H/02/02/02 S: January/February 2010 The University of Edinburgh

H/02/02/02 S: January/February 2010 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senatus 26 January – 3 February 2010 Agenda Electronic Senatus business will commence on Tuesday 26 January 2010 and close at noon on Wednesday 3 February 2010. A. FORMAL BUSINESS 1 (a) (b) Minutes from the Ordinary Meeting held on 14 October 2009 Special Meetings and Graduation Ceremonials on 25, 26 and 27 November 2009 (available from Registry) 2. New Members: Professor D Cameron, Chair of Oncology Professor E van Beek, SINAPSE Chair of Clinical Radiology 3. Student membership: Ms C Pierry, Vice­President, Societies and Activities Ms K Hibbens, Mr C McFadyen, Mr J Garforth 4. Conferment of the title of Professor Emeritus: Professor I Halliday Professor P Munn 5. Notice of Election of Senatus Assessors on the University Court B. ARISING FROM THE MINUTES 1. Special Minutes C COMMUNICATIONS AND REPORTS 1. Communications from the University Court C1 2. Report of the Central Management Group C2 3. Resolutions – Chairs C3 4. Report from Central Academic Promotions Committee C4 5. Appeal Committee Membership C5 6. Report of the Standing Commission on Discipline C6 7. Senatus Fitness to Practice Appeal Committee Membership 2009/10 C7 8. Senate Standing Committees Terms of Reference C8 9. Report of Student Complaints C9
A1 A2 B1 H/02/02/02 e­S: January/February 2010 A1 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Minutes of Senate meeting held on 14 October 2009 Brief description of the paper The paper provides the minutes of the Senate meeting held on 14 October 2009. Action requested The Senatus is invited to approve the minutes. Resource Implications Does the paper have resource implications? No Risk Assessment Does the paper include a risk analysis? No Equality and Diversity Not relevant Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/ suggest corrections. If no comments are received the minutes of the Senate meeting held on 14 October 2009 will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be e­mailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on A1”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Senate Secretariat 12 May 2009
1 DRAFT MINUTES OF AN ORDINARY MEETING OF THE SENATUS ACADEMICUS of the University of Edinburgh held in St Cecilia’s Hall, Niddry Street on 14 October 2009 at 2.00 p.m. (Minutes are draft until approved by the next Ordinary Meeting of the Senatus) Sederunt: Professor T O’Shea, the Principal (in the Chair), Professors Ansell, Arnold, Barringer, S Bates, Bondi, Brodie, N Brown, Cogliano, Coyne, Devine, Dewhurst, Fergusson, Finnegan, Fisher, Himsworth, Hounsell, C Jeffery, Kenway, Kirby, Kreber, Ladd, Leach, Leng, McAra, A McMahon, A Murray, Oliver, Pulham, G Reid, D Robertson, Siegert, Singer, G Walker, Waterhouse, Yellowlees, Dr J C Bradfield, Dr H Cameron, Ms S Cannell, Dr S Clark, Dr L Croxford, Dr M Donaldson, Dr A Giannopoulos, Dr T Harrison, Mr W Hossack, Dr N Hulton, Dr R B Mackay, Dr P McLaughlin, Mr J Martin, Dr G Pentland, Dr A Richards, Dr S Rigby, Ms J Ross, Dr T Squires Associate Members: Mr T Graham, Mr E Beswick, Mr A Burnie, Mr C MacFadyen, Ms C Pierry In attendance: Mr S Anderson, School of Informatics, Mr D Brook, Non­Teaching Staff Assessor to the University Court, Dr L Bruce, Academic Policy Manager, Mr M D Cornish, University Secretary, Ms J Miller, Head of Academic Affairs, Dr C Phillips, School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr S Sutcliffe, School of Divinity, Dr J Turner, Director, Transkills Unit PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION Fast, Effective Student Feedback (Appendix A1*) Fast, Effective Student Feedback As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the student experience, Senatus heard with interest presentations from all Heads of School or their representatives highlighting particular successes in delivering fast, effective feedback to students. The highlights were representative of a very broad range of actions being taken forward by Schools. These were shared as good practice and stimulation of ideas through circulation with Senate papers and on the Senate wiki. Common themes emerged from the actions taken to enhance feedback:
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Briefing and training of students
Involving students in feedback
Interacting with students to build a stronger sense of community
Refining traditional feedback through a blend of methods and timings
Plugging gaps in feedback
Setting feedback­rich assignments, with a focus on ‘feed­forward’
New ways of giving feedback, including the piloting of audio­visual and electronic feedback on assignments, coursework and rotations
Reshaping curricula and assessment
Involvement of student representatives in designing local strategies
Showcasing and disseminating good feedback practices
2 Presentations were made by the Vice President for Academic Enhancement, the Director of Academic Standards and Quality Assurance and by the EUSA Vice President Academic Affairs. In the first of the presentations, Vice Principal Hounsell referred to the diversity of approaches set out by Schools as reflecting the University’s culture of valuing individual strengths and the need to engage with this great diversity and richness of approach. It was important to contextualise feedback and to be aware of the variety of purposes which feedback could serve. Of particular urgency was the need to share good practice: to this end the key points from Schools’ submissions were tabled and would be available on the Senate wiki. The Director of Academic Standards and Quality Assurance, Dr Harrison, addressed professional bodies’ expectations regarding feedback to students, noting that prescription was rare, with many bodies referring to the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice on feedback as encapsulating their requirements of universities. The EUSA Vice President Academic Affairs expressed congratulations and thanks to Schools for their actions to enhance feedback. Mr Beswick stressed the importance of working together as a university community to ensure innovative and world­class teaching. Senate engaged in wide­ranging debate of the issues raised through the presentations, including the need to translate good practice in feedback to the taught postgraduate context; the need to continue to develop the recognition for contribution to teaching through inclusion in promotion criteria; the need to recognise the importance of teaching in University structures and job titles; the importance of attention to detail in administrative procedures underpinning feedback; and the normalising of a feedback culture as being valuable to students requiring adjustments. The debate concluded with a summary and forward look by the Vice Principal for Academic Enhancement. The presentations and debate in Senatus had been of great value in sharing experience across subject boundaries. At University level developments were aimed at complementing good practice and innovation taking place within Schools, and included the joint EUSA­University ‘Inspiring Teaching’ conference in November 2009, the development of a feedback website, and dissemination of good practice in the use of technology in provision of feedback. Note: the presentations and debate are available to members of the University community as a video stream on the Senate discussion space wiki at http://tinyurl.com/ycrjs27. Our Changing World – proposal for new cross­College first year course (Appendix A2*) Course proposal – Our Changing World Senatus received for initial discussion a proposal for a trans­College course open to all students at the University and to the public. The course aimed to engage students in thinking about the global challenges facing society and to deliver an understanding of the relevance and impact of students’ subject areas in relation to these challenges.
3 Senatus approved an initial phase of delivery in terms of a series of high­ profile public lectures on the theme of ‘Our Changing World’, and remitted further aspects of the proposal to the Learning and Teaching Committee for consideration. Review of the Support for Learning and Teaching for Staff and Students (Appendix A3*) Review of the Support for Learning and Teaching for Staff and Students Senatus received for comment the review of the University’s arrangements for supporting staff and students in relation to teaching and learning, aimed at assisting the University to deliver its strategic goal of excellence in these areas. In discussion, members of Senatus welcomed the proposed consolidation of support activities for the benefit of staff and students, together with the secondment model which they saw as bringing mutual benefit to Schools and to the proposed Institute for Academic Development. Senatus noted the support given by student members to the proposals, particularly to the inclusion of taught postgraduate provision. Senatus endorsed the review’s recommendations, and in particular the establishment of an Institute for Academic Development and the early appointment of its Director. FORMAL BUSINESS Congratulations Congratulations The Principal congratulated all staff on their contribution to the University’s place within the top 20 universities in the world in the recently published Times Higher Education – QS World Rankings 2009. Approval of E­business conducted 22 September – 30 September 2009 (Appendix B1*) E­business approval The report of electronic business of Senate conducted from 22 September to 30 September 2009 was approved. Arising from this business, Senatus approved the formation of an Academic Strategy Group aimed at ensuring the best involvement of Heads of Schools in strategic decision­making significantly affecting Schools or which Schools were asked to implement. The Group would be chaired by the Principal and would comprise Heads of Schools, Principal’s Strategy Group members, Thematic Vice Principals and conveners of Senate committees. Report of the Central Management Group from its meeting of 23 September 2009 (Appendix B2*) Report of the Central Management Group Senatus noted the report without observations.
4 Committees of Senatus: Priorities for 2009/10 (Appendix B3*) Senatus Committees: Priorities for 2009/10 Senatus received for information the paper setting out the priorities for its committees for 2009/10 as agreed at the meeting of Senatus of June 2009. Resolutions – Chairs (Appendix B4*) Resolutions: Chairs Senatus made no observations on the following draft Resolutions: Draft Resolution 48/2009 Draft Resolution 49/2009 Draft Resolution 50/2009 Draft Resolution 51/2009 Draft Resolution 52/2009 ARISING FROM THE MINUTES Election of Senatus Assessor on the University Court (Appendix C1*) Election: Senatus Assessor on University Court Senatus elected Professor Jake Ansell as a Senatus Assessor on the University Court for a period of two years from 1 January 2010 to 31 July 2012. CLOSED BUSINESS Conferment of Degrees (Appendix D1*) Conferment of Degrees Senatus admitted the graduands to their degrees and awarded the diplomas and certificates as indicated in Appendix D1. Dr L M S Bruce 19 October 2009
5 H/2/2/2 e­S: January / February 2010 A2 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senatus 26 January – 3 February 2010 Notice of Election of Senatus Assessors on the University Court During its electronic business in May 2010, Senatus will elect from its membership two Assessors on the University Court. Two Assessors will serve from 1 August 2010 to 31 July 2014. Senatus Assessors on Court The vacancies for Senatus Assessors on Court arise from the completion of the periods of office of Professor D J Finnegan and Professor L Yellowlees. Members of Senatus that will continue to serve at Assessors are Professor J Ansell and Dr M Aliotta (to 2012). Nominations Nominations for the vacancy as a Senatus Assessor, proposed and seconded by members of the Senatus, must be in the hands of the University Secretary by noon on 28 April 2010. Those nominated must be members of the Senatus. If more than two candidates are nominated, candidates will be invited to supply brief biographical details for consideration by members of the Senatus. Action requested This paper invites members of Senatus to consider and make nominations for these vacancies. Dr L Bruce Senate Secretariat January 2010
University of Edinburgh Senatus Academicus Election of Senatus Assessor on the University Court Nomination form This form is valid only in respect of the election to be held by the Senatus Electronic Business in May for two Assessors on the University Court. Only members of the Senatus are eligible to nominate and be nominated. We (please print), .......................................................................................................................................... and .......................................................................................................................................... nominate .......................................................................................................................................... as a candidate for election as an Assessor on the University Court. Signature of proposer....................................................................................................... Signature of seconder....................................................................................................... Declaration by candidate I declare that I am a member of the Senatus and that I consent to the above nomination. Signature of candidate...................................................................................................... Nominations must be in the hands of the University Secretary by noon on Wednesday 28 April 2010. There are no limitations on re­election. The persons elected will serve from 1 August 2010 to 31 July 2014.
H/02/02/02 S: January / February 2010 B1 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Special Minutes Action requested The Senatus is invited to adopt the Special Minutes for the Professors listed below: Professor D Branford Professor A A Calder Professor M Campbell Professor D Carr Professor D Charlesworth Professor J Farmer Professor M Forde Professor T A Gillespie Professor W Gillies Professor P Grant Professor C Munro Professor A Myers Professor J W Ponton Professor L Sawyer Professor A Shotter Professor K Stenning Professor P Tasker Professor R Thompson Professor J Usher Professor S van Heyningen Professor J Wishart Resource Implications Does the paper have resource implications? No. Risk Assessment Does the paper include a risk analysis? No. Equality and Diversity Not relevant. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/ suggest corrections. If no comments are received the Senate will adopt the Special Minutes for the Professors. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on B1”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj
Special Minute Professor Derek Branford BSc, Dip.Adv.Sci., PhD, C.Phys, FinstP Derek Branford was born in Goole, Yorkshire on the last day of 1942. He was educated at Goole Grammar School and studied for the degree of BSc at Hull University. He obtained a PhD in Nuclear Physics at the University of Manchester in 1968 having submitted his thesis on the topic of Rotational Bands in 24Mg. From 1968 to 1970 he held a Turner and Newall Research Fellowship in the Manchester Group. From 1970 to 1973, Derek was a Research Fellow at the Department of Nuclear Physics, Australian National University, Canberra. His lines of research were investigations of nuclear quasimolecular states and the isospin splitting of Giant Dipole and Quadrupole Resonances using a­ and p­radiative capture reactions. In 1973 Derek was appointed as a lecturer in the Edinburgh Physics and joined the newly formed research group of Alan Shotter. Together they carried out research into electron induced reactions using the 150 MeV electron linac at the Kelvin Laboratory, University of Glasgow and later worked at the Daresbury Laboratory. Derek later initiated a programme of photonuclear physics research at the Institute für Kernphysik, Mainz, Germany and the MAX­Laboratory, Lund, Sweden. In 1996 Derek enjoyed a year of Sabbatical leave during which he held a temporary position at the Jefferson Laboratory 6 GeV accelerator in Newport News Virginia and established a new programme of research within the CLAS Collaboration, which also continues to date. The above programme generated papers ranging from the quark structure of hadrons to the exotic behaviour of baryons and mesons excited in nuclei. Derek concentrated mainly on investigating delta excitation and meson exchange effects in nuclei. In the mid 1980s, he branched into applied nuclear physics and set up an Environmental Nuclear Radiation Monitoring Group within the Edinburgh Nuclear Group. The results of this work provided valuable parameters for modelling the surface acid inventories in surface soils around Europe due to acid rain. Derek was successful in securing research grants and PhD studentships continuously throughout his career. This enabled him to carry out a well planned coherent body of research and train more than thirty PhD research students. Derek is presently living for much of the year with his German wife Daniela in Wiesbaden. From Wiesbaden he continues to contribute to the Nuclear Physics Group’s nearby research activities in Mainz.
