| Description | Minute books of University Senate containing minutes of meetings from 6 July 1900, the first meeting of this body, to 11 March 2026. Minutes are signed and confirmed up to and including June 1977. Minutes of meetings between June 1977 and June 1981, and minutes of meetings after March 1985 are not signed. Minutes are not confirmed after 6 December 2000. Minutes and supporting papers for meetings from the 2019-2020 academic session onwards are held in digital format
University Senate met on a monthly basis during the academic year until 1996. After this date, there were usually four meetings a year as long as there was business to discuss. Reserved Business was introduced in 1972, and items discussed and reports submitted for this section of the meeting were given an 'RB' code. Minutes are stored in chronological order in hardback bound volumes from 1900 to June 1945; after this date the minutes are stored in reverse chronological order in loose leaf files. Volumes containing minutes of meetings held between December 1914 and June 1945 include a name and subject index at the front; there are separate index volumes for the period 1900 to 1906, and 1945 to 1956, listed at UB/SEN/2/1-9
Minutes of University Senate are numbered in a single numerical sequence until 1975 when the body was reconstituted. From 1975 to 1977 a new single numerical sequence was used, with numbers starting again from 1. This was replaced in 1977 by a new system, using the calendar year followed by a consequence numerical sequence beginning from 1 at the start of each year.
Early meetings of Senate were chaired by the Principal of the University of Birmingham, and were attended by the Vice-Principal and the professorial staff. At the first meeting of University of Birmingham Senate on 6 July 1900 it was resolved that all professors and members of teaching staff and all officers (other than the Registrar) and servants of Mason University College be appointed to the same offices and places in the University of Birmingham. Robert Heath, the Registrar and Vice-Principal, was appointed secretary of the Senate. Business discussed at early meetings of the Senate focused on amendments to the syllabus and the approval of temporary ordinances to University Council. Senate also approved a scheme for academic costume for the university. Minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 1901 include printed draft ordinances prepared by the General Purposes committee and Senate relating to staff, faculties, academic work, examinations, and qualifications. A Senate committee was set up to consider the weighting of examination marks, the assessment of class and laboratory work, and consideration of work during the term as well as in final examinations. Further meetings in July 1900 discussed the status of past and current students of Mason College in the new university, and Senate received a report of the Faculty of Medicine recommending that courses in medicine 'not already open to women, be opened to students of that sex from the commencement of the next session'. Although women students were now permitted to study medicine at the University of Birmingham, the report allowed for professors of each subject within the Faculty of Medicine to arrange for a partial or entire separation of men and women students while they were being taught, and recommended that a qualified woman demonstrator in anatomy be appointed so that dissections could be carried out in separate rooms.
As the academic governing body of the University of Birmingham, the main function of Senate was to discuss and make recommendations to Council on academic policy. It was responsible to Council for all matters connected with teaching and research, and also received reports from the boards of each of the Faculties. The minutes contain monthly reports from each of the Faculty Boards, as well as annual reports submitted to Senate for its November or December meeting each year, summarising developments over the previous academic session. The monthly reports make recommendations to Senate about timetable amendments, additional staff and equipment, the introduction of new courses of study and changes to the composition of courses, the function and conduct of university examinations, nominations to scholarships, and regulations governing the award of University of Birmingham degrees. They also contain details of the appointment and resignation of staff including laboratory assistants, student demonstrators, lecturers, and senior members of staff including professors. Early reports of Faculty Boards include shortlists of candidates for posts. Reports recommend increases in salaries and wages, and report on long term absences of staff due to illness. Early reports, especially from the Faculty of Science, include requests for the expansion or reorganisation of teaching space.
Senate minutes for 1900 and 1901 include reports of the Boards of the Faculties of Arts, Science, and Medicine. Reports of the Day Training Board are also sometimes included. Reports of the Faculty of Medicine include the report of the Dean of the Medical Faculty to the Faculty of Medicine. Minutes of the Senate meeting held on 20 February 1902 include the report of the committee on the Commercial Curriculum following the appointment of staff for the new Faculty of Commerce, and the first report of the Faculty of Commerce is included in minutes of the Senate meeting held on 18 July 1902.
