Minutes of the Staff-Student Joint Committee Meeting held on

Monday 3 February 2003 at 2.15 pm in the Board Room

Present	Ms R.C. Catallo		Dr R.J. Miller
	Mrs C.B. Drummond		Dr C.T. Morley
	Mr S. Elia		Mr M.G. Richards
	Mr C.J. Knowles		Dr G.T. Parks
	Mr P.W. Konopka		Mr F.M.N.Z. Tully
	Dr J. Lasenby		Ms A.G. Yetginer
	Mr J.E. Lindop
Absent	Mrs S. Collins-Taylor		Mr P.W.T. Mash
	Ms H. Dong

03.01    Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Mr C. Bass, Mr T.R.P. Bishop, Mrs J Hawtrey-Woore, and Mr J.A. Ma.

03.02   Minutes of the meeting held on 28^th October 2002

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 October 2002 were approved.

03.03   Minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd December 2002

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2002 were approved.

03.04   Matters arising from the Minutes

            02.30 Suggestions for the teaching of Part 1 (A and B) Engineering

Dr Parks reported that the Teaching Committee had agreed that:

• Part I lecturers should in future be asked to include some short starter questions at the beginning of each examples paper.
• Part I lecturers should in future be asked to provide for the benefit of supervisors with each examples paper an unseen problem for discussion in supervisions. This problem could an extension of one of the questions on the examples paper, adapted from a suitable past Tripos question or composed ab initio, at the discretion of the lecturer concerned.
• Student feedback should be solicited via the addition of a question on the paper-based lecture questionnaire and the on-line survey to establish whether the balance of the use of worked examples in individual lecturers was felt to be suitable.

Dr Parks reported further that the Directors of Studies committee had declined to approve the provision of cribs for Part I examples papers on the CUED web site, but had agreed that lecturers should be asked to provide more interim answers to examples paper questions, so that students had a better chance of diagnosing where they were going wrong.

02.32 Any other business (iv) Word Processing of Part I Long Lab Reports

Dr Parks reported that the Coursework Committee had agreed that “for most of the Part I lab work students should continue to keep lab books, with hand-written entries, as this was in line with good professional practice. Students should be encouraged to use word processing for Exposition Reports and for the IDP, where presentation forms an important part of the exercise. Dr Williams and Dr Beaumont agreed to look at the introductory notes and to give explicit instructions and explanations for students on the writing up method for each piece of coursework.”

03.05   SSJC booksale

The proposed arrangements for the 2003 SSJC booksale (Paper SSJC: 03.2.01) were approved.

03.06  Facilities for undergraduates

(i) The possibility of providing a common room for the use of undergraduates

Dr Morley explained that until the nature of the planned relocation of (part of) the Department to West Cambridge had been decided no major infrastructural developments were likely. It was agreed that, whatever was decided, a common room for the use of undergraduates had been a longstanding SSJC request and the provision of one should be part of these future plans.

(ii) The possibility of providing some covered racks for students’ bicycles

It was agreed that this request should be passed to the Department Improvement Group for consideration.

(iii) The comfort of the seating provided in LT0/LT1/LT2

It was agreed that the Department Improvement Group should be asked to consider ways in which this might (affordably) be improved.

(iv) The suitability of the seating provided in the DPO for extended work sessions at computer terminals

It was agreed that this matter should be referred to the Departmental Health, Safety & Environmental Co-ordinator for consideration.

03.07  Computing Facilities

It was agreed that Mr Elia and Mr Knowles would draw up a short (two sides) “Introduction to Unix” for the benefit of new users of the CUED Teaching System. This could then be made available as a paper and a web-based document.

03.08  Lectures and Lecture Notes

(i) The possibility of greater provision of lecture notes in downloadable form on lecturers’ web pages, and, for 3^rd and 4^th year courses, in printed form in some central location(s)

It was agreed that if lecture notes, examples papers etc. were available on the web, then a central repository for spare paper copies was not required. Dr Parks reported that the Maths & Computing Subject Group had just set up a Working Party to consider the introduction of a system to provide precisely this, and therefore this request had, in effect, already been actioned.

(ii) The value of some forms of “with blanks” lecture notes

It was agreed to ask the Teaching Committee to provide some guidance to lecturers on this matter.