Special Minute Andrew Alexander Calder, MBChB, MD, FRCOG, FRCP (Glas), FRCP (Ed), FRCS (Ed), HonFCOG(SA) Andrew Alexander Calder was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and educated at Glasgow Academy. He graduated from Glasgow University Medical School in1968. He completed his training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Glasgow Teaching Hospitals receiving guidance and supervision from Professor Ian Donald and Professor Sir Malcolm MacNaughton. After his specialist qualification (MRCOG) he moved to Oxford as Clinical Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He spent three productive years working with Sir Alec Turnbull and Dr Mostyn Embrey and undertook pioneering research into the biological properties of prostaglandins and their role in labour and childbirth. Andrew's studies paved the way for the clinical application of prostaglandins in induction of labour. He was awarded the Blair Bell Lectureship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the College's prime research award, in 1977. In 1978 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He returned to Scotland in 1975 as Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Glasgow. In the same year as his MD was awarded he was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1987 Andrew Calder took up appointment as Honorary Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at The Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh and Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion and was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of Edinburgh. For 22 years he has been the incumbent of the world's oldest chair in the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and led Academic Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Edinburgh. He has mentored many of the next generation of clinical academics who currently hold premier leadership positions in Obstetrics and Gynaecology both in the United Kingdom and overseas. He has been a major contributor to wider University affairs. He was Vice­Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1998­2003 and subsequently Director of Quality Assurance for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. In the latter role he was responsible for ensuring the highest standards for research were maintained in the clinic, in the laboratory and in all aspects of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and assessment. An important role has been his chairmanship of the Fitness to Practise Committee concerned with the health and behaviour of medical students. For over 10 years he has played a pivotal role as chairman and principal grant holder of the Scottish Programme for Clinical Effectiveness – a national programme overseeing audits on maternal mortality and perinatal mortality and morbidity. In 2003 he was invited by Gordon and Sarah Brown to establish and direct the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory with a mission to further understanding of causes and consequences of growth restriction and preterm delivery. Four years later he led the successful bid to establish a third Tommy's Centre. The Edinburgh Tommy's Centre for Fetal and Maternal Health undertakes research into problems of pregnancies associated with the growing epidemic of obesity.
Nationally and internationally Andrew Calder has been a major figure in the specialty of obstetrics and gynaecology. He has held a World Health Organisation and Council of Europe Travelling Fellowship to Uruguay, South America; a British Exchange Professorship to the University of California in Los Angeles and Visiting Professorships at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and in Zimbabwe. He has served on the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and chaired the Academy of Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland. He played an important role in chairing the Review of Maternity Services in Caithness and advised the Minister of Health in Scotland on the reorganisation of Children's and Maternity Services in the City of Glasgow. His contributions to the organisation and delivery of healthcare to women and children, organisation and delivery of medical education to undergraduates and postgraduates and successful track record in original medical research are legacies which will continue beyond his retirement. Although Andrew has retired as the Clinical Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and as Head of Division of Reproductive and Developmental Sciences he will remain active in the University in his new role as Honorary Assistant Principal (Reproductive Health). We hope Andrew will secure time to enjoy his much loved pastimes of curling, golf and music – and new found hobby of bee­keeping. We wish Andrew and his wife Valerie the best of times together in the future.
Special minute Professor Donald Murray Campbell BSc, PhD, FASA, FRSA, FRSE Murray Campbell was born in Inverness in 1942. After graduating in Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh he enrolled as a research student in the Electron Physics Group and submitted his PhD thesis on the topic of spin­dependent effects in low energy electron atom scattering in 1971. On appointment as Lecturer in 1972 he undertook a research programme into methods of generating and measuring spin­polarised electron beams, with applications in atomic and solid state physics. In 1973 Murray took over the teaching of musical acoustics. Before long the physics of musical instruments dominated his research interests and by the early 1980’s he founded the musical acoustics research laboratory. Murray himself is a talented brass player who performs regularly in concerts in and around Edinburgh and his research complements his performance interests. He has studies of the non­linear dynamics of brass instruments using optical techniques such as particle image velocimetry and high speed photography and also developed acoustic pulse reflectometry and related techniques as effective tools for the design and optimisation of wind instruments. His pioneering research has resulted in the award of numerous research grants and the publication of seminal papers in leading journals such as the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Under his direction the Musical Acoustics Laboratory at Edinburgh has developed to an extent that it is now recognized as an internationally leading research centre in the physics of musical instruments. More than twenty research students have studied and obtained PhD’s under his supervision. Murray travels widely delivering presentations at international meetings on musical acoustics and working collaborations have been developed with a number of acoustics laboratories abroad, notably in France. His international reputation has led him to be elected chair of the Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics of the European Acoustics Association. As a mark of his outstanding contribution he was awarded the Medaille Etrangère of the Societé Francais d’Acoustique and in 1976 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Murray has always played a full and active part in undergraduate activities and the general running of the university, contributing to committees and being Director of Studies for many years. He has been equally active in inspiring the younger generation as he has been in research and has been at the forefront of the university’s public engagement programme. His lectures in musical acoustics to undergraduates and schools alike are so entertaining that some have referred to them as legendary; he is known for being able to produce a melody from almost any household object. Radio broadcasts and television appearances by him have brought the university much favourable publicity. Within the university he has championed the development of interdisciplinary courses, setting up the Physics with Music degree and more recently the MSc in Acoustics and Music Technology. His contribution to teaching was recognised by an award from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002 and more recently by the Rossing Prize in Acoustics Education from the Acoustical Society of America. The two books on musical instrument acoustics that he has co­authored are used as standard texts around the world. Murray continues both his research and teaching in the university as well as his musical activities outside. He is Musical Director of the Edinburgh Renaissance Band, the Scottish Gabrieli Ensemble and the Linton Singers. We wish him many more happy years both contributing to the university and making music outside, particularly with his wife Patsy and two sons who are also keen musicians.
Special Minute Professor David Carr, MA(Ed), BA(Hons), Cert.Ed David Carr was Professor of Philosophy of Education in the University of Edinburgh from 1999 to 2009, having formerly been lecturer and then Reader at Moray House College of Education. He is author of Educating the Virtues (1991), Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching (2000) and Making Sense of Education, as well as many articles in such leading philosophical and educational journals as Mind, Analysis, Philosophy, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Philosophical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Oxford Review of Education, British Journal of Education, Journal of Moral Education and Journal of Aesthetic Education. He also edited Education, Knowledge and Truth (1998), he was co­editor (with Jan Steutel) of Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (1999), and (with John Haldane) of Spirituality, Philosophy and Education (2003). In 2009 he was lead co­editor (with Mark Halstead and Richard Pring) of a collection of papers by the late Professor Terence McLaughlin entitled Education, Liberalism and Schooling: Essays by T. H. McLaughlin for the St Andrew’s Essays in Public Affairs Series and has also recently been co­editor (with Richard Bailey, Robin Barrow and Christine McCarthy) of the Sage Handbook in Philosophy of Education (2010). Professor Carr has been a Fellow of the St Andrews Centre for Philosophy of Public Affairs and a member of the Scots Philosophical Club. He is a Fellow of the North American Philosophy of Education Society and has been secretary and conference organiser of the Scottish branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain for the past thirty years. David Carr has lectured internationally and his research interests include philosophy of education (generally); ethics, virtue ethics and moral, spiritual and religious education; the nature of professionalism and professional ethics; knowledge, education and curriculum theory; aesthetics, education in the arts (especially dance, music and literature) and the education of the emotions. Recent distinguished appointments have included six years as external examiner for the London Royal Academy of Dance and membership (for philosophy and education) of the international panel for the Netherlands national Research Assessment Exercise. In the University of Edinburgh, he has served on committees for senior academic appointments, validation committees for major course programmes and he played a leading role in the recent redesign for revalidation of the Moray House School of Education MSc scheme. One of David’s main interests, since the merger of Moray House College with Edinburgh University in 1999 has also been to achieve a greater degree of rapprochement and co­ operation between the School of Education and other schools and departments in the university – not least those with similar professional dimensions and concerns. To this end, he has collaborated with colleagues in the School of Divinity (particularly in association with the Centre for Theology and Public Affairs) and has also taught in the Philosophy Department. In 2008, he also led the way in organizing an Edinburgh University conference called ‘Towards Professional Wisdom’ with colleagues involved in other areas of professional education in the university. A collection of original essays edited by L. Bondi, D. Carr, C. Clark and C. Clegg based on the themes of that conference and featuring contributions from internationally renowned writers on diverse fields and aspects of professional education is scheduled to appear under the title ‘Towards Professional Wisdom’ in 2011. David Carr was also a committed and popular teacher, who has inspired generations of undergraduate and postgraduate. His contribution to the School of Education and to the university has been widely appreciated and will be greatly missed. We wish David a long and happy retirement.
Special Minute Professor Deborah Charlesworth, BSc, PhD, FRS, FRSE Professor Deborah Charlesworth graduated from the University of Cambridge, in Biochemistry in 1965, but was always interested in genetics, and obtained her Ph.D. in Genetics (Cantab), which she obtained in 1968. The thesis topic was a study of biometrical variation of some biochemical characters in the mouse, and it was examined by Douglas Falconer, a professor at Edinburgh. It might have been better to do a Ph.D. in Edinburgh, but she stayed in Cambridge because of her boyfriend (now her husband) Brian, who also remained there for his Ph.D. She has indicated that “Edinburgh would probably have been better for both of us”. Deborah moved to a human genetics lab while Brian completed his thesis. The lab studied humans with mutations in their globin genes, helping to check that the genetic code in humans is the same as in other organisms. The only real genetics was a study of a person who had been detected as having 3 beta globin alleles, which she showed was due to unequal crossing over, and established the order of the beta and delta globin genes. Deborah and Brian moved to Chicago for Brian’s post­doc. For the 2 years there, Deborah developed methods for electrophoresis of proteins from human red blood cells, and studied the genetics of these variants. When Brian moved back to the UK to take up his first lectureship in Liverpool, she became unemployed, but started a project suggested by the genetics professor there (Philip Sheppard). Sheppard worked on the evolution of mimicry in butterflies, where a palatable species resembles a distasteful one and showed that the different details of the mimetic patterns appeared to be inherited as alleles of a single gene, despite involving developmentally distinct parts of the butterflies' bodies. Deborah developed models of this evolutionary situation (called a supergene), and showed how mimetic polymorphisms can be maintained in the species, and how tight linkage might evolve. This led to an interest in other situations involving tightly linked genes, including sex chromosomes and plant self­incompatibility, on which she has worked ever since. After 3 years, she moved with Brian to the University of Sussex, and (after 10 years there) back to Chicago, where she obtained her first faculty position and the chance to apply for research funding. In 1997, they moved to Edinburgh, where Deborah has continued research on the same questions, now using molecular genetic approaches. Her current funding is for studies of sex chromosomes in a plant. Until she retired in 2008, she taught in the Genetics Honours course (lectures on Molecular Evolution and Diversity, and Evolutionary Genomics) and in Zoology Honours (in the Evolution of Sex course), and in two 3rd year courses, Evolutionary and Ecological Genetics (EEG) and Genomes and Genomics (both including marking). She also lectured and taught data analysis in the M.Sc. on Quantitative Genetics & Genome Analysis. She is also the organiser of a summer school on Molecular Evolution and Diversity funded by BBSRC. This one week intensive course is run in Edinburgh and Nottingham for 30­40 UK and other students, post­docs and lecturers. She was elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2001 and to a fellowship of the Royal Society in 2005. Deborah remains active in the School and her continued involvement is very welcome. We are very grateful for her many important contributions to academic life and wish her and Brian a very happy retirement.
Special Minute Professor John G. Farmer, BSc, PhD, CChem, FRSC, FGS John Farmer followed up his BSc in Pure Science (Chemistry) at the University of Glasgow with a PhD at the same university on natural and anthropogenic influences upon the radioactive and stable isotopic composition of carbon in atmospheric carbon dioxide and tree rings. He then spent two post­doctoral years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, working predominantly on the geochemical behaviour of fallout radionuclides and heavy metals in the Great Lakes. Returning to Glasgow in 1974, John took up a post as Research Fellow in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Science where he was able to develop his growing environmental interests at the interface with human health, most notably on trace elements, especially lead and arsenic, in the urban and freshwater environments and on analytical speciation studies of the human metabolism of arsenic. This rich breadth of experience stood him in excellent stead when he was appointed Lecturer in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 1987. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1990, John played a major role in developing and delivering the Department of Chemistry’s degree programmes in Environmental Chemistry at the BSc, MChem and MSc levels during the 1990s, also finding time as Deputy Director of the Chemistry Teaching Organisation at the turn of the century to help steer the reorganisation and rationalisation of the Department’s delivery of its growing number of degree programmes. His promotion to Reader in 1997 recognised his research in the environmental geochemistry of lead, in particular the use of stable and radiogenic isotopes of lead to explore historical and contemporary variations in the extent and sources of environmental lead pollution as manifested in a range of materials from lake sediments and peat bogs to human teeth. In collaboration with research students and colleagues at Edinburgh, SUERC and the Macaulay Institute, John further developed this successful and well­funded line of research while at the same time diversifying into problems of urban regeneration and the assessment and remediation of the industrial legacy of contaminated land, most significantly at the world­ famous chromite ore processing residue disposal sites in Glasgow. After transferring from Chemistry to the newly formed School of GeoSciences in 2003, John was appointed to a Personal Chair in Environmental Geochemistry the following year and thereafter pursued research into the environmental geochemistry of not only lead, arsenic and chromium but also antimony, mercury and uranium, ranging from historical perspectives of global environmental pollution to the investigation of more specific, localised pollution problems that were, however, scientifically of national and international interest. His leadership, achievements and extensive research publication record in these fields were recognised by his appointments as Chair of the Eighth International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment and of the Sixth International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry, as well as President of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health. More generally, he has served as a member of various NERC and Royal Society of Chemistry committees and of numerous international environmental science research review panels. Despite retiring at the end of 2008, John continues to contribute to both teaching and research at the university and is currently in his ninth year as Executive Editor of Science of the Total Environment. We wish him well in the years ahead.
