecting data on student results, and although there were variations, there was usually no difference if a student had come through clearing; in many cases clearing provided high tariff adjustment students.

843  Changes To Ordinances – School Name Change

Received paper 19/378B ‘EARTH Change of School Name’. Professor Rudolf Allemann introduced the paper.

Noted

843.1  that the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences had reviewed the key areas of research and teaching and this has shown a shift towards environmental sciences;

843.2  that the name change would allow the school to position itself well in the market, matching the desire from students for this subject area;

843.3  that extensive consultation had been held with students and staff.

Resolved

843.4  to recommend to Governance Committee and Council that the title of EARTH be changed to the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

844  Report from the Chair of Academic Standards and Quality Committee (ASQC)

Received papers, 19/371 ‘Report from Chair of ASQC’ and 19/403 ‘ASQC Minutes 30 January 2020’. Professor Amanda Coffey introduced the paper.

Noted

844.1that information on QER would be provided under a separate agenda item;

844.2 that higher education providers in England and Wales were expected to provide a report on degree outcomes by the end of the 2019/20 academic year; this would be brought to the next meeting of Senate ahead of sign off by Council;

844.3 that the Vice-Chancellor has authorised variations to teaching and assessment in light of further industrial action;

844.4 that a bespoke and streamlined complaints procedure had been published for students to use for complaints about the impact of industrial action on their learning;

844.5 that after a request, the Chair of ASQC confirmed the Committee would consider matters relating to libraries if the issues were within the remit of the Committee.

845  Mock REF Report

Received paper, 19/372B ‘Mock REF Update’. Professor Kim Graham introduced the paper.

Noted

845.1  that the paper outlined the outcomes from the mock REF assessment;

845.2 the progress on outputs continues to be very positive, with GPA increasing and the majority of outputs now at 3* or 4*;

845.3 that a review of risk cases and environmental templates had been carried out;

845.4 that the Converis tool was being launched which would allow electronic monitoring and submission of papers;

845.5  that a decision on possible compensation for time lost to REF would be decided once REF panels and the demand on panel members was known.

846  Endowment Annual Summay Report For Year Ended 31 July 2019

Received and noted paper, 19/373 ‘Endowment Annual Summary Report for Year Ended 31 July 2019’.

847 Cardiff University Press Annual Report

Received and noted paper 19/375 ‘Cardiff University Press Annual Report’.

848  Quality Enhancement Review (QER) Update

Received paper 19/376 ‘QER Update’. Professor Amanda Coffey introduced the paper.

Noted

848.1  that Senate had previously received a briefing on QER and the paper provided an update on preparations for the main review visit;

848.2 that the review team had been provided with all required documentation and the first visit from QAA had been carried out;

848.3 that it had been confirmed the visit would take place from 2nd – 5th March 2020 and that the additional themes for the review were: assessment and feedback; gathering and use of data; and strategic oversight of programme and partner development;

848.4 that the Students’ Union had made their own submission to QAA which had included a number of recommendations; the University had, in partnership with the Students’ Union, developed a response to the recommendations in their submission as detailed in Appendix 1 of the paper.

849  Awards And Progress Committee Update

Received paper 19/377 ‘Awards and Progress Committee Update’. Professor Amanda Coffey introduced the paper.

Noted

849.1that the paper proposed minor changes to update role titles and nominated substitutes.

Resolved

849.2  to recommend that Council approve the proposed minor changes to the composition of the Awards and Progress Committee to update role titles and nominate substitutes.

850  Approach To Assessment

Received paper 19/379B ‘Approach to Assessment of Students’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

850.1 that Senate was invited to considered opportunities for the enhancement of assessment and feedback intended to improve student experience and overall satisfaction and to reduce the assessment load for students and staff;

850.2 that considerable effort had been put into assessment and feedback but there remained dissatisfaction from students and concerns about workload from staff;

850.3 that a discussion was held and the following key points noted:

.1  that there was an opportunity to look across all schools to establish best practice;

.2  that consistency and clarity of expectations was important,  could be provided by the development of an assessment policy, which would need to recognise the needs of individual disciplines by permitted variations;

.3 that students wanted diversity in assessment types but that feedback from students on reducing the number of assessments was not consistent;

.4 that developing an approach to assessment at programme, rather than module, level could be more effective and reduce the burden of assessment, including assessment point density;

.5 that there was an opportunity to review the size of modules but there were risks in removing smaller modules, as this may result in loss of choice of learning opportunities, place more pressure on students as assessments count for a greater percentage of their overall marks, and increase the feedback times as assessments are larger;

.6 that it was important to ensure staff were aware of the reasons for changes, are supported to innovate and develop alternative options, and have the confidence to offer different assessment types;

.7 that staff workload from proposed changes needed to be considered and it was important to avoid creating work in areas where assessment is not a material issue;

.8  that an amendment to regulations should be considered to not require students to be re-assessed in assessments in which they had previously passed;

.9 that in developing a new approach to assessment, a holisitic approach should be taken for assessment and feedback, recognising the contribution of both formative and summative assessment to learning.

