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Student Welfare Committee

Student Welfare Committee

Vision:

The Student Welfare Committee seeks to provide support to the educational process to advance the students’ academic and personal abilities. It aims at enabling them to face problems that hinder their academic success or the academic process, with the end of qualifying them professionally upon the national and regional levels.

Mission:

            The Student Welfare Committee abides with the programs set by the University to provide a unique academic environment based on positive interaction among the students and the University, and to help the students overcome all personal, social, and academic hindrances.

Objectives:

The Student Welfare Committee aims at achieving numerous objectives for improving the academic process:

1.      The Student Welfare Committee helps the students understand their unique personal abilities and tendencies through interviews and assessment tests.

2.      It also helps students with psychological issues achieve reconciliation with the self and the other.

 3.      In cooperation with the Student Assessment Review Committee and the Faculty Administration, the Student Welfare Committee fosters the gifted and below-average students as well as students with special needs and helps solve their academic, social, and psychological problems.

4.      It supervises student admissions and transfers in the Faculty.

5.      It helps overcome educational difficulties in languages and suggest appropriate solutions.

6.      It helps develop the students’ interactive skills, such as translation, communication, and teaching skills.

7.      It fosters discovering and boosting the students’ skills through the proper social, sports, and cultural activities, which help:

-        Maintain a strong relationship among the student and his/her colleagues on the one hand, and among the student and the faculty, staff, and administrative members on the other.

-        Boost the students’ individuality, autonomy, and self-dependence through giving them the freedom to choose, maintain, and organize their activities of interest.

-        Boost the students’ desire to learn, qualifying them to face various educational situations and interact with the Faculty services offered.

-        Compile and manage a portfolio with personal information and the needed papers for the students (if possible) in cooperation with the academic coordinators for the different levels.

-        Review, organize, and categorize the names recommended by the Committee.

-        File the recommendations to the Faculty Board to take the necessary actions

Procedures for implementing academic, psychological, and social counseling and assessing the faculty, assisting faculty, and administrative members’ awareness of it:

a.      Educational problems, including:

·         In case that the student faces difficulties with a certain syllabus, he/she should meet with the faculty member during the latter’s office hours for assistance. In case it is a collective problem, an additional lecture is given to explain the difficult parts of the curriculum.

·         In case the student does not accord with the professor, the academic councilor listens to every student and a meeting is arranged between the professor and every individual student to reach reconciliation.

·         In case the students object on the difficulty of the exam questions for not according with their academic level or the designated course plan, the academic councilor files these complaints to the head of the department, who should in turn handle the situation.

·         In case the students object on the examination marks, a grievance forum is filled and filed to the head of the department, where the grievance is subsequently filed to the Student Assessment Review Committee. The Student Assessment Review Committee later responds to the student.

b.      Social and psychological problems, including:

  • Some students might encounter some financial problems. The student in distress as such shall be directed to the Student Welfare, which shall in turn communicate with both the student and the University.
  • A student is allowed to absent himself for a week in case of death of a family member. The student shall then submit his excuse along with a death certificate. The deficit in the student’s attendance shall be cancelled out with the acknowledgement of the Vice President for Student Welfare.
  • Family disputes and divorce can also hinder a student academically and socially. Hence, the academic councilor shall talk with the student in an attempt to overcome this dilemma. The academic councilor might also meet with the student’s parents if necessary to explicate the downsides of family disputes and their effects upon the student.
  • In case of family illnesses, the academic councilor talks with the student in an attempt to find a way to avoid the negative effects of this illness on the student.
  • In case the student suffers from a psychological illness, such as anxiety or depression, he should be submitted to a specialized doctor immediately.

The accreditation of the action plan for the academic year 2013/2014 provided the implementation of various procedures that boost the educational quality of the Faculty as follows:

Executive Procedures:

-        Implementing procedures for the academic support of below-average students.

-        Boosting social and sports activities and encouraging student unions.

-        Honoring outstanding students in social and sports activities.

-        Developing the skills of academically outstanding students.

