The Board of Studies (BoS) for the program "MSc Geomatics" was established on 2023-01-01 as a separate and independent board of studies at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (A+BE).
Before 2023-01-01, there were 2 members from the MSc Geomatics (one teacher and one student) in the BoS of the Faculty A+BE. This BoS covered 5 different programmes (at both the BSc and MSc levels, on different topics, and having different teaching languages (Dutch and English)). The general feeling was that since the program MSc Geomatics is somewhat different from the other ones, a specific BoS that would address the specificities of the program would be better for ensuring that the quality of the education stays high.
We therefore present the activities and advices we gave during the period 2023-01-01 to 2023-08-30.
- Hugo Ledoux (chair, teacher)
- Clara García-Sánchez (teacher)
- Martijn Meijers (teacher)
- Azarakhsh Rafiee (teacher)
- Dimitrios Mantas (chair, student)
- Carolin Bachert (student)
- Oliver Post (student)
- Siebren Meines (student)
- Martine de Jong-Lansbergen (secretary)
- Mirjam Albertz-Paalvast (A+BE educational advisor, quality of education)
- Bastiaan van Loenen (Director of Studies MSc Geomatics)
The BoS made a webpage on the MSc Geomatics Brightspace (an intranet for staff and students) listing the members and the tasks of the BoS.
We discussed in several meetings that several students are struggling with IT-skills (programming, accessing servers, using complex libraries, etc) and discussed how to improve this. On 2023-02-21 we discussed an IT-competence plan and looked into the possibility to add a course introducing these skills into the programme.
While it was judged important, adding a new mandatory course to an already full programme was deemed too complex and the solution of teaching those skills in a special 2-day course was proposed and accepted by the Director of Studies.
This resulted in the so-called "geogeeks workshop" (https://tudelft3d.github.io/geogeeks/) that was held on 13-14 November 2023 for the new students, all normal education was cancelled during those days. Several teachers and staff from the faculty joined effort to prepare the material and supervise the workshops.
The fact that MSc Geomatics students can take several courses outside the A+BE faculty has brought some confusion to students: what course can they take? When? Etc.
This has been discussed and reported to the Director of Studies, and better information, on the Brightspace intranet, for the electives and the JIP-project have been added.
We also discussed the entry requirements regarding programming (this discussion was also added as a topic in the coming education visitation in May 2024), and we tried to improve the communication to potential future students about this by sending extra emails.
During our first year, the BoS did not invite the A+BE Director of Education (MaartenJan Hoekstra) to attend one or two of our meetings, but we will do so during the 2024 period. We would like to discuss with him the alignment of electives with other A+BE MSc programmes.
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The Boards of Studies produce a concise annual report describing the advice and areas for improvement they have given in the past year. The reports are made available to the relevant deans, Directors of Education, the Directors of Studies and the Heads of Education and Student Affairs. The programme management makes the reports available to any audit committees visiting in the context of a reaccreditation.
The Board of Studies is the formal advisory body to the Director of Studies in relation to the quality of education in the relevant programme.
The Boards of Studies have the statutory task of advising on ways of promoting and safeguarding the quality of their degree programmes. The Boards of Studies focus on all education-related matters on their programme and advise the Director of Studies and/or dean on education and on how this is carried out. They advise, for example, on how the final attainment levels are described, or on how their programme final attainment levels are operationalised in learning pathways (programmes) and learning objectives (courses), on the cohesiveness of learning pathways, or on clear descriptions of courses. Other examples include giving advice on proposals for plans of action in the wake of National Student Survey findings, on communicating with students on education-related matters, on internationalisation policies, etc.
The focus of the Boards of Studies lies at the programme and learning path levels. To this end, the Boards of Studies use the information from the faculty quality assurance system and elsewhere. The evaluations of courses are used for indications about the quality of education on programmes and learning paths.