Special Minute Professor Michael C Forde, BEng, MSc, PhD, FREng, FRSE, CEng, FICE, FIET Mike Forde is internationally recognised for non­destructive testing (NDT) of concrete/masonry arch bridges and railway track bed ­ using radar, sonics and infra­red thermography. He also developed novel interpretations of acoustic emission waveforms that permit prediction of the residual strength of both concrete beams and fractured bones. A 1966 graduate of the University of Liverpool, Mike worked with Shand on Errwood Reservoir, and with Christiani Shand on the construction of the original M5 Motorway across the Avon Flood Plain. He helped to design major highways with Cheshire County Council. Mike identified a lack of understanding of the behaviour of soil in highway engineering practice. He therefore undertook an MSc Course at the University of Birmingham and then PhD research on “Wet fill in highway embankments”. Now a Chartered Civil Engineer, Mike became a lecturer at Edinburgh, driving forward the teaching of real world soil mechanics. He was also in demand on earthworks projects ranging from the reconstruction of most of the A9 in Scotland to sections of the M25, through to major works in Sharjah and Libya. Mike was then drawn into vibration testing of load bearing cast­in­situ concrete piles in varying geotechnical strata. He developed complex signal processing algorithms to enable a definitive analysis of complex deep concrete foundations. Working with Holequest Ltd, he converted his work into the NDT of bridges, including major historic bridge structures in Scotland. In 1990 Tarmac Construction Ltd sponsored Mike’s Personal Chair. He has >300 technical publications and has held leadership roles such as Head of Department, and Head of Research Institute. He also, however, forged ahead with research funded by EPSRC, Tarmac (now Carillion) and the Highways Agency. This experience led to his Chairmanship of a NERC Panel, invitations to join EPSRC Panels and nine years on a National Science Foundation Panel in Arlington, VA, USA. From 2006­2008, he served on HEFCE RAE 2008 sub­panel for Civil Engineering. Mike and Edna Forde (Mike’s wife), created two conference series related to his research: “Structural Faults and Repair” and “Railway Engineering”. The former has now moved into its 12th International Conference in nearly 30 years. It is a major event with some 40 countries taking part. Other international leadership duties include his current roles as Chair of the IET MESIN Executive, London and Chair of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 228 on NDT of Concrete. Fifteen years ago Mike Forde took over the role of Editor­in­Chief of a failing journal: Construction and Building Materials. The journal now enjoys 1,000 manuscript submissions per year, 70% rejection rate, and an Impact Factor of 0.947. Mike Forde has been appointed to Fellowship of the Institutions of Civil Engineers: Engineering and Technology; Highways and Transportation; and the British Institute of NDT. In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng); in 2006 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and in 2008 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Yugoslav Academy of Engineering. Emeritus Professor Forde continues to Engineer! In 2008, he gave Keynote Lectures in Hong Kong, New York and Novi Sad. Mike and Edna will spend more time in their old Porsche and Mike hopes for a low golf handicap. Most of all they will enjoy more of their family and further comradeship with colleagues at home and abroad.
Special Minute Professor T A Gillespie, BA, PhD, FRSE Alastair Gillespie was appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Mathematics in 1968 and retired in September 2009 after some forty years’ service to the University of Edinburgh. Born in 1945, Alastair graduated with a First Class BA at Cambridge in 1965 and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos with distinction in 1966. He pursued his doctoral studies with Professor Frank Bonsall first at Yale and then at Edinburgh, where he was awarded his PhD in 1969. His subsequent career saw him promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1987, Reader in 1992, and Personal Chair in 1997. Between 1998 and 2001 he served the Faculty of Science and Engineering as Associate Dean (postgraduate). From 2001 to 2002 he served as Head of Department of Mathematics and Statistics and then from 2002 to 2006 as Head of School of Mathematics. Alastair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1986. Alastair's research has been highly influential internationally. His longstanding collaboration with Earl Berkson of the University of Illinois has focused on the interplay between Harmonic Analysis and the spectral theory of operators on Banach spaces. Alastair and his coauthors have comprehensively studied the notion of R­boundedness (introduced by Bourgain) and its applicability in operator theory. In particular they have established the fundamental properties of well­bounded operators, power­bounded operators, mean­bounded operators and trigonometrically well­bounded operators. This has come about via a deep understanding of the associated spectral families and spectral measures and of the underlying structures which permit methods to be employed to transfer results from the Hilbert transform setting to the much more general one at hand. More recently Alastair has begun a highly successful collaborative research programme with Spanish mathematicians including Oscar Blasco, Maria Jesus Carro and Jose Luis Torrea on transference methods which apply to classical operators even in Muckenhoupt's A p weighted setting. In addition to his research achievements, which have brought him international recognition, Alastair has always been a committed teacher. Generations of students recall his beautifully organized lectures in which he would always find a way to illustrate a key point with a crucial example and enliven the subject with entertaining digressions. He attracted and trained a string of PhD students, taking great care of both their academic and more general welfare while at Edinburgh. His record shows clearly that Alastair has served the University with great loyalty over the years, especially as Associate Dean, Head of Department and Head of School. Colleagues will remember the sensitivity, honesty and professionalism which he brought to these roles, and the wisdom of his advice on almost every matter of academic importance in the School in the latter part of his career. His leadership of the School from 2002 to 2006 was crucial in laying the foundation for its excellent performance in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and its current high standing on the international scene. In addition to his activities within the University, Alastair has played an important role more widely in the promotion of Mathematics and Mathematical Education within Scotland and the UK. For example, he took on various roles within the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and served as its President from 2001 to 2003: and at the time of writing he is still an active member of its Education Committee. Other notable roles in mathematical education include membership of the Joint Mathematical Council (UK) and the Scottish Mathematical Council of which he was chairman from 2006 to 2009. We wish Alastair and his wife Judith every good wish for the future.
Special Minute Professor William Gillies, MA, HonDLitt, FRSE, FRHS, FSAScot William (Willie) Gillies was brought up in a rural setting near Oban and comes from a stock of accomplished musicians, medics and cultural visionaries. Willie showed great academic quality from an early age, becoming dux of Oban High School and moving on from there to graduate with two first class honours degrees here at the University of Edinburgh, firstly in Classics and later in Celtic. In between he also graduated from Oxford with a BA in Ancient History and Philosophy. Following a period at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Willie was appointed as Lecturer in Celtic here at Edinburgh in 1970, and to the Chair of Celtic in 1979, and has thus given 40 years of uninterrupted, highly distinguished service to this institution. Throughout that time, Willie has made an exceptional contribution to Gaelic and Scottish culture and scholarship, and has forged a reputation as one of the finest and most influential Celtic scholars of his generation. There have been very few developments relating to the Gaelic language which have not been either instigated or closely guided by Willie. From increased exposure of the language through broadcasting policy, to the development of children’s publishing and to the passing of the Gaelic Language Act (Scotland) 2005, the sharp intellect, steady hand and remarkable energy of Willie Gillies has played a key role at every stage. His leadership qualities have been brought to the fore in a large number of organisations ­ founding director of Comunn na Gàidhlig, President of the International Congress for Celtic Studies, Chair of the Celtic Panel for RAE 2001 – these are just a few examples of his key roles within his field. Prestigious invitations have abounded including the delivery of The O’Donnell Lectures at Oxford, the Thurneysen Lecture at Bonn and the Vernam Hull Memorial Lecture at Harvard. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Willie was delighted to have been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Ulster in 2006. His teaching and research interests are marked by both breadth and depth – as one might expect from a man with degrees in three separate disciplines! His publications range from work on the language, history and archaeology of Celtic Britain and Early Scotland, to studies on the interface between Gaelic and Scots, Gaelic Poetry from the 16 th to the 18 th centuries and local studies of his native Argyll and the Western Isles. He has served as General Editor of the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland and manager of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, and is the leading player in ongoing plans to establish an Institute for the Languages of Scotland. At Edinburgh, Willie has undertaken administrative, strategic and leadership roles at all levels of this institution, for much of his career at department, faculty and senate level and more recently within the context of the school and college structure. Through all of this, however, he has shown constant and enthusiastic commitment to his students at all levels, several of whom have gone on to lead the next generation of Celtic scholars in Scotland and well beyond. While it is unlikely that retirement will stem his flow of energy, Willie will enjoy spending slightly more leisurely hours with his wife, Valerie (one of our finest poets in Scotland) and their children, Lachlan, Maeve and Mairi, and grandchildren. The University congratulates Willie on such a distinguished career, thanks him most sincerely for his 40 years of excellent service, and wishes him, Val and their family a long, happy and fruitful retirement.
Special Minute Professor Peter Grant, OBE, DEng, DEng, FIEEE, FREng, FRSE, FIET Following a first degree at Heriot­Watt and five years in industry, Peter Grant joined the University in 1971 with Professor Jeffrey Collins, investigating wideband signal processing techniques for improving the reception and detection of signals for communication and radar systems. Peter was personally invited to conduct two separate years of research in the USA, at Stanford University and at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Peter subsequently made major contributions to the design and application of adaptive radial basis function network structures which achieved a high performance Bayesian nonlinear adaptive filter solution. These structures provided significant performance improvements over linear adaptive filters and were recognised by the award of the Marconi premium award. Later Peter studied new communication receiver designs for cellular radio systems, which offer increased subscriber capacity through adaptive cancellation of interfering signals with antenna signal processing. The IEEE awarded him distinguished lecturer status to present his research on 4 continents. With his many strong industrial links Edinburgh was invited to join the virtual centre of excellence in mobile and personal communications, an industry­university consortium for advanced pre­competitive research into next generation mobile cellular systems design. Peter was an executive board director for 6 years. Peter was promoted to a personal chair in Signal Processing in 1988 and became the Regius Professor of Engineering in 2007. He was Head of Electronics before being appointed, in 2002, to form the School of Engineering & Electronics, growing it from 67 to 87 academic staff. Here he facilitated the forming of five undergraduate/postgraduate partnerships with Chinese institutions. Included in his extensive service at Edinburgh are: chairing the committee which secured, from Scottish Enterprise, £13M of funding to create and run the Institute for System Level Integration in Livingston, where he chaired the management committee for eight years and latterly also served as director; securing and directing the £14M Scottish Funding Council, Edinburgh/Heriot­Watt Research Pooling Partnership in Engineering and Mathematics; and his latter appointment as one of the University’s Curators of Patronage. Peter was for two years president of EURASIP, the European Association for Signal and Image Processing. Peter’s UK professional engineering committee service includes chair of one of the 2001 RAE panels, membership of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee, two of the Research Technology Foresight committees as well as many Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society of Edinburgh committees. Peter was one of the launch editors for the new Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Proceedings on signal processing, a post he held for 17 years. He has published two undergraduate textbooks, "DSP Concepts and Applications" and "Digital Communications”. He has received, over his career, five “best paper” premium awards. Peter has received numerous honours including the 82 nd IEE Faraday medal; fellowships of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEEE, Royal Society of Edinburgh and the IET. He was elected in 2007 one of the first 4 EURASIP fellows. He has also been recognised by honorary doctorates from the Heriot­Watt and Napier Universities. Peter received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 2009, for services to science, engineering and higher education. The School of Engineering will continue to access his wide ranging expertise to build further on his successful development of the school and its research profile. We wish Peter and Marjory a long and happy, but hopefully less busy, retirement.
Special Minute Professor Colin R Munro, BA, LLB Born in 1949, Colin Munro was a pupil at Aberdeen Grammar School before going on to Aberdeen University where he attained a First Class Honours degree in law in 1971. Between 1971 and 1985 he served successively as a lecturer, senior lecturer, and reader in law at the Universities of Birmingham, Durham and Essex and was then appointed as a Professor of Law at the University of Manchester. In 1990 he was appointed to the Chair of Constitutional law at the University of Edinburgh (succeeding Professor Anthony Bradley), the post he held until his retirement in July 2009. In the course of a long career in public law, Colin Munro’s teaching and research have ranged widely. His early work on conventions of the constitution established him as a substantial contributor to modern UK constitutional law, and he also made important published contributions to the understanding of Scotland’s position within the Union and, when devolution came in the form of the Scotland Act 1998, the new parliamentary and governmental institutions. Just as important, however, was Colin’s role in helping to establish media law as an independent area for study and research, both as an aspect of public law and as a sub­discipline in its own right. He wrote very widely in this area. He also made a significant contribution to administrative law and to aspects of criminal law. His scholarship was distinguished throughout by its clarity, accuracy and attention to both the bigger principles and the finer detail. To many generations of law students Colin Munro is best known for his Studies in Constitutional Law in its two editions of 1987 and 1999. This book provides a substantial introduction to the central aspects of UK constitutional law. It is a sign too of Colin’s strong commitment to university teaching. He was a popular and engaging teacher at all levels, but with a special concern for the LL.B programme at both its ordinary and Honours stages. This teaching commitment extended to a tireless concern in the Law Faculty (in which he was Head of the Department of Public Law from 1990 to 1999 and Dean in 1992­1994) and the School of Law for student business and other administrative matters within the Faculty/School and in the wider College and University. He was a very effective public speaker (often combining incisive content with a dry wit) – whether as teacher, committee chair or advocate on behalf of the Law School. Beyond his home universities he served widely as external examiner and academic assessor; he has been a member of the boards of several learned journals (including Public Law); and a member of public bodies (including the Consultative Council of the British Board of Film Classification). He has participated in many radio and television programmes. His was a most distinguished and very active tenure of the Chair of Constitutional Law, and we wish him a long and happy retirement.
