It's been a busy few weeks since the completion of the GSA Elections in November. Here's a summary of what myself & the team have done between then and the end of 2009:

University Committees / Meetings:

University Teaching Committee (UTC): 9th November 2009
The main foci of discussion were the universities new Teaching & Learning Strategy, approval or rejection of new courses, and examination of Periodic Reviews performed on departments across the university. It was noted that the number of cases of plagiarism involving postgraduates has increased, with 90% of cases concerning overseas students. This will be a focus for the Academic Affairs Officer/Committee over the coming year.

Health, Safety & Welfare: 10th November 2009
Discussion at this meeting focussed on fire safety training, meningitis awareness, and swine flu cases across the campus. The GSA are asked to note that the percentage of Wentworth residents not attending the fire safety training is very high, and actions to work on this (in collaboration with the college) could be considered.

Social Work & Social Policy Periodic Review: 12th November 2009
Acted as University student representative on the panel; otherwise consisting of members of the UTC and external academics. The aim was to identify both the strengths of the department and good practice, while also noting areas where the department/courses can improve. In all, we interviewed the Head of Dept, Head of Board of Studies, Staff,Students, and postgraduates, getting their feedback on how the department and courses are run. A report will be written which will be fed back to the UTC, and the department will write an action plan stating how they will work on any areas identified in this review.

NUS Postgraduate Forum: 14th November 2009
The aim of this forum was to meet with other student union bodies and discuss how to increase postgraduate engagement with their student union/NUS. Myself and the GSA President attended, and have taken some thoughts from this which we may consider proposing later in the year.

Standing Committee on Assessment: 20th November 2009
The Committee have noted, from before my time yet reaffirmed in this meeting, that the GSA will work on a strategy to tackle the increase in plagiarism concerning postgraduate students. The only other business concerning postgrads was a proposal to allow a weeks leeway on submission of PhD theses. This was unaminously rejected & we support that policy.

FELT Steering Group: 24th November 2009
This panel (Forum for Enhancement of Learning & Teaching) sets up workshops for attendance by academics throughout the university. Here we discussed these workshops, what their focus should be, and how often they should be held. We also discussed the potential introduction of a Maths Support Project, with the GSA noting that should this be implemented, it should also be open to postgraduates.

Mitigating Circumstances Consultation: 26th November 2009
Myself & Heather Rowley were invited to be involved in the redesign of the university Mitigating Circumstances form and the guidance notes which are given with it. We put forward many suggestions on both the forms design and the wording / layout within the guidance notes. We also intend to pursue this as the organisers were unaware as to whether departments should acknowledge receipt of the form, and we also want to clarify how long a student can expect to wait for a decision.

Board for Graduate Schools: 8th December 2009
Myself & Rui Huang attended - the main foci being statistics on the completion rates of PhD students across campus, and a report on the work performed by the Graduate Training Unit. We also fed back on our take on the new Research Development Framework

Teaching Awards Decision Panel: 11th December 2009
The GSA were invited to sit on the panel to decide the winners of PGWT Teaching Awards and Vice-Chancellor Teaching Awards. I assessed the evidence provided by each candidate and fed this in to the discussions

Health Sciences PTES Results: 14th December 2009
Myself, previous GSA Academic Rep Tom Flynn, and Pro-Vice Chancellor Trevor Sheldon met with the Health Sciences department to review the previous years PTES results and how the department can work on this feedback.

Planning Our Spring Term Campaign: Academic Integrity

The GSA Welfare Officer, Heather Rowley, and myself have had several meetings with the Academic Support Office & YUSU to discuss the input the GSA will have in Academic Integrity Week in the Spring Term (Week 3). We will be running a variety of events to combat the increase in plagarism seen among postgrad students

Academic Affairs Sub-Committee & Course Reps

Heather, Rui, Beth, Caroline and myself met with a large number of our postgraduate Course Reps & conducted the first Academic Affairs Sub-Committee. We have informed the reps what their role is, and how to get feedback back to the GSA Academic Team. We also attended the YUSU Course Rep Training, with several of our postgrad reps, as well as a Course Rep Conference in Birmingham run by the NUS.

And..

We're also looking at other projects - giving the GSA a presence on the VLE, improving our website, and organising a Postgraduate Forum for next term. We are also looking to start the process of getting information out to next years cohort.

Us Officers get paid to represent you - so if your having issues or have any comments, please do get in touch.