| Description | Minute books of the Committee of Principals and Deans, containing minutes of meetings from 8 July 1902 to 18 May 1998. Minutes are signed and confirmed until July 1976, signed again between May 1981 and May 1984, and signed for a brief period from March 1987 to October 1987.
The earliest existing minutes of meetings of this committee date from July 1902, and minute numbers start from 1, so it is possible that minutes were not recorded before this date. However, minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 1926 record efforts by committee members to identify early minutes and reports of the Committee of Principals and Deans, and refer to entries in Senate minutes for 18 October 1900 to the appointment of a Committee of Principals and Deans, and for 25 February 1901 to actions of the committee. Regardless of this, there are no surviving records dating from the establishment of this committee. The first three volumes of minutes, described at UB/COM/2/1/1, UB/COM/2/1/2, and UB/COM/2/1/3 are not numbered. After this point the format of the minute books changed to loose leaf files, and UB/COM/2/1/4 is labelled 'volume 3'.
Meetings were held roughly each month during term time, though there are sometimes substantial gaps including between November 1906 and July 1907, February 1910 and February 1911, March 1914 to June 1915, and June 1915 to October 1916. It was agreed at the meeting held on 25 November 1920 to hold meetings of the Committee of Principals and Deans twice a month during term time, though the committee hardly ever seems to have met this often in practice during the 1920s and 1930s. No meetings are recorded between June 1944 and March 1946, but by the early 1950s meetings were again being held on a monthly basis. Minutes of meetings held on 10 May 1983, 16 December 1986, and 23 April 1997 are missing
The first recorded meeting, on 8 July 1902, was chaired by Oliver Lodge, the Principal, and attended by the Vice-Principal Robert Heath, and by Professors Poynting, Sonnenschein and Ashley, as Deans of the Faculties of Science, Arts, and Commerce. The Dean of Medicine, Professor Windle, was also a member of the committee but did not attend the earliest recorded meetings. In later years, meetings were also attended by Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and by the 1980s and 1990s the Registrar and Secretary, Director of Planning, and Director of Admissions also attended some meetings.
The committee dealt with business relating to academic development and to the distribution of resources and made recommendations to the Senate. Matters regularly discussed in early meetings include the amendment of Ordinances affecting the appointment and terms of employment of teaching staff; regulations for examinations; the affiliation of other educational institutions to the University; the terms and scope of scholarships; the admission of students to Faculties; the conferral of honorary degrees; and recommendations concerning increases to staff salaries and the appointment and retirement of staff.
During the early part of the twentieth century the committee managed the allocation of funds for student welfare and social activities, and minutes of early meetings include information about the allocation of grants to student sports clubs and grants to the Students Representative Council and the use of this money. Accounts of the students societies fund are included with minutes of meetings held in October 1903, November 1906, November November 1907, December 1908, February 1910, February 1911, October 1911, November 1912, March 1914, June 1915, October 1916, February 1918, and December 1919. From 1921, student societies fund accounts were discussed at meetings of the 'Trustees of the Students' Societies Fund' also recorded in the Committee of Principals and Deans minute books in March 1921, November 1921, March 1923, and May 1924, though accounts appear again with Committee of Principals and Deans minutes in February 1926, November 1927, and January 1929.
Another function of the committee was to deal with matters of student discipline, and the enforcement of rules and regulations. Minutes of early meetings contain references to occasional examination irregularities; smoking in university buildings; and the regulation of private lodgings for students. The minute books were also used to record minutes of meetings of the Discipline committee, attended by the same membership, from 1903 to 1910, and in 1917, 1920, 1925, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1964, and 1965. Serious matters of student discipline were sometimes discussed at meetings of the Committee of Principals and Deans after this date. The Discipline committee dealt with general issues relating to student discipline; provided responses to student complaints to do with conduct at examinations resulting in the formulation of rules governing examinations, and made recommendations to Senate concerning invigilation, for example; heard complaints by external organisations about student misbehaviour, and student complaints about each other. Procedures governing student discipline were altered in the 1970s following recommendations in the Report of the Review Body on the Discipline committee in 1971, the inclusion of student members on the Discipline committee, the lowering of the age of majority to eighteen and the use of Guild of Students discipline structures for some cases. References to meetings of the Discipline committee continue into the 1980s in minutes of the Committee of Principals and Deans, but there is no evidence of minutes or reports.
In the years immediately following the First World War, the membership made recommendations concerning the admission of students in special circumstances, including the children of officers who were killed in the conflict, and discussed the provision of teaching to meet the needs of demobilised officers, for example in minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 1919. Minutes of meetings held in 1917 discuss the formation of the University Appointments Board, and minutes of the meeting held on 11 June 1918 discuss regulations for the new PhD degree. Other matters dealt with during the 1920s and 1930s include recommendations about the duties of the Registrar; discussion of the staff pension scheme; the functions of the Joint Matriculation Board and the qualifications required for students entering degree courses; the appointment and payment of external examiners; the grading of academic staff and the organisation of administrative and clerical staff; the revision of the University's charter and statutes; and the proposed physical education scheme in the late 1930s.
