Skip to main contentCambridge University Reporter

No 6271

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Vol cxlii No 36

pp. 724–745

Reports

Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on the governance arrangements for the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard

The Council and the General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In this Report the central bodies propose that the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard become institutions under the General Board’s supervision. The Report is based on the recommendations of an Occasional Committee established by the Council to consider this matter.1 That Committee was established in light of: developing HEFCE funding policies; the General Board’s 2008 Review of the Department of History of Art (and the Board’s subsequent review of that Department in 2009 following the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise); and the fact that all of the University’s other Museums and Collections are embedded in General Board institutions. That Committee consulted the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate, the Kettle’s Yard Committee, the two Directors of the Institutions concerned, the Joint Museums Committee, and various General Board institutions with a particular interest in the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard. The proposal has the support of the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate, the Kettle’s Yard Committee, the Joint Museums Committee, and the Faculty Board of Architecture and History of Art.

2. The two institutions concerned are at present under the supervision of the Council. Their local governance is undertaken through the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 640) and the Kettle’s Yard Committee (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 142). Each of these makes an annual report to the Council. Within each of their income streams, the Chest provides at present c. £2,887,000 a year to the Fitzwilliam Museum, and £93,000 a year to Kettle’s Yard. If this Report’s main proposal is accepted, the sums allocated from the Chest to the Council and the General Board for 2012–13 (Reporter, 2011–12, p. 656) will be adjusted as necessary. Individual staff in the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard interact with a number of Faculties and Departments, particularly (but by no means solely) with the Department of History of Art. A number of the Museum’s staff act as Directors of Studies in the Colleges. Kettle’s Yard has a long standing relationship with the Faculty of Music.

3. The University’s Museums and Collections, including the Fitzwilliam and Kettle’s Yard, submitted, in 2011, an application for Arts Council funding under the ‘Renaissance in the Regions Major Grants’ programme. The bid successfully secured £4,509,445 over three years with effect from 2012–13. That bid explicitly grouped together all the University’s Museums and Collections; made reference to an inter-museum strategic approach; emphasized the potential arising from a high concentration of Museum resources in Cambridge (which in the UK is second only to London’s); and envisaged all the Museums being under a single governance structure led by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. The recommendations in this Report are consistent with that bid’s undertakings.

4. The central bodies consider that there would be significant potential advantages in both institutions coming under the General Board’s supervision. The governance change proposed is, in the central bodies’ opinion, a necessary condition to facilitate closer and more systemic integration between the two institutions and other General Board institutions, to the long-term benefit of all parties concerned. Both institutions contribute to scholarship, teaching, and research, for which the General Board have responsibility across the rest of the University. The proposal would encourage, within the resources available, more systematic and strategic contributions by the two institutions to the University’s teaching programmes and research output, and facilitate greater use of their resources by the University’s academic community (both staff and students). It would enable each institution to gain a higher profile within the University, without diluting or undermining their other, outward facing, activities. It would facilitate the building of structured, sustainable relationships with other General Board institutions, and in particular better exploit the synergies between their activities and those of the Department of History of Art. The links between the two institutions and the Department of History of Art would also be strengthened by the Head of that Department becoming a member, ex officio, of the Museum’s Syndicate and of Kettle’s Yard Committee, and the Director of Kettle’s Yard becoming a member of the Faculty Board of Architecture and History of Art (as is already the case for the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum). There would, however, be a number of other General Board institutions which could also benefit. The central bodies can see benefits in the longer term in attempting to set in place means by which the research potential in the two institutions can be more fully realized in future Research Excellence Frameworks (REFs), as it is already with the embedded Museums and Collections, although immediate REF considerations have not driven the present proposal.

5. The proposal would allow for consistent lines of governance and reporting of all University museums to the General Board. Such governance arrangements for the University’s Museums and Collections would allow Cambridge to be better placed to bid for funds in what will continue to be an uncertain funding environment, and would enable issues common to all the Museums and Collections (for example, conservation and storage) to be better addressed. Each of the Directors of the Fitzwilliam Museum and of Kettle’s Yard would make annual presentations to the General Board. The proposal is not, however, intended to disturb the valuable responsibilities discharged by the Museum’s Syndicate and the Kettle’s Yard Committee, both of which make very important contributions, not least through their external members, to the health of these institutions. Nor would the proposal disturb arrangements applying in other Museums and Collections which are already embedded in General Board institutions.

