At Edinburgh we recently reviewed our approach.  My colleague, who is full-time, is the secretary of the committee and provides advice and guidance.  He also has other responsibilities (appeals etc).  We don't have responsibility for the complaint process.  There are two others in my team (including me) who can advise on cases and provide committee support if need be.  It is a much smaller proportion of our time.  We also have a devolved system of conduct investigators and student discipline officers, in addition to the student discipline committee members.  Details can be found online.  Again, the staff involved do this as a part of their role.  Complex cases can suck up a very significant amount of time.  We are in the process of doubling the size of our SDC pool of members so we can spread the load, and the expertise.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/staff/discipline/code-discipline 



Sara



Sara Welham

Head, Governance and Regulatory Framework Team, Academic Services

The University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, SCOTLAND

Tel: 0131 650 2140, [log in to unmask] 

www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services 



The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. 





-----Original Message-----

From: Student Discipline Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ceri Benton

Sent: 10 September 2014 14:36

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Staff involved in student discipline



I would be very interested to hear from list members who are willing to share information on the number (FTE) and type of centrally based staff involved in dealing with student disciplinary matters (and in dealing with student complaints if that falls within your remit).



To start the ball rolling, here at the University of Cambridge we have a very formal disciplinary structure based on the judicial system. The Court of Discipline is the main body deciding on student disciplinary cases. The Court considers charges brought by a University Advocate, normally a member of the Law Faculty who deals on a part-time basis with referrals of complaints from members of the University (e.g. Examiners and the Proctors). Students usually choose to have legal representation from a member of the Law Faculty. The Clerks to the Courts are drawn from among the staff of the Registrary's Office who are available. The provisions of the University's Statutes and Ordinances deal only with the formal structure, so there is another level of informal practices that have evolved in individual departments for dealing with matters that are less serious. Adding up the time spent by the University Advocate, legal representatives and Clerks of the Court, there are probably at most 2 FTE dealing centrally with student disciplinary matters, none of them full-time (not including members of the Court drawn from across the University, nor College Tutors who support their students). The Education side of the University's central administration has no formal involvement in dealing with individual disciplinary cases, although it does deal with student complaints. So, in short, we think we are overdue for a review...



Many thanks



Ceri Benton

Registrary's Office

University of Cambridge