The Department is keen to know the views of its students. There are two main mechanisms for formal student representation in Department policy-making: The Staff-Student Liaison Committee and the Graduate School Liaison Committee (see below).
This Committee provides a forum for elected representatives of both students and academic staff to discuss problems that arise in the Department: policy, improvements and so on. It is an important committee, with elections to it of two students from each undergraduate year, one taught postgraduate student and one research student. A nomination form will be given to each student at the start of the academic year. Please do not be bashful in nominating yourself or a friend to stand in elections and make sure you use your vote. A list of student representatives will be posted on the History Common Room notice board, as are minutes of each meeting. Students wishing to leave a message for their student representative should place the message in the Student Representatives pigeonhole, in the History Common Room. SSLC minutes can be found on the student reps page.
The Liaison Committee reports to the Board of the School on matters of student interest and concern. It aims to strengthen the link between student representation at departmental level and student representation on the Board. The Committee is chaired by the Dean of the School with the School’s administrator in attendance. Membership consists of the five elected student representatives and the student convenor (who also form the Students’ Union Postgraduate Committee), and a graduate student member of each Department and Centre; wherever possible, members should also be members of their own departmental Staff/Student Liaison Committee. The Committee meets at least once each term.
One representative from each of the three undergraduate years and the two postgraduate students, chosen from members of the Staff/Student Liaison Committee, attend the Departmental meetings (normally twice a term).
In addition to the formal student representation described above, and the student assessment of courses, the Department always welcomes the views of its students - both positive and negative - on all aspects of their academic experience. Do feel free to see either the Undergraduate Director, Graduate Director or the Head of Department during their consultation hours, if there are matters you wish to discuss. During the later weeks of some modules you will be given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire. We encourage departing students to provide either verbal or written feedback on their time at Essex.
The National Student Survey (hereafter NSS) is a national survey of student experience completed by U.K. undergraduates in the Spring Term of the final year of their degree at university. The Student Satisfaction Survey (hereafter SSS) is a University of Essex-produced version of the NSS, normally completed online during the Spring Term of each academic year by first- and second-year students. The SSS is a slightly longer version of the NSS and allows students to make written comments on their experience in a ‘free text’ section: some of these comments are included in the attached Report on the NSS/SSS results (2011-12). Reports from previous years can be found here.
The Directors of the MA schemes (for taught postgraduates) or the individual Supervisor (for research students) are available to discuss problems with you, as are Module Tutors. The Graduate Director and Graduate Assistant are also happy to help.