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Board of Studies (89th Meeting) – 20 June 2018 – approved of 11 Prepared by: Veronica Gillies

89th Meeting of the BOARD OF STUDIES Minutes of the meeting held at 1.30pm on Wednesday 20 June 2018

in A/RC/014, Department of Health Sciences

Present: Cathryn Britton (Chair) Rob Allison Helen Bedford Pauline Bland John Blase Paul Evans Ted Hewitt Mona Kanaan Rachel Lavelle Carole Lindsey Claire Metcalfe Sarah O’Reilly Jess Powell Helen Recchia Sarah Redfern Anita Savage Grainge Rachel Skipper David Torgerson Mick Wolverson Jerome Wright Russell Yates Student Representatives: Rachel Cadwallader Buckland (PGDip Nursing Mar17) Rebecca Griffin (BA Midwifery Practice Mid15) In attendance: Veronica Gillies (Secretary)

MAIN AGENDA – CATEGORY 1

BoS/Jun18/01 College Welfare Provision

The Chair welcomed Matt Matravers (Head of Goodricke College) to the meeting. MM presented an overview of the student welfare support offered by colleges (Appendix 1). The following key points were noted:

College teams could provide an additional tier of pastoral support for students, between that offered by personal supervisors and professional services such as the Open Door Team.

The aim of college teams was to address problems at an early stage, so that where possible these could be prevented from progressing to a point where professional intervention was necessary.

All new students were sent a pre-arrival survey which included questions around what anxieties or concerns they had about coming to University. Trends identified from this survey were used by college teams during induction events to reassure students about common anxieties, and this had proved helpful.

A range of well-being workshops was provided through colleges on a termly basis, focussing on a wide variety of issues and concerns that students might have. These were open to all, and students did not need to be a member of the college to attend.

Any supervisor with concerns about a student could contact the student’s college using the college email address (<college name>@york.ac.uk): this would then be referred to the appropriate person.

MM summarised that Departments were encouraged to communicate with Colleges where there were concerns about a student, so that information could be shared and a co-operative approach adopted which would ensure that appropriate support was provided for the student. The Chair thanked MM for attending the meeting.


BoS/Jun18/02 Apologies for Absence Karl Atkin, Ann Bellerby, David Brown, Jodie Coulson, Patrick Doherty, Steve Ersser, Kate Flemming, Lorna Fraser, David Graham, Matthew Jacobs, Gerri Kaufman, Ada Keding, Mike Kitching, Marysia Koc, Tracy Lightfoot, Jim McCambridge, Mike Parker, Gillian Punton, Kate Rudd, Debbie Watson. Student Reps: Eleanor Barton (BA Midwifery Practice Mid16), Susan Birkitt (UG Departmental Rep), Megan Chafer (MNursing Sept17), Holly Dale (MSc Applied Health Research), Louise Hitchman (PGCert Health Research & Statistics), Keira Hulse-Storr (BA Midwifery Practice Mid16), Sarah Masefield (PG Departmental Rep), Nicole Neiman (Master of Public Health), Timothy O’Dowd (PGDip Advanced Clinical Practice), Molly Toulson (BSc Nursing Sept16) It was noted that quorum had not been achieved as there were insufficient members present.

BoS/Jun18/03 Minutes from the Meeting held on 21 February 2018 The minutes from the meeting of the Board of Studies which took place on Wednesday 21 February 2018 were approved.

BoS/Jun18/04 Matters Arising BoS/Feb18/05.04 Lecture Capture Members were reminded that there had been an action from the previous meeting for the Undergraduate Programmes Board to consider whether the Department should adopt an opt-out policy on lecture capture for programmes under its governance. The Chair reported that this had been discussed and it had been agreed that all lecture sessions would be recorded, with effect from Sept 2018. JB reported that there were over 200 rooms across campus which were enabled for lecture capture, and that where a room was not enabled it was possible to record sessions using a laptop. JB advised that the University’s stance on opting out of recording was that it should be based on the type of session rather than staff preference, and that any exceptions to this would need to be approved by Boards of Studies. Module leaders were also required to ensure that recordings were released to students within three working days of the session taking place; or, where this was not possible, that equivalent resources were provided in the same timeframe. It was agreed that it would be important for training on both the in-room equipment and the editing software to be provided to module leaders. It was noted, however, that how this was being managed remained unclear. JB highlighted that he and the University e-Learning Development Team were able to provide support. MK enquired whether the recordings were owned by the session facilitator or by the University, and therefore whether they could be used in other circumstances without the facilitator being informed. JB advised that recordings were kept for five years, but that they could only be accessed by those who would have been eligible to attend the original session, and that after two years recordings were archived and were therefore no longer viewable. The Chair suggested that the information in student handbooks should be updated to reflect the change in policy. It was agreed that the wording could be changed if there was an agreed position statement which could be substituted for the current wording.

