| Description | Minutes of a committee appointed by the Senate which was responsible for the award of grants to members of staff attending conferences of scientific and professional bodies. Minutes cover the period from 1948 to 1955, but there is also a copy of a report to Senate in June 1947 of a committee on grants, which makes recommendations about the purposes for which grants would be made, and the standard application process, as well as giving details about grants awarded to individual members of staff and the conferences they were attending, and lists of grants awarded in August 1947 and December 1947, which provide the same details. In general, grants for conferences in Britain would be given to members of the non-professorial staff only, and professors would be eligible for grants for meetings or conferences held abroad
Minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 1948 state that the Vice-Principal would be chair of the committee, and that it would normally meet three times a year. Urgent applications for conference grants would be dealt with by the chair of the Standing Committee in consultation with the Dean of the Faculty concerned without waiting for the committee to meet. Each set of minutes includes lists of grants awarded, giving the name of the member of staff, the amount awarded, and the conference they were attending
The minute book volume also contains a copy of minutes of an informal discussion held at the University Staff Club on 28 April 1954 which discussed the changing balance of the University demographic, and the need for the University to offer opportunities for students to gain a broader education outside the topics covered by their degree courses
The last meeting for which minutes survive in the University Archives was held on 23 May 1955. There are no references to the Conference Grants Committee in the University Calendars, and it is not clear whether the committee continued to meet after this date. Evidence in the minutes of the Committee of Principals and Deans suggests that its responsibilities may have been transferred to that body (see UB/COM/2 for minutes of the Committee of Principals and Deans) |