Cultural Studies & Humanities Forum

Cultural Studies & Humanities Forum

15th February

Chair: Lizzy Cartwright

Secretary: Tara Mahoney

Course Representatives present: 8Staff members present: 5

• Andrew wants to improve the physical environment that the CS+H School have by creating a homely environment on the 2nd floor in Broadcasting Place.
• Andrew wants to identify how each course within the school links together and identify what it actually means to be a part of each course.
• More student views are needed for the prospective development of the 2nd floor area in order for students to be involved in the renovation process.
• He wants to organise more events such as the previous Wine and Pizza event, to help with the progression of students and to provide them with any support that they may need.
• End of year ball has been set for the 28th of April at the Plaza Hotel.
• The school is in the process of appointing Course Directors, which will ultimately have a positive impact on course curriculum design and the current resources provided for learning.
• He wants to introduce more Modules that can be delivered to more than one course.

• Introduce the fairness form for group work.
• Strategise to ensure deadlines are coordinated better within the School.
• Make sure there is plenty of time for students to deal with exams.

• Lizzy reiterated that as a course rep the students can try and solve issues themselves. Students were also reminded to ask for help from Lizzy or the Student Voice team if they needed it.

• Course Rep Conference – Course Reps were told about what will be taking place at the CRC and also the timings of the event.
• SU Elections – Course Reps were encouraged to nominate themselves if they wanted to run for a position, and encourage other students to nominate themselves if they wanted to run in the elections.
• Golden Robes – Course Reps were encouraged to nominate staff members and spread the word about the Golden Robes.
• SU Volunteering – Course Reps were encouraged to get involved with the volunteering week.

• Not enough core text booksfor each module – students not being able to access texts needed for assignments.
• Some students cannot afford to print slides for a seminar/lecture, they think that if slides are necessary then the university should provide them.
• Students were unable to locate some texts from their reading lists.
• Students should be made aware of the Interloan library card for use at the Uni of Leeds at the beginning of 1st year, as many didn’t know about it.
• Some History lecture content mid-semester is not relevant, it should have been at the beginning of the semester.
• The lectures provided about the library at the beginning of first year should be incorporated into course intro lectures so everyone receives the information. In this lecture they should be informed about the iPrint process.
• There needs to be better communication with the tutors and Librarians before the course starts to ensure that there are enough core texts available, and there is at least one reference copy.
• Course reading lists need to be given earlier.
• The library should scan key chapters of the core texts and place them online.
• Dean - A book exchange should be set up to provide books for the next year students. More publicity is needed for this as there was a small exchange this year but not many students knew about it.
• If lecturers are making students buy their own books, they should be at a discounted price. The dean said that the information provided will be vital and that they should acknowledge that they are lucky to be receiving information from a professional in the field.
• Library loans should be reduced in assessment periods so that core texts can be shared.
• The library ratio should be improved from 1-10. Dean said that this school receives the largest amount of funding for books so he doesn’t think the ratio can be improved.

• More promotion of the area is required, it should be advertised on social media and by using posters.
• There could be book shelves with reference only text books for the courses within the school in the SLS.
• CS+H School should work with the Art + Architecture school to design the space.
• Surveys, Fb, and word of mouth should be used to gain student feedback about the SLS.

• App Is not consistently working for attendance registration.
• Students are receiving emails saying that they have missed seminars/lectures do the app not registering their attendance.
• The app should be revamped to include: more social events e.g. the ball, university vouchers, electronic room booking, library book loans, a map of the Uni layout, assessment results, library catalogue, course announcements.
• App should encompass mybeckett, my hub and the SU website.
• The alarm notification should be changed as it is too loud and you cannot silence it.
• In Freshers and Refreshers, students should be provided with small booklets providing all of the key information about the library and the websites/apps that the university runs.

• It would be helpful to have an introductory lecture in first semester of Level 4 explaining all of the services that the SU provides and what a course rep is and how to get involved.
• Students need to be made aware of where the Student’s Union is located within the university as many don’t know.
• Course Rep system needs more publicity. All course reps need to be made aware of the course rep WINS system.
• Course Reps said that they would like to be involved in the next KYCR week.

• Lots of students are complaining about the 10 day wait for results to be published online. It’s not fair to commuters.
• Grades should be placed in one space on mybeckett, they should be placed in the assignment tab which automatically works out percentages for the students.
• Many students raised the issue of the grading of assignments being marked by different tutors. Some are more relaxed and others pick more faults than others. Needs to be more communication between tutors about grading.
• The depth of feedback needs to be improved, and feedback must be constructive not insulting.
• Students want to be taught how they can get above the 80% grade during assignments.
• In presentations tutors should all follow the same protocol, they should all make notes and there should be two markers present to ensure that the correct mark is given.
• Students who have a presentation in the first week should not be given better marks than the second week groups.
• Left handed students should be either given more time in an exam due them writing slowly or be able to sit an exam on a computer.
• All students should have the option to sit exams on a computer.
• Eng + History combined + Media/comm/cult course don’t have a reading week whereas History does.
• In the lectures where History and Eng+History both attend, they seem to be heavily based on History content.

• There should be more educational trips to ITV news, BBC Yorkshire etc. Multiple assignment hand-ins should not be scheduled for the same day. Students were annoyed at the lack of a photography skills workshop, and the TV workshop needs improving so that it includes filming. Some students weren’t happy that the Marketing workshop was purely marketing based.
• They should be sent information about the selection workshops that they have to choose between, prior to the session.
• Students weren’t told about removal of a module soon enough.
• When specific workshops were cancelled, catch up workshops were not provided.

• There needs to be better communication between the tutors, sometimes the tutors do not care at all and their email replies are poor.
• Atlantic Revolutions module – introductory 2 weeks are not necessary.
• Landscapes of History module – students were unhappy as they were not allowed to receive feedback on their draft essays.
• Theory & Practice module – some of the guest lecturers were not necessary, in particularly the library lecture.
• Students are not happy that along with doing a literature review for their dissertation proposal, they also have to do another lit review. They would like a lecture/seminar on how to write a literature review.
• They are getting told last minute to buy expensive books, they should’ve been given more notice.

• There is a difference between the content in different seminar groups, module leaders tend to deliver the most enjoyable engaging seminars, and some just read of the screen. The module team need to be more consistent with the module delivery.
• The Theory in Practice module, a tutor helping a year 5 student with a Diss proposal left half way through due to maternity leave. Is there a way of sorting out a more effective cross-over so the student isn’t affected?

• On the history course, generally the number of complaints from students has decreased.
• Professor Jayne Raisborough – motivational tutor, an amazing individual, a great speaker.
• Dr Jessica Van Horssen – A great lecturer, detailed replies to emails, she’s a great help with planning dissertations.
• Dr Dan Laughey – Acknowledges when students are great at inputting in seminars and gives them rewards. Makes the module really interesting, has the best structure, it was actually what the student wanted from the course. Great listener, allowed a quite individual come out of her shell.
• Shane Ewen and Henry Irving – they provide relevant modern day examples, make learning enjoyable, make topics exciting to learn. They speak to you as if they’re on the same level as you.
• Julia Bannister – Great replies to emails, really reassuring, provides one-to-one support, always available when you need her.
• Rob Burrows – Makes Victorian novels fun, engaging and helps provide secondary sources for assessments.
• Rachel Rich– Great lecturer and great course leader, she is amazing and is much underrated.
• Kelly Hignet – Delivers great seminars.
• Tim Livsey – Helps break down information, really understanding.