Jane L Phippen, Taught Programmes Manager at the Faculty of Engineering & Design, reflects on her involvement in forming a cross university networking group and hosting the University’s first Taught Programmes Administration Networking Event.
February 28 may have been the last day of the month, but it saw the first Taught Programmes Administration Networking Event hosted by the University of Bath.
During the summer of 2016 the Undergraduate Managers visited the Universities of Birmingham, Exeter and Oxford-Brookes to ascertain if there was any interest in forming a networking group with the aim to share best practices and experiences, create a forum for discussions, understanding different processes and organisational structures. We were enthusiastically welcomed and it did not take long to realise that there was indeed huge interest in this initiative.
Over the next few months we established the common areas for discussion and the event was planned.
On the 28 February we welcomed support staff from the three Universities to a networking event in The Edge. During the course of the day 38 people participated, including our own colleagues from Bath. The day consisted of group discussions and demonstrations of processes around the Curriculum Management Information System (CMIS), BSS Boards, Student notes on SAMIS, exam preparation on Moodle and we saw the iPhone Student Apps that Exeter have developed. The conversations were lively and enjoyed by all and my highlight was to witness the open, animated discussions taking place.
So what is the next step? There is certainly an appetite to continue with this type of engagement, whether it takes place here again at Bath is uncertain; we would like to encourage one of the other Universities to host the event – watch this space!