The first report of the Faculty of Law appears in minutes of the Senate meeting held on 15 February 1928. In addition to reports of the Faculty Boards, Senate minutes often include reports of Boards of Studies for other courses. Reports of the Social Study (Diploma) committee are included in Senate minutes from 25 May 1910, for example. Minutes of the Senate meeting held on 20 March 1902 contain the report of the committee on University Extension Lectures, recommending that the Senate continued the work of the committee first appointed at Mason College in 1892 to co-operate with public bodies or local committees to organise courses of University Extension Lctures. Reports of the Joint Board of the University and the Workers' Educational Association to the Senate are included in Senate minutes from 19 October 1910.
Other committees which reported to Senate during the early twentieth century were the Principals and Deans committee, and the Library committee. Minutes of the Senate meeting held on 30 January 1901 discuss the appointment of the Library committee and the remission of the internal management of the library to the Senate. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 October 1901 contain the first report of the Library committee, together with details of library expenditure. Annual reports of the Library committee contain expenditure accounts and balance sheet, and the Librarian's Report from 1945. From the 1950s, printed copies of the Librarian's Annual Report are included, which became Information Services Annual Report in 1995-1996. The report of the Principals and Deans committee to Senate is first included in minutes of the Senate meeting held on 30 May 1901, though evidence from other Senate reports suggests that the committee had existed before this date. Senate minutes sometimes include reports of the Discipline Committee, which also managed invigilation of examinations though was mostly concerned with student discipline. The Principals and Deans committee also acted as a Discipline committee during the 1930s. Minutes of the Discipline committee do not survive.
Senate dealt with applications from students to be excused matriculation and other examinations if they already held equivalent qualifications from other institutions, and individual students are sometimes mentioned by name in the minutes. Senate minutes include matriculation and final examination pass lists, and Faculty reports include recommendations for conferral of higher degrees. Examination lists appear in Senate minutes from 1 July 1901 and continued to be included in minutes of meetings held in June or July each year until 1975. Pass lists were included in minutes of Senate meetings held in September each year, with information about scholarship awards. Minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 1922 include registration statistics provided by the Registrar, including comparision with registration statistics provided by the Universities of Mancheser, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield. Registration statistics of this kind continued to be included on a regular basis with minutes of Senate meetings held in November each year until 1975. After this date, statistics of examination results replaced the detailed lists. Matriculation lists dating from the early twentieth century include the names of individuals who took the examination but who did not necessary go on to enrol at the University of Birmingham.
Apart from responding to recommendations made in the Reports of Faculty Boards, Senate discussed ordinances and regulations which affected the academic work of the University, the appointment of external examiners, and the establishment of new chairs, the appointment of academic staff to professional bodies, and as representatives on educational committees outside the university, and formed committees to discuss specific issues referred to it from University Council and from the Finance and General Purposes committee. Senate also sometimes addressed issues relating to pastoral care. Minutes of meetings held in the 1900s contain comment on the provision of student facilities including common rooms and lunch facilities both at the new buildings at Edgbaston and the older Mason College site at Edmund Street. Senate required students to supply the address of their private lodgings, and first aid classes were given to laboratory assistants. Senate also commented on issues relating to student finance. Minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 1901 mention that Senate received a report of the preliminary committee for the formation of a Students Representative Council, but the report itself is not included. Minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 1901 include the Principal's presentation of the report of the Guild of Undergraduates concerning its constitution, and the draft constitution of the Students Representative Council 'to manage all students affairs'. A Common Room committee seems to have been set up in 1900 or 1901 to make recommendations for facilities for academic staff, and minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 1901 include a report of this committee which made recommendations about the provision of furniture, writing materials, the provision of refreshments, and staff subscriptions to selected periodicals. Individual members of Senate could raise items of 'private business', and minutes of meetings held before the Second World War sometimes contain information about issues relating to staff welfare and daily life raised in these items.