6. It is not considered appropriate for either of the two institutions to be assigned to a particular School. Their activities extend, or could extend, across more than one School; and, in the case of the Museum, its size is such that it would distort the strategy and operation of any one School. The two institutions would continue to be scrutinized separately in the annual Planning Round.

7. If this Report’s main recommendation is accepted, it follows that the current Joint Museums Committee would become a Committee responsible to the General Board (rather than, as now, to both the Council and the General Board). That Committee is now chaired by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. This should continue to be the case, to ensure proper consideration centrally of the Museums’ needs and resources, and to ensure sufficient knowledge of their activities at meetings of the General Board and relevant senior committees. The General Board envisage that whilst, as now, the (Joint) Museums Committee would continue to include representatives of all the Museums and Collections, it would also include other members without particular connections to any Museum or Collection. The General Board would approve terms of reference for the Committee after consultation with the current Joint Committee as well as the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate, the Kettle’s Yard Committee, and the relevant Councils of the Schools. The Board, at this stage, envisage that these terms of reference would include responsibility for an inter-museum strategy, for activities applicable to all Museums and Collections, and for preparing and continued oversight of University-wide funding bids in relation to the Museums. The Minutes of the Committee’s meetings would continue to be considered by the General Board.

8. The Council and the General Board also concur with a recommendation by the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate that the frequency of its meetings be reduced to at least four meetings each year.

9. The Council and the General Board recommend:

I. That the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle’s Yard become institutions under the General Board’s supervision with effect from 1 August 2012.

II. That, if Recommendation I is approved, the following regulations be inserted or amended as indicated:

A. Kettle’s Yard Committee (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 142)

By inserting the following as Regulation 1 and renumbering the remaining regulations accordingly:

1. Kettle’s Yard shall be an institution independent of any Faculty or Department but under the supervision of the General Board. It shall be under the general control of the Kettle’s Yard Committee.

By replacing references to the Council with references to the General Board in current Regulations 1(b), 7, 8(c), 9, 10(c), 10(d), and 10(e).

Current Regulation 1.

By inserting a new class of membership as follows:

(e) the Head of the Department of History of Art;

and amending current classes (e) and (f) to (f) and (g).

Current Regulation 7.

By adding the following sentence at the end of the regulation:

‘The Director shall be a member of the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art.’

Current Regulation 10(e)

By adding the following clause at the end of the regulation:

‘and on such other matters as the General Board may require’.

B. Fitzwilliam Museum (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 640)

Constitution

By inserting the following regulation:

Constitution

The Fitzwilliam Museum shall be an institution independent of any Faculty or Department but under the supervision of the General Board. It shall be under the general control of the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate.

Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate

By replacing references to the Council with references to the General Board in Regulations 1(b), 4(d), and 4(g).

Regulation 1.

By inserting a new class of membership as follows:

(c) the Head of the Department of History of Art;

and amending the current class (c) to (d).

Regulation 2.

By replacing in line 2 of the regulation the words ‘[at least] two meetings in every term’ by the words ‘[at least] four meetings each year’:

Regulation 4(e).

By adding the following clause at the end of the regulation:

‘and on such other matters as the General Board may require’.

Staff of the Fitzwilliam Museum

By replacing references to the Council with references to the General Board in Regulations 1, 2(b), 5(a), 5(b), 6, and 15(e).

Admission to the Fitzwilliam Museum

Regulation 1.

By replacing references to the Council with references to the General Board

Hamilton Kerr Institute

By replacing references to the Council with references to the General Board in Regulations 3, 4(c), 6, 7(d), and 9.

III. That, if Recommendation I is approved, the following amendments be made to Schedules I and III relating to the composition and membership of Faculty Boards (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 564).

