UCL DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Undergraduate Degree Programme Report Form (Academic Year 2007-08)
Title & Code of Degree Programme / BEng Electronic & Electrical Engineering,UBNEENSEEE01, UBNEENSEEE05
Programme Director / Dr Andreas Demosthenous
Programme Statistics (Qualifications Awarded to Final Year Students)
Class 1 (70-100) / Number of StudentsClass 1 (70-100) / 6
Class 2.1 (60-69) / 7
Class 2.2 (50-59) / 4
Class 3 (40-49) / 1
Fail (20-39) / 2
Fail (0-20)
Absent / 2
Not Complete
Total / 22
A. Programme Director’s Report i) quality of student work, pace and content, appropriateness of teaching methods and action(s) taken to resolve any problems
The academic year was completed successfully with the quality of student work being consistent with previous years as can be seen in the results achieved. The external examiners were fully satisfied with the material taught and the assessment procedures. 60% of the final year students were awarded first or upper second class degrees, reflecting the high standard of the students who take the programme.
The pace and content of the delivered courses were appropriate, and the teaching methods suitably reflected the programme content. No significant problems occurred that disrupted teaching and actions on minor issues were taken as they arose.
The processing of exam marks and generation of the reports for the examiners’ meetings were done using the Portico system. This was successful with only minor problems which were discussed and rectified by the Portico team.
The exam results and progress of the academic year were reviewed as normal at the “post-mortem” exam meeting in early July 2008. The minutes identify issues raised and actions taken, with results fed back to Teaching Committee meetings later in the year.
Student recruitment remains challenging but applications are showing an upward trend. Significant effort has been put into all areas of recruitment and changes have been put in place, including more advertising, a better website and an improved “undergraduate two-daytaster course in the world of Electronic and Electrical Engineering”.
B. (ii) Any Learning Resources problems which have affected the provision of the programme (quality of lecture or tutorial rooms, laboratory or IT facilities and action taken or planned)
Nearly all lecture theatres and class rooms are provided via the central college facilities, and have generally been of good quality. There were problems with booking appropriate college rooms at convenient times due to the demand across the college. This makes it hard to make changes or book additional rooms during term time, especially when dealing with lecture clashes or running additional lectures. There is little the department can do about this but considerable effort has been put into modifying the timetables to minimise problems. The common timetabling system should resolve some of these issues.
Temperature control in the Roberts 106 lecture theater was malfunctioning most of the time. Action taken: Estates have been asked to fix the problem as a matter of urgency. They did so during the Easter break.
The department provides specialised labs with test and measurement equipment for undergraduate experiments, projects and teaching, and computer labs for programming teaching and these operated without problem. Labs continue to be updated on a regular basis.
C. Issues Identified by Students(from questionnaires, staff-student committees etc.)and Action Taken or Planned
The Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC), and direct approaches to staff, allowed action to be taken when issues arose, most of which were minor in nature and could be quickly dealt with. The SSCC minutes show how such issues were addressed. Relevant items were forwarded to the Teaching Committee, with formal action taken as determined by the committee members. The committee minutes give the details.
The most significant issues raised by students were:
- Slow return of the first year lab notebooks in time for the labs on Fridays. In response it has been agreed to return the marked notebooks by noon on Thursdays.
- Lab opening hours. These are dictated by the standard college opening hours, and health and safety requirements. The issue has been widely discussed but the department lacks the resources to extend opening hours on a regular basis. The department has agreed to open the labs from 9 ambut cannot close them any later than present.
- Lack of common space for students to study due to the renovation of the 5th floor area. This issue has been addressed with the opening of the Roberts Foyer.
- ELEC2002 module. The students expressed concerns that the syllabus for the first part of the course had not been followed by the new lecturer for Electronic Circuits II. In response the Head of the Teaching Committee has met with the new lecturer and clarified the syllabus contents.
- Clarification regarding planned Good Professional Practice (GPP) sessions. The GPP/career activity has now a website on Moodle that all students can access where they can see the timetable. Further to that, the students receive a monthly programme email at the beginning of each month and a weekly programme email at the beginning of each week.
