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1. In accordance with the procedure set out in the General Board's Notice of 22 July 1996 (Reporter, 1995-96, p. 1033), which was approved (with minor modifications) by Grace 1(a) of 4 December 1996, the Secretary General wrote to the Chairmen and Secretaries of Faculty Boards on 1 May 1997 enclosing multiple copies of the procedure document (the booklet entitled 'Procedure for the consideration of applications for the establishment of personal Professorships and Readerships with effect from 1 October 1998', commonly referred to as the 'yellow booklet') for distribution to the eligible officers in their Faculty. The letter asked that particular attention should be paid to the procedure set out in the yellow booklet, which was based on the Board's Notice and which had been approved by the Board. The procedure required Faculty Boards to appoint committees to consider applications for the establishment of personal Professorships and Readerships (to be known as Faculty Promotions Committees), and in order to assist the Chairmen and Secretaries of these committees the Secretary General invited them to meetings on 15 July and 3 November 1997. After the first of these meetings a note of additional guidance was circulated. This additional guidance and subsequent documents ('First Meeting of Faculty Promotions Committees: Advice on conduct of business' and 'Second Meeting of Faculty Promotions Committees: Advice on conduct of business') were approved by the Board.
2. The note of additional guidance, which was circulated on 4 August 1997, covered, inter alia, the receipt of an application for a Professorship from an officer not holding a Readership; it stated that such an application 'should be considered along with the other Professorial applications received but cannot, in the same year, be considered alongside Readership applications.' This interpretation, when challenged, was upheld by the Board. The note also reported the Board's interpretation of the eligibility for appointment to Faculty Promotions Committees and covered attendance at meetings of those committees, their secretariat, and the appending of equal opportunities data to their minutes. After covering the selection of referees and the completion of forms PP3/PR3 and PP4/PR4, the note concluded by stating:
All members of Faculty Committees are expected to give equal consideration to all applications and the process of evaluation of applications should be a collective activity. Although members of the Faculty Committee may have personal knowledge of a candidate or have read their work, each candidate must, as far as possible, be treated on the same basis, and Faculty Committees must make their evaluations on the basis of the evidence in the documentation.
3. The advice on the conduct of business at the first meeting of Faculty Promotions Committees was focused on the responsibilities of the Chairmen and members of the Committees, having individual and collective responsibility to ensure that the correct procedures were followed at all times and that this was done in the context of equal opportunities policies and equal opportunities legislation. These were set out at length and accompanied by extracts from the relevant codes of practice for the elimination of discrimination.
4. The main points in the advice on the conduct of business at the second meeting were:
5. The Board believe that their decision to issue the advice outlined above was in accordance with their responsibility for the effective administration of the scheme as approved by Grace. In addition to the account of that advice which is given in the present Report, they are making copies of the relevant documents available for inspection in the University Offices, for the information of the University.
6. The Board received an extensive report and recommendations for promotions from their Committee on personal Professorships and Readerships. That report provided the Board with an account of the procedure followed by the Committee for the orderly evaluation and comparison of commentaries on the candidates, so as to give the Board the means to exercise surveillance of this delegated process. The Board were able to see how the Committee had arrived at their recommendations so that, without repeating the entire onerous exercise undertaken by the Committee, the Board were able either to approve the recommendations or, if they wished, to consider the basis on which any of the recommendations had been made.
7. The contents of the Committee's report were as follows:
| (i) | procedure of the Committee | ||||
| (ii) | declarations of interest | ||||
| (iii) | quorum | ||||
| (iv) | applications received as a result of an appeal | ||||
| (v) | additional information sought by the Committee | ||||
| (vi) | Faculty evaluations | ||||
| (vii) | feedback | ||||
| (viii) | the number of recommended proposals made by the Committee | ||||
| (ix) | funding | ||||
| (x) | statistical analysis of types of applicant | ||||
| (xi) | ordered lists of applicants | ||||
| (xii) |
specific comments to be fed back to the Chairman of the relevant Faculty Promotions Committee on:
|
The ordered list of applicants reported the detailed evaluation of the criteria for each applicant made by the relevant Faculty Promotions Committee and, in the same detail, that made by the Board's Committee. The ordering of the list correlated with the latter evaluations and with the Committee's recommendations. The same information was also presented with the applicants ordered alphabetically by Faculty. There were separate lists for applicants for Professorships and Readerships. The Board also received either the Minutes of the meetings of the Faculty Promotions Committees or reports from those Committees.
