RTPI/HWU PARTNERSHIP BOARD

Minutes of Meeting held on 30 March 2012

  1. Attendance

KelvinMacDonald (Chair), IanAngus, ScottDavidson, MarilynHiggins, AngelaHull, SarahMcIntosh, BrianO’Callaghan, GarethPender, GraemePurves, AndrewRobinson, NaomiSmith (Clerk)

Apologies

Craig McLaren

  1. Minutes of Meeting on 26 January 2011

Approved as an accurate record.

  1. Matters Arising(not otherwise on the agenda)

Prof. Gareth Pender, Head of the School of the Built Environment, has replaced Prof Sawkins on the Board.

  1. Review of Year from Director of Studies (see paper)

Undergraduate

MHiggins highlighted key points from her paper. Student recruitment is a major issue and unfortunately there has been a 30% drop in undergraduate applications for next year, against a national decrease of 20%. On the positive side, there was a dramatic improvement in National Student Survey scores. Students graduated with a significant number of First Class Honours awards and MSc Distinctions.

Figures just received from Careers are encouraging, considering the current market: 71% of undergraduates from last year are in employment (88% in graduatejobs), 21% further study, 8% unemployed. The School worked with the Careers Service this year to improve the employability skills of students. For example, a new initiative places third year students with mentors in practice and this has been well received by both students and practitioners.

Other notable achievements include one of our recent graduates becoming Young Planner of the Year, one on the smallTayplan team who won the RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup, and two students who were on the team who won the Scottish Government Designing Places award for producing a masterplan.

This was the first year that the School only recruited at undergraduate level to the dual accredited Planning & Property Development programme (not Urban & Regional Planning). Twenty-seven students joined first year and spoke positively about dual accreditation. The School had undertaken some market research to try to improve student recruitment, including visiting a geography class at a local high school. Feedback from pupils there suggested the word ‘planning’ is ambiguous. After considerable internal discussion, the School proposes to change the title of the degree to Urban Planning and Property Development to promote recruitment. Board members asserted the importance of rural issues in a country like Scotland and were reassured that the knowledge and skills taught held students in good stead for dealing with both urban and rural issues and also that graduates would not be disadvantaged with such a title.

The Board agreed on changing the title of the undergraduate degree Planning & Property Development to Urban Planning & Property Development.

MHiggins informed the Board of the slight changes proposed for final year students to allow them more choice in terms of courses that are running at postgraduate level, helping to develop specialised studies. It was agreed that as long as all students are meeting all the RTPI learning outcomes, the slight changes proposed are accepted.

Postgraduate

It was reported that Edinburgh College of Art is now part of the University of Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. Heriot-Watt links with them for particular research and teaching purposes. Discussions have been taking place concerning a possible joint MSc in Urban Design. BO’Callaghan confirmed that this Board has delegated authority to accredit new courses. It was agreed to bring further information to the next meeting, which should be earlier in the cycle. B O’Callaghan said it would be important for Heriot-Watt to be the lead partner in terms of RTPI accreditation, since we are the partner with courses already accredited. Care will be needed in preparing the case, given the fact that Edinburgh University has no RTPI-accredited programmes.

MHiggins reported that we have a growing number of overseas students, especially Chinese. ProfYaPingWang and PhD student LindaCong, have been running academic support groups which are being monitored. It is hoped that many of these students will become RTPI members in the future.

Staffing

It was noted that Alan Prior recently retired. As Alan has been a key member of the Board since its inception, it was agreed that the Chair write to Alan to express gratitude on behalf of the RTPI Partnership Board.

New additions to the team include Peter Matthews (Licentiate of RTPI) and NicolaLivingstone.They are valued additions to the team with good student feedback already. John McCarthy is a new member of the Education Panel.

Research

AHull briefed the Board on research activity highlights. New areas include:marine spatial planning, climate change adaptation and behaviour change.The number of PhD students has doubled over the last few years, a very positive development.

Recruitment & Marketing

This is a major concern for the School, with a downward trend in both undergraduate and postgraduate applications. Recruitment to planning schools is a national issue and an important one for collaborative action between planning schools, the RTPI and practitioners. There are many positive activities going on (Scottish Young Planners, placements, etc.) but more needs to be done to address this problem. The Chair feels it is important to collect together what Universities are doing in relation to practice, for example, the industrial mentoring. This might be an item for the June Accreditation Panel meeting.

MHiggins reported it was early days with regards to tapping into the Further Education market but that new links had been made across the Central Belt. S McIntosh reported that new brochures had been sent to all Careers Office between RTPI & Learn Direct Scotland. She also mentioned that RICS is usually represented at schools’ Careers evenings but RTPI isn’t. RTPI Chapters might be able to help with this?