D. Issues Identified by Visiting Examiners and Action Taken or Planned
Both external examiners agreed that good results had been achieved and that the examination process had been run properly. Several recommendations were made:
- The third year project work assessment process could be improved, including a more comprehensive moderation process and/or pro-forma marksheets with specific criteria. The action agreed is that the project moderation panel will, in future, review every project not just those that appear to be anomalous.
- Discourage practice of writing comments on end-of-year exam scripts in case it gives rise to a cause for complaint in any dispute. Practice will be discouraged in future.
- A consistently lower mark was noted in first report of fourth year projects. The department will ensure that fourth year project supervisors have consistent expectations across both first and final project reports in future.
- Concern over scaling, tends to attract bad publicity. It was suggested to review the scaling procedure and consider gradual phasing-out. The Teaching Committee will consider this matter in 2008/09.
E. Head of Degree Programme /Programme Organiser Comments and Action Taken or Planned
The programme ran successfully and no significant problems were encountered.
No major changes were made. However, a set of proposals was presented at the AwayDay (June 2008) to improve undergraduate recruitment and to address problems with student engagement. These include:
- Introduction of ‘scenario weeks’ in years one and two, consisting of a set of up to four week-long guided projects per year, performed in teams, the aim being to better motivate the students, enhance the engineering aspects of the course and demonstrate horizontal links between course elements.
- Replacement of midsessional exams in years one and two with take-home coursework that is peer-marked in class.
- Re-structuring of the courses into five broad streams in each of years one and two.
- Reduction of exams from the current seven and eight per year to four per year, in years one and two.
F. Head of Degree Programme /Programme Organiser comment on any structural changes to the programme which have been made in the preceding year which might necessitate an updating of the existing Programme Specification. Even where no changes have been made, you are invited to review the Programme Specification and consider how it might usefully be refreshed
The Programme Specification has been reviewed with minor updates implemented in July 2008. The revised document can be downloaded from
The Programme Diet has also been reviewed and updated for 2008/09. The revised diet includes a new optional module in Renewable Energy (ELEC3915) in year 3.
UCL DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Undergraduate Degree Programme Report Form (Academic Year 2007-08)
Title & Code of Degree Programme / MEng Electronic & Electrical Engineering, UMNEENSEEE01Programme Director / Dr Andreas Demosthenous
Programme Statistics (Qualifications Awarded to Final Year Students)
Class 1 (70-100) / Number of StudentsClass 1 (70-100) / 2
Class 2.1 (60-69) / 2
Class 2.2 (50-59) / 0
Class 3 (40-49) / 0
Fail (20-39)
Fail (0-20)
Absent
Not Complete
Total / 4
A. Programme Director’s Report i) quality of student work, pace and content, appropriateness of teaching methods and action(s) taken to resolve any problems
The academic year was completed successfully with the quality of student work being consistent with previous years as can be seen in the results achieved. The external examiners were fully satisfied with the material taught and the assessment procedures. All final year students on this programme were awarded first or upper second class degrees.
The pace and content of the delivered courses were appropriate, and the teaching methods suitably reflected the programme content. No significant problems occurred that disrupted teaching and actions on minor issues were taken as they arose.
The processing of exam marks and generation of the reports for the examiners’ meetings were done using the Portico system. This was successful with only minor problems which were discussed and rectified by the Portico team.
The exam results and progress of the academic year were reviewed as normal at the “post-mortem” exams meeting in early July. The minutes identify issues raised and actions taken, with results fed back to Teaching Committee meetings later in the year.
Student recruitment remains challenging but applications are showing an upward trend. Significant effort has been put into all areas of recruitment and changes have been put in place, including more advertising, a better website and an improved open day experience.
B. (ii) Any Learning Resources problems which have affected the provision of the programme (quality of lecture or tutorial rooms, laboratory or IT facilities and action taken or planned)
Nearly all lecture theatres and class rooms are provided via the central college facilities, and have generally been of good quality. There were problems with booking appropriate college rooms at convenient times due to the demand across the college. This makes it hard to make changes or book additional rooms during term time, especially when dealing with lecture clashes or running additional lectures. There is little the department can do about this but considerable effort has been put into modifying the timetables to minimise problems. The common timetabling system should resolve some of these issues.