Schedule I (The composition of the Faculty Boards)

By amending the entry for the Faculty Board of Architecture and History of Art so that number of members in class (e) becomes 2 and the total membership becomes 19.

Schedule III (Membership of Faculty Boards in class (e))

By amending the entry for the Faculty Board of Architecture and History of Art to include the Director of Kettle’s Yard as a holder of a specified office.

IV. That, if Recommendation I is approved, the Regulations for the Kettle’s Yard Committee and the Fitzwilliam Museums, amended as proposed in Recommendation II, be moved from Chapters I and X of the Ordinances to Chapter IX.

18 June 2012

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay

Susan Oosthuizen

David Abulafia

Nicholas Gay

Rachael Padman

N. Bampos

David Good

T. Parry-Jones

Richard Barnes

Andy Hopper

John Shakeshaft

D. J. A. Casserley

Christopher Hum

Gerard Tully

Stephen J. Cowley

F. P. Kelly

Morgan Wild

Athene Donald

Robert Lethbridge

A. D. Yates

R. J. Dowling

Mavis McDonald

6 June 2012

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

Christopher Crow

R. Kennicutt

N. Bampos

Simon Franklin

Rachael Padman

William Brown

Andrew Gamble

J. Rallison

H. A. Chase

C. A. Gilligan

Patrick Sissons

Sarah Coakley

David Good

Morgan Wild

Footnotes

  • 1Membership of the Occasional Committee comprised: the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), Professor Abulafia, Professor Franklin, Professor Gilligan, and Dr Padman, with the Deputy Academic Secretary as Secretary.


Report of the General Board on the establishment of an MRC Research Professorship of Mitochondrial Medicine

The General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In their Report on certain fixed-term Professorships and Readerships and future arrangements for awarding the title of Honorary Professor or Reader (Reporter, 2000–01, p. 814), the Board, in accordance with policy and procedure outlined in paragraph 6 of the Notice on appointments to unestablished posts at the level of Professor or Reader (Reporter, 2000–01, p. 552), proposed, inter alia, the establishment of a number of fixed-term Professorships and Readerships, in place of unestablished Research Professorships and Readerships. The Board, in their Notice, also stated their intention to recommend the establishment of Professorships on future occasions when an individual had been successful in a prestigious external competition, for example, Royal Society and MRC Research Professorships. In a further Report, dated 22 January 2003 (Reporter, 2002–03, p. 519), the Board proposed the establishment of Professorships for the holders of Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowships.

2. The Board have now considered a proposal for the establishment of an MRC Research Professorship of Mitochondrial Medicine for Dr Massimo Zeviani, currently Director of the Unit of Molecular Neurogenetics, Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan. The Professorship is intended to be held in association with the honorary Directorship of the Medical Research Council’s Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge. The award from the MRC supporting the Professorship is for an initial period of ten years from the date of appointment, and is expected to be renewed for so long as Dr Zeviani remains honorary Director of the Unit. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine have agreed to meet the costs of the Professorship from the expiry of the MRC award, for the remainder of Dr Zeviani’s tenure should that be necessary.

3. The General Board recommend:

That an MRC Research Professorship of Mitochondrial Medicine be established from 15 November 2012 for the tenure of Dr Massimo Zeviani, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Faculty of Clinical Medicine.

6 June 2012

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

Simon Franklin

R. Kennicutt

N. Bampos

Andrew Gamble

Rachael Padman

William Brown

C. A. Gilligan

J. Rallison

H. A. Chase

David Good

Patrick Sissons

Sarah Coakley

Report of the General Board on the constitution of a Department of Psychology

The General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In this Report, the General Board propose the establishment of a single Department of Psychology through the merger of the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology, and the Centre for Family Research, with the Department of Experimental Psychology. The merger was a recommendation of the General Board Review of the Social Sciences (Reporter, 2009–10, p. 468), and has now been brought forward by the Faculty Boards concerned.

