| Description | Signed minutes of the committee appointed to take responsibility for accounting and controlling expenditure from the Equipment Grant made by the University Grants Committee. It was essentially a Principals and Deans committee, acting under the title of Equipment committee, and reported to the Finance and General Purposes committee. Membership initially consisted of the Vice-Chancellor as chair, the Vice-Principal, and members of academic staff representing the Faculties. The Bursar also attended, as did other University officers. Membership of the committee evolved during its lifetime and by the 1980s senior University officers no longer attended and membership consisted only of academic staff with attendance by the Estates and Buildings officer or individuals in similar administrative roles.
Minutes contain statements showing expenditure on furniture and equipment by academic departments and balances in grants approved for expenditure and statements of balances of departmental equipment grants; papers relating to grant applications including inventories of equipment requested; reports on grant allocations; papers relating to assessments of grant applications and reviews of existing grants; reports to the University Grants Committee and discussion of correspondence from the University Grants Committee. The majority of the grant applications were submitted by departments in the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Medicine and Dentistry, and these papers can be very detailed, often including descriptions of research being undertaken by academic departments.
Minutes of a special meeting held on 9 September 1971 contain discussion about possible changes required in the composition of the committee, considering the 'enormouse disparity' between the expenditure incurred by the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Medicine and Dentistry and the whole ot the rest of the University. The committee had been meeting once a term, but with gaps in this schedule, and only one meeting had been held in 1969. It was suggested at this special meeting that three regular meetings of the committee should take place each academic year, and it was agreed that the composition of the committee should be reviewed after another twelve months. Minutes of the meeting held on 23 February 1972 recommend that the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Medicine and Dentistry should have committees to consider equipment claims, and that the chairs of such committees should attend Equipment committee meetings for their Faculty's items of business only and submit their recommendations in person. Items costing under £1,000 would be dealt with by the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Medicine and Dentistry by giving departmental grants. Other Faculties would submit applications as necessary directly to the Equipment committee. References in the minutes suggest that some applications were considered at Faculty level and by the Committee of Principals and Deans before any action was taken by the Equipment committee.
Minutes of committee meetings held in the 1980s contain evidence of the increasing use of micro-computers within the University for word processing and other office functions in addition to earlier uses by academic departments for specific research. The committee discussed allocation of grants for these purposes, and minutes include copies of papers for the University Committee on Computers.
Following a review of the University Committee system in 1989, it was recommended to University Council that the Equipment committee should be disestablished on 1 October 1989 and the residue of its work transferred to the Committee of Principals and Deans. The final meeting of the committee was held on 3 July 1989 |