8. Notwithstanding the possible establishment of a Syndicate with terms of reference, inter alia, to review promotion procedures, the Board believe that their revised annual procedure should continue to operate until amended either in the light of experience or on the recommendation of the proposed Syndicate. Early in the Michaelmas Term the Board intend to publish a Report announcing the dates for the 1999 exercise and the minor modifications of the procedure which they wish to propose, partly in the light of advice received from the Faculty Committees and the General Board's Committee and partly to take account of the carrying forward of information from the 1998 exercise. The Board believe that continuity is an important feature of the annual promotions exercises, in which 91 promotions to personal Professorships and 268 promotions to personal Readerships have been made over the past ten years.
9. Before the Board received the detailed report of their Committee, they had received, in response to their invitation to the Committee, a request for supplementation of the funds available; this request was made on the basis of the severity of the competition as measured in terms of the criteria. In response to that request the Board have made available an additional £145,000 from the sums allocated to them in the 1998 Allocations Report for the purpose of funding the recommendations of this Report.
10. The Board now recommend the establishment, from 1 October 1998, of twenty Professorships, as set out in Recommendation I. The establishment of these Professorships, with the exception of those intended for Dr A. B. Holmes and Dr S. C. Reif, is proposed on condition that in each case where the person to be appointed currently holds a Readership the office which has been held in abeyance during his or her tenure of the Readership should continue to be held in abeyance during his or her tenure of the Professorship. In proposing the establishment of a Professorship for Dr Holmes, the Board have agreed that it should be tenable only for so long as he continues to hold the office of Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis; they accordingly recommend, in accordance with Statute D, II, 11(a), that Dr Holmes should hold both the Directorship of the Melville Laboratory and the proposed Professorship. In proposing the establishment of a Professorship for Dr Reif, the Board have similarly agreed that it should be tenable only for so long as he continues to hold the office of Senior Under-Librarian in the University Library; they accordingly recommend, in accordance with Statute D, II, 11(a), that Dr Reif should hold both the office of Senior Under-Librarian and the proposed Professorship, and they have determined that his stipend shall be the higher of the stipends of the two offices, i.e. that of a Professor.
11. The General Board also invited Faculty Boards and other comparable authorities to submit proposals for the establishment of Readerships for named persons. The Board propose the establishment, from 1 October 1998, of thirty-seven Readerships, as set out in Recommendation II. The establishment of these Readerships is proposed on condition that in each case where the person to be appointed currently holds a University Lectureship or an Assistant Directorship of Research that office should be held in abeyance during his or her tenure of the Readership.
12. The General Board have ascertained that each of the persons concerned is satisfied with the title of the Professorship or Readership proposed.
13. If the proposals contained in this Report are approved, and if the Professorships and Readerships are held on the conditions stated in the Board's proposals, the estimated additional cost chargeable on funds available for general purposes will be about £440,000 in a full year.
14. The General Board recommend:
I. That, with effect from 1 October 1998, Professorships be established for named persons for one tenure, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Faculty or Department named in each case, as follows:
One in Ancient Philosophy in the Faculty of Classics for Dr M. SCHOFIELD, of St John's College.
One in Jewish and Early Christian Studies in the Faculty of Divinity for Dr W. HORBURY, of Corpus Christi College.
One in Medieval Hebrew Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies for Dr S.C. REIF, of St John's College.
One in Developmental Neurobiology in the Department of Zoology for Dr C.M. BATE, of King's College.
One in Behavioural Neuroscience in the Department of Zoology for Dr E.B. KEVERNE, of King's College.
One in Neuropathology in the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine for Dr W.F. BLAKEMORE, of Wolfson College.
One in British and Irish History in the Faculty of History for Dr J. S. MORRILL, of Selwyn College.
One in Social History in the Faculty of History for Dr K.E. WRIGHTSON, of Jesus College.
One in International Politics in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences for Mr G.P. HAWTHORN, of Clare Hall.
One in Mathematical Physics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics for Dr N.S. MANTON, of St John's College.