BoS/Jun18/05 Board of Studies Chair’s Report (Standing Item) BoS/Jun18/05.01 Student Access to Seebohm Rowntree Building – Update Members were reminded that a trial of allowing open access to Seebohm Rowntree Building had been planned for April 2018. The Chair explained that this had been delayed as a result of difficulties in ensuring that keys were available to all offices and all staff members had a secure place in which to store their belongings. It was confirmed that the Department would be proceeding with the pilot, which was now expected to take place


during the Autumn Term 2018/9. The Chair advised that feedback on the pilot would be sought from staff and students to inform future action. BoS/Jun18/05.02 NMC Annual Monitoring Review 2018 The Board was informed that the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) Annual Monitoring Review which had taken place in February 2018 had identified some areas of Departmental process which needed to be strengthened. It was reported that the Undergraduate Programmes Board was overseeing action being taken to address these points. BoS/Jun18/05.03 NSS & PTES It was noted that both the National Student Survey (NSS) and the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) for the current year had closed, and the results were awaited. BoS/Jun18/05.04 University Learning & Teaching Conference Members were reminded that the University Annual Learning & Teaching Conference 2018 would be taking place on Friday 22 June, on the theme of ‘Research-led teaching – in pursuit of excellence’. Members were encouraged to attend if they were able. BoS/Jun18/05.05 Subject Level TEF It was reported that a presentation on subject-level TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) would be taking place at the next Board of Studies meeting. BoS/Jun18/05.06 Student Attendance Policy The Chair reported that the University policy on attendance monitoring had been agreed but that it remained on hold until the details of how it would be implemented had been finalised. It was hoped that more information on the requirements for Departments would become available over the summer period. It was acknowledged that the Department’s work on implementing attendance monitoring would necessarily be informed by the University policy, once this was released. BoS/Jun18/05.07 Chair of Board of Studies The Chair noted that this would be her last meeting before stepping down from the role in August. The Chair expressed thanks to all members for supporting her in the various aspects of the role.

BoS/Jun18/06 Student Issues (Standing Item) It was noted that there were no matters from the Student-Staff Forum which had required escalation to the Board.

BoS/Jun18/07 Periodic Review Update and Action Plan (Standing Item) The Chair reported that the Department had made good progress in relation to the Periodic Review Action Plan but that there were still some actions remaining to address. The first of these was the development of a robust process for creating and reviewing exam papers: it was confirmed that this had been referred to the Chairs of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Board of Examiners for action. The second outstanding action was in relation to feedback and how this was given to students, and the Chair reported that two workshops with the Learning Enhancement Team would be taking place in September to address this. The final action was for the Department to involve a member of the Learning Enhancement Team in the development of the new pre-registration nursing curriculum: it was agreed that the Chair of Nursing Programmes Committee would invite Cecilia Lowe to contribute to the process.

ACTION BY WHOM

To invite Cecilia Lowe (Learning Enhancement Team) to be part of the development of the pre-registration nursing programme

Rob Allison


The Chair presented an overview of the outcomes from the workshops with the Learning Enhancement Team on marking criteria. The following key points were noted:

Marking criteria should be aligned with programme learning outcomes across all levels, and there should be progression in the criteria from one stage of a programme to the next.

Specific marking criteria should be developed for different types of assessment; but the same criteria should be used for all modules with a given type of assessment.

The statements within the criteria should be made more explicit in order to differentiate more clearly between bandings.

The weighting of marking criteria could be revisited, potentially linked to the progression of requirements across programme stages.

The language used should be reviewed and considered to ensure that all markers had a shared understanding of what was meant by the descriptors of each banding.

The Department could consider whether the bandings used for degree classification should be used i.e. 1st, 2:1, 2:2, 3; and whether this would help students to relate to the criteria.

