• DASA Coffee Morning - Friday 22 October 2010
• Student Affairs
• Centre for Educational Development
• Careers, Employability and Skills
• Science Shop
• Student Services and Systems
• Academic Affairs

Student Affairs

International and Postgraduate Student Centre

The most significant event for Student Affairs over the last few months was the opening of the new International and Postgraduate Centre (I&PSC). Home to the International Student Support Centre on the ground floor and the Postgraduate Centre on the first floor, the Centre also has dedicated social and study facilities for all postgraduate students on the top floor.

The building was opened for student use following enrolment and registration and is already proving very popular.  The I&PSC staff work very closely with the SGC team to ensure that services across both Centres are accessible to all students. The next phase of development will be establishing a range of social and educational events for postgraduate students to help promote a more integrated Postgraduate community.

On 20 October 2010 we said goodbye to Helen Eastham who has moved to the University of Birmingham to take up a new role as Head of International Student Support. We wish her well as she moves on. Helen McNeely, Head of Student Affairs, will be managing the International Student Support Centre until a new Head of International Student Support is appointed.

Student Welfare (Counselling and Disability Services)

Disability Services celebrated its 10th anniversary on 3rd June 2010 by hosting a lunch in the Great Hall for key staff and external stakeholders who have been instrumental in developing disability provision across the University. To mark the event, a booklet and DVD were created to highlight the experiences of current students and graduates who have received support whilst at Queen’s.  Copies are available on request from disability.office@qub.ac.uk, and the video will shortly be live in QTV.

In conjunction with Schools, Information Services and Legal Services, Disability Services had undertaken a review of the level of information sent about reasonable adjustments required by disabled students.  A two-tier template has been approved and implemented, with Part A, containing personal information regarding a student’s disability, restricted to a small number of staff in each School, and Part B, outlining reasonable adjustments required by students whilst studying, disseminated to staff in a School who need to be aware of support requirements.

After a 30% rise in student requests for counselling support in the 2009-10 academic year, two new initiatives have been introduced for 2010-11.  calmyou is an online interactive self-help resource that is available to staff and students.  This is a preventative initiative, with a strong educational and self-awareness focus, providing information and coping strategies about common issues, such as anxiety, insomnia, depression and stress. Instructions on how to access the programme are available through QOL (qub.ac.uk/qol) under ‘University Documents’.  The Counselling Service will be contacting Schools to offer a demonstration of calmyou, and promotional materials will be available shortly.  A second initiative is the introduction of a duty counsellor rota.  This means that a counsellor is always available between 9-5 Monday to Friday to respond to emergency requests, staff queries and consultations.  Staff can speak to a counsellor by calling 028 9097 2774.

Welcome Week and Student Gateway Website

As part of the Welcome and Induction activities, a pilot transition mentoring programme has been established, with 17 students signing up for one of 10 volunteer student mentors.  

This is open to any new undergraduate student who cannot access a mentoring programme through their School.  If you are interested in promoting this through your School, please contact Julie Ann McAlinden (j.a.mcalinden@qub.ac.uk).  An evaluation will be completed at the end of the first semester to determine whether the project will be taken forward next year.

The Student Gateway website (www.qub.ac.uk/studentinfo) was created last year to enhance the way that information about the University, and academic and student support, was presented to current students.  The page has been further developed and re-launched on 24 September 2010 to include a feature article, improved navigation and two blogs - one operated by staff for communicating key University messages, and another operated by a student employed within the Student Guidance Centre to present a student perspective on University life. It also links to the ‘What’s On at Queen’s portal, presenting events identified for a student audience.

Student Guidance Centre Development Plans

Changes are being planned to the layout and operation of customer service points within the Student Guidance Centre, to continue to improve the level of customer service to students and staff.  It is hoped that work will start in the New Year to move the examination collection and submission point to the first floor, with a more customer-friendly interface for staff.  The Information Desk will be relocated nearer to the entrance, and signage improved to ensure visitors are clear on where they go for which service.  The Centre for Educational Development will move from its location on Malone Road to the 2nd floor of the Centre. Following the recent restructuring of academic support areas, the Admissions and Access Service will be relocated from the Student Guidance Centre and into Lanyon North.  The Widening Participation Unit moved from the Student Guidance Centre to Lanyon North in early November.

