The Senior Vice Principal has promised to include student voices in future consultations
Dear Fred and fellow student representatives,
Many thanks for your letter. Let me say at the outset that, as I indicated at Senate, we are committed to a culture of strong partnership working between the University and student representatives.
With regard to the discussions which have just begun about possible mergers of the Schools of Biological Sciences and Geosciences, and LLMVC and DHPA, I am happy to reiterate what was said at Senate, namely that Heads of School, who are leading these discussions, will engage with their School Conveners to agree arrangements that will be put in place for students to be consulted. I can also confirm that the School of Social Science is not involved in any merger discussions.
With regard to the Modern Languages consultation, please be assured that we are listening when you say that you feel important voices have been left out during the consultation, notwithstanding the various mechanisms that were put in place to gather student feedback, including the consultation email address, direct correspondence to myself and other members of the Steering Group, student representation on the Modern Languages Standing Group and several of its subgroups, and a meeting for students in Modern Languages convened by the Dean for Student Support and Experience in January.
We will, however, reflect on your feedback and aim to do more to ensure that in any future consultation students feel that their important voice is fully heard. As part of that, our new Vice-Principal Education, Jo-Anne Murray, would welcome the opportunity to meet with you (perhaps including all the Student Conveners) to gather your thoughts on student representation generally. She will liaise with you directly to arrange that.
I can also confirm that at a joint meeting of the Modern Languages Standing Group and Steering Group this morning (which the LLMVC Convener attended as a member of the Standing Group), it was agreed that there would be student representation on the Implementation Group which we propose to establish to oversee the actions arising from the consultation.
Finally, thank you also for sharing those inspiring testimonials from a joint honours student and a student taking a language course as an elective. As I mentioned at Senate, such opportunities will be available to students into the future.
Best wishes
Karl
Professor Karl Leydecker FRSE
Senior Vice-Principal