It had also been highlighted that it would be important to involve students in the setting of any new marking criteria, to ensure that they were able to understand them; and it had been suggested that the Department should consider both the evidence base and examples of successful criteria from other Departments. The Chair advised that Cecilia Lowe (Learning Enhancement Team) would continue to support the Department throughout the process. It was noted that there was an inconsistency in the language used on the existing Level 6 criteria, whereby the term ‘satisfactory’ was used in one of the descriptors for the ‘sound’ banding, which would need to be rectified: it was agreed that this would be referred to the Chair of UG Board of Examiners to address.

ACTION BY WHOM

To ensure inconsistency in language on Level 6 marking criteria is corrected

Devi Nannen

It was noted that a number of colleagues had resources which were helpful in explaining how to interpret marking criteria, some of which were historic Departmental resources. It was agreed that it would be helpful to revisit these resources to inform the ongoing developments to marking criteria. The Chair reminded members that there would need to be shared input as Level 7 criteria were used by both professional and non-professional programmes. It was also confirmed that marking criteria would be considered as part of the curriculum development process, as a whole alongside the assessment strategy and the programme learning outcomes. A query was raised regarding implementation of a system for marking electronically. JB advised that if the Department wished to do so, it would be possible to align the marking process for summative assessments more closely to that currently used for formative assessments through the VLE. After discussion, it was proposed that the Departmental Technology Enhanced Learning Group could explore electronic marking for summative assessments to identify what could be achieved through the VLE.

ACTION BY WHOM

To explore electronic marking through the VLE for summative assessments

Technology Enhanced Learning Group

BoS/Jun18/08 Student & Staff Achievements

The Board was informed that Joe Atkinson (BSc Nursing (Mental Health), Sept15) had been awarded Student Nurse of the Year (Mental Health) at the Student Nursing Times Awards; and that Lucy Horne (BA Midwifery Practice, Mid16) had presented at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Education Conference 2018 and was one of the ‘150 Leaders’ on the


Council of Deans of Health Student Leadership Programme. The Board congratulated both students on their achievements. Congratulations were also offered to David Graham, who was nominated for Supervisor of the Year at the YUSU Excellence Awards 2018, and to Kelly Davies and Ian Hamilton, who had achieved academic promotion to Lecturer (Grade 7) and Senior Lecturer respectively.

BoS/Jun18/09 Departmental Annual Student Prize 2018 Members were advised that nominations for the Departmental Annual Student Prize were open, and that the closing date for nominations was 31 August 2018. It was noted that nominations could be made by any member of DoHS staff. It was confirmed that the nomination form and criteria would be circulated following the meeting. The Chair also advised members that nominations were currently open for the KM Stott prize for research students.

ACTION BY WHOM

To circulate Departmental Annual Student Prize nomination form and criteria to all staff

Veronica Gillies

MAIN AGENDA – CATEGORY 2 (Items for Reporting / Receiving Only)

BoS/Jun18/10 Minutes Received from Board’s Sub Committees The Board received the minutes from the following sub-committees:

Undergraduate Programmes Board (January 2018 & March 2018)

Graduate School Board (February 2018 & April 2018)

Departmental Library Committee (January 2018)

UG Student-Staff Forum (February 2018)

PG Student-Staff Forum (January 2018) BoS/Jun18/11 Board of Studies Terms of Reference The revised Board of Studies Terms of Reference were received. BoS/Jun18/12 Any Other Urgent Business (previously agreed with the Chair) None. BoS/Jun18/13 Date and Time of Next Meeting Wednesday 17 October 2018 commencing at 1.30pm in A/EW/104 Student representatives left the meeting.

SUMMARY OF ACTION POINTS

AGENDA ITEM AND TITLE ACTION BY WHOM

BoS/Jun18/08 Periodic Review Update and Action Plan

To invite Cecilia Lowe (Learning Enhancement Team) to be part of the development of the pre-registration nursing programme

Rob Allison


To ensure inconsistency in language on Level 6 marking criteria is corrected

Devi Nannen


To explore electronic marking through the VLE for summative assessments

Technology Enhanced Learning Group

BoS/Jun18/10 Departmental Annual Student Prize 2018

To circulate Departmental Annual Student Prize nomination form and criteria to all staff

Veronica Gillies

APPENDIX 1 – BoS/Jun18/01

BoS Functions Report – 20 June 2018 of 11

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