September
2011 August 2011
January 2011
December 2010 September 2010 July 2010 March
2010 February 2010
January 2010
2009
September
2011
August 2011
- The initial results from
the 2011 NSS (National Student Survey of all UK finalist) and
the Programme Survey (of all continuing Leeds students) have now been
published. You can access this initial data here.
- Good news: Our overall satisfaction rate has gone up to 86%
(88% without JH), compared to 83% (84%) in 2010 and 77% in 2009. This
improved our ranking among all Maths Departments in the UK to rank 37
out of 57 (compared to rank 47 out of 53 in 2010). Thanks to all staff
for their efforts!
- Areas for improvement: As every year, our student
satisfaction rates for personal development are very low (59% on the
NSS, 48% for Year 1, 46% for Year 2). These are among the lowest within
the University.We hope that the changes implemented through the
Programme Review and the Employer Engagement project will have an
impact, but this will take some time. Improvement in this area will
require a joint effort by all staff! Over the next few weeks we will
draw up our yearly Action Plan for Learning and Teaching. Ideas and
comments are always welcome.
January 2011
December
2010
- Programme Review -
Here is the revised
Maths programme review proposal which was presented to the School
TLC in November. It will be discussed further at the School Meeting on
15th of December, and at a special meeting in January, after which a
final version can be agreed by TLC.
- Mark
your
calenders! Staff L&T
Development Away Day - 16th of December, 9:30 to 12:30, MALL,
followed by the Christmas lunch.
- School L&T Action
Plan. Every
year
each
school
in
the
University
has
to
produce
an
L&T
Action
Plan based on student surveys and feedback, discussions in the
Staff-Student forum and the School L&T Committee. The current
Action Plan (which will be considered by the Faculty later this month)
can be found at here.
Comments
and
suggestions
are
welcome. NSS
and
Programme Survey results are posted here.
- August resits for level 3
& 5 modules. Following the School vote and discussions in
the School TLC and the School's Management Group, it has been decided
to abolish August resits for level 3 and 5 Maths modules starting in
2011/12, if approved by the Faculty. This will not apply to level 5
financial maths modules.
- Report from SAER. The
report
from
the
Student
Academic
Experience
Review
held
in
May
2010
is
posted here,
together
with
the School's
Action
Plan
in
response
to
the
report.
- Article
in
the
recent
L&T
Bulletin about the use of tablet PCs in the
School of Maths.
September
2010
July 2010
- Mark Kelmanson and John Truss have been shortlisted for
the University "I love my personal
tutor" award. Evy Kersale
was nominated. Unfortunately the School of Maths did not receive any
awards.
- With the support of Samantha Pugh, the MaPS L&T
Enhancement Officer, we will start a Peer
Mentoring
Scheme in 2010/11, called PAL
(for Peer Assisted Learning).
More details can be found in the flyer
distributed to all Maths students earlier in the year.
- The School TLC has decided to standardise the duration of exams. Starting in
2010/11 the standard duration for Maths exams will be as follows: 2hrs
for a 10 credit module, 2.5hrs for a 15 credit module, 3hrs for a 20
credit module.
- Hand-in procedures for
Module Surveys. The School TLC has reconsidered its decision
about module surveys to be collected and returned to the Taught Student
Office by a student. Starting in 2010/11 module surveys will NOT have
to be collected and returned to the Taught Student Office by a student,
but a note will be included on all module survey forms indicating that
students can return the completed form to the Taught Student Office
directly if they wish.
- The School TLC has considered and approved a policy on coursework extensions for
2010/11.In short: Coursework extension for small pieces of coursework
for up to 2 working days are granted by the lecturer; for extensions
for more than 2 working days students have to submit a Coursework
Extension Request Form to the Taught Student Office. Details will be
published online before the start of the new academic year.
- As promised in the School's L&T Action Plan, the School
TLC has agreed on a set of minimum
requirements for a module webpage.
- Starting in 2010/11, students will have to submit project
reports and essays via the online TurnrItIn
system which will produce an originality report screening the
submission for plagiarism and giving some indication about the level of
originality. Details will be circulated before the start of the
academic year to the lecturers of the modules concerned.
- We will review our attendance
monitoring
procedures for 2010/11. If you have any suggestions
(in particular for how to reduce workloads), please let Margit or
Heather know.
- As announced and circulated previously we are moving
to a module-based tutorial system in 2010/11. All examples classes
(level 0), tutorials (year 1), and workshops (level 3 and 5) have been
timetabled, and staff have been allocated to these. More info: Letter
circulated
in
Feb e-mail
circulated
in
April
March 2010
- Preparations for the Student
Academic
Experience
Review (SAER) have started. This two-day
event will take place on 5th and 6th of May. Various meetings will be
held with different groups of staff and students. The final meeting in
which the review panel will present a brief summary of its findings to
the whole School is scheduled for 6th
of May at 3pm. Please mark your
calendars!
- A proposal for a new level 3 module in History of Mathematics for
2010/11 has been submitted. Thanks to Anand, Dugald, Kevin, Rob S., and
Roger for their work on this.
- We
have submitted a proposal for a new
MSc programme in Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics to start in 2010/11
jointly with the School of Earth & Environment. Thanks to Stephen
(Griffiths) for his efforts.
February
2010
- Rob and Mark are
featured in the February 2010 issue (#23) of the Leeds L&T Bulletin, Rob for
receiving a University Teaching Fellowship, Mark and Rob for receiving
Teaching Star awards in MPS.
- We received approval to start an new MSc programme in Mathematics and
Computer Science. It will be delivered jointly with the School
of Computing starting in 2010/11. Thanks to Dugald for his efforts.
- The
School's
L&T Action Plan for 2009/10 has been finalised taking survey
data, feedback from students, discussions in the School's and Faculty's
L&T Committees, and comments from the University L&T Board into
account.
- In
its
January
meeting
the
School
L&T
Committee
has
decided
to
move
to
a module-based tutorial system
starting in 2010/11. Details will be circulated in February.
- The School L&T
Committee has decided to exclude coursework (problem sheets, in-course
quizzes, etc.) from the assessment
for all standard level 3 and level M modules, starting in
2010/11, unless there are strong academic reasons to include in-course
assessment, for example practicals which cannot be assessed in a final
exam.
January
2010
- Rob Sturman has
being awarded a University Teaching
Fellowship, in recognition of his excellence in Learning and
Teaching. Congratulations !!
- John Wood is taking
on the responsibilities as Quality
Control Officer starting in January 2010. He will be responsible
for module surveys, reviews, peer observations, and others.
- Andrew Baczkowski
has been appointed as Postgraduate
Teaching Coordinator.
He will be responsible for for coordination of activities related to
the
teaching and marking duties of post graduate students, including
training, allocations, monitoring, and feedback.
- Rainer Hollerbach
is taking on the responsibilities as Examinations
and
Assessment
Tutor with Oleg
Chalyk as his deputy, starting in Semester 2 of 2009/10. They
will be responsible for examination and assessment issues in the
School, including Exam Boards.
- Ad hoc
Interviews with
students
In October 2009, Samantha Pugh, the Faculty Teaching
Enhancement Officer, has interviewed groups of year 1, 3, and MMath
students. Here are her summaries:
Year
1
students Year
3
students MMath
students
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