EECS Student Handbook 2023/24

Your views are important to the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science and Queen Mary. There are a variety of ways in which you can tell us what you think and share your ideas for improvement. Student representatives who are elected by students also speak on behalf of the student body at School, Faculty and QM-wide level via various committees, groups and meetings.

The SSLCs provide a channel for students to air their views on all aspects of the modules and facilities run by the School.  The committee includes key members of staff involved in teaching, representatives of the systems and administrative staff, the subject librarian, and representatives for each year group. The SSLCs meet formally twice per semester. Feedback from the committees is valuable in the improvement of teaching in the School, and students are encouraged to contribute wherever possible.

The SSLC student representatives are elected by their peers. Early in the first semester, students will be asked to volunteer, or to nominate other students to stand.  An election is then held for students who consent to stand. All students are encouraged to vote for the representatives for their student group.

Although individual students are free to discuss any issue with members of staff, they may choose to channel such feedback through their SSLC representatives, especially if the issue is of widespread interest or concern to many students. Student representatives are thus active throughout the year, not just at the SSLC meetings. If an issue requires immediate discussion, rather than waiting until the next SSLC meeting, students and/or student representatives should approach their tutor or the Senior Tutor in the first instance.

Details of the SSLC representatives and minutes of SSLC meetings will be available on the School Intranet.

For each module, students will be asked to fill in an anonymous online module feedback questionnaire, which solicits feedback on the delivery, content, workload and support of the module. This data is analysed and studied by module organisers, and passed to College for quality assurance monitoring.

Towards the end of each module you will be sent an email that contains a link to an online form for each of your registered modules.

NOTE: All student feedback is given anonymously.

All final-year undergraduate students at UK institutions take part in the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS is a nationally recognised annual survey of mostly final-year undergraduates in the UK. The survey gives you an opportunity to give your opinions on what you liked about your time at Queen Mary as well as things that you feel could have been improved.

If you are a finalist, you will usually be contacted by email early in the spring term. Please do complete the NSS, and fill it in honestly.

The NSS results are made publicly available to help prospective students make informed decisions of where and what to study. QMUL and the Students’ Union will also use the data to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses to help effect change and bring about enhancements to improve the student experience for future generations of students. Data from previous surveys are available on Unistats. http://my.qmul.ac.uk/surveys/

This undergraduate survey is completed by students returning to QMUL at the beginning of an academic year, and asks you to reflect on the previous year at QMUL. It gives you the opportunity to tell us your thoughts in order to help us make the changes that you need. http://my.qmul.ac.uk/qmss/

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is conducted every year. It gives you, as a postgraduate taught student, an opportunity to give your opinions on what you like about your time at QMUL, as well as those aspects that you feel could be improved. Please do consider completing the survey; your feedback really is invaluable and will help us make a difference for future generations of QMUL students. http://my.qmul.ac.uk/surveys/postgrads/