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The New Student Partnership Committees (SPCs) - Everything you need to know

22 October 2024

A message from SU Education Officer, Shaban Chaudhary, and Pro-Vice-Provost Education (Student Academic Engagement), Professor Kathryn Woods, about the new Student Partnership Committees (SPCs). 

A group of people sitting around a conference table

We are now taking a new and exciting approach to our student partnership committees, including rebranding Staff Student Consultative Committees (SSCCs) as Student Partnership Committees (SPCs). 

UCL and the Student’s Union have developed new Student Partnership Committee Principles that will contribute to our excellence in education.

The Student Partnership Principles are available on the Committees and representatives webpage

This approach encourages a stronger partnership between departments and their elected student representatives and aligns with ongoing work at UCL to increase the importance of the student voice across education and student experience governance.

Any departments still to inform the SU of their student academic representatives are urged to please submit their names and details to the SU website as soon as possible.  

What's changing?

SPCs will provide a space for continuous open dialogue between students and staff. They will continue to act as a forum to discuss student concerns but will move away from a consultative approach and work towards a collaborative, partnership approach with the aim to implement change.  

A new UCL-wide Student Partnership Committee, reporting to the Education Committee, will have oversight of the departmental SPCs and consider key matters arising from them. 

We aim to support SPC Chairs and Secretaries in facilitating constructive SPC meetings. Further information on running SPCs is provided in the Academic Manual under SPC Meetings and Terms of Reference and guidance on effective Staff Student partnership.  

A few things to know about SPCs 

  • SPCs remain part of our local education and student experience governance. 
  • Departments may hold more than one SPC should they choose, for example, there could be a split between UG and PGT students. There should also be provision for PGR students, either as part of the same SPC, or a separate one specific to their programmes. 
  • 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.
  • The student representatives will also need to elect or nominate a Lead Departmental Representative who will Co-Chair the SPC and represent it in the wider Faculty.   
  • The SU will continue to produce the ‘Student Priorities for Education’ report based on feedback from SPC student representatives. This supports UCL to continuously improve the student academic experience.

Tips to run effective SPC meetings 

  • It is recommended that SPCs meet three time a year, but there is no cap on how many meetings a year you can hold. 
  • UG SPCs should always meet in term time.
  • PG SPCs should meet across the course of the programme.  
  • Meetings can be held in person or online. 
  • It is important that SPCs are co-chaired by an academic in the department and the student Lead Department Representative. 
  • Pre-meetings between the co-chairs are recommended to agree the agenda, how the meeting will be run and discuss any concerns raised by the Student Reps. 
  • Co-Chairs can create a positive environment in SPC meetings by facilitating introductions and explaining how the SPCs ‘work’ in the first meeting. 
  • At the first meeting, co-chairs may wish to provide a summary of some of the key achievements of the former SSCC in previous years.

Information for co-chairs and secretaries 

  • Information on elections and elected reps is available on the SU Webpages
  • The SU has also produced useful Resources for Staff.  
  • SPC agenda and minute templates should help the committees formulate their business and report on discussions. 
  • SPC Secretaries are added to the SPC Staff Community Teams page to help support the committees. The academic Chairs are welcome to join too for the latest news on SPCs and student representation.  
  • SPC minutes should be produced within two weeks of meetings, forwarded to members and uploaded to the SPC Minutes Channel (on the SPC Staff Community Teams site), which will be available soon. 
  • Secretaries are asked to include the name of their department and date in the title of their meeting minutes to aid administration. 
  • SPC actions and minutes should be distributed to the Department Education Committee and other department meetings as appropriate.  
  • A permanent record of SPC meeting agendas and minutes should be kept and made available to members of staff and students within the department. 

How to escalate actions 

  • If there are issues raised by students in SPC meetings that cannot be resolved by the department, you should escalate the action to the Faculty Education Committee Chair. 
  • If there are issues raised by students that cannot be addressed by the Faculty Education Committee, you should escalate this to the Chair of the UCL Student Partnership Committee (contact the SPC Secretary, Rob Traynor in the first instance – r.traynor@ucl.ac.uk). 
  • SPCs should always be informed of the outcomes of these escalations.

Sessions to support this transition

UCL Higher Education Development and Support Institute (HEDS) are running two sessions for academic Co-Chairs: Supporting the Transition from SSCC to SPC: Staff Chairs guidance in October and November.

Please send any queries you may have on student representatives, including training to: reps@ucl.ac.uk.

Queries on SPCs may be raised on the SPC Teams pages or on SPC regulations to: apqs@ucl.ac.uk.

Thank you in advance for facilitating the important work of the SPCs. 

 

Shaban Chaudhury, Education Officer, Students’ Union UCL 
Professor Kathryn Woods, Pro-Vice-Provost Education (Student Academic Engagement), UCL

Co-Chairs of the UCL Student Partnership Committee