AMOSSHE/NASPA Exchange 2011

Helen McNeely, Head of Student Affairs has been selected to lead a national exchange of student services professionals to the United States in June 2011.  Organised by AMOSSHE, the Student Services Organisation, Helen will lead a team of five colleagues to Rochester in New York State where they will visit five very different institutions.  The theme of the visit will be to establish how these American institutions measure value for money in delivering services to students. The group will also be investigating how impact measures are used to determine whether or not value for money has been achieved.

Following the visit Helen will be required to present at the AMOSSHE National Conference 8-10 July 2011 in Newcastle as well as write a report to be distributed among AMOSSHE members.  Helen will also do a presentation of the trip at a future DASA Coffee Morning.

Centre for Educational Development

Staffing

The University’s three Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning reached the end of their funding period from the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) on 31 October 2010.  Mrs Lisa Treacy and Ms Pat McNally who joined the Centre for Educational Development (CED) in December 2009 as Educational Developers for the CETLs completed their contracts then.  Pat is remaining in CED for another six months to carry out work related to the University’s provision of support for postgraduate research students.  Lisa is moving to Washington D.C. where her husband is taking up a new post.  Shane Brogan, the Students’ Union President in 2009-10, joined CED during the summer to work on the Assessment and Feedback Campaign and to contribute to institutional research.  He has just enrolled on a Master’s programme and will continue to work in CED on a part-time basis.

Assessment and Feedback

The University’s Enhancement Academy project on assessment and feedback is continuing in partnership with the Students’ Union.  NSS scores relating to assessment and feedback showed a modest but positive improvement in 2009-10, going up from 3.4 to 3.5, which equates to the Russell Group average and is the first rise in six years. Activities to support staff and students include:

• a calendar for Directors of Education highlighting feedback-related events; bespoke online resources for staff; a range of staff development events;
• a set of bookmarks carrying feedback messages was distributed by the Students’ Union during Welcome Week; further supplies of these and the feedback leaflets are being given out in Schools mid-module and pre-exam time;
• the student feedback pages hosted on the Learning Development Service (LDS) website (www.qub.ac.uk/sgc/learning/feedback) are being enhanced with interactive resources; feedback animations are to be displayed again on plasma screens, pop-ups on student PCs, links from the Student Homepage and Gateway; feedback was flagged up in the 2010-11 Students’ Union Handbook and Diary;  further workshops for students on understanding and using feedback are to be facilitated by LDS in November;
• Five subject areas are running projects (Architecture, Law, Dentistry, Medicine and Psychology); other areas that have scored less than 3.6 in relevant questions in the NSS are being offered support;
• The Higher Education Academy has released further funding to allow Professor Brenda Smith, the project’s ‘critical friend’ (and expert on assessment) to support Queen’s again this year.

Further details are available from the Centre for Educational Development.

Personal Tutoring

Personal Tutoring Schemes are continuing to develop across the University.   Some Schools have now organised structured programmes which integrate workshops from Careers Employability and Skills (CES), LDS and the CED.  The products of these workshops feed into follow-up meetings between Personal Tutors and their students.  Schools who have adopted this approach report that it produces “good” levels of student engagement.  Recent student survey results also confirm that where students meet their Personal Tutor on a regular basis in such structured systems, they tend to find the meetings more helpful than their peers who experience more loosely organised schemes which place less emphasis on attendance.  As a result of this success, several Schools have voluntarily elected to extend Personal Tutoring into Level 3.

