| Description | Minutes of a Working Party which was probably appointed by the Open Forum Committee. There are references to the work of this committee in minutes of the Broader Education Committee (see UB/COM/66) but no records appear to survive. Internal evidence from the minutes states that this Working Party had been in existence since at least 1971, but only minutes covering the period 1974 to 1975 have been transferred to the University Archives.
The Open Forum had been established to discuss and publicise important issues relating to University concerns, national interests, and international problems. It existed to bring issues into the open, promote informed opinion, draw attention to new growing points of interest, and share differences of view. The main function of the Working Party was to organise Discussions and Symposia with University speakers or invited speakers from outside the University, and met once a term to consider potential topics
Minutes contain information about proposed topics and speakers, and about practical arrangements for meetings. The main topics of discussion during this period were academic freedom and the financial position of universities in the context of the national economic crisis |