UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON
Business School Board
Minutes of a meeting held on Wednesday 10th March 2010 in Room BS 3.22 28th Februaryat Docklands.
Present: L Shackleton (Chair), P Fenwick, A. Kelly, A. Allam, C Boldyreff, D Boyd, E Bullock, H Piranfar, J Akunuri, J Barry, P Burgess, P Glover, R Bianchi, R Lentell, Sally Crosthwaite, S Dodd, S Nwankwo, Web Chinduta
Apologies: Adrian Haberberg, Carole, Flanagan, Andy Stevens, John Sparrowhawk, Sandy Cripps, Maarten Pontier, Ian Bathgate, Zorlu Senyucel, Raoul Bianchi
K Chaharbaghi, K Allison.
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B D’Cruz, J Sparrowhawk, J Cocking, C Malinowski, M Heath,.Officer: Rehana Patel [RP]
1. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING & ACTIONS LIST
Minutes dated 6th October 2010 were agreed as accurate.
For actions dated 6th October 2010, please refer to the actions list.
2. FEBRUARY ACCOUNTS (PF)
[PF] highlighted that the total income budget was under 19 million adjusted downwards by 1 million an accounting error which has now been rectified. The School are still expected to perform better than the targeted budget, with an underspend of 7.7 thousand pounds and a surplus of 2.5 million which go onto the University budget. Conferences, surplus income and non accounted income, need to be scrutinised closely. Financial position is healthy with room to manoeuvre to achieve the set budget target costs. We need to be innovative about programme development to meet income figures. [BL] confirmed that some collaborative partnerships will be terminated. However, we will feel the decrease in income regarding these by next year aswell as looking at new future collaborations. There will be gap between this transition and therefore income from collaborative partners will decrease. [PF] asked members to view the figures under miscellaneous income, explaining that these incorporated collaborative partner income. More income from new collaborative partners will bring an increase to the figures.
3. OVERVIEW REP 2008/2009
[PF] asked members to refer to the tabled Overview Rep Report, which he was unable to present earlier due to the cancellation of the previous School Board and has now been approved by Quality committee. The SQSC were presented with consultation taken on a draft of this document, before the completed document was presented. It combined a live action plan which needs to be submitted to SMT to ensure actions are met and completed.
4. ROYAL DOCKS BUSINESS SCHOOL ANNUAL PLAN: 2010/2011
[LS] discussed the completed Annual Plan for 2010/2011. The Postgraduate programmes were looking to an overseas agenda with a view to professional accreditation on programmes. The four priorities set by the university are outlined detailing each aspect of the School Plan. [LS] welcomed comments from members on the details of the plan. [MP] questioned the field leader role changes. [LS] confirmed that these changes have been made, with the new changes added to the role of line manager. This has been officially recognised with an added pay increase, these changes have been made university wide. [LS] highlighted that the changes to the field structure had been made as the existing fields are too big due to the growth of the school, making them difficult to manage. The aim is to increase the number of fields and realign positions and link programmes to fields. Consultations with staff will be undertaken requesting feed back. [PF] confirmed a paper will be submitted to SMT regarding the reorganisation of fields and then taken to wider consultations, smaller more manageable fields. [LS] confirmed that UG revalidation focus on skills modules will also be starting shortly. [Action: LS to contact HR regarding follow up of advertising for the changes of the field leader role to a line management role to all staff]. Discussions were undertaken regarding conferences and seminars both international and UK based. Under Research and Knowledge Exchange we have increased links with consultancy work. [BL] outlined issues of the management of the Molex Suite regarding maintenance of data terminals, this needs to be addressed possibly by a small working group. [Action: BL to contact Adrian Haberberg regarding the maintenance of data terminals with a booking system use regarding the Molex suite]. Questions were asked regarding the senior personal tutor role, [LS] said that this is a post which will be of an individual increasing the experience of students and who will co-ordinate and oversee the personal tutors. [Action: LS to remind field leaders’ to put student contact extra time on their forthcoming field board agenda]. [JA] asked about a new person taking on the Collaborative recruitment given that John Cocking had left. [BL] responded confirming that John Cocking had retired from his post of collaborations manager and the post has been reconfigured and added to the International managers role. Nora Coulton has taken on the post of PL in International and Collaborative links leader, This lady will be adding new collaborative links within Business school’s within USA. Also looking to explore further within Europe, articulation agreement requests have been put forward which are being considered with European students coming over to us. We also need a more proactive policy regarding a search for European partners, a policy bid has been won by Eric Carlier who will now come in and do some proactive work in building links with good European schools. A form of strategic arrangements through a range of programmes along with possible student exchange arrangements.
5. SQSC MINUTES – to be noted
These were noted
6. STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Nothing to report
7. EQUALITY & DIVERSITY (EB)
[EB] is proactive within her role as Equality and Diversity leader for the school and part of this work will involve the appointment of female visiting professors to the school.
8. REGISTRAR’S REPORT – VERBAL UPDATE (CF)
[JSP]raised concerns regarding the allocation of projects at an administrative level as field leaders are not being notified of supervision allocations for PostGraduate programmes. [LS] confirmed that [JSp] needs to arrange a meeting with [CF] to address these concerns.
10. PROGRAMME COMMITTEE MINUTES
(Available on UEL Plus)
11. FIELD COMMITTEE MINUTES
(Available on UEL Plus)
12. AOB (notified to the Board Secretary)
· Research clusters
[LS] identified that we have not moved forward as quickly as we would have liked. [JB] highlighted that the cluster proposal was put forward to the Research & Knowledge Exchange meeting and tabled a paper highlighting the collaborations by the university to enable a Research Group with research grouping categories. This has to be approved at the School Board prior to moving to other committees. [JCH] confirmed that the paper circulated is a working proposal to the currently involved research projects. [LS] asked about the Director of Research group status; this would a person required to take accountability and provide feedback, when research cluster groups are put into a coherent form. To work with reporting procedures e.g. plan of work for details of research plan and would require a person in place for a longer period than a year. John Chandler confirmed that this person would be needed to be appointed. Member discussions took place regarding the formation of a Research Group. [PF] highlighted that it was very good to see research work undertaken. However, a more coherent link to the focus type research to be provided which can be possibly submitted as part of the Research Knowledge & Exchange strategy. [BL] agreed with [PF] confirming that if research is to grow, we need to have a strategy to work towards an REF approach. [LS] also agreed and confirmed that he would like to see John Chandler taking the leadership for longer than a year. School Board approved this proposal as a Research Group.