Author: adickens
Last saved by: rej
Company: SML

SUBJECT CENTRE MANAGEMENT GROUP/PARTNERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT GROUP

MINUTES OF THE MEETING ON 12 MAY 2004 

Present
Prof Michael Kelly (Chair and Director of the Subject Centre), Liz Ashurst (Subject Centre Manager), Dr Anne Davidson Lund (Assistant Director, CILT), Alison Dickens (Senior Academic Coordinator – Learning and Teaching) Dawn Ebbrell (Higher Education Information Officer), Keith Marshall (CILT Cymru), Vicky Wright (Senior Academic Coordinator – Strategy)

Keith Marshall was welcomed to the group.  He and Dick Johnstone of Scottish CILT would be invited to future meetings of the group as appropriate.  

1.	Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising

National Languages Standards and the Languages Ladder
VW reported that the Languages Ladder was being mapped onto the Common European Framework.  It was pointed out that there were some difficulties with the CEF so it would be important for the ladder not to be bound too closely to it.  It was also noted that the CEF can be used for self-assessment whereas the focus of the languages ladder was on teaching.  It was suggested that Kate Green could be approached to write an article on the Languages Ladder for the Good Practice Guide.  
Action EJA

Graduate apprenticeships
This scheme had been piloted at Salford University but it was agreed that the it could be adopted more widely.  John Thorogood had written an article on the scheme for CILT Higher and it was agreed that he might be approached to write something for the GPG.  
Action EJA

2.	Southampton Team Update January – June 2004
Area Studies
The Area Studies project had been very successful in starting to build up the sense of community in the discipline.  The Geography Subject Centre (GEES) would not have done so much work in the area of fieldwork without their involvement in the Area Studies project and the History Subject Centre has thought much about the implications of indisciplinarity and what support they should offer in this area.  

AD pointed out that the Subject Centre had a commitment to continue to support Area Studies despite the fact that project funding had come to an end.  Focus of next year’s activity would probably be on intercultural competence and teaching globalisation in an Area Studies context.  There was some discussion as to how this work could be funded in future.  John Canning would be investigating sources of funding.  Erasmus Mundus was suggested as a possible funding source.  MHK pointed out that there may be American funding available as the Americans would be keen to establish partnerships with the rest of the world.  

VW suggested that a meeting with Lis Lillie (University of Ulster) and Anne Stevens (OU) would be useful as they were involved in European projects and might be able to give useful insights into sources of funding.  

NB since the meeting, the Subject Centre has been carried out its financial review of 2003-4 and has produced a budget for the coming year.  It has been possible to extend the contract of John Canning for this academic year.  John Canning investigated bidding for Erasmus Mundus funding but the deadline was in May 04 so there was not enough time to assemble a credible bid.  

Residence Abroad 
VW reported that a focus group of experts had met in December and priorities for the workshop in May were identified.  At both the focus group meeting and the workshop, the need to promote the period of residence abroad was stressed.  Issues of health and safety were covered at the workshop and an article on this would be submitted to the GPG.

AD reported that departments had an obligation to demonstrate that they had taken due care though they were not in loco parentis.  VW stated that issues of health and safety should not threaten the residence abroad part of a modern languages degree programme.  

DfES project
EJA reported that DfES had awarded £37,000 for UCML and the Subject Centre to carry out a research project looking at modern languages in Higher Education.  The project consisted of three strands – statistical information about student numbers, a mapping of professional routes and case studies of six institutions.  In the case studies, certain key staff (eg Heads of ML departments, Deans of Faculty, finance officers and Vice-Chancellors) would be interviewed to ascertain their views on the role of modern languages within their institution.  Much of the work for the project would be carried out by Hilary Footitt though the Subject Centre would manage the budget.  

Rationales
It was reported that Angela Gallagher-Brett, acting Academic Coordinator for Languages and Related Studies, had done a considerable amount of work researching into and collating rationales for studying languages.  These would be published on the web, in the form of a poster and in a report.  This would be done in the Autumn.  

Higher Education Academy
MHK referred to a document entitled ‘Towards a framework of professional standards’ issued by the funding councils and Universities UK.  The Higher Education Academy would have a key role in implementing the recommendations of this document.  Subject Centres would have to consider very carefully the nature and extent of their involvement in accreditation.  

Review of Subject Centres
MHK reported that the review was due to start.  Although no major changes to this Subject Centre were expected as a result of the review, MHK reported on a certain degree of apprehension among staff across the network.  

NB Since the meeting, the Subject Centre has carried out and submitted its internal review based round a series of questions sent by the Academy.  Round table discussions among Subject Centre staff are due to be carried out in September.  Senior staff in host institutions would also be interviewed as part of the review.  

3.	CILT update – January to June 2004
Pedagogic Research projects
DE reported that the mini-projects were now complete and project reports were up on the website.  It was agreed that this had been a very successful project as much had been achieved with the money.  DE expressed the hope that funding could be found for such projects in future.