Resolved

850.4  that the Assessment Taskforce, which had been established, should consider opportunities for the enhancement of assessment and feedback, taking into account the views expressed by Senate, and bring a paper for further discussion at a future meeting of Senate.

851  Library Spaces Programme

Received papers 19/402 ‘Library Spaces Programme Update’, introduced by Ms Tracey Stanley, and 19/380 ‘ASSL Destocking and Relocation of Print Items’, introduced by Professor Ceri Sullivan.

Noted

Library Spaces Programme Update

851.1 that consultation and further engagement had been undertaken and the paper provided details of the changes following these discussions;

851.2 that amendments to study spaces had been made to reflect the needs of schools;

851.3 that an approach in regards to ASSL and special collections had been developed and was included in the paper;

851.4 that these changes would impact the benefits package but it was on track to deliver the savings target;

ASSL Destocking and Relocation of Print Items

851.5 that the paper argued for books to remain on shelves, even if they had not recently been borrowed, to allow for browsing of texts by students and staff;

851.6 that it was estimated the space cleared by the removed books would allow for 39 extra carrels;

851.7 that an extension on the consultation time was requested, along with an ability to comment on all proposals, especially as some staff would be undertaking industrial action during the consultation process and reviewing the books to be removed would require time to work through;

851.8 that a number of Heads of School confirmed that whilst the start of the process had been uncomfortable. the subsequent engagement and consultation activities were well managed and that the resulting revisions had improved the proposals and been well received;

851.9 that details of reading lists for modules in 2020/21 academic year should be shared with subject librarians as soon as possible, along with concerns over any specific subject areas;

851.10 that it would be beneficial if responses to the destocking lists enabled academic staff to recommend that an item either stays on the open shelves or goes to the library store;

851.11 it was requested that the AHSS lists be shared with ARCHI staff due to a cross-over of research interests;

851.12  the Students’ Union members noted that student use of hard copy books was in decline and they were therefore keen to increase access to electronic versions of books.

Resolved

851.13 That consultation with academic staff on stock lists would provide an opportunity to recommend that a book should stay on open shelves; these will be considered on a case by case basis and subject to space considerations; AHSS lists will be shared with ARCHI staff and the Library Service will maintain its digital first policy and continue to increase investment in e-books wherever possible.

852  Education Service Programme

Received paper 19/381 ‘Education Service Programme’. Mr Simon Wright introduced the paper.

Noted

852.1 that the programme was intended to run for four years and funding for the first two years had been approved by UEB and Policy & Resources Committee;

852.2 that the programme aimed to ensure process consistency and reduce academic burden, whilst addressing points of academic difference;

852.3 that matters under the authority of Senate would be brought back to Senate via ASQC for debate and decision, and that Senate would also receive further updates for information;

852.4 that an Equality Impact Assessment had been carried out for the programme.

853  Student Written Submission Update

Received paper 19/382 ‘Update on Progress Against SWS’. Professor Amanda Coffey introduced the paper.

Noted

853.1  that the paper provided an update on key achievements and progress on actions from the 2019 Student Written Submission;

853.2 that three partnership projects were ongoing relating to catering, sustainable travel, and pastoral support for PGR students;

853.3 that further groups to review assessment and feedback and the Student Written Submission process itself had been set up;

853.4 that recommendations from the Students’ Union submission to QER will be progressed through the Student Written Submission Steering Group.

854  Arrangements For International And Europe Areas

Received and noted paper 19/383 ‘Delivery of the Way Forward International Strategy’.

855  Research Grants And Contracts

Received paper 19/384 ‘Research Grants and Contracts’.

856  Any Other Business

Noted

856.1 that Professor Amanda Coffey was attending her last meeting of Senate and was thanked for her contributions to Senate and to enhance the student experience.

857  Date Of Next Meeting

NOTED that the next meeting would take place at 2.15pm on 17th June 2020.