Committees

General
QMU encourages and welcomes student involvement on its senior committees. We introduced a revised committee structure at the beginning of this academic year, and one of the key factors was how best we could engage students and provide opportunities for them to feed into decision making across the University and within each of the Schools. Some information on being a committee member is provided below:

How often do the committees meet?
Each of the senior committees meets roughly five times per year.

Where are the meetings held?
Usually in the Boardroom, but sometimes one of the classrooms. Meetings of the Student Experience and Internationalisation Committees tend to start around 1pm and are often on a Wednesday afternoon. School Academic Board meeting days and times vary.

What is the role of the student member?
Students can represent their peers, but also offer suggestions based on their own experiences. Students can suggest agenda items to the committee secretary and become involved in any working groups set up by the committee.

How much work is involved?
Each meting lasts about two hours. The main requirements are: to read the papers and come prepared to the meeting and to follow up on any actions you have agreed to help with. Staff recognise that this is a voluntary activity, so students will not be asked to take on any unreasonable extra work that would interfere with their studies, part-time work or other commitments.

What kind of support do student members receive?
All new members have the opportunity to meet with the committee secretary and convener to talk about their role and ask any questions they might have. Ongoing support is also provided by the SU.

What are the benefits of being a committee member?
Committee members develop important transferable skills like communication, working with colleagues in a formal setting, and ability to read and analyse a wide range of materials. This can be very useful when applying for jobs and including on CVs. Members also have the opportunity to make a positive difference to the student experience for current students and future year groups. Believe it or not, meetings can also be fun, as they provide an opportunity for networking and learning from each other!

School Academic Boards
Each of the Schools has its own committee to discuss issues relevant to the particular subject areas. The Boards, or SABs, as they are more usually known, are convened by the Dean of School and the School Manager is secretary. Some examples of issues relevant to particular Schools are as follows:

The Health Sciences Board might consider placement arrangements for nurses and allied health professionals.

The Business, Enterprise and Management Board might look at the management skills needed for graduates in the 21st century.

The Arts and Social Sciences Board might consider opportunities for being more creative in the curriculum.

Some of the main activities for each of the SABs are to look at the overall School plan for the year; to discuss School policies and strategies; and to look for examples of good practice – things that are working well which can be shared more widely in a group like this than would otherwise be possible. The SABs sometimes also receive presentations, for example about the National Student Survey, and give their opinion on matters that affect the University as a whole. These views are collected by the committee secretaries and looked at by Senate, the highest academic committee in the University. This provides an opportunity for a wide range of people to be involved in consultations and decision making. Finally, the Boards look at quality of individual programmes. This can be quite detailed, for example looking at changes to assessment and whether these are appropriate from a student perspective. There are several vacancies in total for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Student Experience Committee
This is a newly created committee that looks at the overall student experience – both academic and support from service areas like Library and IS; Accommodation; and Student Services (Financial Advice; Counselling; Disability Services etc). The Committee is convened by the Vice Principal (Academic), Alan Gilloran, and the Secretary is Dawn Martin, Head of Quality Enhancement. The Committee looks across the whole of the University at a wide range of issues like: communicating with students; the Personal Academic Tutoring system; and Personal Development Planning. It makes suggestions for improvement and will learn from good practice across higher education in the UK and worldwide. It has a strong focus on enhancement for all students – undergraduate, postgraduate and research, as well as students at the University’s overseas and local collaborations. As this is a very broad remit, a number of other groups will report into the committee with updates on more detailed work, for example the National Student Survey Working Group, which is preparing for the University joining the survey in 2011 and the Student Retention Project Board, which looks at reasons why students leave the University and how retention might be improved in future, for example through different support mechanisms. There are three student vacancies, at least one for an undergraduate and one for a postgraduate.

Internationalisation committee
This is also a newly created committee. ‘Internationalisation’ is one of the University’s four ‘I’s – words beginning with the letter ‘I’ that describe the University vision. The others are: Inter-disciplinary; Industry-relevant and Inter-professional. The Committee is convened by Dr Christine Bovis-Cnossen, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, with corporate responsibility for internationalisation, and the Secretary is Sheila Adamson, Collaborations Development Co-ordinator. The Committee looks at all policies relating to internationalisation, including support available to international students. It also looks at the University’s partnerships with other institutions overseas and the student experience for learners in Singapore, India and other parts of the world. Like all the other University committees, it provides an opportunity for staff and students to come together and share their experiences (positive and negative) and learn from each other. There are two student vacancies on the committee, one for an international student.

How to get involved?
Complete the nomination form and return it to Cecile on cguilloteau@qmu.ac.uk by Tuesday 26th October 12.00pm. Elections will be held on Student Parliament Meeting on Wednesday 27th October 9.15am in The SU bar.

For more information on University Committees you can download the Committee Structure document.