Special Minute Professor Arnold Myers, BSc, PhD, FEI Professor Arnold Myers has had a distinguished but somewhat unusual academic career. He has undergraduate degrees (from St Andrews) in mathematics, physics and astronomy and theoretical physics but on graduating became a librarian, working for a number of companies before being appointed as Information Officer for the Institute of Offshore Engineering at Heriot Watt University (and receiving a diploma in librarianship with distinction from the University of Strathclyde). At the same time he was developing an expertise in musical instruments, in their history, manufacture and acoustics, and in 1980 he became Honorary Curator of EUCHMI, the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments. In 1996 he was appointed the Collection’s Director and in 1998 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Edinburgh for a thesis entitled ‘Characterization and Taxonomy of Historic Brass Musical Instruments from an Acoustical Standpoint’, a thesis that had been supervised jointly by the departments of Music and Physics and Astronomy. While Professor Myers continued to work part time as Senior Information Scientist at Heriot Watt University, in his various roles in Edinburgh University he was able to embody the range of activities and interests that had first distinguished the Edinburgh Music Faculty when it was established in the nineteenth century by General Reid. Professor Myers was a research collaborator with the School of Physics, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music, Director of EUCHI and (from 2006) Professor of Organology, thus bringing together all his varied interests: physics, music, the history of musical instruments, information science and museology. At the heart of Professor Myer’s contribution to Edinburgh University scholarship and culture has been his curation and direction of Edinburgh University’s collections of musical instruments, the John Donaldson Collection of Musical Instruments in the Reid Hall and the Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments in St Cecilia’s Hall. He played a major role in both developing these collections (raising funds for their maintenance and display and making significant additions to the collection through purchase, endowment and bequest) and establishing their importance for international scholarship and as a resource for the citizens of and visitors to Edinburgh. Professor Myers’ undergraduate courses on the history of musical instruments are a distinctive feature of the Edinburgh BMus and have inspired a number of students to follow the subject through postgraduate degrees and continuing scholarship. His own research on brass instruments has produced an extensive output of publications and papers and he has long been a leading figure in the Galpin Society for the Study of Musical Instruments, thus putting Edinburgh University at the centre of the British community of organologists, while also establishing a wide­ranging international reputation. Above all, though, Professor Myers has helped re­establish both the Reid and St Cecilia Halls as Edinburgh landmarks: not just as public museums and research resources but also as venues for concerts and conferences, for education and entertainment, and as much loved settings for Edinburgh’s amateur and professional musical life. Professor Myers’ combination of scholarly skills and achievements is enviable and we wish him all good wishes in his retirement.
Special Minute Professor John Wylie Ponton, BSc, PhD, FREng, FIChemE John (‘Jack') Ponton graduated from this University in 1965 with 1st class honours in Chemical Technology. His PhD studies, also at this university led to his interest in the application of the then novel digital computer to solving chemical engineering problems. This developed into his major research area in what became known as chemical process systems engineering. Many of his original published ideas, ranging from techniques in numerical mathematics to the use of the Internet to deliver software applications, have become established in commercial products and practice. In 1991 he was awarded an EPSRC grant of 1.6 Mpounds, at the time the largest single grantholder award to this university, to establish a centre of excellence in process systems engineering. Over the seven years of its most active operation the group involved 35 research staff and students, most of whom now hold senior positions in industry and academia, including at least three professorships. He was instrumental in promoting the use of computers in teaching chemical engineering and an `early adopter' of the World­Wide Web as a means of delivering teaching. His pioneering on­line, interactive course material was awarded special recognition by the teaching quality assessors. He was appointed to an Assistant Lectureship in 1967 and, with periods of secondment to industry and other universities, has continued to work in Edinburgh, being appointed to the ICI Chair of Chemical Engineering in 1989 and to a personal chair in 1992. He has served on various committees of the research councils and IChemE and on the Norwegian government's research assessment panel for chemical engineering. He has been an editor of the journal `Computers and Chemical Engineering' and vice­president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. His range of interests has always been wide, his papers having appeared in journals of chemical, mechanical, electrical and marine engineering and informatics; computers and the Internet having now become all­pervasive and rather boring, in retirement he is pursuing a new research interest in bioenergy.
Special Minute Professor Lindsay Sawyer, BSc, PhD, FRSC CChem Professor Lindsay Sawyer was at school in Edinburgh but before moving on to university, took a year out, working as an R&D technician at Scottish Agricultural Industries. Consequently, coming to the University of Edinburgh in 1962 to study chemistry, he was well­prepared for the practical aspects of the programme which included some X­ray crystallography. On graduating, he moved to Physics to work for a PhD in protein crystallography with David Green. When Lindsay started, the structures of perhaps four globular proteins were known. He worked on aldolase, from rabbit muscle, and lactoglobulin, an abundant milk protein, which was to play an important part in his career. On completing his PhD, he worked with Richard Ambler in Molecular Biology, crystallising the proteins being sequenced there, notably the enzyme from Staphylococcus aureus responsible for penicillin resistance. In 1972, Lindsay moved to Bristol to work on the enzymes elastase and pyruvate kinase. Lindsay was appointed to a lectureship in physical chemistry at Napier College in 1975 and began his own protein crystallography research group with considerable help from Physics at Edinburgh, from where he inherited the lactoglobulin project following the untimely death of David Green. His reputation grew and he was asked to serve on an Advisory Group to the SERC. A productive year at the University of Alberta led, in 1984, to a lectureship in Biochemistry at Edinburgh. Once again, Lindsay established a protein crystallography group while serving on two BBSRC committees: overseeing the pioneering synchrotron source at Daresbury and managing the protein engineering initiative. The platform in X­ray protein structure determination he established in Edinburgh provided a springboard for the appointment of the crystallographers Malcolm Walkinshaw from Sandoz and Paul McLaughlin from the MRC Laboratory at Cambridge. His work on the 3­dimensional structures of milk proteins, particularly lactoglobulin, resulted in invitations from around the world to lecture, discuss and advise both academic and industrial groups. This in turn led to his being appointed to honorary positions at the Hannah Research Institute in Ayr and the Riddet Institute in New Zealand. He has published significant articles in prestigious journals and seminal book chapters in dairy chemistry texts. Throughout his career, he enjoyed collaborations both within Edinburgh and beyond. He also put great store in supervising research students as well as teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in biochemistry, particularly the structural aspects of the subject. Until recently, he headed the Graduate School of Biological Sciences bringing to it new ideas, sound advice and good humour as well as expanding and establishing taught masters’ degrees, including a drug discovery course which is proving popular world­wide. Over a career that has seen the growth and success of macromolecular crystallography from a small and esoteric offshoot, he has enjoyed forming contacts between apparently disparate groups of scientists such that unexpected ways around an impasse emerge. He served on the Library, Appeals and Chaplaincy Committees of the University and is an elder both of St Giles’ and the Presbytery of Edinburgh. On retirement, he has been appointed to a Senior Honorary Professorial Fellowship, which allows him to maintain contact with former colleagues and to teach a postgraduate course in crystallography. Further, he is looking forward to following up some ideas that have been germinating through his involvement with the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions. Rumours that he is starting work on writing a learned monograph are not unfounded and, he hopes, not exaggerated.
His considerable contributions to teaching and management within the School of Biology will be greatly missed, but colleagues are delighted that he is planning to continue his productive and innovative research interests. We wish him a happy retirement.
Special Minute Professor Alan Capel Shotter BSc, ARCS, DPhil, CPhys, FInstP, FRSE. Alan Shotter was born in London on 17 th November 1942. He graduated in 1964 with a First Class degree in Physics from Imperial College. He completed a D. Phil. in nuclear physics at Oxford in 1968 and stayed on as a Research Fellow at Oxford. In 1970 he was appointed to a lectureship at Edinburgh, and started a new nuclear physics research group. He studied aspects of nuclear reactions induced by high energy nuclei and found an experimental link between related nuclear reaction processes. This led to the development of an important technique still used today to investigate rare nuclear reactions in stellar environments. During the 1980’s a new UK national accelerator became operational at Daresbury Laboratory. Here, the Edinburgh group developed novel radiation detectors, including miniature electronic servicing units – undertaken in collaboration with Rutherford Appleton laboratory. These designs are now used around the world. Towards the end of the 1980’s a new era of nuclear physics began to emerge with the realization that many questions concerning the nuclear processes in stellar environments could be investigated by the production and acceleration of very short­lived exotic nuclei. The Edinburgh nuclear physics group established itself as one of the pioneer groups in this new field, through work at Louvain la Neuve, Belgium. These experiments led to the development of another generation of radiation detection systems which became known as the Louvain­Edinburgh­ Detection­Arrays or LEDA. Alan Shotter was promoted to a Readership in 1983 and to a Personal Chair in Experimental Physics in 1989. He became Head of the Department of Physics from 1988 to 1994 and during that time the Departments of Physics and Astronomy merged to become a single unit. As Head he made a number of key appointments which enhanced the research capability and provided a firm foundation for the current strength of physics research within Edinburgh. In 2001 he was seconded from the University to TRIUMF to lead the laboratory as its Director. Having served his term of office as Director of TRIUMF, he returned to Edinburgh to continue his own research activities in nuclear astrophysics. He retired in 2008 but remains active in research. As a Fellow and Council Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh he has helped to establish scientific activities for young people. Outside his professional activities his main interests have been his family, hill walking, music, aviation and flying light aircraft. His wife, Margaret, lectured in biostatistics at the University of Edinburgh until 2001.
Special Minute Professor Keith Stenning, MA, PhD Professor Keith Stenning took his first degree in Philosophy and Psychology at Trinity College, Oxford, and then carried on to complete a PhD at Rockefeller University, New York under the supervision of Professor G. A. Miller. The integration of concerns about memory, cognitive representations, and natural language semantics that he developed during these early years turned out to be an enduring theme for the rest of his career. He spent a further year at Rockefeller as a Research Associate in Miller’s Laboratory before returning to the UK in 1975 to take up a Lectureship in Psychology at the University of Liverpool. After eight years at Liverpool, he was appointed in 1983 to a ‘New Blood’ Lectureship held jointly between Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Science and the Department of Psychology. In 1988, Keith Stenning was one of a group of cognitive scientists who responded to a Call for Bids from the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) for a new interdisciplinary Research Centre. The proposal for a Human Communication Research Centre (HCRC) eventually reached a successful conclusion with the award of a five­year grant of £2.5 million from ESRC in April 1989. Keith was appointed first Director of HCRC and received a Professorial Fellowship from the University in recognition of his role. In 1994, HCRC’s contract with ESRC was extended for further five years by a second award of £3.7 million, and Keith continued as Director until October 1999. Over the course of Keith’s tenure, HCRC became outstandingly successful in attracting new external funding, and produced a wealth of new ideas and new knowledge. When he stepped down from the post of Director, HCRC had brought in a cumulative total of over £16m external income, and its scientific staff consisted of 12 tenured staff members, about 40 post­doctoral researchers, ten graduate research fellows, together with a complement of 15 administrative, secretarial and computing staff. In the years following, at least several commercial entities were spun out of HCRC’s research, including the text­analytics company Infogistics Ltd and the speech synthesis company Rhetorical Systems (subsequently acquired by ScanSoft). Keith has played a significant role in the Cognitive Science Society (the main international body representing the field). Apart from serving on the Governing Board, he was Co­Chair (with Professor Johanna Moore) for the first meeting of the Society outside North America, held in Edinburgh in 2001, and is now an elected Fellow of the Society. He is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Keith’s enduring research interest has been the challenge of reconciling formal logic accounts of reasoning with models of mental representation and cognitive processes. He has explored this theme in an influential range of publications, most notably his books Seeing Reason (OUP 2002) on how the mind responds to different representations of the same information and (with Michiel van Lambalgen) Human Reasoning and Cognitive Science (MIT Press 2008), which examines the relevance of modern mathematical logic to the study of human reasoning.
Special Minute Peter A Tasker, MA, DPhil, CChem, FRSC Peter Tasker was awarded a Styring Exhibition at Queen’s College Oxford to study Chemistry in 1962. He completed his part II with Dr Morrin Acheson, working on heterocyclic chemistry in the Biochemistry Department, before moving to the University of York, 1966­68, with his inorganic tutor, Dr Michael Green, to undertake a DPhil on designing simple complexing agents which reproduce the unusual cobalt chemistry of vitamin B12. This sparked his interests in coordination chemistry and ligand design which have featured throughout his career in his teaching and in his research, both in industry and academe. After two years of postdoctoral research at the Universities of Chicago and California at Irvine, he returned to the UK to a temporary lectureship at the University of Warwick before taking up a permanent teaching post at the Northern Polytechnic in London. During his 13 years at the Poly a number of collaborative projects on ligand design were established with ICI and he joined Organics Division (which later became Zeneca Specialties) in 1986 to lead the Coordination Chemistry Group, working with the team which developed the class of metal extractants which now account for approximately a quarter of the world’s production of copper. As Zeneca Specialties’ Academic Relations Officer, he managed a large programme of research collaborations through which he maintained close contacts with the Universities, and in March 1996 he took up the Chair in Industrial Chemistry at Edinburgh. In this post he has served as the Head of the Graduate School, overseeing a doubling of student numbers in the period to 2008 and as Head of the Inorganic Section. He retired in September 2009 but will continue to lead a number research council and industry funded research projects and is President Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Dalton Division. Peter’s scientific standing and his breadth of experience, spanning research in both universities and industry and teaching across a range of types of institution have resulted in advisory and professional responsibilities for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Quality Assurance Agency, the Confederation of British Industry, the Chemical Industries Association, and Chemical Sciences Scotland. He was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Tilden Lectureship in 2004. He has strong international links, with the mining industry in Canada, S Africa, Australia, USA and Chile, and has held visiting professorships in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. In these and honorary positions in the UK, e.g. as Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester, he delivered courses on the applications of coordination chemistry to the development of greener products and processes which were very well received and continue to result in correspondence from around the world. He also showed a great commitment and enthusiasm in his teaching in Edinburgh and was recorded as being one of the most warm and approachable members of staff. Students remarked that Peter gave ‘fantastic lectures, was engaging, interesting and entertaining, and communicated a real passion and interest in the subject.’
