Staff–Student Committee

The Staff-Student Committee exists to encourage any student taking a Geography course to raise issues of general or particular concern relating to any aspect of departmental management, facilities or courses within a group made up of teaching staff and other students. In Week 1 of the Autumn Semester, requests for nominations for Staff-Student Committee members will be displayed in lectures and emailed to all students. Three Level Representatives are required for each of the three levels of the undergraduate course: two students to represent Single Honours Geography students and one to represent students taking other degrees involving Geography such as Duals. If necessary an election will be carried out. Also on the Committee are the Head of the Department, the President of the Geographical Society and two members of the teaching staff, one of whom chairs the Committee (currently Dr Edward Hanna).

A typical Committee meeting has the level 1, 2 and 3 representatives in turn bringing forward points for discussion or comment. These points may have been brought to their attention by any individual student and there are email addresses of each student representative displayed on the notice boards in the department to allow them to be contacted easily. There is also a Suggestions Box located near the board to allow any student to communicate directly and anonymously with the Committee. The subjects addressed by the Committee have ranged from drinks machine problems to lockers; from library lending bottlenecks to lecture presentation problems; and from bike parking to course assessment. Often issues are settled in the meeting by information or comment from the staff members, but frequently comments are passed on to other staff, to department committees or to the University administration for comment or action.

The minutes of each meeting are displayed on the A- and B-Floor noticeboards and are also distributed to all staff for discussion at the subsequent staff meeting.

The Staff-Student Committee also elects representatives to the department´s Teaching Policy Committee and Library Committee, and to the Faculty Student Committees.