Goldsmiths - University of London

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Programme Monitoring and Representation

Programme Monitoring forms an important part of the College’s quality assurance and enhancement procedures, enabling students to feed back to their department on their experience of their programmes.


Aims

The aims of the Programme Monitoring process are to ensure that the views of students are considered and can contribute to quality enhancement at Goldsmiths, including:

• Learning and teaching

• Programme development and review

• Learning support services

• Programme and course administration

• Student support and guidance

 

Staff/Student Forums

Programme Monitoring takes place primarily through Departmental Staff/Student Forums, which should meet at least twice per academic year. Each academic department is required to convene a minimum of one forum for undergraduate programmes, and one for postgraduate programmes, but beyond this they are free to take the initiative in deciding how their programmes may best be split into representative groups for monitoring purposes.

Forums give students the opportunity to provide feedback on any matters relating to their programmes, e.g. current teaching provision, directly to programme staff, and for Departmental Student Coordinators (DSCs) to raise any other matters that have been brought to their attention. Students should also be encouraged to provide input on future improvements and opportunities for development, e.g. in relation to curriculum and assessment.

In addition to Staff/Student Forums, online forums are available within the VLE to encourage student feedback on programme level issues. Both DSCs and programme staff are encouraged to monitor and interact with the forums in order to consider and, where possible, resolve student issues as swiftly and easily as possible.

 

Student Feedback Database

 The Quality Office maintains a database for reporting issues raised in Staff/Student Forums.  The database can be accessed through a web page found on the intranet at:

http://intranet.gold.ac.uk/cs/apps/qa/final/programme_monitoring.php. 

The database allows the Quality Office to track issues raised departmentally for generic themes and raise these with the appropriate College department/support service. Department staff have the major responsibility for updating the database.

When reporting to the database, issues raised in forums are tagged from a drop down list (including such things as the Library, Teaching Accommodation, Feedback on Assessment etc).  This list was revised in 2008-09 to make it both shorter and more compatible with the National Student Survey. The suggested agenda and minutes template for Staff/Student Forums were also revised (see appendices 1 and 2) so that it would be easier to report to the database directly from the minutes.

The database has also been revised to allow for one report for a group of programmes – users logging in are now asked to choose whether they wish to write a ‘single programme report’ or a ‘compound report’.  Choosing a compound report leads to a page with a list of potential programmes from which the user chooses the ones s/he is reporting on, and gives the compound report a name (single programme reports are automatically named    for the programme code).  After this the user is presented with a screen asking them to confirm their choices, and from there on the reporting process continues as for a single programme report.


Outline of the process

  1. Staff/Student forums will meet at least twice during each academic year, at times deemed convenient within each department’s annual schedule. The suggested template agenda [MS Word file] is designed to serve as a basis for meetings. It contains the main areas that could be covered, to which other items or subheadings can be added.  Issues raised in Course Evaluation should be included (see guidance notes on Course Evaluation).
  2. Departments are to take responsibility for assigning programme staff to chair Forum meetings, for setting and communicating the time, date and location of Forum meetings, along with agendas, minute taking and any other paperwork.
  3. Departmental Student Coordinators are required to collect and collate student feedback, from both online forums and direct discussions with students, and to raise issues, where appropriate, with the Head of Department and Departmental Administrator. DSCs should also take responsibility for monitoring and moderating online forums. It is advisable for the Staff/Student Forum Chair and the DSC(s) to meet in advance of the Forum meeting in case issues can be resolved prior to the meeting and reported to the Forum.
  4. Following each meeting of the Staff/Student Forum, the meeting Secretary (normally a member of staff) will write minutes and enter all relevant information to the Programme Monitoring Database.
  5. Minutes [MS Word file] of forum meetings should note all areas of feedback and in particular any action that needs to be taken and by whom. The minutes should be agreed by the members of the forum, and submitted to the next meeting of Departmental Learning and Teaching Committee.
  6. The minutes of Staff/Student Forums should also be displayed on the departmental/programme notice board/website/VLE area so that they are available to all students.
  7. The DSCs should, in the first instance, refer any issues arising during the meetings that require action to their departmental contact, and should ensure that information regarding the action taken is communicated to students.
  8. The notes of the forum meetings will form the basis for the Programme Monitoring Database Report. The database report consists of issues, comments and actions required or resolved. The issues should be logged in the web-based system for programme monitoring reports following forum meetings, and these will be monitored and reviewed by the Quality Administrator.
  9. At the start of the academic year, the DSCs, the chair of the Staff/Student Forum and the Departmental Administrator should review, comment upon and annotate the Database Report(s) from the previous year, which should then be fed into the production of the Annual Programme Review report(s). The Quality Administrator will monitor the Programme Monitoring reports on the database and follow up generic issues with relevant committees and departments. Responses will then be fed back to Departments.


Feedback to students

Feedback is given at each Staff/Student Forum meeting regarding any issues from the previous meeting that required action.

Students should be able to view the minutes from both Departmental Board/Departmental Learning and Teaching Committee and Forum meetings, which should be displayed on the departmental/programme notice board/website/VLE area. Departmental staff, DSCs and student representatives should work together to identify and implement best practice and disseminate outcomes to students.

Issues that remain unresolved at departmental level will be reviewed by DSCs and departmental staff at the start of each academic year, and where necessary will be taken up by the Quality Office, which will report the College   response back to Departments, which will then ensure that DSCs and students are informed, and can discuss the issues at the next Staff/Student     Forum meeting.

 

Membership

Membership of each Staff/Student Forum is for departments to determine, but   could include invitations to the following:

•All programme conveners

•Departmental Student Coordinators

•All students/student representatives

•Departmental Administrator

•Other departmental staff, as appropriate

 

Departmental Student Coordinators

Departmental Student Coordinators are recruited by the College working together with the Students’ Union at the start of each academic session, and receive training, as well as remuneration and a job description, from the Students’ Union. Each department is assigned at least one undergraduate and one postgraduate DSC, with the possibility of additional DSCs being recruited if they are deemed necessary to help fully represent the students within a Department.

The Students' Union will keep DSCs informed and up to date, and will hold a    database of student coordinators. DSCs are encouraged to keep in touch with their peers and their departments, as well as the Students Union' Representation and Democracy Manager and the College's Quality Office. The Students' Union provides a handbook for DSCs and ensures that they are   fully supported in their roles through close contact, training sessions and regular catch-ups.

 

Departmental Student Representatives

Departments may invite all students to the Staff/Student forum, or they may restrict membership to student representatives.  Normally two student representatives will be recruited for each year of a programme.  Departments recruiting student representatives should inform the Students’ Union, who will provide training.

Student representatives have a smaller role than Departmental Student Coordinators. Representatives are responsible for feedback from students on a particular year of a particular programme, whereas Departmental Student Coordinators are responsible for all undergraduate students, or all postgraduate students, a much broader responsibility.


Web Form Instructions

Downloadable Forms