Special Minute Professor Roy Thompson, BSc, PhD Roy Thompson read Geology with Mathematics at the University of Reading, and moved into Geophysics for his PhD on palaeomagnetism as a tool for determining tectonic plate movements at the University of Newcastle­upon­Tyne. He joined the University of Edinburgh a year after its completion, where he has remained since. During that time, his research focus has gradually shifted away from ‘classical’ palaeomagnetism – and even from mainstream geophysics – to applying his skills and knowledge innovatively to a large variety of problems, many connected to characterising and understanding the climate system. Thus he has published in a wide spectrum of journals, co­authored by archaeologists, botanists, ecologists, chemists, meteorologists, mathematicians and statisticians. Media appearances have been through, for instance, a letter entitled ‘Edinburgh – the new Reekie’ to The Scotsman’s editor, BBC2’s Horizon, and a Guardian article ‘Buttercups and cherry blossom …’. It’s not clear whether Roy was delighted or appalled to find his research described recently in an Australian newspaper next to a photograph of Beyonce! Roy uses an enormous range of fieldwork tools, laboratory equipment and data sources, from sediments cored from lake beds around the world (involving a risk assessment nightmare – firing a long, cumbersome corer into sediments from a small boat in the middle of a large lake), through SQUID magnetometers, to soil temperature sensors and records of first flowering dates of plants going back over a century and a half, and sophisticated mathematical and statistical analyses. Thus in a recent project, not only did he use the long time series to predict how much earlier spring will arrive as plants respond to temperature increases, but he also assessed the effect of factors like site aspect, soil type and species planted on these ‘first flowering’ data to show that the result is robust. One of Roy’s earlier fundamental contributions enabled the potential of magnetic properties of Chinese loess (wind­blown dust) and palaesols (ancient soils) as palaeoclimate indicators to be fully realised. This has had enormous impact, not least because of the timespan of the record, but also because he showed that the existing interpretative models were incorrect, it being necessary to undertake a detailed study of the magnetic signal ‘carriers’ within the material and to understand their origins. By the time this work appeared, his interest in environmental applications of magnetism had already been stirred, with papers on atmospheric fall­out and airborne particles. Roy fully embraced the ethos of the School of GeoSciences when it was formed, moving from the Grant Institute where the other geophysicists are housed to the Crew Building, enjoying day­to­day contact with meteorologists, climate scientists and ecologists. His choice of Personal Chair title, ‘Environmental Geophysics’, reflects the multi­disciplinary nature of his research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2001. Roy wrote, with his long­time collaborator Frank Oldfield, the definitive textbook ‘Environmental Magnetism’, which was translated into Chinese a decade after publication. He has also edited, with Barbara Maher, CUP’s ‘Quaternary Climates and Magnetism’. Although Roy has formally retired, he continues to enjoy his research and publish in high­ impact journals. In his spare time he and Christine enjoy walking, and he has plans to take up or resume other hobbies, including a rumoured return to the bridge table! We wish him well in these and all his other endeavours.
Special MInute Professor Jonathan Usher, BA, Cav Repubblica Italiana Professor Jonathan Usher has provided more than three decades of dedicated service to the University of Edinburgh as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and, latterly, Professor of Italian. During that period he has performed a number of significant administrative duties, including being Head of Italian, Head of the Division of European Languages and Cultures, Secretary (for 3 years), and then Convener (for a further 3 years) of the Exam Board for Modern European Languages, and the Convener of the College of Humanities and Social Science’s Library Committee. These are all duties that he has acquitted with his usual conscientious and meticulous attention to detail. He has been a dedicated Director of Studies, and an enthusiastic and popular teacher who has developed innovative approaches to the teaching of medieval Italian literature, opening up new horizons to cohort after cohort of undergraduate students, and presenting medieval studies as relevant to modern life. His dedication has also been evident in his supervision of postgraduate students, for whom he was always an informed, supportive and keen­eyed mentor. Jonathan Usher’s research has concentrated on medieval and 20th century Italian narrative fiction, with a particular emphasis on the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio (best known outside Italy as author of the Decameron). His early work concentrated on a sophisticated, theoretically informed, analysis of Boccaccio’s narrative technique in the Decameron. This work also informed his articles on Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveller, a novel whose frame and intercalated narratives echoes the structure of the medieval text. In terms of his work on 20th century authors he has also published innovative and challenging articles on Primo Levi and Elio Vittorini (amongst others). More recently Professor Usher has published extensively on the links between classical (above all Latin) literature and Boccaccio’s so­called ‘minor’ works, adding to his publications on the survival of the classical tradition in Dante and in Petrarch. Professor Usher has published extensively in the UK and in the United States, but his work is best known in Italy and he has published many articles in the leading Italian journals, establishing an incontestable reputation as the foremost authority on Boccaccio in the United Kingdom, and one of the leading researchers on this author worldwide. Jon Usher has a close family life, and he is dedicated to his wife, Anne­Marie, his two sons, Thomas and Olivier, and his grandson, Arture, on whom he dotes. He has always had a keen interest in music, and is very knowledgeable on the subject. Indeed, Jon’s range of knowledge on various subject matters is impressive, and grows from the enthusiasm with which he approaches every task, every topic. Having moved to Antibes in the south of France after retirement, he has been able to indulge in some of his favourite pastimes, namely walking and swimming, taking constitutional dips in the sea almost daily. From his new home he also writes a regular blog entitled ‘Antiboiseries’, where he combines his literary inclinations with observations on the world around him, providing readers with an eloquent and hugely enjoyable insight into life in Provençe. We wish him, and Anne­Marie, a long and happy retirement.
Special Minute Professor Simon van Heyningen MA, PhD Professor Simon van Heyningen, Vice Principal for Learning and Teaching and Director of Quality Enhancement, retired from the University of Edinburgh on 30 September after thirty five years of service. Simon’s academic career at the University of Edinburgh has been divided almost equally between departmentally­based research and teaching, and leading university­wide developments in learning and teaching, and he has been very successful in both. He is passionate about the quality of our students’ experiences, and about ensuring a wider understanding of science in general, and biology in particular. Simon has promoted the traditional attributes of academic life – rigour in open debate. He was born in London, was at school in Oxford and London, and then enrolled at the University of Cambridge to read Biochemistry, graduating BA in 1965 and MA in 1969. His PhD studies, also at Cambridge, were focussed on chemical modification of proteins under the supervision of Hal Dixon. Following his award of PhD in 1968, he spent two year in the United States at Northwestern University, and then returned to the UK to a Demonstratorship at Oxford University. Simon was appointed to a Lectureship in Biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 1974, and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1986. His research maintained a family interest in bacterial toxins begun by his father, Kits van Heyningen. Simon was an active contributor to the exploration of the mechanisms by which bacterial toxins such as cholera, tetanus and whooping cough produce their biological effects, leading to disease symptoms, and he published steadily in collaboration with his constant flow of postgraduate and post­doctoral students. He was an active member of his professional societies, and on the committee and executives of the Biochemical Society and the research committee of the Scottish Motor Neurone Disease Association. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Simon was a key member of the strong professional and collaborative community in the Department of Biochemistry, mentoring newly­arriving staff and supporting the many educational developments that took place during this time. His concern for students as a Director of Studies and generally, and his attention to detail in maximising the quality of their experience whilst at Edinburgh, was a constant theme throughout his career. Simon helped to maintain the close relationship between the Department of Biochemistry in the (then) Faculty of Medicine and the biological science Departments in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, which meant that Simon was a natural choice in 1993 as Head of the Biology Teaching Organisation. The BTO was still quite unusual in the University and in UK HE due to its size and its influence over curriculum design and delivery, which resulted in Simon being regularly invited to advise others, as well as undertake external examining at all levels. This was also a period when quality assurance and assessment of HE teaching was being explored by the Scottish HE Funding Council, and under Simon’s expert guidance Biological Sciences at Edinburgh were judged ‘Excellent’ in all twenty­two aspects as well as overall – the best result in Scotland. At the end of his successful period as Director of the BTO, in 1998 Simon returned to the Faculty Group of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine as Vice­Provost with a remit covering all aspects of teaching. He had oversight of the newly­formed Medical Teaching Organisation, and he was instrumental in the establishment of the Learning Technology Section and its creation of an online medical curriculum. He also took on a wider University role guiding the development of processes for quality assurance of teaching with his parallel appointment to the new Director of Quality Assurance post.
Simon demitted office as Vice Provost as the new College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine was formed, and became full­time Assistant Principal (2002), then Vice Principal for Learning & Teaching (2003) incorporating his Quality Assurance role. He has had oversight of the activities of the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Assessment (TLA) through its transition into the Faculty (later School) of Education, during which period it maintained it its reputation and research output, and he has coordinated the University’s responses to external audits of various kinds. Simon’s reputation as a knowledgeable source of objective and impartial advice on education in the biological sciences and quality assurance and enhancement procedures have brought him many invitations to participate in external reviews and developmental activities in the UK, in Europe and worldwide. They include establishment of QA procedures in Slovakian HE; university reviews in Sweden, South Africa and the Caribbean, and membership of the UUK Burgess Group on “Measuring and Recording Student Achievement” which led to proposals to modify the way Honours degrees are classified. In 20003, he was convenor of the Steering Committee for the QAA Scottish Quality Enhancement Theme on “Assessment”. In 2004, Simon was awarded a Personal Chair of Learning and Teaching in recognition of his contributions to the University and to the UK and international higher education community. Simon is married to Veronica, a human geneticist of distinction, whom he met whilst at Cambridge. They have two children, Paul and Eleanor, who are based in London. He and Veronica travel a good deal, and are interested in art and architecture. Simon is currently Chair of Edinburgh Printmakers. I am sure that all Simon’s many colleagues and friends around the University of Edinburgh and beyond will join with me in wishing him and his family well for the future.
Special Minute Professor Jennifer Wishart, MA PhD FRSE Jennifer Wishart was Professor of Developmental Disabilities in Childhood (formerly Professor of Special Education) at Moray House School of Education from 1996 until her retirement in July 2009, holding her chair for 18 months as a member of Heriot Watt University and thereafter at the University of Edinburgh, following the 1998 merger of Moray House with the University. Jennifer's parents, Fred & Iris Paterson, were very firm believers in the value of education and made many personal sacrifices to ensure their three children got a 'proper' education. Jennifer, the first generation in her family to go to university, spent her primary and secondary years at Harris Academy, Dundee. Clutching a handful of bursaries, she came to Edinburgh University in 1966 to study psychology, graduating with an Honours degree in 1970. At this time, honours classes were typically less than twenty in number and psychology was closer to the social sciences than to the biological sciences, as it is now. Jennifer remembers fondly the people who taught her then, amongst them Drs John & Halla Beloff, George Montgomery and Boris Semeonoff, each of whom in various ways influenced her subsequent work. On graduating, Jennifer's first post was as an MRC research assistant on one of a number of exciting developmental psychology projects starting up in Edinburgh in the early 1970s. The Psychology department was becoming internationally renowned for its ground­breaking work on infants' and young children's development and Jennifer considered herself very fortunate to be around at this time, working alongside people such as Drs Margaret Donaldson, Colwyn Trevarthen and Dave Lee, all of whom were subsequently given personal chairs for their seminal work in this field. Completing her own PhD in 1979 while working as a contract researcher (in record time ­ 21 months), Jennifer became a research fellow and then a senior research fellow in Psychology. During this period, she built up a remarkable record in attracting research funding for her own work. From 1979 until the present day, her research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the most recent grants involving interdisciplinary collaborative projects with colleagues in other Schools and at Queen Margaret University. Her work has focused primarily on the development of children with Down syndrome and other genetically­based learning disabilities. Her interdisciplinary contribution to the 'advancement of learning and useful knowledge, with meaningful public benefit' was recognised in her election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007. Jennifer's research has been extensively published. She has contributed 25 chapters to edited books, many reprinted in several languages. She has also published 70 papers in international journals, along with a number of articles specifically written for parents. Jennifer has been equally active on wider academic fronts, serving on six editorial boards and eight scientific advisory boards, acting as a reviewer for 26 international journals, and assessing grants for numerous charities and government funders in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, the USA and Canada. After retiring, Jennifer intends to continue supervising PhD students and acting as a research mentor to younger colleagues in Education. She is also looking forward, however, to spending more time enjoying her home in Colinton, to relaxing in the house she and her husband, Tom, bought in Burgundy in 2003, and to indulging their longstanding interest in food and wine. A new puppy is also included in Jennifer's forward planning, a fact that will come as no surprise to her friends and colleagues, many of whom took advantage of the pet therapy provided by her canine office companions over her 39 years at Edinburgh. We wish Jennifer a long and very happy retirement, one that has been truly well­earned.
Special Minute Professor Jennifer Wishart, MA PhD FRSE Jennifer Wishart was Professor of Developmental Disabilities in Childhood (formerly Professor of Special Education) at Moray House School of Education from 1996 until her retirement in July 2009, holding her chair for 18 months as a member of Heriot Watt University and thereafter at the University of Edinburgh, following the 1998 merger of Moray House with the University. Jennifer's parents, Fred & Iris Paterson, were very firm believers in the value of education and made many personal sacrifices to ensure their three children got a 'proper' education. Jennifer, the first generation in her family to go to university, spent her primary and secondary years at Harris Academy, Dundee. Clutching a handful of bursaries, she came to Edinburgh University in 1966 to study psychology, graduating with an Honours degree in 1970. At this time, honours classes were typically less than twenty in number and psychology was closer to the social sciences than to the biological sciences, as it is now. Jennifer remembers fondly the people who taught her then, amongst them Drs John & Halla Beloff, George Montgomery and Boris Semeonoff, each of whom in various ways influenced her subsequent work. On graduating, Jennifer's first post was as an MRC research assistant on one of a number of exciting developmental psychology projects starting up in Edinburgh in the early 1970s. The Psychology department was becoming internationally renowned for its ground­breaking work on infants' and young children's development and Jennifer considered herself very fortunate to be around at this time, working alongside people such as Drs Margaret Donaldson, Colwyn Trevarthen and Dave Lee, all of whom were subsequently given personal chairs for their seminal work in this field. Completing her own PhD in 1979 while working as a contract researcher (in record time ­ 21 months), Jennifer became a research fellow and then a senior research fellow in Psychology. During this period, she built up a remarkable record in attracting research funding for her own work. From 1979 until the present day, her research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the most recent grants involving interdisciplinary collaborative projects with colleagues in other Schools and at Queen Margaret University. Her work has focused primarily on the development of children with Down syndrome and other genetically­based learning disabilities. Her interdisciplinary contribution to the 'advancement of learning and useful knowledge, with meaningful public benefit' was recognised in her election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007. Jennifer's research has been extensively published. She has contributed 25 chapters to edited books, many reprinted in several languages. She has also published 70 papers in international journals, along with a number of articles specifically written for parents. Jennifer has been equally active on wider academic fronts, serving on six editorial boards and eight scientific advisory boards, acting as a reviewer for 26 international journals, and assessing grants for numerous charities and government funders in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, the USA and Canada. After retiring, Jennifer intends to continue supervising PhD students and acting as a research mentor to younger colleagues in Education. She is also looking forward, however, to spending more time enjoying her home in Colinton, to relaxing in the house she and her husband, Tom, bought in Burgundy in 2003, and to indulging their longstanding interest in food and wine. A new puppy is also included in Jennifer's forward planning, a fact that will come as no surprise to her friends and colleagues, many of whom took advantage of the pet therapy provided by her canine office companions over her 39 years at Edinburgh. We wish Jennifer a long and very happy retirement, one that has been truly well­earned.
