| Description | Minutes of the committee appointed by Senate, on recommendation of the Board of the Faculty of Arts, to consider a proposal for the establishment of a School of West African Studies, to which reference was made in the Memorandum on African Studies presented to the Hayter Sub-Committee of the University Grants Committee. The committee was to be composed of one member from each of the Faculties of Science, Medicine, and Law, and three members from each of Faculties of Arts, and Commerce and Social Science
The first meeting was held on 16 November 1960 to discuss and make amendments to the memorandum concerning the proposal to establish a School of West African Studies at the University of Birmingham for the 1962-1963 academic session. It was intended that this School would be part of the Faculty of Arts, but that the Director would also be a member of the Board of the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science. It was also intended that the School would not only supplement what was being done at the School of Oriental and African Studies but that it should have characteristics of its own.
The next meeting was not held until 16 February 1962, and minutes of this meeting include a copy of the printed report of the Hayter Sub-Committee on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies, and a copy of a letter from the University Grants Committee recommending proposals put forward by the report. There are also further details of the proposal for the establishment of a School of West African Studies, later known as the Centre of West African Studies, including figures for the grant, recurrent expenses, academic posts, postgraduate awards, and travel funds
Further meetings were held in March and May 1962 and the minutes report on academic appointments, including the Directorship
Minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 1963 mention that Senate had enlarged the committee's membership, and that it would meet not less than once a year, and not normally more than once a term. The Chair was authorised to deal with routine administrative matters between meetings.
Minutes of the meeting held on 19 April 1963 include a copy of a memorandum by the Director of the Centre, J. D. Fage, on policy regarding appointments at the Centre of West African Studies. This contains references to the establishment of a Selection Sub-Committee which dealt with appointments in connection with the Centre. Minutes of the Centre of West African Studies Committee frequently contain information about academic appointments, including personal information about individual applicants.
Committee minutes typically contain information about applications for grants for travel and research in West Africa; comment on Centre lectures and seminars; proposals for teaching and the future development of the Centre; information about research scholarships; copies of reports on research visits to West Africa; copies of seminar programmes; details about the assessment of courses and appointment of external examiners; and copies of the Centre of West African Studies annual reports, from the first annual report included with minutes of the meeting held on 12 November 1964. These are included either as printed booklets, or typed versions inserted into the minutes
Minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 1963 refer to the loan of works of arts to the Centre by J. A. Danford, owner of the Danford Collection of Contemporary Nigerian Arts and Handicrafts. and there are further references to this loan in minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 1964
Minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 1964 include a copy of the Centre of West African Studies seminar programme for spring term and summer term 1964; a printed booklet setting out information about the Centre and its courses; a report on the Director's visit to West Africa to make contact with universities there and to explore the possibilities of co-operation between them and the Centre; and a copy of a revised draft scheme for the training of former colonial civil servants as university teachers and their secondment to African universities by J. D. Fage, Director of the Centre of West African Studies
Minutes of the meeting held on 28 October 1965 include a paper drawn up by the Centre with proposals for the Quinquennium 1967-1972. Revised proposals for the Quinquennium are contained with minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 1966; and these revised proposals were discussed further at the meeting held on 21 October 1966.
Minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 1966 include a report on the 'Area Centres' [Centre of West African Studies and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies] and their staff-student ratios, commenting that their teaching strength had increased without an equivalent increase in the University's student body, which had an adverse effect on the Faculties because the staff of Centres were counted with Faculty staff when staff-student ratios were calculated
Minuts of the meeting held on 30 May 1967 include information about the reconstitution of the committee. Membership was to consist of the Vice-Chancellor; Deputy Principal (chair); Dean of the Faculty of Arts; Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science; Dean of the Faculty of Law, or deputy; Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, or deputy; Heads of Departments of Botany, Geography, Geology, School of History, Economic History, Economics, Political Science, Sociology; and Director of Centre for Russian and East European Studies. The Director of the Centre of West African Studies and one representative of the academic staff of the Centre were also to attend
Minutes of the meeting held on 24 October 1969 discuss the organisation of the Centre, and minutes of the meeting held on 22 May 1970 contain further discussion of this in the context of the University review. The committee's desire that the Centre should remain an inter-Faculty body and that the academic staff of the Centre should have greater representation on the governing Committee of the Centre is expressed. Minutes of meetings held on 30 October 1970 include a paper on Quinquennial submissions and the Centre of West African Studies development programme 1972-1977 as well as containing further discussion about the Centre's representation. The committee discussed its response to the comments of the University Review Body at the meeting held on 25 February 1972, and agreed that it was opposed to the suggestion that the Centre of West African Studies and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies should become departments of a Faculty of Social Studies. The minutes include a note by the two Centre Directors setting out their position. Minutes of the meeting held on 6 November 1972 include comments of the Committee of the Centre of West African Sdtudies on the Report of the Review Body, and comments of the academic staff at the Centre
Minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 1971 discuss the establishment of a Visiting Fellowship, the John Cadbury Visiting Fellowship, in accordance with the terms of a gift, and minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 1971 and the Centre's annual report for 1970-1971 discuss a possible extension to 32 Pritchatts Road [where the Centre was then based] to provide additional accommodation for staff, rather than them being housed in different Faculty buildings
Minutes of the meeting held on 26 February 1973 contain draft regulations on procedure for the award of a Diploma in African Studies, and the report of the Sub-Panel on the proposed new undergraduate Inter-Faculty Degree in International Studies. Minutes of the meeting held on 27 may 1977 include a report on the possible expansion of the Centre's interests to the Caribbean, and a special meeting to discuss this project was held on 7 July 1977. Minutes of the meeting held on 6 November 1979 record that it had been decided not to pursue the application to the Social Science Research Council due to the difficult financial climate, and that no further action was to be taken.
Minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 1978 include papers relating to submissions for funds for new academic initiatives, at the invitation of the Committee of Principals and Deans, including a new post in African literature, a course in Material Cultures using the Danford Collection, and a post in the social history of West Africa in the twentieth century. Minutes of the meeting held on 3 November 1978 include a report on the Centre of West African Studies Development Plan to 1981-1982, and there are further papers on this with minutes of the meeting held on 20 February 1979
Minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 1980 refer to cuts to Social Science Research Council awards and the resulting drop in postgraduate students which had affected the work of both the Centre of West African Studies and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, and was identified as a matter for concern. Minutes of this meeting also contain papers relating to the University Grants Committee visitation and to a freeze in posts in both the Centre of West African Studies and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, which would mean a loss of staff. The committee emphasised the need for additional staff to cope with an increase in research supervision and postgraduate training. There are additional papers on the University Grants Committee visitation with minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 1980
Minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 1982 include a copy of the report of the Board of Faculty of Arts to Senate with a proposal for a BA Honours Degree Course in African Studies. Minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 1982 include a paper on a proposal for the establishment of a field station of the University of Birmingham in West Africa, and these minutes also contain a reference to the Senate approval of a policy whereby the targets of the University's Academic Plan were to be met by not filling vacancies except in certain strictly defined cases involving National Health Service commitments of the Medical School or possible collapse of a teaching programme in a department
Minutes of the meeting held on 1 June 1983 record the chair's items which include a reference to the possibility of joint committee being appointed for both the Centre of West African Studies and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies following a review by the Committee of Principals and Deans of the position of some Senate Committees, since there was an overlap of membership and items of business between the two separate Committees. This was the last meeting of the Centre of West African Studies Committee. It was replaced by the Committee for the Area Studies Centres which also administered the business of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies between 1983 and 1987 (see UB/COM/61 for minutes) |