Departmental Committee (DC)

Terms of Reference |FunctionsMinutes of Meetings


Contact Information


Departmental Committee : Terms of Reference

Membership

Ex Officio Members

Chair: Head(s) of Department

Deputy Head of Department

Associate Heads of Department

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Director of Graduate Studies

Head of Administration and Finance

Communications Manager (Communications representative, and Committee Secretary).

 

Members 

Representatives of permanent academic staff (two individuals selected by the academic staff, who each normally serve a maximum term of two years).

Independent Researcher/Departmental Lecturer (one individual, selected by the group of independent researchers/departmental lecturers.

Postdoctoral researcher (to be selected by MPAC and serve for their term of office on MPAC, normally for a maximum of two years).

Representatives of the professional, technical and administrative support staff (two, who each normally serve a maximum of two years; one from the technical and facilities staff and one from the administration staff).  To be selected by self-nomination and to be one each from internal technical staff/administration staff by election if there is more than one candidate per category.  In the event no self-nominations are received for either or both category, the Heads of Department/Head of Administration and Finance will discuss to seek to identify (a) suitable individual(s).

A representative of the JCCG selected by that committee.

A representative of the JCCU selected by that committee.

 

Scroll to the bottom of this page to view the current list of individuals occupying these roles on the Committee.

 

Co-opted Members 
The Committee shall have the power to co-opt (for a period of one year or shorter, as determined by the Committee) not more than two additional members from the sub-faculty of the Department of Materials, or such other member of staff as is appropriate to reflect a particular need.

 

Quorum

To be considered quorate, each meeting must consist of at least four people drawn from the following:

  • the Head(s) of Department (or if unavailable, a member of the department's Senior Management Team (SMT) to perform the function of Chair);
  • one additional member of the SMT (in addition to any SMT member Chairing in the absence of the Head(s) of Department;
  • one additional academic, departmental lecturer or independent research Fellow; and 
  • one member of professional, technical and administrative support staff.

(At least one student representative and one postdoctoral researcher is desireable, but not essential, in view of the assessment and deadline demands at various times of the year).

 

Functions of the Committee

The primary function of DC is to advise the Head(s) of Department and SMT on all matters affecting the department, with particular reference to:

  • monitoring and advising on the current financial status of the department, and performance against budget and forecasts;
  • to monitor and advise on the allocation of resources and the provision of space for all research, teaching and support activities;
  • to monitor and advise on the internal and external communications activities of the department;
  • to monitor and advise on the safety and security of the department;
  • to monitor and advise on IT provision;
  • to monitor and advise on implementing the strategic vision of the department as devised by the Head(s) of Department and the once-a-term Academic Staff Meetings (ASC);
  • to review the minutes of all the subsidiary committees (namely Alumni Committee, Communications and IT, Department Safety and Security, Equality and Diversity, and the Industrial Advisory Panel), seeking areas of commonality and tensioning conflicting demands.  DC will advise where executive action is required.

DC aims to take a high-level overview of the activities within the department to ensure co-ordination between initiatives and to alert the Head(s) of Department and SMT where executive action needs to be taken.

The Chair will be able to use its discretion to reserve any items of business for a reserved sub-meeting, which will exclude the JCCU and JCCG representatives.

Matters associated with curriculum, teaching and training will normally be considered by DMAC, referring to a Faculty meeting where appropriate.

 

Frequency

Two meetings a term; held at 2pm during the Mondays of Week 4 and Week 8.

 

Notes

Others in Attendance: any other individual may be invited to attend for a single DC meeting or series of DC meetings at the discretion of the Committee.

Continuity: Non-ex officio members can be re-elected and re co-opted, but the total period of continuous service should not exceed four years.  In order to provide continuity, periods of office shall, wherever possible, be arranged so that no more than six members of the Committee change in any single academic year.

Election of members: where members are elected, elections for forthcoming vacancies should take place as soon as is practically possible.  Members whose situations change during their term of office (such as taking maternity/paternity leave or dealing with caring duties) will not be obliged to continue their membership to the end of their two year term, and elections will take place as soon as practically possible from the Head(s) of Department's receipt of their intention to resign.


Minutes of Meetings

The archive of committee papers are stored in SharePoint Online and are currently accessible by serving members of the Committee only.  From Michaelmas Term 2021 the minutes are available to staff and students, also through SharePoint online.  Email communications@materials.ox.ac.uk if you experience any problems accessing the minutes. 

 

Current Committee Members:

Professor Hazel Assender (Chair)

Professor Chris Grovenor (Associate Head of Department)

Professor James Marrow (Deputy Head of Department and Director of Undergraduate Studies)

Professor Jason Smith (Associate Head of Department)

Dr Adrian Taylor (Director of Graduate Studies)

Dr Fernanda Haswell-Martin (Head of Administration and Finance)

Lorraine Laird (she/her) (Committee Secretary, and the Communications representative)

Professor Sergio Lozano-Perez (permanent academic staff representative TT21-TT23)

Professor Angus Kirkland (permanent academic staff representative MT22-TT24)

Vacant  (Administrative representative TT23-TT25)

Dr Colin Johnston (Technical representative MT22-TT24)

Dr Barbara Maciejewska (Postdoc representative)

Emily Milan (JCCG representative)

Q Sun (JCCU representative)

 

One of the following per meeting, as the DL/Senior Fellow representative (to be decided on a meeting-by-meeting basis):

 

Dr Jicheng GongDr Robert HouseDr Anna KareerDr Judy KimDr Enzo Liotti and Dr Chris Patrick.