OU alumni and graduate Senate representative De Petrina Stevens discusses what will be covered in the next Senate meeting....
Perhaps it is true that not all graduates and alumni are familiar with the workings of Senate, and I know that I was unaware of its true role before I became the Graduate representative on Senate. I thought you may be interested to read the constitution of Senate, as I had occasion to be reminded of it myself when reading the papers for the next meeting. It states “The Senate is the academic authority of the University which, subject to the powers of the Council, is responsible for promoting the academic work of the University both in teaching and research. It oversees the University’s academic management, including the curriculum and all aspects of quality and standards associated with the University as a degree-awarding body. It has the power to make regulations, including those which (subject to the approval of the Council) delegate any of its powers. Senate meetings concentrate on major issues of academic strategy, policy, priority and performance.”
It would be impossible and indeed inefficient for the whole of Senate to be initially involved in too much detail. In order to be more effective in overseeing the University’s academic management, Senate has to delegate more detailed governance to various committees whose members are taken from Senate.
One of those committees is the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Committee (QAEC). Its role is to assure Senate that quality assurance and enhancement arrangements are appropriately established and implemented, and to oversee the University’s engagement with external quality assurance processes. The committee also monitors and reviews action and institutional performance, assures quality and standards and advises other governance bodies or management so it has a pivotal role to play.
The QAEC has to meet not less than three times a year and reports each meeting to Senate. These reports have not in the past been evaluative and Senate will be asked to comment on the suggestion that in future they also provide an annual evaluative report. Suggestions made by Senate will provide the committee with a context for developing its first evaluative annual report, so comments from you are welcome.
The Student Support Review Update
You may remember a while back, around June last year to be more precise, I was talking about the recommendations of the Student Report. As possible future students, should you be thinking of returning to study, or as someone who may suggest OU study to another, understanding the restructuring of student support may be helpful.
There were two recommendations; the first being that a student support structure should be based around the curriculum area, rather than the geographical area in which the student is studying. The second recommendation was that the University should organise the new curriculum-led support structure through the creation of Student Support Teams.
The Student Support Review is implementing these two recommendations in developing Curriculum Support Teams (CSTs) within the Study Experience Programme (SEP), (who said/hoped acronyms were dead?!).
Each of the four nations of the UK will host their own CSTs. It is hoped that UK-wide support for nations will help them sustain a close relationship with the university, whilst encouraging a distinction in their provision for students.
The most suitable way to transition the move from the geographically-based support structure to the new curriculum-led student support structure is to ensure sufficient time for the change to happen with the least disruption to students as possible. The projected system will therefore not be fully in place until October 2013, with regular monitoring and communication enabling as smooth a changeover as possible.
Please let me have your comments at any time.
