management board meetings

[meerkeks]

Are every half year or year or so, and the want YOU to participate. Aka you have to find two to four students willing to go there, sit around a lot and remind them that students think in strange ways. Don't complain all the time, but constructive criticism is appreciated.

Reminder: Whoever goes there is the communication toll between students and management. That means that you not only take your complaints there, but tell your colleagues afterwards about what has been going on. Email has been invented.

As a start: here is the student-version-sum-up of the management meeting in Ronse, Belgium, 2011:
Covered topics, in order, were (amongst others):
1: Overview of changes in universities comparing to the last meeting (Algarve).
2: Evaluation of first year universities survey: results (preliminary)
3: Feedback carried out by students on Saturday morning in Ronse
4: Summerschool update Ireland
5: Update on students for next academic year (remember, changes you effect will affect them!)
6: Evaluation thesis procedure

Infos we noted down, equally in order:
to 1: Algarve now offers two diving courses, beginner and intermediate, plus two more optional courses (e.g. marine mammals); for 2012/2013 they will need to restructure all the courses away from the block system which will result in 6 ECTS courses instead of 5 ECTS courses aka. Course reduction for students! (in case you want to recommend the master)
Klaipeda now offers five additional courses, of which two were well received (internship and marine spatial planning) and they plan to increase the amount of practical work
France has reorganised its courses so that now students are free from january onwards (more time for thesis!); there is an issue with insurance during labwork
Spain: one teacher has left completely whose courses will not be substituted, one of whhc is bioindicators. Their courses are resorted, so that rarely chosen courses are after christmas. In general, students should be free by then.
Bremen: has scored two guest lectureres, which resulted in additional courses, which resulted in a stuffed schedule and exam-stress.
Ghent: lots of guest lecturers, no particular changes.

to 2: please everybody fill in the evaluation, they only have about half of the students
Portugal is aware of the MPEG PBAG problem and working on that, but they need your feedback to have actual data and arguments n stuff. Please go there.
Ghent housing situation: new student papartments are being build, the situation should thus improve.

To 3: Evaluation of the morning: They are working on things, please be patient, it just takes forever to implement. Also some things (framework of the master, scholarships) are not within the possibilities of the management board to change as the power and responsibility lies with other institutions. We can only keep suggesting.

To 4: You actually get a research vessel + 12h of sampling!! (bring anti-seasickness drugs)
also: excursions are planned, info will be tuesday evening at 20:00

to 5: lots of new students coming, particularly from inside of europe with is a strong plus for EMBC in the general competition! Yay! Numbers, so far: 12 in bremen, 17 in Ghent and 18 in Algarve. Apllication processing is not yet finished though.

To 6: Thesis evaluations are done by discussion, not by averaging the marks, unless one of the readers/examiners is not present, then they are asked for input via email. The oral mark of this term is your presentation at the thesis-event, EVEN IF YOUR ACTUAL THESIS IS NOT YET FINISHED!!
and that is all (I mean, accreditation is not really exciting for students, right?)