The Procedures for the Student Welfare Committee:

The Student Welfare Committee is activated at the beginning of each new academic year in accordance with the following:

1.      The resolution of the organizational structure formulations is approved and documented by the Faculty Council as follows:

  • Committee Rapporteur
  • Committee faculty members
  • The academic coordinators of the four levels
  • Members of the assisting faculty
  • Student representatives from various academic years
  • Community members

2.      The announcement of the names of the academic coordinators for the four academic years in the Faculty at the beginning of each new academic year.

3.      The preparation of a plan for academic sustained development and the designated tasks of the academic councilors.

4.      The preparation of a report on the achievements of the Student Welfare Committee to identify and enhance the points of strength and pinpoint and improve those of weakness.

5.      The establishment of a policy and procedures regarding the handling of student problems, as well as the procedures regarding how to solve such problems and to meet the student needs.

6.      The preparation of a student guide handbook about the Faculty.

7.      The preparation of a handbook for the various academic programs.

8.      The preparation of a policy and the procedures concerning the implementation and follow-up actions of an effective academic and social advising in a way that helps achieve the academic criteria and boost the student’s academic and personal skills.

9.      The preparation of the procedures for the academic advising of fresh students.

Procedures for Student Advising:

 

1.      Members of the Committee shall offer guidance and consultations.

2.      Staff members shall be present in their offices during the office hours designated in their schedules to offer academic guidance for the students who fail to find proper solution for any difficulties they may encounter (for an hour per course).

3.      Additional hours in addition to the office hours could be designated for skilled or below-average students.

Procedures for the recognition of outstanding and below-average students and students with special needs:

-        The academic advisor for the four levels.

-        Course reports, general assessments of the students, and various statistics.

-        Individual meetings and direct contact with students and faculty members.

-        Electronic communication with the students via Facebook groups and e-mails to know the suggestions and demands of the students with the cooperation of a representative member of the academic department through the Student Welfare Committee.

-        Holding conferences, seminars, and lectures to know the student suggestions to boosting the educational process in the Faculty.

-        Regarding students with special needs, the disability is recognized to overcome its negative effects that hinder the required academic level of the student. In cooperation with the faculty members, this is done through investigating each case individually in an attempt to reach the most appropriate academic, social and psychological circumstances needed for the student. This is done through daily individual meetings, academic lectures, office hours, and via e-mail.

Procedures for Fostering Outstanding Students

In accordance with the Faculty of Languages and Translation’s care for outstanding students, who represent a bright front for the Faculty, the Faculty works on fostering academically outstanding students who get excellent grades in all academic courses and need support and motivation to maintain their academic level.

Procedures for fostering outstanding students include:

1.      Addressing the Control of every academic year to compile and arrange the names of the most outstanding students by the end of each academic year by the time of announcing the results and submitting their names to be fostered by the academic counselors who shall continuously supervise their academic level.

2.      Fostering and encouraging them to maintain their academic excellence, and recommending the following actions:

o   Announcing the names of the top students of each academic year on the Faculty boards.

o   Announcing the names of the top students and publishing their photos on the Faculty website on the internet.

o   Honoring the top students of each academic year and granting them honorary certificates and prizes in a celebration held by the Faculty or in the yearly academic seminar of the departments to encourage them to pursue further academic excellence.

o   Notifying the students of the tuition fees grant that the University provides for students with excellent grades.

o   Assisting senior students in academic tasks (helping them academically - assisting the faculty academic councilors).

o   Recommending the provision of internship opportunities as monetary prizes or free educational or entertainment field trips.

o   Recommending their invitation to the graduation celebration that the Faculty holds every year.

3.      Encouraging the faculty members to provide them with the needed academic support, boost their skills and develop their abilities in order to sustain their excellence through partaking in various activities that meet their needs and tendencies.

4.      Making interviews and sustaining periodical supervision on those students to know their recommendations and opinions to help them overcome the difficulties they encounter urging them to keep up-to-date with their fields and be more innovative.

