Cambridge University Reporter


Amendments to Statute G, II: Notice

13 October 2008

On 23 July 2008 the Registrary published a Notice stating that Her Majesty the Queen, at a Council held on 9 July 2008, had approved amendments of Statutes including Statute G, II (Reporter, 2007-08, p. 974).

The amendments to Statute G, II relate to a revised system of assessment of College contributions to the Colleges Fund. The Council had agreed that the new system should take effect from the calculation of contributions for the accounting year 2007-08 (see the Council's Third Report, dated 10 December 2007, on amendments of Statute G, II (Financial relations between the University and the Colleges: the Colleges Fund), Reporter, 2007-08, p. 372). Since the publication of the Report the Bursars' Fees Sub-committee have considered the timing for the implementation of the revised system and have recommended to the Council that this should not be introduced until the accounting year 2008-09 (so that contribution will be based on capital values at the end of the accounting year 2007-08 and will be payable under the new system for the first time in two instalments, on 31 December 2009 and 30 June 2010).

The new Schedule G provides that

Each year the total of the contributions of the Colleges shall equal the sum of the net payment for the year, as notified by the Finance Committee, from the Colleges Fund of the costs of the University under Statute G, II, 10 and 11 and £3,000,000 multiplied by the multiplier for that year.

The multiplier shall be equal to the ratio of the value of an index in January immediately preceding the valuation date to its value in January 2006, that index to be determined by the University reflecting general economic circumstances.

A minor complication has arisen through the discontinuance by Universities UK of their Higher Education Pay and Prices Index (HEPPI) at 1 January. The Council believes that the best solution now would be for the University to determine that the index to be used should be the HEPPI (all) figure six months previously. Thus, for example, the multiplier for 2009 would be the ratio of the July 2007 HEPPI (all) index to the July 2005 figure (namely 140.3/130.6, yielding a total contribution sum for 2009 of £3,222,818).

The Council has accordingly agreed that the calculation of contributions for the year 2007-08 should be made on the basis of the previous system and is submitting a Grace to amend Schedule G (Grace 3, p. 75).