Undergraduate finalists board meeting

At the end of the academic year, there are many meetings taking place. We need to evaluate all modules. Did anything go awry? Do we need to moderate any marks? And we have to go through all students. Will they pass to the next year? Will they graduate? 

Some of these meetings are done with all staff present; for instance, meetings in which we decide if all the modules ran properly, and we can accept all the grades. But the meetings where we discuss the individual students always happened out of my sight.. 

You might imagine that as all grades are digitally recorded, the progression is processed automatically. It is not. We look at all students. And when I say “we”, I mean the Director of Teaching and Learning, the Senior Tutor, the Assessment Officer, and some members of Student Administration. Or rather; that’s what it used to be like. But this year, they asked me to be there too, as the Academic Integrity officer. 

I didn’t have much to do! The thing is; I had sent an overview of all the Academic Integrity cases. I also was up-to-date with the admin. So there wasn't really much need for me to be there. I suppose the only time I snapped into action is when I spotted that a student had been penalised, but the mark this meeting had access to had not been amended yet. (Student administration can sometimes take a while to respond to information.) So I mentioned that, and they amended it there and then.

I might raise that I was in a meeting between nine and three, and only was useful once. I might suggest that next year, we do this differently. Maybe a brief half hour pre-meeting of one administrator with me, where we check all changes have been implemented. And then the six hour meeting without me. And if needs be, I can just be in my office, one phone call away, in case they have any questions after all. 

It was interesting to see this process in action! But I think that once is enough. We'll see if the powers that be agree with me…