(iii) The desirability for all lecturers to make clear which Examples Paper questions should be attempted after each lecture

It was agreed that Part IA lecturers already did this well, but that lecturers in subsequent years did not do this as consistently. Mrs Drummond undertook on behalf of the Teaching Office to remind all lecturers about this recommended good practice.

(iv) The possibility of providing “streaming” versions of lectures

Mr Richards reported on MIT’s experience in experimenting with this idea and the dramatic fall in lecture attendance that accompanied its introduction. It was agreed not to take this suggestion further.

03.09  Coursework

(i) The desirability for increased C++ and MATLAB demonstration provision

It was agreed that this request should be drawn to the attention of the Coursework Committee, although it was noted that the staff in charge of these activities were already planning changes in the provision of demonstration for them next academic year to address these concerns.

(ii) The necessity for the simultaneous timetabling of the Structural Design Project and Exposition classes

Mrs Drummond explained why the simultaneous timetabling of these coursework activities for some students was unavoidable with current student numbers.

03.10   Course Content

It was agreed that the Teaching Committee should be asked to consider the possibility of making some humanities and social sciences courses available to CUED undergraduates (as at MIT). It was noted that the list of Cambridge courses approved by the CMI Office for HASS credit for MIT students spending a year at Cambridge (UK) might provide a useful starting place for identifying suitable courses.

03.11   SSJC

It was noted that, because of the periodicity with which most CUED committees met, there might not always be substantive business to be considered if SSJC meetings were scheduled twice a term. It was therefore agreed that a provisional date for a second meeting each term should be scheduled, but that this meeting should only take place if there was sufficient business to warrant doing so. It was further agreed that some SSJC business could be conducted by email discussion rather than face-to-face meeting. The committee were reminded that there were three email aliases that could be used for such a purpose: ssjc-all@eng (everyone), ssjc-students@eng (junior members), ssjc-staff@eng (senior members).

03.12     Examinations

(i) To investigate the possibility of spreading out the Part IA examination timetable

It was agreed that the Teaching Office should survey the current Part IA students to canvass their opinions on various examination scheduling options.

It was agreed that, irrespective of the results of this survey, Mrs Hawtrey-Woore should be asked to investigate the issue of the scheduling of examinations for dyslexic students, who in Part IA can be faced with two 3 hour 45 minute examinations with only a 45 minute break between them.

(ii) To consider the introduction of “open book” examinations earlier in the course than the final year

It was agreed that the Teaching Committee should be asked to consider this matter.

(iii) To seek an official explanation of the reasons why certain calculator models are not approved for examination use

Dr Parks reported that he was (temporarily) to be CUED’s representative on the committee that approved calculator models and would therefore be in a position to answer this question from first-hand experience at the next SSJC meeting.

03.13   Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the SSJC will take place on Tuesday 13^th May 2003 at 2.15 pm in the Board Room.

03.14   Any other business

(i) Part IB Linear Circuits

Mr Bishop (by email) and Ms Catallo both reported the widespread concern amongst Part IB students about the quality of the lectures and lecture notes for the Linear Circuits course. Dr Parks and Mrs Drummond undertook to investigate ways in which supplementary teaching resources in this area could be made available to students.

(ii) Men’s toilets

Mr Bishop (by email) raised concern about the state of the men’s toilets in the Department. It was agreed that this should be brought to the attention of Mrs Hawtrey-Woore.

(iii) Student photograph galleries

Mr Elia asked whether galleries of undergraduate photographs could be made available within the Department to help students to get to know each other. Dr Parks explained that, at the past instigation of the SSJC, such a system had been introduced, and he would check why this year’s version had yet to appear.

(iv) 4I4

In response to a question from Ms Yetginer, Dr Parks explained the circumstances surrounding the unexpected change in the lecture schedule for this course and what steps had been taken to rectify the problems this caused.

(v) 3^rd year examples papers cribs

Mr Lindop asked how errors in the cribs for 3^rd year examples papers were reported and corrected. It was agreed that the present ad hoc reporting system was inadequate and it was agreed that the Teaching Office should devise a standard error reporting form that could be issued with the cribs sent to supervisors and returned to the relevant module leader.