A Discussion was held in the Senate-House. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeremy Sanders was presiding, with two Proctors, two Pro-Proctors, the Registrary, and twenty-nine other persons present.
The following Reports were discussed:
Report of the General Board, dated 9 July 2008, on a Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies (PPSIS) (Reporter, 2007-08, p. 964).
Professor J. L. SCOTT:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as Head of the Department of Sociology it gives me great pleasure to support the proposed creation of a Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies. I believe that the creation of the Department of Politics and International Studies within the new Faculty offers a very positive step towards strengthening social sciences at Cambridge, while maintaining the identity of the different disciplines. An enlarged new Faculty will provide a good institutional base for Sociology to meet the high demand for undergraduate and graduate training and build on its existing research excellence. Sociology is fully committed to the preservation and development of multidisciplinary teaching and research within and beyond the Faculty and it welcomes the inclusion of the Centre of International Studies within the Faculty umbrella.
Professor A. M. GAMBLE:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as Head of the Department of Politics it gives me great pleasure to support the formation of a new Department of Politics and International Studies, combining the existing Department of Politics and the Centre of International Studies within a reorganized Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies. I believe that these changes will strengthen all the social sciences at Cambridge, by providing for the first time a unified programme of politics and international studies at both graduate and undergraduate levels, and by enhancing the disciplinary identities of Sociology and Psychology, while safeguarding multidisciplinary teaching and research.
Cambridge has a long and distinctive tradition in the study of politics and international relations with a particular emphasis, going back over a century, on historical and multidisciplinary approaches to the study of political theory and international politics. In contrast to other leading universities in the UK and North America, however, the study of politics and international relations at Cambridge has until now lacked the kind of institutional focus found elsewhere. The new Department will provide this by building on the strengths which already exist in Cambridge, and deepening the links with other disciplines. There is great potential for expansion and for building a Department which will be a centre of excellence in both teaching and research.
Professor M. E. LAMB:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and as Head of the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, I welcome the proposal to replace the old Faculty of Social and Political Sciences with the new Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies. For the first time, the Departments of Politics, Psychology, and Sociology will be explicitly visible both within the University and to the outside world, increasing their ability to attract undergraduate and postgraduate students of the highest quality. In addition, this new Faculty will provide a home for the new Department of Politics and International Studies. Together, these changes, along with the introduction of Tripos regulations that permit deeper disciplinary-based courses of instruction, will rejuvenate teaching and scholarship in the constituent social science Departments at the University.
Professor G. R. EVANS:
Mr Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the larger matter raised by this Report concerns the way the University of Cambridge should respond - and how frequently - to changes in the taxonomy of knowledge. Arrangements for the design of degree courses, for teaching, and for examining, all have to be adjusted when families of subjects undergo divorces and remarriages. 'Interdisciplinary', formerly the buzz-word, is here substituted by 'multidisciplinary', a very different notion from the point of view of the intellectual integrity of the proposed 'merger'. Cambridge dragged its feet in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries while the dissenting academies got ahead with creative course redesign. I am just a little worried that it is now running ahead of itself too enthusiastically. The previous changes are still recent and have not had long to bed down and prove themselves. And one is bound to wonder what behind-the-scenes factors to do with the continuation of posts established in institutions may lie behind these proposals. 'Reassignments' of offices have been 'agreed with the individuals concerned'? I hope they are all genuinely content.
Professor C. J. HILL:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as Director of the Centre of International Studies it gives me great pleasure to support the formation of a new Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), combining the existing Department of Politics and the Centre of International Studies within a reorganized Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies. International Studies has become a centre of excellence for postgraduates since its foundation in 1967, but its staff establishment has only grown slowly. Since gaining independence from the History Faculty in 1998 it has been on a path of convergence with the Department of Politics, entering the Research Assessment Exercise together on the last two occasions, sharing a research seminar, and being co-located in 17 Mill Lane. Now that the Department of Politics has started its own M.Phil. programme, the time is ripe for the two units to merge so that we may benefit from a clearer national and international profile, as well as various economies of scale. Over the next few years the members of the Centre will begin to teach undergraduates within the reformed Tripos, and are accordingly willing to join the new, light-touch Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies. We look forward to this step fostering the growth of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge, and in turn furthering the development of all the social sciences in the University.
Thirteenth Report of the Board of Scrutiny, dated 10 July 2008 (Reporter, 2007-08, p. 996).
Notice by the Editor: the remarks on this Report will be published together with the Council's response as soon as possible.
Report of the Council, dated 22 September 2008, on the sale of premises at 6 Chaucer Road (Reporter, p. 30).
No remarks were made on this Report.
Report of the General Board, dated 29 September 2008, on the establishment of a Professorship of Statistics in Biomedicine (Reporter, p. 30).
No remarks were made on this Report.