Learning Community Fora

The purposes of the Learning Community Forum (LCF) are to:

• To ensure that the feedback and concerns of students about their courses of study are represented to the academic staff throughout the academic year;
• To ensure that the views of students are given proper weight in the processes of course and module review;
• To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information between the student body and the School in relation to their education and non-academic welfare. 

General

• A Learning Community Forum (LCF) must meet at least three times in a 12-month period, with at least one meeting in the cohort’s first term.
• Each school, department or division should follow the terms of reference and LCF meeting good practice guide for guidance on the composition of its LCF.
• Student representatives are responsible for effectively collecting feedback from their fellow students, representing their views at meetings, and disseminating feedback from the meetings. Schools, departments and divisions should help to facilitate this by providing a mechanism for student representatives to email or contact in some other way their fellow students.

• The relevant representatives of the staff must attend every meeting and all course representatives and relevant Education or PGT/PGR Faculty Rep should receive an invitation; For a full recommended membership list, see the constitution from the terms of reference. 
• The school, department or division should display the names and contact details of the representatives on the LCF, reports of LCF meetings, external examiner reports and school responses to those reports on an appropriate forum that is clear and readily available to students (such as Moodle).

Agendas, reports and action points

• There should be a simple mechanism for both staff and students to have items placed on the agenda for discussion.
• All meetings must have a meeting report, clearly indicating agreed action points and who is responsible for carrying them out.
• Each agenda must include a report on any previously agreed action points.
• LCF minutes must be taken into consideration in the school's monitoring processes.
• It is not expected that every action requested by student representatives will be implemented, but it is expected that they should be given proper consideration and the grounds for non-implementation should be explained.

For more information, please consult the following:

• LCF terms of reference
• LCF good practice guide
• LCF agenda template
• LCF meeting report template

The online Learning Community Forum (hosted on Moodle) supports the collaboration of staff and students in discussing teaching and learning matters. Any issues raised in this area can then be fed into the regular Learning Community Fora (LCF) meetings held in each school.

To access the Moodle area, please use the following (entering your University username and password when prompted):

Learning Community Forum (LCF) - Moodle