H/02/02/02 e­S: January­February 2010 C1 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Communications from the University Court Brief description of the paper This report deals with certain matters considered by the University Court at its meetings on 19 October and 14 December 2009. Action required This report is mainly for information but Senatus is invited to comment on the draft Resolution at item 8. Resource Implications Where applicable, as covered in the report. Risk Analysis Where applicable, as covered in the report. Equality and Diversity Where applicable, as covered in the report. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any Other Relevant Information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/ suggest corrections. If no comments are received the Court Communications will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C1”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Dr Katherine Novosel Head of Court Services 22 January 2010
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE UNIVERSITY COURT 1 VICE­PRINCIPAL AND HEAD OF THE COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Court welcomed the appointment of Professor Dorothy Miell to the position of Vice­ Principal and Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science with effect from 1 March 2010. 2 HONORARY VICE­PRINCIPAL AND ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Court approved the proposals to appoint Professor Ian Howard, Principal of the Edinburgh College of Art an Honorary Vice­Principal for an initial period of three years in recognition of the close working partnership between the University and the College of Art with effect from 1 January 2010 and Professor Martin Siegert, Head of the School of GeoScience, Assistant Principal for Energy and Climate Change for an initial period of two years with effect from 1 November 2009. 3 VICE­PRINCIPAL (EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY) It was noted that Professor Waterhouse’s term of office as Vice­Principal, Equality and Diversity was due to cease on the 31 December 2009. Court approved the proposal that Professor Waterhouse should continue in this position for a further three years until 31 December 2012, recognising the continuing importance of this role. 4 UNIVERSITY SECRETARY Court noted with regret the firm intention of the University Secretary to retire late summer 2010 after 32 years of service to the University and approved the proposal to initiate an external advertisement recruitment process as soon as possible to facilitate an appropriate handover period. 5 RENAMING OF THE WEST WING, OLD MEDICAL QUAD The proposal to transfer the name William Robertson from the existing building on the east side of George Square to the refurbished West Wing of the Old Medical Quad was approved by Court; the refurbished West Wing was to house the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. It was noted that the timing of the transfer would be subject to consideration of the continuing use of any of the teaching space in the current William Robertson building and to clarification of the acceptable postal address for the refurbished building. 6 ACADEMIC REPORT Court noted the report from the Senatus Academicus of its electronic Senate conducted from 22 September to 30 September 2009 and its meeting held on 14 October 2009. Court endorsed the Annual Institutional Statement of Internal Subject Review Activity for Academic Year 2008/2009 which was presented to Court in accordance with the new requirements of the Scottish Funding Council. Court further noted the election of Professor Jake Ansell as Senate Assessor on Court with effect from 1 January 2010 to 31 July 2012. 7 RESOLUTIONS
Court approved the following Resolutions: Resolution No. 47/2009: Resolution No. 48/2009: Resolution No. 49/2009: Resolution No. 50/2009: Resolution No. 51/2009: Resolution No. 52/2009: 8 Foundation of a Chair of Systems Biology Alteration of the title of the Personal Chair of Sedimentary Geology Foundation of a Chair of Paediatric Clinical Neuroscience Amendments to Resolutions 16/2009 and 41/2009 Alteration of the title of the Personal Chair of Mathematical Geoscience Alteration of the title of the Chair of Medical Imaging DRAFT RESOLUTION (Appendix 1) Court approved the following draft Resolution: Draft Resolution No. 1/2010: Amendment to Resolution No 7/2003 (Structure of Academic Year) and requested its transmission to the General Council and Senatus Academicus for observations. 9 DONATIONS AND LEGACIES Court was pleased to note the donations and legacies to be notified received by the University of Edinburgh, Development Trust between 1 June and 30 November 2009, particularly welcoming the lifetime gift of £1.264m from Mr Storey towards the Medical Graduate fund.
Appendix 1
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 1/2010 Amendment to Resolution No. 7/2003 (Structure of Academic Year) At Edinburgh, the XXX day of XXX, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to amend the structure of the academic year; THEREFORE the University Court, on the recommendation of the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraphs 2 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves:­ 1. Academic years from 2011/2012 shall start on 1 August and for degree programmes of thirty one weeks per year shall comprise the following: Semester 1 of 14 weeks Semester 2 of 17 weeks with a Winter vacation between Semesters 1 and 2 and a Spring vacation during Semester 2. 2. Section 1 of Resolution 7/2003 shall be amended accordingly. 3. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary H/02/02/02 e­S: January/February 2010 C2 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Report from the Central Management Group Brief description of the paper Report from the Central Management Group meetings of 18 November 2009 and 20 January 2010. Action requested Senate is invited to note the report with comments as it considers appropriate. Resource implications As outlined in the paper. Risk Assessment As outlined in the paper. Equality and Diversity None. Freedom of information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/suggest corrections. If no observations are received the Senate will approve the report from the Central Management Group. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C2”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originators of the paper Dr Alexis Cornish, Director of Planning and Deputy Secretary Dr Katherine Novosel, Head of Court Services January 2010
Central Management Group Meeting 18 November 2009 1 2009/10 Student Intake and SFC Home/EU Undergraduate Population Controls The intake of home/EU undergraduate students in SFC non­controlled subject areas as at 20 October 2009 was significantly above target and the overall population in this category, including continuing students was now almost 1,000 above SFC funded places. As the University received no additional income from the SFC for students for whom there were no funded places such students were effectively being taught for tuition fees alone and actions were being taken to address this issue including monthly progress meetings. CMG noted that in considering appropriate actions and reviewing admission criteria minority subject areas and routes for widening participation access should be afforded some protection. The intake figures for postgraduate and overseas fee paying full time undergraduate students were encouraging with figures as at 20 October 2009 being above the targets set by the University for recruitment in these areas. 2 Fees Strategy Group CMG approved the following as recommended by the Fees Strategy Group:
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3 Home and Away fees scheme for postgraduate students (reduced fees for those studying away from the University for 12 months or more) to be abolished for new students.
The annual continuation fees to be charged pro rata for the full period of the approved extension rather than quarterly from 2010/2011.
Undergraduate Home/EU students to be charged for credits taken pro rata to the appropriate full time programme tuition fee up to 80 credits and the full year fee to be charged for those in excess of 80 credit from the start of 2010/2011. Current fees were charged in units of 20 credits. This approach also to be applied to overseas/high cost rate of tuition fees.
All fee discount schemes require to be considered by the Fees Strategy Group
The fee proposals for various programmes in each of the Colleges. Proposals to Establish a Chair of Vascular Biology CMG approved the proposal to create a new Chair of Vascular Biology noting that the title of the Chair may be amended. The University Secretary agreed to prepare a short note for CMG approval on the process and protocol for naming chairs after eminent individuals.
Central Management Group meeting 20 January 2010 1 Dignity and Respect Policy (Appendix 1) CMG endorsed the revised Policy which had been subject to wide consultation and commended it to Court noting that a comprehensive set of guidance and procedural documents were being developed to support the implementation of the Policy. 2 Disability Equality Scheme 2009 CMG noted and approved the content of this second Disability Equality Scheme required to be produced to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (2005) and further commended the support provide to students and staff. The Scheme can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.disability­office.ed.ac.uk/provision/des/report2009.html 3 Proposals for the Naming of Chairs after Eminent Individuals The new procedure for the naming of Chairs after eminent individuals was approved. The approved procedure can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Governance/CMG/Pub/namingchairs.pdf 4 Fees Strategy Group CMG approved the actions taken by the Convener of the Fees Strategy Group in respect of revised fees from 2010/2011 for the MSc course in Operational Research and the extension for a further two years the fee arrangements for the existing two­ year collaborative European Masters MSc in Informatics. 5 Proposal to establish a Chair of Oncology CMG approved the proposal to establish a new Chair. 6 Proposal to establish a Chair of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture CMG approved the proposal to establish a new Chair. 7 Proposal to alter the title of the Chair of Respiratory Medicine CMG approved the proposed alteration of the title of the Chair. 8 Proposal to alter the title of the Chair of Vascular Biology CMG approved the proposed alteration of the title of the Chair. 9 Proposal to alter the title of the Personal Chair of Cardiology CMG approved the proposed alteration of the title of the Personal Chair.
Appendix 1
Dignity and Respect Policy 1. Policy Statement 1.1 The University Community is made up of its staff, students and visitors, all of whom are highly valued for the knowledge, skills, experience, talents, commitment and creativity they bring to the University community. As part of the University’s commitment to equality and diversity it is intent on promoting a positive culture for working and studying, in which all members of that community treat each other with dignity and respect and where action is taken in respect of inappropriate behaviour. This Policy sets out the expectations this places on all members of the Community. 1.2 When we use ‘dignity’ we mean recognising and esteeming everyone’s worth as a person. 1.3 When we use ‘respect’ we mean treating each other with consideration. 2. Overview 2.1 This policy should be read in the context of the University’s core Mission, Strategic Plan and related strategies, information on which can be accessed via: http://www.planning.ed.ac.uk/Strategic_Planning/SP2008­12/index.htm. 2.2 The policy is set in the context of the need to:
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provide an environment where individuals have the opportunity to reach their full potential;
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maximise the success of the University, recognising the importance of staff’s and students’ direct contribution;
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provide a supportive and enabling working environment which encourages good morale, a positive student experience, good employee relations and excellent performance in all that we do;
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create the environment for a positive student experience of University life;
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meet the requirements of a complex and evolving legal framework including, for example, a statutory obligation regarding discrimination and a general legal duty of care to staff
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apply the principles of good governance and good management practice across all our activities;
provide a mechanism for raising, addressing and resolving concerns about individual/organisational behaviour and this is described in the corresponding procedure (exact title to be added when formalised). ·
3. Scope 3.1 This policy applies to all staff and students of the University in relation to both individual and collective activities, including their dealings with others in the University community. 4. Guiding Principles
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The University seeks to promote a positive culture for working and studying to which every student and member of staff contributes and within which they are able to develop to their full potential.
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Freedom of expression within the law is central to the concept of a university. To this end, the University seeks to continue to foster a culture which permits freedom of thought and expression within a framework of respect for the rights of other persons.
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Ideas and views are open to rational discussion and challenge, in a rigorous, collegial and constructive manner, with a view to creating knowledge and improving and deepening understanding. 5. Responsibilities 5.1 As members of the University community we have a responsibility to apply these principles by:
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Contributing to a positive learning and working environment including engaging with activities which promote dignity and respect.
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Supporting the University’s priorities and acting with integrity as members of the University community.
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Accepting new responsibilities and participating in activities aimed at enhancing and improving systems, processes and practices such that they are more efficient, effective and valuable. Asking questions and learning about issues that will affect us.
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Exercising responsibility (or being accountable) for our interactions with individuals and groups and showing consideration.
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Working and studying collaboratively, collegially and effectively in teams within and across organisational units.
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Addressing and resolving matters ourselves, where reasonably possible, in a simple, straightforward and constructive way or raising more serious matters with relevant University staff and participating positively in approaches to resolve them. 5.2 In addition, managers of staff and others with responsibility for areas of work or study have:
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A responsibility to lead in promoting a culture of dignity and respect and
A duty to take timely, relevant action to resolve concerns using the related procedure (actual title of procedure to be inserted when finalised). 5.3 Expectations of the University as an employer and provider of education will be to ensure that:
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·
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It fosters a positive culture for working and studying to attract and retain the best staff and students to support our academic endeavour.
It treats staff and students with openness, respect and dignity at all times;
Staff and students feel safe and are listened to when raising concerns about behaviour.
6. Monitoring The University monitors and reviews its performance on promoting dignity and respect on an ongoing basis. Information on key performance indicators and other data can be found in the Monitoring section of the Dignity and Respect Framework (link to be inserted here when finalised). Formal reports are provided at regular intervals to Staff Committee and other relevant committees. 7. Information, advice and resources Further advice and information on good practice is available in the supporting guidelines and procedures which may be found at: (link to be added when finalised). 8. Policy creation This policy was approved by CMG on xxxx and Court on xxxx and takes effect from xxxx.
