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Common Awards (Theology, Ministry and Mission)
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TEI  Management Committees

Roles and Responsibilities: Terms of Reference

  1. The Management Committee shall meet at least three times each academic year, with at least one meeting in each academic term.

  2. The Management Committee shall:

    1. Monitor the quality and standards of learning and teaching. This shall include consideration of:

      1. programme specifications;
      2. outcomes of module reviews;
      3. external examiners' reports;
      4. student feedback and representation;
      5. selection, admission (including the training of admission selectors) and induction of students;
      6. the quality of learning resources (including staffing resource);
      7. student progression and achievement;
      8. academic support and guidance;
      9. employability and skills development, and the career destinations, of students;
      10. placement learning, both student exchanges and work-based placements (where the TEI provides placement learning opportunities).

    2. Consider and make recommendations to the Management Board on the development of the curriculum of the programmes for which the Committee is responsible.

    3. Ensure that appropriate mechanisms exist to take into account student views on learning, teaching and assessment, relating to undergraduate and postgraduate provision.

    4. Recommend to the Management Board:

      1. the standard entry requirements for the programme(s) for which the Management Committee is responsible;
      2. the appointment of internal and external examiners for the programme(s) for which the Management Committee is responsible.

    5. Provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of good practice in learning, teaching and assessment relating to undergraduate and postgraduate provision, ensuring effective mechanisms are in place to promote the enhancement of educational provision.

    6. Report to the Management Board on the quality and standards of the educational provision for which the Management Committee is responsible.

    7. Consider such other issues as are referred to it by the Management Board.

Membership and Attendance

Recommendations for membership of TEI Management Committee’s should be approved by the TEI's Management Committee and submitted to the Common Awards Team in August using our standard template. See our Templates and Forms page to download this and our Common Awards Calendar for this year’s deadline.

Management Committees: Membership

The membership of a Management Committee shall be:

  1. The Head of the TEI (Chair) or nominee (being a senior member of staff with responsibility for the management of the programmes).

  2. The Programme Director(s) for the programme(s) offered under this agreement.

  3. Other academic staff of the TEI involved in the delivery of the programme(s) offered under this agreement.

  4. At least one student representative from the pre-established student cohorts, identified in advance with agreement from students. (n.1) (n.2)

  5. The University Liaison Officer(s) appointed by the University for the programme(s) for which the Committee is responsible (n.3).

The membership of the Management Committee shall be approved annually by the Management Board.

The TEI in which the Management Committee is based will provide the Secretary to the Management Committee.

The TEI may, if they so choose, set normal quoracy expectations for the Management Committee, provided that those expectations do not prevent the Committee from conducting all the necessary business.

Notes:

[n.1] Student representatives may only attend that part of the Board's discussions that falls outside the reserved area ‘Reserved area’ may be taken to include matters affecting the personal position of named members of staff and students and the admission and academic assessment of individual students. Wherever possible the Chair shall denote in the agenda prior to the meeting those items deemed to be reserved business in accordance with that convention.

[n.2] TEIs, in consultation with their students, will have agreed in advance on the constitution of its student cohorts (for instance, by programme, level of study, centre, or sponsorship). 

[n.3] The University Liaison Officer(s) will be required to attend a minimum of one meeting of the Management Committee per annum.

[n.4] Multi-centre TEIs should ensure that all the centres within the TEI are represented fully on the Management Committee.

Attendance and Quoracy

ULOs attend a minimum of one meeting of the TEI’s Management Committee every year; ULOs may, however, choose to attend more meetings of TEI Management Committee if they wish.

The University representative in attendance is likely to be the University Liaison Officer. However, if the ULO is unable to attend a meeting, another appropriate member of staff may attend; in such cases, it is most likely that the person attending will be a member of the Common Awards Team or the broader Curriculum, Learning and Assessment Service of which the Common Awards Team is a part. ULOs will, however, remain as full members of the TEI Boards of Examiners, regardless of whether they attend specific meetings.

The TEI may, if they so choose, set normal quoracy expectations for the Management Committee, provided that those expectations do not prevent the Committee from conducting all the necessary business. The following guidance is provided to help TEIs set those expectations:

  1. When matters under consideration are specific to a discrete area of activity (e.g. an individual centre in a multi-centre TEI, or a specific academic programme) a staff representative who can confidently discuss such matters should be in attendance;

  2. In multi-centre institutions, TEI Management Committees should not normally make substantive decisions about a specific centre without a representative from that centre being present at the meeting, and that normally representatives from all centres would be needed when substantive decisions were made that affected them all. However, this does not necessarily mean that representatives from all centres would be required at every meeting where decisions would be taken that affected the activity of the TEI;

  3. The number of student representatives will not normally outnumber the number of TEI staff present. However, to avoid situations where high student engagement is inadvertently inhibited, TEIs are encouraged to highlight staff attendance at the Management Committee as a priority;

  4. Meetings can still be considered quorate when student representatives are unable to attend and all other reasonable efforts to elicit student feedback on matters to be discussed have been exhausted;

  5. Deputies to members of the TEI Management Committee can count towards any quorum expectations, provided that the principle outlined in (2) is achieved;

  6. University Liaison Officers do not have to be in attendance for a meeting to be deemed quorate;

  7. If a meeting is deemed inquorate, TEIs might wish to consider:

    • deferring the agenda item for discussion at the next meeting;

    • proceeding with the discussions but deferring the approval of any proposals to the next meeting;

    • scheduling an extraordinary meeting of the Management Committee:

    • seeking views from members who were unable to attend and permitting chair’s action to be taken on behalf of the Management Committee – the outcome of which should be recorded at the next formal meeting of the TEI Management Committee.

TEIs are asked to provide details of their quoracy arrangements on annual basis, alongside their proposed membership for their Management Committee.  See our Common Awards Calendar for the deadline for reporting this.

Reporting

TEI Management Committee reports to Management Board

All TEI Management Committees report to the Management Board. TEIs should aim to send the minutes of their TEI Management Committee to the Common Awards Team within 2 weeks of each meeting of their Management Committee. TEIs are asked to use the template reporting form to highlight any issues arising from TEI Management Committees that it is felt that the Management Board should be made particularly aware of, and/or that require a response from the Management Board. See our Templates and Forms page to download this. A report summarising key matters arising from the meetings of TEI Management Committees is shared at each meeting of the Management Board.

Generally, the majority of issues arising in the minutes of TEI Management Committees can be addressed outside the Management Board (e.g. by the Common Awards Team; in consultation with National Ministry Team or other staff within Durham University; by referral to the TEI Forum). This does not preclude TEIs raising matters with the Management Board, but ensures that issues are appropriately considered and without unnecessary delay until the next scheduled meeting of the Management Board.

Management Board reports to TEI Management Committee

Following each meeting of the Management Board, the Common Awards Team will circulate a report to all TEIs. The report will include:

  • the minutes of the Management Board meeting
  • an overview report summarising key issues that should be noted or actioned by TEI Management Committees

We encourage all TEI Management Committees to include the report from the Management Board on the agenda of their following Management Committee (if time permits), and/or to ensure that any issues of importance are communicated to the relevant members of staff in the TEIs.