Staff-Student Consultative Committees (SSCC): Arrangements for 2023-24

UCL is committed to working in partnership with students and ensuring that they are at the heart of decision making to improve their experiences. Staff Student Consultative Committees (SSCCs) are essential to this.

This note aims to support SSCC Chairs and Secretaries in facilitating constructive SSCC meetings. Detailed information on running SSCCs is provided in the academic manual under SSCC terms of reference (please note that these have been updated for this year).

About SSCCs

The Students’ Union (SU) manages Student Academic Representation in partnership with UCL. Training and support is provided to all students acting in a representative role by the SU. All students appointed as representatives should have been elected by 19 October 2023. Further information on elections and elected reps is available on the SU website. The SU has also produced these useful Resources for Staff.

Every year the SU produces a ‘priorities for education’ report based on feedback from SSCC student representatives. This supports UCL to continuously improve of the student academic experience. See the 2023 report here: https://studentsunionucl.org/student-priorities-for-education-report-2023

Running SSCC meetings

• SSCCs should meet at least twice each academic year. There is no cap on the number of times SSCC’s can meet. UG SSCCs should always meet in term time, and PG SSCCs should be delivered across the course of the programme. Meetings can be held in person or online.
• SSCCs should be co-chaired by an academic in the department and the Lead Department Representative. Pre-meetings between the two co-chairs are advised to agree the agenda and how the meeting will be run.
• Chairs are asked to create a constructive environment for dialogue with students in SSCC meetings. This might be aided by the co-Chairs facilitating introductions and explaining how the SSCCs ‘work’ in the first meeting. At the first meeting, Chair’s may also wish to provide a summary of some of the key achievements of SSCC in previous years.
• At each meeting, SSCCs are asked to consider any concerns raised by the student representatives, Departmental Education Plans, and the progress of ChangeMakers or other student-staff led projects. The Lead Departmental Representative should also be provided with an opportunity to report on their work. Other issues might be discussed include the activities of affiliated Departmental Societies, programme developments, new modules, or strategic initiatives (e.g. the Programme Excellence or Continuous Module Dialogue).
• SSCCs are asked to discuss at least once each year the following:
  • Proposals for new programmes and revisions to existing programmes;
  • Outcomes of institutional and national surveys, and activities leading from them;
  • Matters raised through external examiners reports and departmental responses;
  • Student employment outcomes and other careers and employability related data;
  • BAME awarding gap action plans and other quality enhancement activities.  

Information for secretaries

• SSCC agenda and minute templates should help committees in their operations and ensure they meet the SSCC policy.
• SSCC minutes should be produced within two weeks of meetings and forwarded to members and sscc@ucl.ac.uk
• Secretaries are asked to include the name of their department and date in the title of their meeting minutes to aid administration.
• SSCC actions and minutes should be distributed to the Department Education Committee and other department meetings as appropriate.
• A permanent record of SSCC meeting agendas and minutes should be kept and made available to members of staff and students within the department.
• 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.

Escalating actions

• Where the issues raised by students in SSCC meetings cannot be resolved by the department, the action should be escalated to the Faculty Education Committee Chair.
• Where issues raised by students cannot be addressed by the Faculty Education Committee, these should be escalated to the Chair of the Student Staff Partnership Committee for consideration by this committee.
• SSCCs should be informed when matters are escalated and of any outcomes.

Please get in touch via sscc@ucl.ac.uk if you need any further support with running your SSCC. Thank you in advance for facilitating the important work of the SSCCs.

Mr Muhammad Shaban Chaudhury, Education Officer, Students’ Union UCL
Dr Kathryn Woods, Pro-Vice-Provost (Student Academic Engagement; Student Staff Partnership Sub-Committee Chair)

Contact details for further information: sscc@ucl.ac.uk