| Description | Minutes of meetings of a committee initially called the Liberal Education Committee, but which changed its name to the Open Lectures Committee in March 1955. Minutes survive from 10 October 1953 to 26 May 1977 when the committee was subsumed by the Broader Education Committee (see UB/COM/66), and there is also a set of papers and committee correspondence covering the period from 1949 to 1953 which are probably papers kept by the Registrar . The Open Lectures Committee predated the Broader Education Committee and provides earlier evidence of the University's commitment to providing a wider range of educational opportunities for students outside their own degree courses. The Open Lectures programme was separate from the Inter-Faculty Studies scheme set up by the University in 1960 and managed by the Broader Education Committee
Membership of the committee consisted initially of the Vice-Chancellor; members of academic staff; the President of the Guild of Undergraduates; the Vice-President of the Guild of Undergraduates; and the President of the Guild of Graduates. Later the committee was run by academic staff and representatives from the Guild of Students
Minutes contain substantial information about the programme of Open Lectures for each academic session, and record discussion about suggested subjects and speakers as well as lists of events and copies of printed programmes. There is evidence that departmental societies were involved in the selection of speakers and subjects for the Open Lectures programme in the 1960s. The minutes also record discussion of the days and times for Open Lectures in order to improve attendance, and include attendance figures. In addition, there are copies of reports of the Open Lectures Committee |