Temperature control in the Roberts 106 lecture theater was malfunctioning most of the time. Action taken: Estates have been asked to fix the problem as a matter of urgency. They did so during the Easter break.
The department provides specialised labs with test and measurement equipment for undergraduate experiments and teaching, and computer labs for programming teaching and these operated without problem. Labs continue to be updated on a regular basis.
C. Issues Identified by Students(from questionnaires, staff-student committees etc.)and Action Taken or Planned
The Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC), and direct approaches to staff, allowed action to be taken when issues arose, most of which were minor in nature and could be quickly dealt with. The SSCC minutes show how such issues were addressed. Relevant items were forwarded to the Teaching Committee, with formal action taken as determined by the committee members. The committee minutes give the details.
The most significant issues raised by students were:
- Slow return of the first year lab notebooks in time for the labs on Fridays. In response it has been agreed to return the marked notebooks by noon on Thursdays.
- Lab opening hours. These are dictated by the standard college opening hours, and health and safety requirements. The issue has been widely discussed but the department lacks the resources to extend opening hours on a regular basis. It was agreed to open the labs from 9 ambut cannot close them any later than present.
- Lack of common space for students to study due to the renovation of the 5th floor area. This issue has now been addressed with the opening of the Roberts Foyer.
- ELEC2002 module. The students expressed concerns that the syllabus for the first part of the course had not been followed by the new lecturer for Electronic Circuits II. In response the Head of the Teaching Committee meet with the new lecturer and clarified the syllabus contents.
- Clarification regarding planned Good Professional Practice (GPP) sessions. The GPP/career activity has now a website on Moodle that all students can access where they can see the timetable. Further to that, the students receive a monthly programme email at the beginning of each month and a weekly programme email at the beginning of each week.
D. Issues Identified by Visiting Examiners and Action Taken or Planned
Both external examiners agreed that good results had been achieved and that the examination process had been run properly. Several recommendations were made:
- The third year project work assessment process could be improved, including a more comprehensive moderation process and/or pro-forma marksheets with specific criteria. The action agreed is that the project moderation panel will, in future, review every project not just those that appear to be anomalous.
- Discourage practice of writing comments on end-of-year exam scripts in case it gives rise to a cause for complaint in any dispute. Practice will be discouraged in future.
- A consistently lower mark was noted in first report of fourth year projects. The department will ensure that fourth year project supervisors have consistent expectations across both first and final project reports in future.
- Concern over scaling, tends to attract bad publicity. It was suggested to review the scaling procedure and consider gradual phasing-out. The Teaching Committee will consider this matter in 2008/09.
E. Head of Degree Programme /Programme Organiser Comments and Action Taken or Planned
The programme ran successfully and no significant problems were encountered.
No major changes were made. However, a set of proposals was presented at the AwayDay (June 2008) to improve undergraduate recruitment and to address problems with student engagement. These include:
- Introduction of ‘scenario weeks’ in years one and two, consisting of a set of up to four week-long guided projects per year, performed in teams, the aim being to better motivate the students, enhance the engineering aspects of the course and demonstrate horizontal links between course elements.
- Replacement of midsessional exams in years one and two with take-home coursework that is peer-marked in class.
- Re-structuring of the courses into five broad streams in each of years one and two.
- Reduction of exams from the current seven and eight per year to four per year, in years one and two.
F. Head of Degree Programme /Programme Organiser comment on any structural changes to the programme which have been made in the preceding year which might necessitate an updating of the existing Programme Specification. Even where no changes have been made, you are invited to review the Programme Specification and consider how it might usefully be refreshed
The Programme Specification has been reviewed with minor updates implemented in July 2008. These documents can be downloaded from
The Programme Diet has also been reviewed and updated for 2008/09. The revised diet includes compulsory M-level modules in year 4 (which have a pass mark of 50%) a new optional module in Renewable Energy (ELEC3915) in year 3.
UCL DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING