Department of Materials Academic Committee (DMAC)

Contact |Terms of Reference | Minutes of Meetings


Contact Information

  • Enquiries should initially be directed to the committee secretary Philippa Moss.
  • The Department of Materials uses maillists to contact all members of the committee. The maillist for this committee is dmac@materials.ox.ac.uk. For a full description of the maillist and how to use it please read the further information about maillists

Department of Materials Academic Committee : Terms of Reference

Membership

Membership of the committee shall consist of:

  1. Ex Officio the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Chair)
  2. Ex Officio the Chair of the Faculty
  3. Ex Officio the Chair of Tutors' Committee or nominated deputy
  4. Ex Officio the Part II Project Organiser
  5. Ex Officio the Practical Class Organiser
  6. Ex Officio the Head of Department or nominated deputy
  7. One member of staff directly elected by and from the Faculty of Materials
  8. Up to four members to be co-opted by the committee from the members of the Faculty of Materials to make up the total number of members to seven (this is necessary if one or more of the ex officio roles is held by the same person)
  9. Not more than two additional members to be co-opted by the committee from the members of the Faculty of Materials

In Attendance

The student Chair of JCCU attends one meeting each term, usually the first, the exception being the JCCU Chair in MT who attends the second meeting of term, in order to raise with the Committee any issues that they think relevant.

The Education Manager is the Secretary to the Committee

Notes

  • Nominations Committee as sub-committee of 2 or 3 (ex-officio Director of Undergraduate Studies, Head of Department and Chair of Faculty).
  • Any other individual, including those from other departments or Faculties, may be invited to attend for a single meeting or series of meetings at the discretion of the committee for consideration of particular matters.
  • Except for ex officio members, the period of service shall normally be three years and the total period of continuous service shall not normally exceed six years. Members may be re-appointed or re-co-opted but in order to provide continuity, wherever possible periods of service will be arranged so that no more than half the members of the committee change in any one year.
  • Membership will normally start from 1 October.
  • In the absence of the Chair, a person nominated by them shall be the chair of the committee, failing this, a member of the committee elected by it for the occasion shall serve as chair.
  • The Education Manager shall serve as secretary to the committee.
  • Four members of the committee (excluding members co-opted under rule 9 above) shall be necessary to constitute a quorum.
  • The committee shall normally meet at least once during each full term, normally at a regular time and week of term as shall be determined by the committee, and at any such other times as may be considered necessary.
  • The agenda of meetings will be circulated to the Faculty in advance of those meetings. Confirmed minutes of meetings will be circulated to the Faculty. Circulation will be via the Department website.
  • All matters that require changes to Examination Decrees and Regulations shall be submitted to the Faculty for approval.
  • If a proposal of the Academic Committee is opposed by six or more members of the Faculty, then a postal ballot of the entire Faculty will occur. If the postal ballot goes against the Academic Committee then the proposal will be returned to the Academic Committee for modification.

Functions of the Committee

The Faculty delegates to the Academic Committee all academic matters that do not require changes to Examination Decrees and Regulations, including the provision and delivery of teaching in all its forms and at all levels, and the recruitment, admission and induction of undergraduate students. The Academic Committee shall inform the Faculty of all its decisions on these matters.

The functions of the Departmental Academic Committee shall include in particular:

  1. definition of the educational objectives of the Department at undergraduate level;
  2. development, implementation and review of strategies for meeting those objectives;
  3. keeping the quality of teaching and learning at undergraduate level in the Department under review at all times;
  4. responding to, and liaising with, bodies external to the Department concerned with teaching and learning matters, (e.g. accreditation and external Quality Assurance audits of teaching performance at undergraduate level)
  5. advising the Department about the resourcing requirements and implications of teaching and learning needs;
  6. developing, implementing and overseeing strategies for enhancing recruitment of high quality undergraduate students;
  7. overview and maintenance of student records;
  8. overview of the General Scheme of Lectures each year, and Lecture Lists each term;
  9. general overview of course publications including course handbooks, promotional literature, and entries on teaching matters into University publications;
  10. annual review of the FHS and Prelims Examination Conventions, in consultation with the Chairs of Examiners and Moderators respectively.

Minutes of Meetings

Minutes of the more recent meetings of DMAC are available on WebLearn. They are published here after being confirmed by the Committee as a true record.

These minutes are only accessible to members of the Department of Materials via SharePoint.