One in Theoretical Physics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics for Dr P.K. TOWNSEND, of Queens' College.
One in Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry for Dr I. FLEMING, of Pembroke College.
One in Organic and Polymer Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry for Dr A.B. HOLMES, of Clare College.
One in Device Materials in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy for Dr J.E. EVETTS, of Pembroke College.
One in Experimental Physics in the Department of Physics for Dr A.M. DONALD, of Robinson College.
II. That, with effect from 1 October 1998, Readerships be established as follows, and that the General Board be authorized to appoint to each Readership the person for whom its establishment is proposed:
One in Latin Literature in the Faculty of Classics for Dr P.R. HARDIE, of New Hall.
One in English Literature and Historical Bibliography in the Faculty of English for Dr H.R.L. BEADLE, of St John's College.
One in English Literature in the Faculty of English for Mr J.F. KERRIGAN, of St John's College.
One in French Philology and Linguistics in the Department of French for Dr W.M. BENNETT, of Queens' College.
One in Italian Literature in the Department of Italian for Dr R. KIRKPATRICK, of Robinson College.
One in the History of Linguistic Thought in the Department of Linguistics for Dr V.A. LAW, of Trinity College.
One in Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics for Dr F.J.D. NOLAN, of Fitzwilliam College.
One in Medieval Music in the Faculty of Music for Dr S.K. RANKIN, of Emmanuel College.
One in Developmental Biology in the Department of Anatomy for Dr R.A.H. WHITE, of Selwyn College.
One in Cognitive Development in the Department of Experimental Psychology for Dr J. RUSSELL, of Clare Hall.
One in Cellular Pathology in the Department of Pathology for Dr M.J. MITCHINSON, of Clare College.
One in Parasite Ecology in the Department of Zoology for Dr B.T. GRENFELL, of Selwyn College.
One in Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine for Dr A.M.L. LEVER, of Peterhouse.
One in Molecular Virology in the Department of Medicine for Dr J.H. SINCLAIR, of Wolfson College.
One in Education in the School of Education for Dr K.B.H. RUTHVEN, of Hughes Hall.
One in French History in the Faculty of History for Dr R.P. TOMBS, of St John's College.
One in Economic Law in the Faculty of Law for Dr S.F. DEAKIN, of Peterhouse.
One in Economic Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences for Dr C.O. LANE, of St John's College.
One in Fluid Mechanics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics for Dr J.M. RALLISON, of Trinity College.
One in Algebraic Topology in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics for Dr C.B. THOMAS, of Robinson College.
One in Methodological Statistics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics for Dr G.A. YOUNG, of Emmanuel College.
One in Chemical Physics in the Department of Chemistry for Dr J. KLINOWSKI, of Gonville and Caius College.
One in Structural Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry for Dr P.R. RAITHBY, of St Catharine's College.
One in Main Group Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry for Dr R. SNAITH, of St John's College.
One in Ceramics in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy for Dr W.J. CLEGG, of Selwyn College.
One in Computational Physics in the Department of Physics for Dr M.C. PAYNE, of Pembroke College.
One in the Physics of Magnetism in the Department of Physics for Dr J.A.C. BLAND, of Selwyn College.
One in Control Engineering in the Department of Engineering for Dr J.M. MACIEJOWSKI, of Pembroke College.
One in Engineering Design in the Department of Engineering for Dr K.M. WALLACE, of Selwyn College.
One in Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Engineering for Dr D. CEBON, of Queens' College.
One in Thermofluid Engineering in the Department of Engineering for Dr H.P. HODSON, of Girton College.
One in Institutional and Evolutionary Economics in the Judge Institute of Management Studies for Dr G.M. HODGSON.
III. That, if Recommendation I is approved, (a) Dr Holmes be permitted to hold his Professorship concurrently with the Directorship of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, and (b) Dr Reif be permitted to hold his Professorship concurrently with the office of Senior Under-Librarian in the University Library.
22 July 1998
| ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor | N. J. MACKINTOSH | ADRIAN POOLE |
| JOHN E. CARROLL | D. H. MELLOR | KATE PRETTY |
| D. A. GOOD | A. C. MINSON | N. O. WEISS |
| JOHN A. LEAKE | MICHAEL PEPPER |
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