2. At present, the Department of Experimental Psychology is within the School of the Biological Sciences, while the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology and the Centre for Family Research are part of the Department of Social Sciences in the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

3. The Faculty Boards of Biology and of Human, Social, and Political Science (HSPS) have put forward the case for this merger on the following grounds:

• to consolidate the re-alignment of teaching responsibilities;

• to provide a strong single entity representing Psychology for the Research Excellence Framework submission to the Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience Unit of Assessment;

• to enable new research areas to be developed; and

• to provide a single department for high-quality undergraduates who wish to read Psychology, and for whom the present admissions routes can be confusing.

Psychology teaching and research would thus be unified in Cambridge in a common Department of Psychology, based within the School of the Biological Sciences. The proposal has been endorsed by the Councils of the Schools of the Biological Sciences and of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

4. The benefits of the proposal were identified in the General Board’s Review of the Social Sciences. A single Department of Psychology will provide a higher and more coherent public profile for Cambridge Psychology. It will encompass a wider range of the discipline’s strands (a characteristic shared by the UK’s strongest psychology departments), thereby providing a richer research environment. It will strengthen the interaction, increasingly found across the social sciences, between social processes and those studied through the natural sciences. It will provide more coherent and efficient teaching. So far as research is concerned, a single Department should facilitate the development of new research synergies. There should be REF advantages in being able to demonstrate a fully integrated submission covering a broad spectrum of specialisms in Psychology, and in benefiting from the repositioning of Psychology within the Biological (rather than Social) Sciences in the next REF.

5. The Department of Psychology will continue to contribute to the following interdepartmental courses within the Medical and Veterinary Sciences (MVST), Natural Sciences (NST), and Politics, Psychology, and Sociology (PPS) Triposes:

NST, Part Ia, Evolution and Behaviour;

NST, Part Ia, Elementary Mathematics for Biology;

MVST, Part Ib, Neurobiology and Human Behaviour;

NST, Part Ib, Neurobiology;

PPS, Part IIa, Psychology and Sociology;

NST, Part II, Neuroscience, Psychology, and Physiology; and

PPS, Part IIb, Psychology and Sociology.

The Department will take full responsibility for teaching the following:

PPS, Part I, Psychology;

NST, Part Ib, Experimental Psychology;

PPS, Part IIa, Psychology;

NST, Part II, Psychology; and

PPS, Part IIb, Psychology.

The General Board’s proposals for the teaching of Psychology within the Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Tripos (PBST) have strengthened the case for this merger. The new PBST will be overseen by a Management Committee, which will report to the Faculty Board of Biology, with representation from the Faculty of HSPS. In due course, as other subjects become involved in the new Tripos, representatives from other Faculties will be added to the Management Committee. Once operational, the PBST will subsume teaching in Psychology as described in the General Board’s previous Report on teaching in Psychology (Reporter, 2010–11, p. 958).

The Department of Psychology will be responsible for the teaching associated with the M.Phil. in Social and Developmental Psychology. It will also become responsible for the former Division of Social and Developmental Psychology’s contribution to the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre, including teaching on the Social Sciences Research Methods Centre teaching programme. The Department will be responsible for the Department of Experimental Psychology’s contribution to the MRC Doctoral Training Award, and to the BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership. Master’s and Doctoral Students registered before August 2012 will by default continue to be managed by the Degree Committee with which they are currently registered (i.e. either the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Biology or that for the Faculty of HSPS), but they may transfer if it is agreed to be in their best interests. Students beginning their graduate studies in Psychology after August 2012 will be the responsibility of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Biology.

6. The General Board intend to appoint the current Head of the Department of Experimental Psychology as Head of the new Department.

7. The staff of Experimental Psychology are based in a number of buildings, mainly located on the Downing Site, but also at the Innes Centre on the West Cambridge Site, the Herchel Smith building on the Forvie Site, and the sub-Department of Animal Behaviour at Madingley. The staff in the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology and those in the Centre for Family Research are mainly based in the Old Cavendish Laboratory in Free School Lane, but also in the Mond Building on the New Museums Site. The new Department could not be housed on a single site at present, but in the longer term there should be opportunities for co-locating those with similar research interests, i.e. while it will not be possible to co-locate staff in each of the new Departments of Psychology and of Sociology immediately, this should be achieved as soon as possible.