Divisional Integrated Support Meetings

18 Integrated Support meetings took place in June 2009, offering Schools the opportunity to meet with a team of relevant specialists from CES, LDS and CED.  In preparation for each meeting a “template” of current activity and statistics linked to Personal Tutoring, CEAIG, academic skill development and introductory PDP supports is recorded and agreed.  Directors of Education are invited to bring Senior Tutors, Careers Liaison Academics and/or Year Group Co-ordinators to the meeting, so that plans for future inputs can be appropriately refined and linked to modules and the overall needs of the curriculum area. 

Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs [NI])

Queen’s three Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs [NI]) have been striving to disseminate their key messages about pedagogical practice as well as continuing to embed curriculum innovation within their host Schools. 

Staff from the Centre for Excellence in Interactive and Interactive Learning (CEAIL) in partnership with CED, are making available a range of generic teaching methodologies for use by all Queen’s colleagues and available on CED’s website. These include approaches to curriculum review, to setting-up and supporting work placements; from the benefits of active and interactive learning to techniques to stimulate student engagement.

CEAIL Biosciences team’s use of video technology, active and interactive teaching strategies, peer and self-assessment continue to reap rewards in terms of student retention, motivation and achievement.  The CEAIL CDIO project team in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is now an integral part of an interdisciplinary Maths Hub convened by CED, where they share their good practice in supporting the development of students’ mathematical understanding and skills.  The Queen’s team continues to make a vital contribution to engineering education around the world through their leadership role within the international CDIO network.

The Centre for Excellence in Creative and Performing Arts (CECPA) continues to inspire students, staff and audiences alike.  The Artistic Director (Anna Newell) and Dr Melissa McCullough from Medical Education delivered the second year of the interdisciplinary Student Selected module which resulted in the devised performance project ‘PERFECT’. Using the ethics of reproduction as the starting stimulus, and involving medical students and drama students, it played six sell-out performances during Freshers’ week in September.  It is hoped that this module will continue beyond CECPA.  Another enduring project will be the Belfast Sarajevo Initiative. Anna Newell, staff from Drama and Film Studies and the postgraduate Drama students who formed the Initiative, travelled to Sarajevo in October to create a devised performance installation piece with students at the Academy as part of MES, Sarajevo’s International Theatre Festival.  As well as the CECPA multi-media website acting as an archive for CECPA’s work, illustrator Patrick Sanders created a graphic novel as an artistic response to the five years of the Centre. Launched on 7th October ‘A Journey to the Centre of Excellence’ uses the playful medium of the cartoon to capture the philosophy and story of CECPA – for a complimentary copy please contact Juliana Licinic on j.licinic@qub.ac.uk.

The Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education (CEIPE) has created a new website to archive its many project achievements for future reference and inspiration (www.qub.ac.uk/ceipe). CEIPE’s innovations such as the SimBaby and SimMan high fidelity simulation training tools and the Medicines Governance course will continue to offer students from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences valuable inter-professional learning opportunities. Further information on the CETLs (NI) is available from the Centre for Educational Development

Careers, Employability and Skills

Staff

Ann Doris and Laura Cranston have returned from maternity leave.  Greta O’Donnell is now covering Julie Gerrish’s maternity leave and will be with us until June 2011.

Duncan Berryman has replaced Fionnuala Millar as the DLHE assistant and Kyron Armstrong has moved to a post in the Development and Alumni Relations Office.

Employability

A year ahead of schedule 323 students achieved the Degree Plus award on graduating in July 2010 with a further smaller cohort expected to graduate at Christmas.  The initiative made the local papers and you can find out more by checking out the link at QTV.

Student interest in Degree Plus remains very strong, and the range of programmes coming under the Degree Plus banner has expanded significantly.

Graduate Labour Market Surveys

There have been a number of graduate labour market surveys published in recent months, some of which present conflicting findings.

The statistic of 69 applicants for every graduate job (AGR survey July 2010) is an illustration of a headline media message which is unhelpful to students as they graduate.  Careers, Employability and Skills is trying to mediate this somewhat superficial message through a variety of communication channels.  There is no doubt graduates face finding employment in a tough economic climate but there are many jobs currently advertised, for example, the number of companies advertising vacancies with Careers, Employability and Skills has more than doubled during August/September 2010 by comparison with the same period in 2009.