Major functions of the committee in the 1950s were to make recommendations to Council, the Finance and General Purposes committee, and Senate concerning staff salaries and increments; leave of absence; and the allocation conference grants. It also considered references from the Planning and Priorities committee concerning the provision of new or additional accommodation on the Edgbaston campus for the Faculties. Minutes of the meeting held in October 1957 contain information about the committee's recommendation to the Senate that the University establish a Nominations committee to consider nominations for honorary degrees, and minutes of meetings held in the early 1960s discuss methods of administering refectories and Staff House prior to the opening of new buildings on the Edgbaston campus, and the problems in providing lodgings for students. There is also discussion of the Birmingham Kansas exchange scholarship in meetings held in 1960 and 1961, the establishment of Open Entrance scholarships in 1961, and the committee's consideration of a survey of teaching methods in 1962. A copy of the Report of the Committee of Principals and Deans to Council is included for first time with the minutes of the meeting held on 1 April 1953, and copies of reports appear with minutes of subsequent meetings in April each year, but in February for 1958. Copies of the Report of the Committee of Principals and Deans to the Senate are also included in minutes dating from the late 1950s
Particular functions of the committee revealed in minutes from the 1960s focused on the development of the University as a result of the Robbins Committee's report of 1963. Matters discussed included the development of the Guild of Students given the influx of students following the move to Edgbaston of the Faculties of Arts and Law and the general increase in student numbers; the organisation of teaching periods; the constitution of the Guild of Students and the rotation of membership of Senate committees; the allocation of money for grants under the control of the Committee of Principals and Deans; and student representation on University bodies following a report by the Committee of Principals and Deans to Senate in June 1967 setting out the level of student representation and staff/student discussion forums in departments in each of the Faculties. Minutes of the meeting held in March 1968 contain further discussion of student representation following the publication of the Guild of Students memorandum 'The Student Role', and minutes of the meeting held in May 1969 contain discussion of the function and organisation of Senate and Faculty Boards.
Minutes from the 1970s continue to discuss issues relating to student capacity and University development, partly in the context of quinquennial visits by the University Grants Commission (UGC), including the estimated financial needs of the Faculties and of other departments including the library, computer centre, and television service, and building projects and the continued expansion of the Edgbaston campus; and matters relating to constitutional change within the University, linked to the report of the Review Body, including changes to the staff/student ratio, the use of academic staff time, student representation and the election of student observers to the Senate. Documents for submission to the University Grants Commission for its visit in 1970 are contained within minutes of the committee, and a quinquennial sequence of minutes of meetings held in 1970 and 1971, with a separate numbering sequence, dealt exclusively with this visit, and include a copy of the submission to the University Grants Commission
Minutes dating from 1971 and 1972 discuss the reconstitution of the Senate, and there is comment on the Review Body's report in minutes of meetings held in 1973. Minutes of the committee focus increasingly on the use of resources and the allocation of funds from the mid 1970s onwards, in the context of national economic difficulties and the reduction of grants to universities. Funds controlled by the committee were directed to research, publications, field research and expeditions, attendance at overseas conferences, study leave expenses, and financial support for visiting professors. Matters discussed include fees charged for the University halls of residence; the impact of frozen staff posts; the level of savings to be made across the institution and the establishment of 'resource groups' which reported to the committee on ways by which savings could be made within academic departments without damaging essential functions. Minutes contain information about the preparation of the University's 'Academic Plan'; the difficulties of planning the budget and anticipating financial pressures; the impact of having to reduce staff numbers and to re-allocate posts that became vacant, and the retraining and redeployment of staff. Minutes frequently include personal details of applicants for scholarships and other awards, and of candidates for staff appointments and visiting fellowships, and papers concerning the appointment of academic staff are routinely included in minutes dating from the 1970s onwards, together with supporting statements justifying the appointment in light of financial restrictions on the release of posts.
It is clear from the minutes that the Committee of Principals and Deans was taking on a major role in academic planning, and had to be aware of the staffing profiles of academic departments. The committee continued to discuss staff/student ratios and the impact of financial constraints on university development into the 1980s, and minutes include copies of applications and recommendations for new posts. There is discussion of the government's removal of subsidies for overseas students and the implication of this for student numbers; discussion of liaison between the University and industry in 1981, and the effectiveness of an 'industrial liaison officer' post; procedures for implementing a redunancy programme as a result of cuts in government funding in 1982; the UGC 'New Blood' scheme and the creation of new posts in 1983, and continued consideration of the financial situation and academic consequences for the University including proposals of the Vice-Chancellor's Planning committee concerning changes to the departmental structure within Faculties and the identification of small departments which might not be academically justifiable or economically viable; and discussion of the Report of the Steering Committee for Efficiency Studies (Jarratt Report) in 1985 and its recommendations to universities. The minutes suggest that the committee worked more closely with the Vice-Chancellor's Planning committee during the 1980s to make recommendations about the use of resources, and minutes dating from 1987 include discussion of the recommendations of the Vice-Chancellor's Planning committee on the 'Academic Plan'. The committe also reported to the Academic Executive on staffing matters, particularly the establishment and release of posts, and sometimes worked with the Strategy, Planning and Resources committee in the 1990s concerning institutional planning and expenditure on equipment.
Matters regularly discussed by the committee during the 1990s include proposals for the conferment of personal chairs as part of wider staffing issues; review of academic departments; management of teaching space within the University; proposals for modularisation and the reorganisation of the academic year; and the reorganisation of academic administration and the restructuring of Schools, which led to the Committee of Principals and Deans' academic standards monitoring functions being overtaken by the reconstituted Academic Board. The committee's remaining functions were concerned with promotions and the conferment of titles. The final meeting of the Committee of Principals and Deans was held on 18 May 1998. |