H/02/02/02 e­S: January/February 2010 C3 The University of Edinburgh Senatus Academicus 26 January – 3 February 2010 Resolutions ­ Chairs Brief description of the paper This report is presented to Senate in accordance with the procedures for the creation of new chairs, renaming of existing chairs and the process for personal chairs. Action required Senate is invited to make observations on the draft Resolutions. Resource Implications Where applicable, as covered in the report. Risk Analysis Where applicable, as covered in the report. Equality and Diversity There will be equality and diversity issues in the appointment to these chairs which will be taken into account in accordance with HR processes. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any Other Relevant Information Members of Senatus wishing to make observations on the draft resolution should email [email protected] quoting “comment on C3”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Dr Katherine Novosel Head of Court Services 21 January 2010
Senate Resolutions – Chairs Establishment of Chairs (Appendix 1) The Central Management Group at its meeting on 18 November 2009 endorsed the proposal to create a new Chair of Vascular Biology. This will further strengthen the research network within the Centre for Cardiovascular Science and exploit opportunities for collaboration with relevant research centres, in particular the Centre for Inflammation Research and the Centre for Reproductive Biology in the Queen’s Medical Research Institute. CMG at its meeting on the 20 January 2010 further agreed to the amendment of the title to the Gustav Born Chair of Vascular Biology. Draft Resolution No. 2/2010: Foundation of the Gustav Born Chair of Vascular Biology The Central Management Group at its meeting on the 20 January 2010 also endorsed proposals to create new Chairs in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and in the College of Science and Engineering: Draft Resolution No. 9/2010: Draft Resolution No.10/2010: Foundation of a Chair of Oncology Foundation of a Chair of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture Cancer research is a major priority area for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and for NHS Lothian and the holder of this new Chair will have a joint role in leading research and in the delivery of clinical cancer services, being the Head of Cancer Services. Current research in Carbon Capture and Storage is mainly centred across the Schools of Engineering and Geosciences and the establishment of this new Chair will complement the existing research and strengthen even further the University’s position both nationally and internationally. Renaming of existing Chairs (Appendix 2) The Roslin Institute (Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies) wishes to amend the current title of the vacant Chair of Veterinary Clinical Immunology to the Chair of Animal Infectious Diseases to allow recruitment in this area and further development of its research strategies in relation to animal populations and animal/human population disease interrelationships. Draft Resolution No. 3/2010: Alteration of the title of the Chair of Veterinary Clinical Immunology The School of Health in Social Science wishes to rename the recently established Chair of Clinical Health Psychology as the current name is proving restrictive and it is considered a change of title to the Chair of Clinical Psychology will assist in recruitment. Draft Resolution No.4/2010: Alteration of the title of the Chair of Clinical Health Psychology The School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health wishes to amend the title of the Chair of Respiratory Medicine to the Sir John Crofton Chair of Respiratory Medicine in memory of Sir John Crofton and his enormous contribution to medicine and public heath; Sir
1 John Crofton died in November 2009 and his widow and their family have consented to the proposal. CMG at its meeting on the 20 January 2010 agreed to the amendment of the title of this Chair. Draft Resolution No.11/2010: Alteration of the title of the Chair of Respiratory Medicine The School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health also wishes to amend the title of the Personal Chair of Cardiology to the BHF John Wheatley Personal Chair of Cardiology in recognition of the funding of this Chair by the British Heart Foundation and the significant bequest to the Foundation by the late Mr John Wheatley; the incumbent of this Personal Chair has confirmed his agreement to the change of title. CMG at its meeting on the 20 January 2010 also agreed to the amendment of the title of this Personal Chair. Draft Resolution No.12/2010: Alteration of the title of the Personal Chair of Cardiology Personal Chairs (Appendix 3) As a result of the deliberations of the University’s Central Academic Promotions Committee there is a requirement to establish 4 new Personal Chairs as listed below: Draft Resolution No. 5/2010: Draft Resolution No. 6/2010: Draft Resolution No. 7/2010: Draft Resolution No. 8/2010: Foundation of a Personal Chair of Vertebrate Molecular Development Foundation of a Personal Chair of Veterinary Immunogenetics Foundation of a Personal Chair of Social Psychology Foundation of a Personal Chair of Neuroanatomy Court at its meeting on 15 February 2010 will consider Resolutions 2/2010 to 8/2010 in final format and Court at its meeting on the 24 May 2010 will consider Resolutions 9/2010 to 12/2010 in their final format.
2 Appendix 1 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 2/2010 Foundation of a Chair of Vascular Biology At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Chair of Vascular Biology:
THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Chair of Vascular Biology in the University of Edinburgh. 2. The patronage of the Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
3 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 9/2010 Foundation of a Chair of Oncology At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Chair of Oncology: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Chair of Oncology in the University of Edinburgh. 2. The patronage of the Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. This Resolution shall come into force with effect from 1 December Two thousand and nine. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
4 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 10/2010 Foundation of a Chair of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Chair of Power Plant Engineering and Carbon Capture: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Chair Power Point Engineering and Carbon Capture of in the University of Edinburgh. 2. The patronage of the Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
5 Appendix 2 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 3/2010 Alteration of the title of the Chair of Veterinary Clinical Immunology At Edinburgh, the Xxxx­xxx day of Xxxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to alter the title of the Chair of Veterinary Clinical Immunology founded by Resolution 11/2006: AND WHEREAS paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, provides that the University Court may, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and with the consent of the incumbent and patrons, if any, alter the title of existing professorships: AND WHEREAS the Chair dealt with in this Resolution is in the patronage of the University Court itself: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. The Chair of Veterinary Clinical Immunology shall hereafter be designated the Chair of Animal Infectious Diseases. 2. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
6 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 4/2010 Alteration of the title of the Chair of Clinical Health Psychology At Edinburgh, the Xxxx­xxx day of Xxxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to alter the title of the Chair of Clinical Health Psychology founded by Resolution 8/2009: AND WHEREAS paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, provides that the University Court may, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and with the consent of the incumbent and patrons, if any, alter the title of existing professorships: AND WHEREAS the Chair dealt with in this Resolution is in the patronage of the University Court itself: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. The Chair of Clinical Health Psychology shall hereafter be designated the Chair of Clinical Psychology. 2. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
7 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 11/2010 Alteration of the title of the Chair of Respiratory Medicine At Edinburgh, the Xxxx­xxx day of Xxxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to alter the title of the Chair of Respiratory Medicine confirmed by Ordinance No. 426 Edinburgh No. 129 as amended by Resolution 10/1978. AND WHEREAS paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, provides that the University Court may, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and with the consent of the incumbent and patrons, if any, alter the title of existing professorships: AND WHEREAS the Chair dealt with in this Resolution is in the patronage of the University Court itself: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. The Chair of Respiratory Medicine shall hereafter be designated the Sir John Crofton Chair of Respiratory Medicine. 2. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
8 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 12/2010 Alteration of the title of the Personal Chair of Cardiology At Edinburgh, the Xxxx­xxx day of Xxxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to alter the title of the Personal Chair of Cardiology founded by Resolution 19/2005: AND WHEREAS paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, provides that the University Court may, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and with the consent of the incumbent and patrons, if any, alter the title of existing professorships: AND WHEREAS the Chair dealt with in this Resolution is in the patronage of the University Court itself: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to that Act, hereby resolves: 1. The Personal Chair of Cardiology shall hereafter be designated the BHF John Wheatley Personal Chair of Cardiology. 2. This Resolution shall come into force with immediate effect. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
9 Appendix 3 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 5/2010 Foundation of a Personal Chair of Vertebrate Molecular Development At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Personal Chair of Vertebrate Molecular Development: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Personal Chair of Vertebrate Molecular Development in the University of Edinburgh, which shall be established solely for the period of tenure of the Professor appointed, and on the Professor ceasing to hold office, the provisions of this Resolution shall cease to have effect, and the said Personal Chair shall thereupon cease to exist. 2. The patronage of the Personal Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. Notwithstanding the personal nature of this Chair, the terms and conditions of appointment and tenure which by Statute, Ordinance and otherwise apply to other Chairs in the University shall be deemed to apply in like manner to the Personal Chair of Vertebrate Molecular Development together with all other rights, privileges and duties attaching to the office of Professor. 4. This Resolution shall come into force with effect from 1 August Two thousand and nine. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
10 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 6/2010 Foundation of a Personal Chair of Veterinary Immunogenetics At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Personal Chair of Veterinary Immunogenetics: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Personal Chair of Veterinary Immunogenetics in the University of Edinburgh, which shall be established solely for the period of tenure of the Professor appointed, and on the Professor ceasing to hold office, the provisions of this Resolution shall cease to have effect, and the said Personal Chair shall thereupon cease to exist. 2. The patronage of the Personal Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. Notwithstanding the personal nature of this Chair, the terms and conditions of appointment and tenure which by Statute, Ordinance and otherwise apply to other Chairs in the University shall be deemed to apply in like manner to the Personal Chair of Veterinary Immunogenetics together with all other rights, privileges and duties attaching to the office of Professor. 4. This Resolution shall come into force with effect from 1 August Two thousand and nine. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
11 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 7/2010 Foundation of a Personal Chair of Social Psychology At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Personal Chair of Social Psychology: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Personal Chair of Social Psychology in the University of Edinburgh, which shall be established solely for the period of tenure of the Professor appointed, and on the Professor ceasing to hold office, the provisions of this Resolution shall cease to have effect, and the said Personal Chair shall thereupon cease to exist. 2. The patronage of the Personal Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. Notwithstanding the personal nature of this Chair, the terms and conditions of appointment and tenure which by Statute, Ordinance and otherwise apply to other Chairs in the University shall be deemed to apply in like manner to the Personal Chair of Social Psychology together with all other rights, privileges and duties attaching to the office of Professor. 4. This Resolution shall come into force with effect from 1 March Two thousand and ten. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
12 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Draft Resolution of the University Court No. 8/2010 Foundation of a Personal Chair of Neuroanatomy At Edinburgh, the Xxx­xx day of Xxx, Two thousand and ten. WHEREAS the University Court deems it expedient to found a Personal Chair of Neuroanatomy: THEREFORE the University Court, after consultation with the Senatus Academicus and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Section 3 of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966, with special reference to paragraph 5 of Part II of Schedule 2 to the Act, hereby resolves: 1. There shall be a Personal Chair of Neuroanatomy in the University of Edinburgh, which shall be established solely for the period of tenure of the Professor appointed, and on the Professor ceasing to hold office, the provisions of this Resolution shall cease to have effect, and the said Personal Chair shall thereupon cease to exist. 2. The patronage of the Personal Chair shall be vested in and exercised by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh. 3. Notwithstanding the personal nature of this Chair, the terms and conditions of appointment and tenure which by Statute, Ordinance and otherwise apply to other Chairs in the University shall be deemed to apply in like manner to the Personal Chair of Neuroanatomy together with all other rights, privileges and duties attaching to the office of Professor. 4. This Resolution shall come into force with effect from 1 January Two thousand and ten. For and on behalf of the University Court M D CORNISH University Secretary
13 H/02/02/02 e­S: January/February 2010 C4 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senatus 26 January – 3 February 2010 Report from Central Academic Promotions Committee Brief description of the paper Report on creation of four Personal Chairs by the Central Academic Promotions Committee. Action requested For information. Resource implications Does the paper have resource implications? No new implications Risk Assessment Does the paper include a risk analysis? No Equality and Diversity Does the paper have equality and diversity implications? Not directly. Freedom of information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes Additional Information The draft Resolutions are already in the Senate Papers. A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/ suggest corrections. If no comments are received the Report of the Central Academic Promotions Committee will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C4”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Karen Conway Corporate HR
1 REPORT FROM THE CENTRAL ACADEMIC PROMOTIONS COMMITTEE Since the last report of the Committee on the 2009 academic promotions a further four Personal Chairs have been awarded. Three were out of cycle cases and one on recruitment. Personal Chairs Name School Wef Personal Chair Title Dr T Gillingwater Biomedical Sciences 1.1.10 Neuroanatomy Dr E Glass Roslin Institute 1.8.09 Veterinary Immunogenetics Professor D Miell College of Humanities and Social Science 1.3.10 Social Psychology Dr H Sang Roslin Institute 1.8.09 Vertebrate Molecular Development Karen Conway Corporate HR Secretary to the Central Academic Promotions Committee
2 H/02/02/02 e­Senate: January­February 2010 C5 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate Senate 25 January – 3 February 2010 Appeal Committee Membership 2009/10 Brief description of the paper The paper lists nominations to membership of the Postgraduate Appeal Committee for 2009/10. Action required The Senatus is invited to approve the nominations. Resource implications None. Risk Assessment None. Equality and Diversity There are no equality and diversity implications in the paper. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/suggest corrections. If no comments are received, the membership of the Postgraduate Appeal Committee will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C5”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Gail Honeyman Academic Policy Manager 19 January 2010
1 Appeal Committee Membership 2009/10 The Senatus is invited to approve the following appointments to membership of the Postgraduate Appeal Committee. College of Humanities and Social Science Appoint Dr. Karen McKenzie, School of Health in Social Science Appoint Ms. Marion Smith, School of Health in Social Science College of Science and Engineering Appoint Professor Harry Braden, School of Mathematics Appoint Dr. Neil Robertson, School of Chemistry The membership of the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Appeal Committees can be found at: http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Regulations/academicappeals/AppealCommittee.htm Gail Honeyman Academic Policy Manager 19 January 2010
2 H/02/02 e­Senate: January/February 2010 C6 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Report of the Standing Commission on Discipline Brief description of the paper The paper is the Annual Report of the Standing Commission on Discipline. Action required The Senatus is invited to approve the report and membership of both the Standing Commission on Discipline and the Discipline Committee. The Senatus is further invited to approve the changes to the Code of Student Discipline and to ask the University Court to draft the necessary Resolution to update the list of categories of Authorised Officers. Resource implications None. Risk Assessment None. Equality and Diversity There are no equality and diversity implications in the paper. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/suggest corrections. If no comments are received, the Annual Report of the Standing Commission on Discipline will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C6”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper S.M. Welham Policy Adviser to the University Secretary 26 January 2010
1 Report of the Standing Commission on Discipline The Senatus is invited to approve and note the appointments detailed in the paper. The Senatus is further invited to approve the changes to the Code of Student Discipline and to ask the University Court to draft the necessary Resolution to update the list of categories of Authorised Officers. 1. Standing Commission on Discipline 1.1 Membership of the Standing Commission on Discipline The Senatus is invited to make the following membership appointments:
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to re­appoint Professor G. Pettigrew for a further two years from 1 August 2009 to 31 July 2011;
to re­appoint Professor A. Dugmore for a further two years from 1 August 2009 to 31 July 2011. The membership for 2009/10 will be: Senate nominees Professor D. Crawford (2004­2010) (Convener) Professor A. Barker (2008­2011) Professor A. Dugmore (2007­2011) Professor G. Pettigrew (2007­2011) Dr. H. McQueen (2010­2013) 1 Vacancy SRC nominees Mr. T. Graham (2009­2010) Mr. E. Beswick (2009­2010) Ms. C. Perry (2009­2010) Mr. J. Wallace (2009­2010) Mr. J. Holloway (2009­2010) Mr. A. Burnie (2009­2010) 1.2 Convenership of the Standing Commission on Discipline Professor D. Crawford continues as Convener of the Standing Commission on Discipline to 31 July 2010. The Vice­Convener is, by convention, the President of the Students’ Association.