5.      Letting them participate in the academic seminars, Quality Assurance Unit tasks, and various committees.

6.      Encouraging innovation, creativity, and self-development through helping the outstanding students direct their skills properly in the University and Faculty through partaking in various activities and in the Student Creativity Day and discussing their academic experiences.

7.      Distributing forums accredited by the Faculty Board related to fostering outstanding students on the faculty members.
Procedures for Fostering Below-average Students

The Faculty of Languages and Translation adopts procedures for fostering below-average students and works on their support and motivation to maintain their desired academic success. Procedures for fostering below-average students include:

1.      Addressing the Control of every academic year to compile the names of the below-average and failed students in every course and record  them in the designated record for continuous follow up and assessment.

2.      Categorizing those students according to the failed courses and addressing the head of their department to investigate their cases individually.

3.      Submitting the names to the academic coordinator of each academic year for follow up and providing the required guidance.

4.      Investigating the reasons for their academic hindrance, such as the lack of time management, refusal of submitting assignments, detest of the curriculum, or the presence of other reasons that keep the student away from studying, or others regarding the professor or the curriculum ..etc.

5.      Keeping up with the students in various courses through assessing the results for the periodical examinations, backing them with statistical data and graph charts to be analyzed, through informing the students with the results and supervising those with low grades, or through the direct supervision of the professor during lectures when the needed academic guidance can be offered.

6.      Following up the implementation of these procedures through the Control System and the various academic departments in the Faculty to achieve the desired level of supervision and offer the needed support for the students to eliminate as much reasons for academic hindrance as possible.

7.      Allocating time for the academic coordinators to support the below-average students (the academic counseling schedule for each academic year).

8.      Holding meetings with the below-average students to guide them to the best way to improve their academic level and addressing their parents in some cases to further understand some student-related issues in an attempt to solve them.

9.      Offering free training and organizing assisting lectures for the below-average students, encouraging the professors to partake in those lectures, and choosing the suitable time for holding them.

10.  Organizing the student’s leisure time and guiding him/her to ways to maintain an organized schedule and effective study.

11.  Encouraging students who showed remarkable improvement in participation and academic involvement, or in examination results through giving them honorary certificates or encouraging them in public among their students urging them to maintain this improvement.

12.  Raising the awareness of the faculty members and the teaching assistants to consider the importance of the individual differences between the students in solving their problems, using new teaching methods, and using particular methods in fostering students upon the academic and personal levels. These procedures can be handled in the Faculty meetings.

13.  Coordinating between the Committee for Student Welfare, the faculty members, and the below-average students to provide the means for academic support (activities – lecture presentations – extra material and source - …etc.)

14.  Free books are provided with the help of the faculty members.

15.  Holding seminars and lectures and preparing brochures, panels, and wall magazines that encourage academic excellence and the importance of time management.

16.  Providing the relevant forums accredited by the Faculty Council to keep up with the below-average students and distributing them on the faculty members.

Procedures for Fostering Students with Special Needs

There are very few students with special needs in the four academic levels of the Faculty of Languages and Translation. Yet, in the presence of such a case, the Faculty follows special procedures to provide the needed support, through addressing the heads of the various departments in order to identify such students and work on providing the proper actions to help them follow their academic study easily. These procedures include:

1.      Providing special chairs for left-handed students.

2.      Providing special tables of a height that suites the physically disabled.

3.      Assisting the faculty members and the assistant faculty members in the language laboratories in accordance with the special needs of every case.

4.      Making alternative paths along with the stairs and providing elevators.

5.      Providing social and psychological support though the appropriate activating academic coordination between the faculty members.

6.      Providing the needed health care in the hospital and the accessibility of ambulances to transfer students to the hospital.

7.      Recommending  the provision of a social specialist to help provide a psychological support to such cases.

8.      Working on mingling students in various social and sports activities.

9.      Preparing special forums accredited by the Faculty Board for students with special needs.

 

Manager of Quality Assurance Unit

Dr. Gehan M. Anwar Deeb

Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Translation

Prof. Mona Ahmed al-Halawany

 

Date of Approval: 27/8/2013