The Handbook
The Handbook is the hitchhikers guide to the department. It contains all information relevant to members of the department: unit contents, course structure, procedures for monitoring teaching quality, research practice etc.The handbook is available electronically on our web site, at http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/Tools/Local/Handbook. A subset of the handbook is printed and distributed to all students and staff, but the definitive version is the on-line version.
Authors of the Handbook
The Handbook of the department is written by all staff of the department.Revising the Handbook
The Handbook is revised yearly. During this revision unit contents are updated (see the section on Curriculum Review), timetables are updated, staff lists are updated, and procedures may be changed (for example because they do not work, are outdated, or because of changed legislation).The handbook is revised immediately after the end of the summer term. The editor of the Handbook convenes one or more meetings were all staff are invited to update it. During this meetings, the structure and contents of the handbook are discussed.
Producing the Handbook
handbook_collection # will collect, latex, shrink to A5. Check that Release files is correct checkyear # Checks this revision in as YEAR.1, shuffles dir.
Distributing the Handbook
After revision, the latest revision of the Handbook is backed up, and a paper copy is made of the sections that are of immediate relevance to our students: the first chapters up to and including the unit descriptions. The whole department can view the other chapters, but distributing them is a waste of paper and money. The number of copies can be counted on the mailings lists of all units except COMS11301, COMS12302 + mailings lists for coms-pgr, coms-teach, coms-pgt and don't forget the unique.- The number of copies for 2000/01: 700 (sufficient).
- The number of copies for 2001/02: 750 (too many).
- The number of copies for 2002/03: 750.
- The number of copies for 2003/04: 650.
The Handbook is printed two months before the start of the autumn term, and send to all students one month before term starts.
- G4G1, G403, G401, G402, G400 students.
- MSc Students, MS50, MS51, MS52.
- Engineering Maths students, J920, J921.
- Computer Science and Electronics