Agenda item

Report of the Principal.

Governors considered the 2016/17 Academic Board Annual Report of the Principal and the following matters were raised:-

·           The Chairman of the Academic Assurance Working Group said that the Group had met at the end of October to review the annual report and had made a number of recommendations for future reporting to the Board of Governors on the continuous improvement of the student academic experience; standards of awards (particularly concerning potential ‘grade inflation’); and  the research environment as set out in its report in item 9 on the agenda.

·         On behalf of the Principal, and in response to a question from a Governor, it was confirmed that there had been measurable improvements in Technical Theatre in NSS scores concerning assessment. Action had been taken in respect of academic conventions with the ‘Chicago’ referencing method being promoted as the School standard.  Further work was being undertaken in respect of the area of concern regarding a lack of clarity and consistency in the relationship between language of assessment criteria and feedback. This included the piloting of a banded pass / fail mark, with an emphasis on more context in written feedback, to see if this improved the student experience in respect of assessment. 

·         A Governor raised the matter of the report requiring a more ‘even handed’ description of Brexit which may potentially offer improved outcomes (para 2.4). With regard to this point, and on behalf of the Principal, it was noted that Brexit raised considerable uncertainty for the School with the future fees regime likely to have a significant impact on student enrolments

RECEIVED.