It was agreed there is a need to raise the profile of planning to potential recruits through both the RTPI and Heriot-Watt University, including work with schools.

  1. Student Feedback

The external members of the Board saw a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students over lunch. The Chair mentioned that students were reflective and generally very positive.

Many of the students seen were interested in urban design and the issue had come up about more hands-on activities like model making. Students praised the usefulness of the Resource Centre. The issue of books and number of copies available in the library was raised again.

Students are generally happy with the personal mentor and study group systems although postgraduates would have liked their mentors earlier. Students recognise the value of personal development plans and these could usefully be more consistent through the programmes.

Students spoke positively about relationships with practice, including external speakers. Some students were disappointed that there were not more sandwich year jobs. MHiggins confirmed that jobs had significantly dropped over the years and the School had been taking steps to increase support, e.g., practitioner mentors and increased contact with the Careers Service.

Students were well aware of specialisms, including when they need to make choices. Students said that they had good access to staff, advice was on hand and feedback was timely and adequate.

There was a question about whether students were fully aware of the political and ethical nature of planning. The School might do more to develop this, for example, case studies illustrating how these aspects work in practice.

Students also raised a concern about one particular course; an issue had been raised through the year at student-staff committee. They trusted staff to resolve the issue in the future, even though it would not benefit them personally as they would not be taking that module again.

Students were positive about the opportunity to working with other professions during group work, including international students.

  1. Report from RTPI(see paper)

BO’Callaghan highlighted key points from the annual report of the Partnership & Accreditation Panel. Nationally, there are concerns about declining university funding, graduate jobsand applicants to planning courses, given the current economic climate. It is important that the RTPI and schools are working together to promote RTPI membership amongst students.The RTPI had been studying the nature of four-year undergraduate degrees and decided to retain the number of credits but not be prescriptive about time limits.

The RTPI proposes charging for accreditation. This has been the subject of much debate and is being discussed at a meeting with Heads of Planning Schools that Prof. Hull will attend.

The RTPI latest guidance for Partnership Boards had been circulated. Members’ attention was drawn to a change in the quorum: the attendance of the majority of external members is now required.

  1. RTPI Learning Outcomes (see paper)

The Chair noted that the documentation produced by the school was very useful with helpful charts and had no negative comments. The comprehensive coverage of learning outcomes was apparent. This was echoed by BO’Callaghan. He suggested that future meetings might like to drill down into certain outcomes in more detail, with examples of course outlines and student work.

The overall coverage of Learning Outcomes was approved, recognising that more detail on particular aspects might be studied during the course of future meetings.

  1. Specialised Studies (see paper & verbal report from Chair about November visit)

Kelvin McDonald and Katherine Parkeshad spent a full day in the school in November, discussing specialised studies and distance learning with staff and students. The Chair reported his initial misgivings last year when it was proposed to delete optional courses as a key component of specialised studies. However, during that visit and speaking to students today, he was convinced that the delivery of specialisms was being carried out successfully. Students had clearly been introduced to specialisms early in the courses and this was followed through in classes, year group meetings and with mentors and dissertation supervisors. Some choices in assessment were offered relating to the chosen specialism, culminating in the dissertation. Students were clear when they had to make choices.The only issue deserving more consideration is how students undertake personal development planning. It might be possible to strengthen this through the mentoring system.The conclusion of the Board is the University issuccessfully achieving the requirementfor specialised studies through the core curriculum although this will be kept under continual review.

  1. Distance Learning Development (see paper & verbal report by Chair about Nov. visit)

The Chair reported on the November visit, when he was shown the VLE (virtual learning environment). The university approval process left little time for effective marketing and no students are registered on the planning degree but there is evidence of growing interest next year. There were students from other degrees registered on some of the planning courses which had given positive feedback. Novel ways to learn with electronic books and journals, blogs and tweeting were proving effective ways to learn, promoting student interaction and self-reflection. This has had positive spin-offs for on-campus students and has made staff think creatively about organisation and delivery of courses.

The Board agreed to accredit the distance learning mode for postgraduate courses and will review this next year when it is hoped to have students registered.

  1. Any Other Business- none
  1. Conclusion of Meeting and Date of Next Meeting

On the basis of discussion of all items, the Board concluded that Heriot-Watt continues to be an effective planning school with continued RTPI accreditation and the Chair commended the ways in which it was meeting a range of challenges.

The date of the next meeting is proposed to take place by January 2013 in order to meet the University approval deadlines (re proposed MSc Urban Design).

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