The Principal, later Vice-Chancellor, reported to the Senate on matters arising, news, and matters from the minutes of University Council affecting the academic staff and business of the university. Senate submitted monthly reports to University Council, and the Principal submitted an annual report.
Minutes of Senate meetings held during the First World War include statements from the Principal on the numbers of staff and students on active service, and the names of those who had died in the war are sometimes given. Minutes of the Senate meeting held on 19 May 1943 include the report of the Joint Development committee of Senate and Council which dealt with the proposed developments on the Edgbaston site after the Second World War. See UB/COM/18 for records of this committee
There are references in the minutes to 'report books' where the reports of committees reporting to Senate were stored. These include Reports from the Senior Tutor to Women Students, Reports of the Joint University and Workers Educational Association committee, and Reports of the Library committee. There are also references to the University Annual Report and Statement of Accounts being entered in the report books, as well as the annual report on approved lodgings. Some reports of Senate committees did continue to be included in the minutes, however, and though reports of the Senate Executive committee were filed in the 'report books' from the committee's establishment in 1947, reports were also included in Senate minutes from the meeting held on 21 January 1948, and subsequently. See UB/SEN/4
Minutes of Senate meetings held during the 1950s and 1960s regularly include reports of the Nominations committee, the Board of Adult Education, the Broader Education committee, the Overseas Students committee, the PhD Degree committee, the University Research committee, and the Readerships committee. There are also reports of the Senate Committee on Halls of Residence from 23 May 1962, and reports of the University Bookshop committee. From the establishment of the Centre of West African Studies, and the Centre of Russian and East European Studies, there are regular reports focusing on the development of research and teaching in these centres, including printed copies of annual reports. The first Annual Report of the Centre of Russian and East European Studies is included with minutes of the Senate meeting held on 16 December 1964, and the first Annual Report of the Centre of West African Studies is included with minutes of the Senate meeting held on 27 January 1965. The minutes also contain copies of annual reports of the Department of Extramural Studies from the 1960s to the 1980s. Senate minutes from the 1ate 1960s include reports of the University Committee on Computers, later the University Computing Service, and the University Television and Film Unit, and annual reports of the Careers Board and the University Careers Service from the 1970s and 1980s.
Minutes of meetings held in the early 1970s contain discussion about changes to the formal structure of University administration as a result of recommendations of the Review Body appointed to consider the institution's role, constitution and functions. The report of the Senate Constitutional Committee in February 1971 discusses proposed changes to the remit of the Committee of Principals and Deans, and there is a report in the minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 1973 concerning proposals to modify functions of the committees immediately below Council and Senate which suggested that executive functions, particularly routine business, should be discharged by executive committees of Council and Senate respectively. The Senate Executive committee changed its name to the Academic Executive committee in November 1973, and this new committee was envisaged as the body to which Senate could delegate decisions on day to day academic matters including those forwarded by the Faculty Boards, within the broad academic policy determined by the Senate. Minutes of the meeting held on 10 December 1975 contain information about the terms of reconstituted Senate under the revised charter and statutes.
A number of Senate committees were abolished in 1989, and the Academic Executive was replaced by the First Degrees and Higher Degreees committee. These committees were themsleves replaced by the Academic Board in 1998, with Undergraduate, Taught Postgraduate, and Research Postgraduate committees, and an External Programmes committee. Senate minutes from the 1980s and 1990s include papers relating to Electoral Boards including biographical and publication histories of successful candidates. Minutes from 1993 onwards include regular reports on externally funded research awards. Senate minutes from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s include reports of the Strategy Planning and Resources committee which reported to Council via Senate so that Senate could comment on the academic implications of any recommendations. |