8. Proposals for the reassignment of existing Professorships and Readerships to the new Department are set out in Recommendation II. Subject to the approval of this Report, the General Board would reassign other offices, with the concurrence of the present holders, to the new Department.

9. Two support staff whose duties primarily concern the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology, and all support staff of the Department of Experimental Psychology, will be assigned to the new Department.

Other support staff currently shared by the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology with the Division of Sociology, and the Department of Politics and International Studies will remain with the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science. A small number of these staff, e.g. for IT support, will continue to have duties in the new Department of Psychology for a transitional period, as agreed between the two Schools, but this will be subject to annual review. Research Staff of the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology will also transfer to the new Department. A transfer of funds has been agreed between the Schools. Overall the merger is expected to be financially cost neutral.

Staff and trade unions are being consulted and kept informed of progress. There will be no compulsory job losses as a direct consequence of this merger.

10. The General Board consider that the establishment of a new Department of Psychology would significantly simplify undergraduate admissions for high quality candidates intending to read Psychology, further promote excellence in teaching quality, strengthen the Psychology submission to the REF, and facilitate significant developments in research. In the longer term the merger would provide a strategic opportunity to rationalize and improve the accommodation and facilities for teaching and research in the discipline. The General Board have, accordingly, accepted the proposals and commend them to the University for approval.

Recommendations

The General Board recommend:

I. That a Department of Psychology, comprising the current Department of Experimental Psychology, and the Division of Social and Developmental Psychology, and the Centre for Family Research, be established within the School of the Biological Sciences, with effect from 1 August 2012; that the Centre for Family Research be transferred to the Faculty of Biology; and that the Department of Social Sciences be renamed the Department of Sociology.

II. That, with effect from the same date, the following Professorships and Readerships be reassigned to the Department of Psychology:

The Professorship of Auditory Perception

The Professorship of Behavioural Neuroscience

The Professorship of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience

The Professorship of Comparative Cognition

The Professorship of Developmental Psychopathology (shared with Psychiatry)

The Professorship of Experimental Psychology

The Professorship of Family Research

The Professorship of Psychology

The Professorship of Psychology in the Social Sciences

The Readership in Cognitive and Behavioural Neurosciences

The Readership in Cognitive Development

The Readership in Developmental Psychology

III. That certain regulations be amended as follows, with effect from the same date:

A. Unless otherwise indicated below, by replacing all references to the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Division or Department of Social and Developmental Psychology by reference to the Department of Psychology.

B. Regulations for the Constitution of the Faculty Boards (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 562)

By amending Schedule I so as to read:

Total

(a)(i)

(a)(ii)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Biology

8

0

2

8

6

7

3

34

By amending Schedule III for the Faculty of Biology so as to read:

Representatives of cognate studies: One person appointed by the Faculty Boards of Earth Sciences and Geography; Human, Social, and Political Science; Physics and Chemistry; and Veterinary Medicine

Holders of specified offices: The Director of the Centre for Family Research; the Director of Education (Biological Sciences) in the Faculty of Biology; the Director of Medical Education in the Faculty of Clinical Medicine

And by deleting the reference to the Director of the Centre for Family Research from Schedule III (Holders of specified offices) for the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science.

C. Regulations for Departments and Heads of Departments (Statutes and Ordinances, pp. 576 and 596)

(i)By transferring the regulations for the Centre for Family Research from those for the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science to those for the Faculty of Biology within the Special Regulations for Faculties and Departments.

(ii)By amending the regulations for the Centre for Family Research by replacing all references to the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science by reference to the Faculty of Biology but deleting the sentence in Regulation 3 stating ‘The Administrative Officer assigned to the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science shall serve as Secretary of the Committee’ and replacing this with ‘The Secretary of the Committee shall be appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Psychology’.

15 June 2012

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

Christopher Crow

R. Kennicutt

N. Bampos

Simon Franklin

Rachael Padman

William Brown

Andrew Gamble

J. Rallison

H. A. Chase

C. A. Gilligan

Patrick Sissons

Sarah Coakley

David Good

Morgan Wild