Advice, Tips and Information
CUSU has produced the Faculty Rep Handbook 2009. This covers a number of the issues below in more detail and also a number of other areas that are useful to the role, and should be consulted in the first instance.
Committee Skills and Presenting a Paper
Getting Started:
One of the best ways to start is to meet with your predecessor and ask for advice. Ask them them what they did on committees, which senior members are sympathetic to the student voice, what issues they want you to carry on and anything else that springs to your mind.
Remember also that your Faculty has a responsibility to support you and guide you in your role. The Chair, for example, before a meeting should offer to review the agenda with you in order to clarify any uncertainties. For more information on how Faculties should support student representatives please see the University Education Section Guidelines (especially see: Faculty Board, Consultative Committees and Student Feedback).
Also keep an eye out for CUSU organised training which is often led by Senior members of the University with a high level of expertise and gives you an opportunity to share ideas and campaign issues with other reps.
University Structure:
Where does your committee fit into the University Structure? A brief explanation of how it does follows.
Faculty Boards often review decisions which are made in Departments. This means, for example, that the SPS Faculty Board might review the Sociology Department's decision to remove a paper or employ a new member of staff.
Above Faculty Boards are Councils of Schools which take responsibility for a number of Faculty Boards. The Council of Schools for Arts and Humanities, to take one example, is responsible for the Faculties of MML, Music, English, Classics, Divinity, Philosophy and Oriental Studies. The Schools, as they are referred to in short, preside over such issues as resource allocation.
Faculty Boards normally have established Committees or Working Parties, which consider specific issues. The committees or working parties often make proposals which the Faculty Board will in turn consider. Some Faculties, for example, have Consultative Committees which consider matters specifically relating to learning and teaching with Students. Students can sometimes request to sit on Committees or Working Parties when they believe that their presence is necessary or would be worthwhile. During the reform of the Classics Tripos student members sat on the working party which drew up the proposal.
When a Faculty Board makes a "serious" decision, such as changing a Tripos or withdrawing a paper, then this is referred to the General Board's Education Committee, which in turn reviews the proposal. If your Faculty Board makes a decision which you are dissatisfied with CUSU representatives, such as the Academic Affairs Officer, can contest it on committees above you like the General Board.
Making Changes:
There are formal and informal routes to make changes. Formal routes may involve presenting a paper to your Faculty Board while more informal routes can simply involve an email to the Faculty Secretary. Make sure you take time to consider what kind of route suits your objective best.
Here are few notes on General Strategies followed by an illustration of these taken from a case study:
A few notes on different strategies:
- Make sure that you're sitting in the right place; sometimes you can do more on Course Consultative Committees than Faculty Boards.
- Change can take time and your initiative may need to rely on a ripple effect for it to spread. Be sure to tell your successor to carry it on if necessary.
- Look out for a sympathetic ear to your cause, ideally a senior member of staff who can take your battle on.
- Look at past initiatives to show that your idea is tried and tested and worth spreading.
- Finally, if you think a professional voice will give your case the extra aurthority necessary then call upon that voice. Invite it to speak to the Board or lobby the Faculty directly.
Case Study from Faculty Rep Training- how to encourage the use of CamTools in your Faculty:
In a training session about the introducing CamTools into Faculties an Keith Johnston, a course organiser from the Faculty of Plant and Sciences, shared with students some ideas which are a useful reference point for introducing other changes that you have in mind:
He suggested that Faculty Board Members sit on a 'Course Consultative Committee' in their Department, and suggest that Camtools be used on that course. He referred to a 'ripple effect' whereby such initiatives can make a good impression on other course organisers and the initiative spreads out.
He went on to note that if you have a DoS, or Supervisor who you think is forward thinking then perhaps you could bring it up with them, and see where they take it.
Another route, he suggested, was to check if there are already any teachers within your Faculty who are using it (ask CARET) and to see how you might assist in broadening its uptake from there. For example you could suggest that those teachers give a presentation to students and staff.
A representative from CARET noted that they were willing to assist and requested that you email (Rhiannon Williams: rhiannon@caret.cam.ac.uk). She said that you could invite them to give a presentation to interested students and teachers and answer any of the more difficult questions that might arise.
Reserved Business
An important current campaign for the Faculty Forum is an attempt to phase out the practice of "reserving" business within Faculty Board Meetings. More information can be found in this discussion paper on the subject. In 2007, following discussion with the University, a memorandum was issued by the University's Education Section, which called for more appropriate use of Reserved Business in Faculty Board Meetings.
Committee Skills and Presenting a Paper:
CUSU arranges training sessions in Lent Term to cover committee skills and presenting a paper. For guidance information please see: