What's on and what's not: some education-related activities suspended due to Covid-19 outbreak

As teaching staff prioritise the move to remote teaching and assessment, Academic Services, Arena Centre and the Office of the Vice Provost (Education and Student Affairs) have cancelled some events and suspended some activities.

Activities that continue to go-ahead

These activities will go ahead, with some amendments:

• Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 
• The Education Awards 
• UCL ChangeMakers  
• UCL Arena Centre events 

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 

We have decided to go ahead with the PTES despite the exceptional nature of the times that we are living through. With the switch to remote teaching, and of course the earlier industrial action, it is important that we listen to the student voice. The team will do its very best to ensure that this will not add to the upheaval you are already experiencing. PTES will open at a slightly later date of 18 May.

The Education Awards 

We will be making the annual awards that recognize and celebrate staff for their outstanding contributions to the learning experience and success of our students. Sadly, our education Oscars live event will not take place this year, but we plan to announce the winners on Wednesday 10 June, with a big social media celebration.

Nomination deadline extended for Student Choice Awards: in light of recent events nominations for the Student Choice Awards will extended to Wednesday 8 April, and students will have the opportunity to specifically thank staff members who have helped them during this turbulent period. Your support with promoting these awards amongst your students is much needed and appreciated.

UCL ChangeMakers 

The team continue to support:

• project teams with queries about working in the new circumstances
• prospective applicants with questions about any aspect of a project.

Departments are encouraged to apply for a project. Further information on funding will be available shortly. 

UCL Arena Centre Events 

Unfortunately, all events are cancelled until Friday 24 April.

The team will continue to provide support for UCL Arena and Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellowships and host professional development events online from term 3. For any queries, please contact arenacentre@ucl.ac.uk 

Activities that are cancelled or postponed

• UCL Education Conference
• UCL Global Citizenship Programme
• Internal Quality Reviews (IQRs) 
• Student Evaluation Questionnaires (SEQ's) 
• Student Experience Survey (SES)
• UCL BAME Conference 

UCL Education Conference 

The 2020 Education Conference due to take place on 19 May has been cancelled. We expect to resume the conference in 2021.
If you have submitted an abstract, we have contacted you directly with the option to defer your submission next year's programme.

Threshold Concepts conference has been postponed until 7-9 July 2021.  All presenters have been notified and accepted submissions will be carried over. The organisers will call for further submissions in the autumn.

APT (Academic Practice and Technology) is still planned for Monday 6 July. The Call for Papers closes on 27 April.

Global Citizenship Programme

The remainder of this year's Global Citizenship Programme events have been cancelled. Registered students have been alerted.
A review of the programme was already planned to take place in the next academic year, with a view to relaunching a revised co-curricular offer in the 2021/22 session.

Internal Quality Reviews (IQRs) 

All Internal Quality Reviews (IQRs) of academic departments have been postponed until further notice. At present the intention is that these reviews will take place in the summer term, using a desk-based or virtual method which will obviate the need for face-to-face meetings. Departments are asked to continue to work on their self-evaluative statements and supporting documentation where possible, and to send this to IQR Secretaries when it is complete. It is anticipated that External Subject Experts will still be asked to complete their reports. Further information about the new method will follow in due course.

Student Evaluation Questionnaires (SEQs) for Term Two modules 

The Exams and Assessments Contingency Panel has suspended the requirement for Student Evaluation Questionnaires for Term Two. Departments are welcome to continue with SEQs if you have capacity. Departments participating in the Harmonising Module Evaluations pilot are warmly encouraged to continue.

Student Experience Survey (SES) 2020 

The SES has previously been valuable in gathering feedback from penultimate-year undergraduates, but this year’s cancellation will allow departments to focus on critical actions such as moving teaching online and adjustments to assessments.

UCL BAME Conference 2020

This conference, scheduled for Thursday 07 May has been postponed. We will look to reschedule in 2021. If you registered, you will have received communication directly from the organising team.