Staff-Student Consultative Committees (SSCC): Arrangements for 2022-23
18 October 2022
SSCC Arrangements for 2022-23
UCL is committed to working in partnership with its students to place them at the heart of decision making and help to improve their experience. Staff Student Consultative Committees (SSCC) play a key role in enabling this and providing forums for student representatives and staff to work together.
SSCC Chairs and Secretaries are asked to note the following:
- Please refer to the SSCC terms of reference which appear to be working well, for guidance on the approach to SSCCs.
- The Student Representatives’ areas of concerns continue to be the first discussion point on the SSCC agenda. This ensures that student concerns are prioritised in the agenda and prevent meetings running out of time to discuss student issues.
- The Annual Student Experience Review (ASER) is being refreshed with a revised process to be introduced in the Summer Term. In the meantime, please continue to discuss the results of student feedback such as the NSS, progress on BAME awarding gap action plans and other quality enhancement activities as part of the Faculty Education Plans and Department Education Plans where relevant.
- SSCC agenda and minute templates should also help committees in their operations and ensure they meet the SSCC policy.
Further to the above, SSCC Chairs and Secretaries are also asked to note the following:
- The Students’ Union (SU) manages Student Academic Representation in partnership with UCL. Training and support are provided to all students acting in a representative role. All students appointed as representatives should have been elected and returned to the Union by 20 October 2022 via the SU website. Resources for Staff on student representation have been provided by the SU.
- SSCCs should meet at least three times a year, typically once each term (though PG SSCCs and others may choose to meet outside of term-time if necessary, or where students request this).
- SSCC minutes should be produced within two weeks of meetings and forwarded to members and students (see below), as well as to the SU and UCL professional services at sscc@ucl.ac.uk . They should be approved by the SSCC Co-Chairs, but do not need to be confirmed by the subsequent meeting before distribution.
- SSCC minutes should be distributed within the department to ensure student awareness of the hard work that student academic representatives and staff undertake together to enhance their experience. It is advisable to post a summary of the actions arising and any key updates from the SSCC using either Shape UCL (formerly Unitu), Moodle, Teams or the Departmental website. You may also wish to request that students place them on the noticeboards for Virtual Common Rooms (VCR). Minutes should also be reported to the Departmental Teaching Committee (DTC), to ensure further consideration of relevant matters.
- SSCC minutes are also used for a number of purposes, including tracking student issues across UCL which are reported to key committees such as Education Committee.
- Any outstanding SSCC minutes from 2021-22 should be submitted to: sscc@ucl.ac.uk by 4 November 2022.
- SSCC Secretaries are added to the SSCC Staff Community MS Teams page to help support the committees. The academic Chairs are welcome to join too for the latest news on SSCCs and student representation.
Please also get in touch via sscc@ucl.ac.uk if you need any further support with running your SSCC.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation and for all of your hard work on the SSCCs.
Mr Hamza Ahmed, Education Officer, Students’ Union UCL
Professor Parama Chaudhury, Pro-Vice Provost (Education - Student Academic Experience)