Unit Director: Responsibilities and Information about the Post
Each taught unit has a nominated unit director, as displayed in the unit catalogue. Unit directors manage the day-to-day running of the unit and are responsible to the Head of Department for the maintenance of academic standards, the quality of education and educational support and the review and development of all units for which they are Director. Liaison with the relevant Programme Director(s) is important in this process.
General Responsibilities
1. Preparation before the Start of an Academic Year
- Preparation/checking of unit handbook and any associated unit material.
- Finalisation of any necessary timetabling information, for example, hand-in timetable for all coursework/assessed essays in Unit, and feedback timetable.
- Any introductory activity related to the unit - Introductory lecture/handout distribution, including provision of handouts/lecture notes to students with special needs.
- Promulgation of timetabling information.
- Preparation and submission of Risk Assessments and Safety Documentation for Unit where appropriate to the relevant Head of Department or nominated individual (The programme director may do this with any necessary coordination with Unit Director).
2. Assessment
- Collation of coursework/continuous assessment descriptions and documentation for External Examiners.
- Collation of Examination Questions and preparation of Examination Paper.
- Unit Lead Examiner to check for overlap between coursework/continuous assessment and unseen examinations for the unit. (If overlap exists a written explanation justifying the assessment grounds for this to be provided for forwarding to the External Examiner).
- Unit Lead Examiner to collate coursework and examinations marks - responsibility for compiling the final mark sheet for the unit, and ensuring the integrity of the unit mark for each student.
- Collation of Supplementary Examination Questions and preparation of Supplementary Examination Paper.
- Meeting with External Examiners to discuss Supplementary Examination Papers if requested by External Examiners.
3. Organisation for the Next Academic Year
- Finalising information about nature and weighting of assessment, learning and assessment hours, units aims, outline, structure and content, learning outcomes, transferable skills, key references etc.
- Organise Teaching Order/Timetable within unit.
- Contribute to the Annual Programme Review.
4. Other Ongoing Duties
- Point of contact for student queries regarding unit.
- Risk Assessments for specific activities in the field or laboratory.
- Where hand-in dates need to be changed, discussion of proposed change with the students and liaising with the Departmental administration over any agreed changes.
- Providing notice to other staff teaching on unit before 'handovers'.