Remit

The remit of the SSJC is to contribute to the continuous improvement of the quality of all aspects of the undergraduate Engineering course, and provision for graduate students, including teaching, examinations, administration and facilities, by:

• seeking student views on courses and facilities, in order to complement other formal and informal feedback mechanisms;
• seeking student suggestions for course developments, and student input to proposals for revised courses;
• enabling individual students to bring any issue to the attention of the teaching staff of the Department. The use of the web-based fast feedback facility is encouraged, and students can make contact via SSJC College Reps or any SSJC member;
• disseminating course developments, decisions of other Departmental committees and other relevant news to students;
• nominating student representatives to other Departmental committees (e.g. Teaching, Safety and Library) and to meet external visitors (e.g. school sixth-formers, accreditation visits by Engineering Institutions, International Visiting Committee etc);
• preparing the Freshers’ Guide for Part IA students, assisting in welcoming new students to the Department during their induction activities, offering mentoring for new undergraduates, and welcoming new graduate students;
• working with the Teaching Office in the organisation of elections and other events of benefit to students (e.g. Project Expo).

SSJC organisation

The Student President acts as spokesman for the student members of the SSJC and is assisted in this by the student officers of Vice President and Secretary.

Other specific roles are outlined below.

SSJC year group representatives

• Two (or more) for each student group: Parts IA, IB, IIA and IIB plus graduate students.
• First point of contact and representatives for their year groups, and notify/consult their cohort about any group-specific news/issues.
• Part IA reps have a particular role in advising the editor of the Freshers’ Guide on useful updates for Part IA students.

SSJC roles

College Rep Coordinators

• Maintains the list of SSJC College Reps and coordinates their activities.

Communications Manager

• Maintain the SSJC Website, posting notices of interest and Minutes of meetings, and emailing students with news items, and useful reminders.
• Act as first contact for any SSJC related email.
• Manage the SSJC noticeboard

Editor of the Freshers' Guide

• Revise the Freshers’ Guide to Engineering at Cambridge in time for printing over the summer (one first-year and one second-year student).

Project Expo

• Organise the Project Expo and liaise with SPIP (one undergraduate and one graduate student)

Other

• SSJC members take on other roles, including assisting with the Study Skills and Welfare session.

Representatives on departmental committees

Teaching Committee

• One undergraduate member attends meetings of the Teaching Committee, which is central to the provision and organisation of teaching in the Department, and is where lots of important decisions are made.

Safety Committee

• One student member attends meetings of the Safety Committee to liaise over safety matters on behalf of the SSJC.

Library Committee (2 people)

• One undergraduate and one graduate member attend meetings of the Library Committee to represent the SSJC.

Environment Committee

• One undergraduate and one graduate member attend meetings of the Environment Committee.

CUES and other representatives

• The CUES President (or Deputy) attends SSJC meetings to discuss issues of mutual interest (e.g. Project Expo).
• Additional students may be co-opted to the SSJC from time-to-time (e.g. Diversity and Welfare Officers)

SSJC College Reps

Each College has a college rep for engineering. The role of the college rep is to liaise between the student body, the Student Committee (SC) and the Staff-Student Joint Committee (SSJC). The college reps gather first hand information such as comments and suggestions about the Engineering course from their college peers. The college reps report back to the SC on a regular basis, and may meet together from time to time. College reps will also feed back comments and actions from the SSJC to their college peers. The list can be found here.

Faculty Board Representatives

Four students sit on the Faculty Board: two undergraduates, one taught graduate student and one research graduate student. All the reps are invited to the SSJC, and may be additional to the year group representatives.

SSJC Membership list

The current list of members can be found here.

Archive of SSJC Minutes

The Archive of SSJC minutes can be found on the SSJC's Moodle site.