Student-Staff Committee Annual Report

Student-Staff Committee Annual Report

Academic year: 2016/17
School/Institute: School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics (SELLL)
Programmes covered by SSC:
Q306 English Literature
Q300 English Language and Literature
QW38 English Literature with Creative Writing
QV31 English Literature and History
Q302 English Language
Q100 Linguistics
Q1T4 Linguistics with Chinese or Japanese
Q1R1 Linguistics with French
Q1R2 Linguistics with German
Q1R4 Linguistics with Spanish
How many SSCs have taken place during the academic year?
4 SSC meetings have taken place during the academic year.
Student Chair: Sam Cross / Email:
Staff Co-Chair: Meiko O’Halloran / Email: meiko.o’
Secretary: Ellen Clifton / Email:
Deputy Student Chair: Caitlin Halfacre / Email:
Staff Facilitator: Emily Smith / Email:

Matters resolved during this academic year

Matter raised / Raised by: / Outcome
More information needed for students surrounding Registration and Induction / Chair / Information will be added to module guides for next year
How to guide will be made available on the website for blackboard.
A joint handbook for History and English will be investigated for next year
Feedback and Assessment / Chair / Review on Feedback and Assessment was given by students and staff. All points raised will be addressed next year.
Personal Tutors and Feed Forward / Staff / The new changes were outlined for the role of Personal Tutor in helping students to respond to their feedback in appropriate ways, and to use it to feedforward and improve on future assignments. This has been implemented successfully.
Staying in contact with third years / Deputy Chair/Staff / A Facebook page has been set up to provide a link with SELL graduated students.
Board of Studies / Staff / Representatives were selected to attend Board of Studies meetings.
SELLL Cafe / Student Rep / Café was run by Felix Mackay. SELLL student café is still in need of more volunteers to increase opening hours, but has been able to maintain regular weekly opening hours. Course Reps were asked to help publicise the cafe.
SSC Awareness and Visibility / Staff / A meeting will be timetabled twice a year to discuss ‘housekeeping’ issues with all students in the School. This will give the SSC the chance to promote awareness and visibility and get students involved.
Facebook has also been used to good effect to communicate between student reps.
Doing the Degree / Staff / A new initiative will be put in place for targeted sessions detailing what students need to know about certain aspects of their degree programme. This will start in the next academic year and the progress will be reported back to the SSC.
Election of SSC Chair, Deputy Chair and Secretary for 2016/17. / Chair / The new Chair and Secretary will be decided via an online vote by the end of term.

Ongoing discussions

Matter raised / Raised by: / Actions pending
Student Focus Group
SELLL Undergraduate Online Journal / Chair
Chair / This year’s student focus group was aimed at Equality and Diversity (E&D) within the school. The group was established and several ideas were set in motion, including a survey and online videos from students about their definitions of E&D. The group will be continued into the next academic year.
An undergraduate journal was established by members of the outgoing SSC. Guidelines for submissions were decided and communicated to all SELLL students. The journal is monitored and updated on an ongoing basis. The journal will be continued into the next academic year with a dedicated project leader.
Department IT / Student Rep / Students requested a colour printing option for the printer in the Percy Common Room. This matter is still ongoing.
Students asked if the Percy Common Room printer could be added to the NUprint system. IT are investigating.
Equality Reps / Staff / Proposal of equality reps in each school who report back to Equality and Executive Committee. Reps will collect feedback, lead school campaigns, and create guidance docs. The student focus group could work well with this forthcoming idea. This will be monitored into the future.
SSC Awareness and Visibility – My School App / Staff / A new section of the University App entitled ‘My School’ has been trialled. This will allow further contact between students and course reps.Its progress will be monitored.

Have you been aware of any equality and diversity issues this year? If yes, please provide any details.

The Student Focus group has begunto investigate Equality and Diversity within the School of English, and to gather student thoughts on the matter. This will continue into the next academic year.

Any other points to note/feedback

This has been anothersuccessful year for Student-Staff Committee (SSC) in the School of English. The SSC was nominated 3 times at the Academic Rep Awards: SSC Chair of the year – Sam Cross (won), UG Course Rep of the year – Sam Cooke (2nd place), UGSCC of the year (shortlisted).

Next year’s committee elected will continue the effective work and progress in the SSC in the next academic year.