| Administrative History | There are references in Senate minutes of a meeting held on 18 October 1900 to the appointment of a Committee of Principals and Deans, and in minutes of meetings held in February and May 1901 to actions of this committee, but there is no official record of the date of the establishment of the committee, and only a statement in a set of printed University Regulations, dated 1904 but not issued, that 'there shall be a standing committee of the Senate consisting of the Principal, the Vice-Principal, and the Deans of the Faculties which shall act for the Senate in urgent cases and shall transact such business as may be submitted to it by the Senate'. The first recorded meeting of the committee took place on 8 July 1902.
The Report of the Senate Constitutional committee, dated February 1971, states that the Committee of Principals and Deans had acted as a general advisory body to the Vice-Chancellor, and that it functioned in matters affecting individuals or the competitive interests of the different Faculties, but that much of its business by the early 1970s was directed at dealing with contacts between the University and the 'outside world'. The report recommended that the committee reported to Senate through the Senate Executive committee in matters affecting Senate, and to Council through the Finance and General Purposes committee in matters directly affecting Council. The committee retained most of its functions but its terms of reference were clarified and formalised.
By the 1980s the Committee of Principals and Deans was envisaged primarily as a group of Senior Academic Officers who were charged with reappraising the University's contribution to higher education and advising on its furture academic development in the light of known and estimated resources. Although the committee had traditionally dealt with staffing matters, an Academic Staffing committee now managed matters in relation to lecturers, research, and library staff, though the Committee of Principals and Deans continued to establish Electoral Boards for Personal and Single tenure Chairs, and to make recommendations for promotions to Senior Lecturer, and to act as an academic planning committee of the Strategy, Planning and Resources committee, though the Strategy, Planning and Resource committee had ultimate responsibility, delegated by Council, for allocating resources to all academic, academic service and non-academic budget centres.
Following the reorganisation of the University's academic administration and the restructuring of Schools in the mid 1990s, which led to the Committee of Principals and Deans' academic standards monitoring functions being overtaken by the reconstituted Academic Board, Senate was asked to approve the proposal that the Committee of Principals and Deans be reconstituted as the Promotions and Titles committee. The final meeting of the Committee of Principals and Deans was held on 18 May 1998. |