There is very good student uptake of the various Careers, Employability and Skills events and programmes on offer.  The High Fliers Survey 2010:

• The external UK Graduate Careers Survey 2009-10 conducted by High Fliers Research Ltd showed that 87% of Queen’s final year students used Careers, Employability and Skills (7th place in rankings of 30 leading, mainly Russell Group, universities selected for the survey).  71% of Queen’s final year students visited Careers, Employability and Skills (3rd place ranking after Liverpool and St Andrews).

Graduates

There is ongoing support for graduates both on a 1:1 basis and through the provision of job search workshops.  Graduates may also avail of an internship opportunity through the GAP Programme.

Science Shop

The Science Shop provides opportunities for students to develop their skills by carrying out curriculum-based research projects on behalf of community and voluntary organisations.  The project also enables and encourages community and voluntary groups to access the knowledge and information resources of the University, mainly through student research projects and dissertations.  Typical projects deal with environmental issues, management and business planning, community health issues, social science and legal issues.

The Science Shop is also a founding member of the International Science Shop Network and co-ordinated the last international Science Shop conference at Queen’s in August 2009.  Currently staff are involved in the EC funded PERARES project (Public Engagement with Research and Research Engagement with Society).  In addition to mentoring new and emerging Science Shops at University of Cambridge and in Republic of Ireland HEIs, staff are co-ordinating a workpackage examining policy developments which will support Science Shops and similar community based research initiatives.

The Science Shop is a collaborative programme with UU, funded by the Department for Employment and Learning under the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

For further information please contact Eileen Martin or Emma McKenna on 028 9097 3410 or by email at science.shop@qub.ac.uk or see the website www.qub.ac.uk/scisho

Student Services and Systems

Enrolment & Registration 2010

Enrolment and Registration was completed successfully by over 22,500 students in the first three of Registration opening.  The majority of returning students completed all 10 steps online through the Wizard.  This year a late enrolment fee was introduced to encourage Students to complete their registration on time.  This was successful with the majority of students completing their registration and enrolment before the deadline, and only a small number of students incurring the fee.

Over 10,000 new students attended two enrolment venues to verify their Identification and Qualifications and to get a student card.  There was generally very little queuing with most students through the venues in a short space of time.  All Postgraduate students were invited to register in the new International and Post Graduate Centre to act as an introduction to the new facility.

There were some technical problems with the online Wizard during the first day which adversely affected any students keen to enrol early to select popular classes.  However, this was quickly resolved and the remainder of enrolment went without any further technical issues.

An Enrolment & Registration Working Group has been established to review all the key process that drive the current business model for enrolment and registration.  The group are focused on improving the Student Experience while finding more reviewing the timing of the process of enrolment and registration to take account of peak activities involving all stakeholders.  This group will come forward with a set of recommendations early in 2011 for implementation ahead of next year’s enrolment and registration.

Winter Examinations

Scheduling for First Semester Examinations is well underway and the Examination Timetable was published to all Students on 1 December.  Over the next few weeks we will progressing with preparation of Examination papers, review and sign off by Schools and final printing ahead of the start of Examinations on 10 January 2011.

Winter Graduations

Winter Graduations are taking place on 8, 9 and 10 December 2010.  This year there have been two extra ceremonies added to accommodate the growing numbers of Postgraduate Taught programmes throughout the University.  There are now seven ceremonies, which start on Wednesday 8 December and run through to Friday 10 December and include one evening ceremony on the Wednesday. 

Oracle Product Advisory Group

Congratulations to Mrs Olivia Roberts, Head of Student Services and Systems, who has been selected as an appointed International member of the Student Records Product Advisory Group for one year from March 2011.  The Product Advisory Groups are composed of representatives from the Oracle Higher Education User Group (HEUG) member institutions with expertise in various product modules within the world of Oracle application software.  Olivia's role on this group will be to facilitate communication and solicit feedback from Queens on Qsis product features and opportunities.  The group meets monthly via conference call throughout the year, and in person annually at the Product Advisory Group Summit.

