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Strictly Private and Confidential
SCHOOL OF CLINICAL SCIENCES AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
POSTGRADUATE STUDIES COMMITTEE
Minutes
Meeting held on Tuesday 9 October 2007 at 10.30 am in The Boardroom, Second
Floor, The Chancellor’s Building.
Present: Prof C Gregory (in the Chair), Dr N Anderson, Prof P Saunders, Prof J
Ross, Mrs A Scott
Apologies: Prof S Hillier
OPEN BUSINESS
1. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received.
2. Minutes
The minutes of the last meeting held on 5 June 2007 were approved.
The Convenor welcomed Dr Anderson who would now act as the representative for
the Centre for Public Health and Primary Care Research
3. Matters Arising (not covered elsewhere)
No issues arose.
4. Membership
The Committee was informed that M Jobling, CRB would act as student
representative.
5. EUCLID
As of 3 December Postgraduate admissions would go live on the website. Members
were directed to the website for further information:. http://www.euclid.ed.ac.uk/ .
Discussion was now taking place on including postgraduate student assessment as
part of the EUCLID project.
6. English language competence testing (doc3)
The Committee agreed that the requirement to provide evidence of satisfactory
english language tests from non-English speaking students could be waived only in
exceptional cases.
7. CMVM Staff Scholarship Scheme
The Committee noted that the number of staff scholarships available in 2007-08
would be dependent on sufficient funding in the College budget. It was not thought
that this would cause any issues as many staff had already undertaken PhDs, or had
been awarded grant scholarships that funded higher degrees. Also, for some junior
academic staff or senior technicians who might be interested in this scheme, short
term contracts precluded applying for a long term programme of study. The School
Administrator agreed to find figures on how many staff in the School applied for staff
scholarships as the Committee did not want any eligible members of staff to be
prevented from undertaking a higher degree. It was stressed that line managers had to
be fully supportive of those undertaking part-time study.
8. Plagiarism
As an external examiner the Convenor had noticed several incidents of plagiarism
whilst reviewing PhD theses. The University was very clear that plagiarism was
unacceptable but there was the concern that it could be down to not correctly citing
references. Guidelins on this could be found within the postgraduate handbook given
to all students.
It was noted that the MRC ran courses specifically for new postgraduate supervisors
and information on these was requested to see if possible to also hold such training
within the College.
9. Date of next meeting
The next meeting would be held on 18 March 2008 at 10.30am in the Boardroom,
Chancellor’s Building, Little France.
10. PHS MSc programme
The Committee was informed that the College PGSC and Senatus were aware of the
issue of postgraduate students within the School of Health in Social Science
undertaking collaborative modules within PHS, but being charged the reduced rate for
an MSc course as it was within CHSS. It was possible that prospective students were
more attracted to an MSc course in CHSS due to the lesser fee, to the detriment of
numbers applying for the PHS MSc programme. It was further reported that teaching
and support staff in PHS were having to deal with these increased students, but did
not have any extra resources to help.
The Convenor requested further information on this which he would report to the next
College PGSC.