NB Since the meeting, a call for bids for pedagogic research projects has been advertised in the e bulletin and placed on the Subject Centre website.  

Materials development workshop February 2004
DE reported that there had been a waiting list for this event.  Richard McKracken’s presentation on copyright had been excellent and, in response to demand, a whole day event on copyright had been organised for 24 November 2004.  AD reported that she was preparing a page on copyright for the website.  

Using Powerpoint workshop 14 May 2004
DE reported that the numbers registered for this event were low but that it would go ahead anyway.

NB feedback from those who had attended the session was extremely positive.  

TNP 3
DE reported that there were three strands to this initiative.
•	Strand 1 – Language Related industries and professions
Robert Crawshaw was writing a report on the picture in the UK
•	Strand 2 – Employability and the European Labour market
Lis Lillie was the UK representative for this group
•	Strand 3 – Cooperation between HE and other sectors
DE had written the report on the UK for this strand

All three reports would be looked at by the HE employability group convened by CILT and due to meet in July.  In each report, sections 1 and 2 would map the local, regional and national picture with section 3 would contain a series of recommendations.  

Final reports were due by 15 September.  It was agreed that all reports should be made public as they provided useful snapshots on the situation in the UK.  They should appear on both the CILT and the Subject Centre websites.  
MHK suggested that they might also be published in a paper which would be jointly badged.  

Supporting New Academic Staff (SNAS) project
DE reported that she had submitted resources on languages to this database created by the Generic Centre.  There was no funding available to support adding more resources.  

4.	Report from CILT Cymru (Keith Marshall)
KM reported that EJA had kept the momentum going during his absence by working with Ceri James to get a meeting date set up.  The first meeting of the Advisory Group for Wales would take place on 6 July.  A representative for Welsh language would be identified and would join the group for subsequent meetings.  

KM stated that activity in the coming academic year would be tied in with the Strategic Review for Languages in HE which was currently being undertaken in Wales.  He reported that this review was being conducted by Robert Huggins, a company based in Cardiff.  KM was a member of the committee monitoring the progress of the review.  As part of the review, Robert Huggins would be looking at
•	Employability
•	Innovation
•	Promotion of language learning
•	Funding 
•	Partnership between sectors

As a result, it was hoped that a programme to support languages in HE would be devised.  The report was due to be published in September.  

5.	Identifying priorities after the Away Day
It was stated that, at the Away Day, there had been the suggestion that the focus of Subject Centre activity should shift slightly to increase the number of tangible products in the form of published material.  Suggestions were made and it was agreed that these would be explored further at the planning meeting to be held on 14 June in Southampton.  

Following these discussions and similar ones at the Advisory Board on 26 May, the following initiatives are to be run next year:
•	Toolkits – a series of online resources grouped around a theme such as assessment.
•	Workshops to go – funding to be awarded for the creation of a training pack in the area of C&IT
•	Year book – a publication on Subject Centre activity to be produced in the summer of 2005 

6.	Possibilities for joint initiatives 04-05
Careers Advisers event
It was agreed that the Subject Centre should work with the Languages: Work project on this.

Since the meeting, John Canning and Liz Ashurst have been in contact with Dominic Luddy.  When dates and venues for regional events have been finalised. DL will contact the Subject Centre so that they can liaise with regional organisers.

Undergraduate Ambassadors scheme
It was agreed that RW should make contact with Anne Davidson-Lund to share ideas on this.

KM reported that, in Wales, a scheme was in operation whereby European students on the Socrates scheme went into schools one morning a week.  Part of the rationale for the scheme was to deal with the shortage of foreign language assistants.  

Poster campaign
Teresa Tindsley had requested that some of the material on the LLAS notes CD might be used to create a poster.  Although the Subject Centre had no objection to the scheme, the team wondered if the material would be effective as a poster.  KM reported on a successful initiative a few years ago whereby Art foundation students had been invited to participate in a competition to design a poster promoting langauges

7.	Conference Update
DE gave an update on progress to date with the conference.  George Reid, MSP was proposed as an after dinner speaker.

After the meeting it was decided that, owing to the nature of the venue for the conference dinner, it would not be appropriate to organise an after dinner speaker.  

8.	Any other business
HESA Statistics
There was some discussion about how best to acquire statistical information from HESA.  CILT had done this in the past but, as it is not an HEI, the costs of their doing so had increased considerably.  It was agreed that ordering the data should be done from the Subject Centre at Southampton as an HEI discount could then be obtained.  It was suggested that the Academy should be approached to see if they had already obtained the data.  

EJA contacted the HE academy but they had not ordered the data this year as there had been some difficulties with the previous order.  The data was finally ordered in July after considerable liaison between CILT, the Subject Centre and Keith Marshall at CILT Cymru about what data should be requested.  
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