Life Sciences Teaching Review proposals approved

The Science Studies Committee has approved the recommendations of the Life Sciences Teaching Review, after initially rejecting them last week. The committee were satisfied that the department had addressed their concerns and that “its requirements for the academic quality of degree programmes had been met”.

One of the areas of concern that the committee raised was the appointment of a new Director of Undergraduate Studies (DoUGS) to take the proposals forward. The need to appoint a DoUGS, after redundancies from the Life Sciences Restructure, was ‘urgent’. Other areas of concern included the 3rd year course options available and the possibility of over-subscribed lab courses.

The Chair of the Committee, Professor Richard Thompson, said that the department had now appointed a new DoUG and that if lab courses were heavily over-subscribed, the department had confirmed that “it would double up lab sessions for those courses”. He said that the Committee was “pleased” the department had improved “several aspects of the structure and teaching of its courses” but noted that it would be “challenging to implement all the changes” before the next academic year.