Academic Affairs

Staff

Michelle Spence has been appointed to Senior Administrative Officer, Quality Assurance and Regulations for Postgraduate Students.

Michelle had previously been covering Karen Henderson’s career break.

Judicial Review

Academic Affairs, in collaboration with Legal Services and the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, has been involved in a High Court case in respect of a student’s degree classification.  On 8 December 2010, the High Court dismissed attempts by the student to bring a judicial review aimed at reclassifying his degree from 2:2 to 2:1.

The student had been attempting to obtain permission to proceed with a judicial review of decisions by Queens’ Board of Examiners.  His legal team argued that, in awarding a 2:2, the Board of Examiners had contravened Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights – specifically by failing to adhere to a proper appeals process and, in so doing, delivering a fair hearing by tribunal.

Delivering his judgement, Mr Justice Treacy, found that:

“In my view there is nothing...to support the proposition that the assessments and classifications (of degrees) fall within Article 6. The assessments themselves are plainly a matter of academic specialised judgment.”

Adam Brett, a Partner in the Belfast office of national law firm McGrigors, which advised Queen’s, stated that:

“This really is a victory for common sense and a vindication of our client’s stance on this issue.  A judicial review would have been costly, disproportionate and – as this decision has shown- ultimately without proper grounds.

Quality Assurance for Postgraduate Research Students

On 1 October 2010, Academic Affairs became responsible for quality assurance matters in relation to postgraduate research students, as well as in relation to undergraduate and postgraduate taught students.  As part of this enhanced remit, Academic Affairs plans to review regulations for both PhDs and Professional Doctorates.  This review will be interlinked with other activities across the Directorate of Academic and Student Affairs, which will review the quality assurance infrastructure that supports postgraduate research students.  This will include the development of mechanisms to train and support postgraduate research supervisors; the promotion, in collaboration with Schools, of effective research management; and the review of the formal monitoring process for research degree programmes.  A review of the Academic Offences regulations and guidance will also be interlinked to the review of the Institutional Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes to ensure a consistent approach across the University.

Educational Enhancement Process

The Educational Enhancement Process (EEP) forms part of an integrated internal quality enhancement and review process whereby modules are reviewed after they are taught, programmes are reviewed every year and subjects are reviewed every six years.  EEP is an enhancement process, concerned with the identification of issues and the development of current and future provision, rather than simply an audit of current and past provision. 

Academic Affairs and the Students’ Union consulted with students, academic staff and School representatives who had recently participated in the University’s Educational Enhancement Process to gain feedback on the process, and to discuss possibilities for further student involvement.  EEP has now been revised to enable students, on a non-compulsory basis, to submit written comments to the EEP Panel in advance of the Visit.  Academic Affairs and Students’ Union sabbatical officers will also provide additional training and support to student Panel members, as required.

Examination Regulations and Procedures

As part of an ongoing review of the administration of examinations, a Working Group supported by Academic Affairs will consider a range of regulatory and procedural issues, including:

(i)            Assessment policy and practice, including the Predominance Rule.

(ii)           Progression requirements, including the practice of carrying forward failed modules.

(iii)          The timing and number of resits and the impact on enrolment and registration.

(iv)         The introduction of fees for resits and appeals.

(v)          The regulations, role and function of Boards of Examiners, School Student Progress Committees and Central Student Appeals Committee.

(vi)         Academic year and semesterisation.

Proposals will be forwarded to Schools for consultation early in Semester 2.

Study Regulations

Academic Affairs will be seeking detailed legal advice on the currency of the Study Regulations in the light of recent case law and legislation, with particular reference to Human Rights Law, SENDO and contract law.  This advice will inform a forthcoming review of the formal, sequencing and content of the regulations.