| Description | Minutes of a Senate committee which administered the University of Birmingham's Matriculation Examination.
Membership consisted of the Principal (chair), Vice-Principal, professorial staff from each of the Faculties, and the Professor of Education.
The committee also appointed a Secondary Education Advisory Board, later renamed Secondary Education Board, which included staff from the Day Training Department and from local schools, as well as representatives from West Midlands counties. This body discussed regulations for the Diploma for Secondary Teachers; schemes on School-Leaving certificates and the University's inspection of Secondary Schools; considered the acceptance by the University of alternatives to the matriculation examination; and discussed the subjects demanded from candidates intending to enter the University as students. Minutes of meetings of the Board held in 1906 record discussion about the wording of matriculation regulations; the schedule of examinations accepted in lieu of matriculation; and revisions to the syllabus for matriculation.
At its first meeting in 1904, the committee discussed the possibility of continuing with the Joint Matriculation scheme of the universities which were formerly part of the Victoria University (Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds), but it was decided to operate a separate Birmingham matriculation examination system. The committee approved a draft syllabus, and minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 1905 mention the establishemtn of a Foreign Matriculation Board (see UB/COM/119 for minutes), and the matriculation of Day Training College students.
The minutes record regular meetings of both the Committee and the Advisory Board in 1904 and 1906, with occasional meetings in 1905 and 1908, but no meetings are recorded in 1907 or 1909.
Minutes of a meeting of the Secondary Education Committee held on 9 November 1910 include discussion of a letter from the Joint Matriculation Board to the University of Birmingham stating that it cannot currently accept Birmingham's Matriculation Certificate because of the control of the examination by a small committee and the limitation in choice of examiners to members of the Assistant Staff in the University, a practice which was apparently very different from that at other institutions. Specific points about gaps in the syllabus are also raised. These minutes also include a letter from the University of London which states that the Birmingham Matriculation Examination in some subjects did not meet the standard accepted and was not equivalent to the corresponding examination for the University of London Matriculation Examination
Meetings of the committee held in 1911 record details of discussions with London University on the recognition of the Birmingham Matriculation Examination, the reports of the assessors, and the involvement of the government Board of Education in scrutiny of the examination. There is also discussion about the limitation of the matriculation examination to candidates over sixteen, and about the admission of candidates in schools inspected by the University to the Senior School Certificate under the age of sixteen, though they were not to be eligible to receive the certificate until they had reached the age of sixteen.
The Secondary Education Board, presumably the new name for the Secondary Education Advisory Board, also continued to meet, and minutes of the meeting of this Board held on 15 May 1913 refer to the question of accepting Senior Local Examinations in lieu of the matriculation examination. There are references in minutes of meetings held later in 1913 to the necessity of standardising matriculation examinations, and the need for closer relations between Teaching and Examination
There are no minutes recorded for meetings of either group for 1914, but there is a loose circular letter inserted in the minute book volume announcing a meeting of the Secondary Education Committee on 20 May 1914.
Minutes of the Secondary Education Committee held in 1915 discuss the fall in the number of candidates for the Birmingham Matriculation Examination, and include a table of statistics. They record discussion about the possibility of Birmingham joining the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield in the Joint Matriculation Board. A copy of the committee's report to Senate is included with minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 1915, which recommends an application to the Joint Matriculation Board for the incorporation of the University of Birmingham on the same terms as the other universities, and to discontinue the separate Birmingham Matriculation Examination. This was the last meeting of the committee |