| Description | Minutes of a sub-committee of the Committee of Principals and Deans probably established in 1971 when financial responsibility for field courses and vacation study grants was transferred from Local Education Authorities to Universities, and additional funds for this purpose were made available through the University Grants Committee.
It is assumed that the first meeting was held on 22 October 1971, as the minute numbering starts then. The committee was initially responsible for administering the Vacation Grants fund, though in the late 1970s it also took on responsibility for administering the Hardship Grants fund. It reported to the Committee of Principals and Deans and also through this to the University Grants Committee
Minutes contain financial statements; reports; summaries of appeals; information about funds for specific schemes which involved field courses, courses abroad, directed reading, practical placements, or residential study. There are sometimes details about individual cases, and of specific schemes, for example the Department of Russian exchange scheme in the early 1970s.
Minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 1974 include a copy of a handwritten memorandum from a member of staff in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies to the chair of the Vacation Grants Committee on student visits to the USSR in the summer of 1974. There is further discussion about this in minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 1974. These minutes include copies of individual vacation studies grant application forms.
Minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 1974 include a copy of regulations governing grants to undergraduate students for field courses and vacation study, and copies of two reports of student visits to the USSR during the summer of 1974. Minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 1975 include reports of student visits to the USSR in the summer of 1975
Minutes of the meeting held on 6 June 1975 include papers from several academic departments concerning grants for field courses
Minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 1977 discuss revised student support arrangements, and government plans to cut vacation benefits for students. The committee's discussion focused supporting at a higher rate students who, in the summer vacation, were prevented from taking employment by the requirement to attend a vacation course. Minutes of the meeting held on 30 May 1977 record that the committee's terms of reference had been extended to cover responsibility for Hardship Grants and for making awards directly attributable to hardship resulting from the 1977-1978 rise in tuition fees. There are further papers relating to hardship grants with minutes of meetings held in 1977, 1978, and 1979, including Hardship Grants situation reports. Minutes of the meeting held on 2 February 1979 includes a copy of regulations governing grants to undergraduate students for field course and vacation study
Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 1980 include analyses of expenditure by departments, highlighting high spending departments. Following this, there are substantial submissions from individual academic departments about courses receiving support to yearly meetings of the committee between 1981 and 1984, presumably to allow the committee to record expenditure and estimates for grants
Minutes of meetings held in the 1980s continue to include financial statements including information about allocations and budget; guidelines relating to the payment of grants; and submissions relating to eligibility for vacation grants;
Minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 1985 include a copy of the Report of the Chair of the Committee on Field Course and Vacation Grants which is dominated by financial restraints imposed on the University, and the need to reduce expenditure after budget cuts
The final meeting for which minutes survive in this sequence was held on 25 February 1988. These minutes mention that consideration was being given to allocating to budget centres an appropriate sum incorporated within block grants to enable them to disburse field and vacation grants, though it was also acknowledged that there might be need for some central controlling body in order to ensure that there was not disparity of treatment of students between budget centres. It is not clear whether or at what date the committee was dissolved, or whether the Committee of Principals and Deans continued to take overall responsibility for administering these funds |