2 2. Discipline Committee 2.1 Membership of the Discipline Committee The Standing Commission on Discipline recommends that the following be re­appointed to the Committee for two years to 31 July 2011:
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Ms. L. Macgregor
Professor A. Heavens The membership of the Discipline Committee will therefore be: Academic staff Professor A. Boyle (2008­2010) Ms. L. Macgregor (2004­2010) Professor A. Heavens (2007­2011) Professor S. Parsons (2008­2010) Dr. P. Kelly (2008­2011) 1 Vacancy Matriculated students Ms. C. Jarvis (to 31 May 2010) Mr. H. Smith (to 31 May 2010) Ms. T. Steward (to 31 May 2010) (postgraduate) Mr. M. Fergusson (to 31 May 2011) Ms. M. Diament (to 31 May 2011) Ms. K. Staines (to 31 May 2011) (postgraduate) 2.2 Convenership and Vice­Convenership of the Discipline Committee Professor A. Boyle continues to serve as Convener of the Discipline Committee to 31 July 2010. The Discipline Committee will appoint a new Vice­Convener from their number once Senatus approval of the membership is received. 3. Authorised Officers The General Statement on Student Discipline and Code of Student Discipline are available on the web: http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Regulations/Discipline/CodeofStudentDiscipline.htm In addition to the University’s Vice­Principals, who are ex officio Authorised Officers of the University in respect of exercising summary jurisdiction in student disciplinary matters, the following have been nominated to be Authorised Officers under the terms of Section 2, amended as proposed in section 4 below. Senior academic management officers College of Humanities and Social Science 3 Dr. M. Donaldson Dr. R. Williams (for 1 year) Mr. D. Thomson Mr. A. Brown
College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Professor A. Cumming Dr. F. Kristmundsdottir Professor E. Watson Professor D. Argyle Professor J. Bradshaw Dr. C. Phillips (for 1 year) College of Science and Engineering Dr. J. Martin Dr. N. Hulton Professor W. Williams Senior academic management officers University Secretary, Mr. M.D. Cornish Deputy Secretary, Dr. A. Cornish Mr. F. Gribben, HSS Mr. L. Golightley, MVM Dr. D.B. Nelson, S&E V­P Knowledgement Management and Chief Information Officer Director of Library and Collections Professor J. Haywood Director, IT Infrastructure Director, Applications Division Mr. B.A.C. Gilmore Mr. S. Marsden Accommodation Services Mr. R. Kington, Director Mrs. L. Duff, Assistant Director Residence Life Mr. J. Jarvie, Principal Warden Mr. A. Majothi, Designated Warden Director of Corporate Services Mr. N. Paul Director for Centre for Sport & Exercise Assistant Director Mr. J. Aitken Ms. L. Campbell Mrs. S. Cannell 4. Court Resolution The Senatus is invited to ask the University Court to draft a resolution to update the list of categories of Authorised Officers provided in Section 2.1 of the Code of Student Discipline as follows: Change 2.1.2 from “The Director of Accommodation Services, the Assistant Director, Welfare and Support, the Principal Warden, and a designated Warden approved by Senatus” to “The Director of the Accommodation Services; the Assistant Director Residence Life; the Principal Warden, and a designated Warden approved by the Senatus”. Change 2.1.3 from “The University Secretary, the Academic Registrar and Deputy Secretary, and the College Registrars” to “The University Secretary, the Deputy Secretary, and the College Registrars”.
4 Change 2.1.5 from “The Vice­Principal for Knowledge Management and Chief Information Officer and the Librarian to the University, and the Director of Library Services” to “The Vice­Principal for Knowledge Management and Chief Information Officer, and the Director of Library and Collections”. Change 2.1.6 from “Director of Computing Services and Deputy Director (Director of Applications” to “The Director of IT Infrastructure, and the Director of Applications”. S.M. Welham Policy Adviser to the University Secretary 26 January 2009
5 H/02/02/02 e­S: January/February 2010 C7 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 University Senatus Fitness to Practise Appeal Committee Membership 2009/2010 Brief description of the paper The paper lists membership of the University Senatus Fitness to Practise Appeal Committee for 2009/2010. Action requested The Senatus is invited to approve the membership. Resource implications None. Risk Assessment None. Equality and Diversity There are no equality and diversity implications in the paper. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/suggest corrections. If no comments are received, the membership of the University Senatus Fitness to Practise Appeal Committee will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C7”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Registry Academic Services
1 19 January 2010 University Senatus Fitness to Practise Appeal Committee Membership 2009/2010 The Senatus is invited to approve the appointments of the University Senatus Fitness to Practise Appeal Committee. College of Humanities and Social Science Professor A.E. Boyle Professor J.W. Cairns Dr. P. McLaughlin Mr. D. Thomson Ms. A. Robertson Ms. M. Emeleus Mr. M. Schwannauer Dr. J. Francis College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Professor A.A. Calder Mr. R.W. Parks Dr. P. Alston Professor K. Boyd Professor E. Johnstone Professor S.G. Macpherson Professor W. Reid Professor S. Rhind (for 2009­2010, Dr. C. Phillips) Professor J. Satsangi Dr. C. Swainson Registry Academic Services 19 January 2010
2 H/02/02/02 e­Senate: January/February 2010 C8 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Senate Standing Committees Terms of Reference Brief description of the paper Reflecting recent structural change within the Univesity, the paper proposes minor amendments to the composition section of the terms of reference of four of the standing committees of Senatus: Curriculum and Student Progression Committee, Learning and Teaching Committee, Quality Assurance Committee and Researcher Experience Committee. Action required The Senatus is invited to approve the amendments to the committees’ terms of reference, with immediate effect. Resource implications None. Risk Assessment None. Equality and Diversity There are no equality and diversity implications in the paper. Freedom of Information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes. Any other relevant information A comment need only be submitted to raise an objection/suggest corrections. If no comments are received, the amendments to the terms of reference of the four standing committees of Senatus noted above will be deemed approved. In this context any comments on this paper should be emailed to [email protected] quoting “comment on C8”. These comments will be added verbatim at http://tinyurl.com/ygk4zjj Originator of the paper Dr Linda Bruce Academic Policy Manager, Registry Academic Services 26 January 2010
1 Amendment to Terms of Reference of Senate Standing Committees The Senatus is invited to approve minor amendments to the terms of reference for four of its standing committees: Curriculum and Student Progression Committee, Learning and Teaching Committee, Quality Assurance Committee and Researcher Experience Committee. The amendment is for immediate effect. The proposed amendments reflect recent structural change within the University whereby the role of Academic Registrar is no longer current. It is therefore proposed that the ‘Composition’ section of the terms of reference for the four standing committees of Senatus noted above is amended accordingly to specify ‘the University Secretary or his/her nominee’ where appropriate. The terms of reference of the four committees are available at: http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Committees/CSPC/CSPC_TermsOfReference.htm http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Committees/LTC/LTC_TermsOfReference.htm http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Committees/QAC/QAC_TermsOfReference.htm http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Committees/REC/REC_TermsOfReference.htm 26 January 2010
2 H/02/02/02 e­Senate: January – February 2010 C9 The University of Edinburgh Electronic Senate 26 January – 3 February 2010 Report of Student Complaints, Session 2008­09 Brief description of the paper This paper provides a summary of student complaints received in session 2008­09, a brief analysis, and an update on procedural developments. Action requested Senatus is asked to consider the paper and to approve the changes to the Procedure in section 3 and to the delegated authority in section 4. Resource implications Does the paper have resource implications? Not directly. However, it is recognised that satisfactorily addressing and resolving such matters often requires considerable senior staff time resources, particularly at later stages of the process. Risk Assessment Does the paper include a risk analysis? Appropriate consideration of and, where possible, resolution of complaints mitigates risks of negative impacts on student satisfaction, and of failing to comply with legislative requirements in complaints consideration. Equality and Diversity Does the paper have equality and diversity implications? Equality & diversity information is included and considered in the report (section 2.3). Freedom of information Can this paper be included in open business? Yes, except for appendix 1. As the appendix provides detailed statistics on low numbers, it should remain closed in adherence with best practice under the Data Protection Act. Originator of the paper Ms. S. Welham on a template devised by Ms. J. Miller Policy Adviser to the University Secretary 26 January 2010
1 Report of Student Complaints: Session 2008­09 1. Context In recognition that on occasion there will be legitimate complaints which students wish to raise the University is committed to maintaining an effective formal student complaints procedure. The University introduced a Revised Student Complaints Procedure, focused on early resolution of complaints, with effect from academic year 2005/06. This report provides the statistics for new formal complaints received in each of the four subsequent academic years. 1.1 Summary of Procedure The University Student Complaints Procedure is focused on resolution with the normal expectation that students will contact the person(s) directly involved to try to resolve their complaint before referring to the formal procedures. Statistics are not gathered on these informally resolved complaints. The formal University Student Complaints Procedure is divided into ­ Stage One (dealt with by Head of School/ Support Service), ­ Stage Two (dealt with by Head of College/ Support Group), and the ­ Complaint Appeal stage (prima facie (PF) stage potentially leading to Complaint Appeal Committee consideration) Following completion of the University Procedures, a student is entitled to refer their complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (http://www.spso.org.uk/ ) for review. 2. Summary Statistics on formal complaints received 2.1 Summary of complaints received Table 1a: New Formal Complaints Received in each academic year (by level of study) UG PGT PGR Total 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 3 5 6 3 4 7 7 6 3 6 5 7 10 18 18 16 As in previous years, the total number of formal complaints remains a tiny fraction of the total student body (which in 2008/09 totalled 26,951 students). Half of the new complaints were reviewed within the College of Humanities and Social Science (CHSS); one unit within the Corporate Services Group (CSG) providing non­academic services to students received and resolved a complaint; and CHSS and CMVM received at least one complaint at Stage Two. In the context of the very small overall numbers of formal complaints no negative conclusions should be drawn from the numbers arising from within CHSS – not least because the majority of students are affiliated to this College. There do not appear to be any particular trends regarding those Schools reporting complaints and those providing a nil return.
2 Table 1b: New Formal Complaints Received in each academic year (by category) Complaint Category Accommodation issues – ongoing works Staff attitude Teaching and/or Assessment Teaching provision and staff attitude Supervision Inadequate Disability Provision Inadequate facilities/ services Funding / Studentship Policy/ procedures & administration (Dispute between students*) Total 2006/07 1 3 3 1 5 1 1 2 1 2007/08 2008/09 ­ 1 ­ ­ 1 1 4 5 2 ­ ­ ­ 2 1 ­ ­ 6 7 3 1 18 16 18 Notes to Table 1b: 1. The data for complaints by category was not collected in session 2005/06. 2. * Such matters are not appropriately dealt with under the Complaints Procedures. These complaints have been noted as ‘resolved’ in the statistics below on their being passed to the appropriate process or forum for resolution. 2.2 Summary of Procedural Stage at which Complaints are resolved Table 2: Procedural Stage at which New Complaints (by ac. year received) Resolved Stage1 Stage2 Complaint Appeal: PF Complaint Appeal: Committee SPSO Ongoing** Total **(See Table 2a) 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 7 5 9 8 2 7 5 3 ­ 2 2 1 ­ 1 1 ­ 1 3 1 ­ ­ ­ ­ 4 10 18 18 16 Table 2a: Current Procedural Stage of Complaints Ongoing as at 26 January 2010 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 Stage1 Stage2 Complaint Appeal: PF Complaint Appeal: Committee SPSO Total 3 1*** 0 0 0 4 Notes to Tables 2 and 2a: 1. *** Complaint consideration suspended while student on interruption of studies 2. Not all complaints are concluded in the year in which they were received. The later stages (internal and external) in particular often have extended timescales. 3. The SPSO statistics above do not include cases where complainants have approached the SPSO at too early a stage, and have been referred back to the University. Likewise, they do not include the few cases where the SPSO has investigated the process followed in considering an academic appeal.
3 The increase in complaint resolution at Stage 1 and Stage 2, and the continuing small numbers progressing to the appeal and external stages of the process, is very encouraging. Early investigation and resolution of student complaints enables students to refocus on their academic studies. Additionally, the administrative time resource required of senior academic and administrative managers across the University to consider each case increases significantly with each stage of the process. Early resolution therefore benefits all parties and should remain the principal aim of the process. 2.3 Equality and Diversity Monitoring The detailed tables are provided in Appendix 1. In summary:
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In general the numbers are too small to draw significant conclusions. This year more male students than female students submitted formal complaints reversing the trend of the last two years.
The majority (81%) of those submitting complaints in 2008/09 are recorded as having ‘no known disability’. Of those complaints submitted by students recorded as disabled, no particular trend is identifiable. Overall, it remains the case that the monitoring statistics show no cause for concern in terms of specific groups of students potentially being excluded from submitting a complaint. 3. Complaints Procedure: Developments and clarifications Discussion with and feedback from key staff implementers of the Complaints Procedure has indicated that it would be useful to amend or clarify the procedure. Amendment will be discussed with the Students’ Association and EUSA Advice Place representatives before changes to the procedure are proposed. Due to structural changes in the University the Senatus is invited to approve the replacement of references in the Student Complaints Procedure to the “Academic Registrar” by the “Head of the Registry” and to the “Head of Academic Affairs” by a “Academic Policy Manager”. The Student Complaints Procedure is available at: http://www.acaffairs.ed.ac.uk/Administration/Procedures/ComplaintsStudent/documents/StudentComplaintProced urePrintableVersion.pdf 4. Delegated Authority When students submit a Complaint Appeal, if they have demonstrated prima facie grounds, it will be considered by a Student Complaints Appeal Committee. This is convened by a nominated lay member of the University Court and its membership includes a nominated member of the Senatus Academicus, who is not a member of the School or department associated with the student’s complaint, and a student nominated by the Students’ Representative Council. The Senatus is invited to approve the delegation to the Principal of the authority to nominate a Senatus member of the Appeal Committee when needed. This would then be formally reported to Senatus, but will enable the process to move forward in a timely manner, within the timescales set out in the procedure, i.e. within one calendar month of receipt of notification of an appeal. 5. Summary conclusions The small numbers of formal complaints received relative to the size of the student body reflects well on the efforts of staff and students to both avoid potential problems and to resolve these informally wherever possible. Given the relatively small numbers of complaints received each year, it remains inappropriate to try to identify any trends from the data above. However, sectoral views and general trends in the complaints area strongly indicate that numbers of complaints may well rise over the coming years as society in general becomes more accustomed to pursing its rights through such processes. Increasing experience of the procedure continues to produce improvements and clarifications.
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