Minutes of the Staff-Student Joint Committee Handover Meeting held on

Monday 29 November 1999 at 2.15 pm in the Board Room

Present

 

 

Mr EM Carroll
Ms PE Courtney
Mr TG Froggatt
Ms DA Galletly
Ms PM Hopkins
Ms LB James
Mr SA Lupini

Mr JC Miles
Mr ECW Pain
Dr GT Parks
Ms LC Stockbridge
Mr B Timms
Mr IYSVun
 

99.33 Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Ms K McDonald and Mr BT Todd.

99.34 Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 October 1999 were approved by the outgoing members of the SSJC.

99.35 Matters arising from the Minutes

99.27 SSJC Booksale

Ms James reported that the booksale had gone very well with a turnover of about £1500.00. A small "profit" of about £8.00 had been made. Ms James said she would write a job description for her successors.

99.36 Election of Student Officers

The following people agreed to serve in the offices listed below:

 

Student Secretary and Archivist

Mr Miles

 

Booksale organisers

Mr Lupini and Mr Pain

 

Editor of "Engineering at Cambridge: A Freshers Guide"

Mr Timms

 

CUED Safety Committee Representative

Ms James

 

CUED Library Committee Representative

Ms James

 

1st Year Liaison Representative

Mr Froggatt

 

Organiser of the Best Lecturer Awards

Ms Galletly

 

Fast Feedback Facility Message Handler

Ms Stockbridge

 

Publicity Officer

Ms Courtney

99.37 Fast Feedback Facility

Dr Parks undertook to arrange for the capability to email messages to the SSJC to be added to the Fast Feedback Facility.

99.38 Issues for the next SSJC Agenda

The following issues were identified:

(a) Facilities for Undergraduates

    1. The lack of heating in LT1 and LT2.
    2. The possibility of providing a common room for the use of undergraduates.
    3. The possibility of providing drinking fountains in the Inglis building.
    4. The possibility of allowing undergraduates access to the department after 10 pm.

(b) Computing Facilities

    1. The provision of an easy route to Lyx
    2. The provision of a "Word-style" word processing package as an alternative to latex.
    3. The possibility of providing some terminals dedicated to the checking of email.

(c) Language Teaching

    1. The possibility of introducing Spanish teaching.
    2. The possibility of providing help in the preparation of CVs for overseas job applications

(d) Coursework

    1. Student representation on the CUED Working Party reviewing coursework.
    2. The lack of feedback on laboratory write-ups and project reports.
    3. The lack of teaching of experiment planning skills in Part I coursework.
    4. 3rd year laboratories: The consistency of marking of reports, the length of time actually required to do write-ups, and the significant imbalances between the effort required to do various laboratory experiments.
    5. The need for a review of the teaching of Drawing in Part IA.
    6. The need for improvement in the teaching of Report Writing Skills in Exposition classes.
    7. The need for a review of the teaching of Programming within Parts IA and IB.
    8. The possibility of providing other voluntary sessions (like the Engine Strip and Rebuild) where students can gain practical engineering skills and experience.

(e) Examination Timetables

The possibility of scheduling the Parts IA and IB examinations over longer periods.

(f) Course Content

    1. The introduction of further consideration of environmental issues.
    2. The introduction of teaching on aesthetics.
    3. The possibility of allowing students, particularly in the final year, to do courses in other Triposes, eg Computer Science and Chemical Engineering.

(g) SSJC Initiatives

    1. To provide a guide to the courses in the 3rd and 4th year from the student perspective.
    2. To provide web based information to help graduate students.

99.39 Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the SSJC will take place on Monday 7 February 2000 at 2.15pm in the Board Room.