Reports

Report of the General Board on revised terms of reference for Degree Committees

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

1. This Report proposes revision of the terms of reference for Degree Committees, which are contained in Regulations of the General Board, with effect from January 2018.

2. The proposed terms of reference have been developed following a review of Degree Committees carried out by the Board of Graduate Studies in 2016. The review was initiated as part of a wider review of governance structures and also to meet a recommendation of a recent internal audit into graduate progression and examinations that there should be greater consistency in the terms of reference for the Committees. Schools and Degree Committees were consulted as part of the review.

3. The proposals have the support of the General Board, the General Board’s Education Committee, and the Board of Graduate Studies.

4. The review made the following recommendations:

(a)formalization of the role of Degree Committees, with consistent terms of reference;

(b)extension of the remit of Degree Committees, with a focus on academic matters and clear parameters for decision-making;

(c)provision of administrative support by academic-related staff;

(d)a defined reporting structure, with the flexibility to suit the needs of individual Schools and Faculties;

(e)devolution of the approval of the membership of Degree Committees from the General Board to the Councils of the Schools or Faculty Boards.

The new terms of reference, as set out in the revised regulations, are proposed as part of the implementation of those recommendations. If the new regulations are approved, their introduction will be supported by the provision of new guidance for Degree Committees.

5. The General Board shares the view of its Education Committee and the Board of Graduate Studies that the proposed terms of reference will bring about an increase in consistency of practice across the University and will meet the recommendation of the audit.

6. The General Board recommends:

I. That, with effect from 1 January 2018, the regulations for Degree Committees (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 612  ) be rescinded and replaced with the new regulations as set out in Annex A.

4 October 2017	Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor	Darshana Joshi	Philippa Rogerson
	Philip Allmendinger	Martha Krish	Helen Thompson
	Abigail Fowden	Patrick Maxwell	Graham Virgo
	David Good	Martin Millett	Mark Wormald
	A. L. Greer	Richard Prager

ANNEX A

Degree Committees

1. There shall be a Degree Committee for each Faculty, and for each of the institutions specified in Schedule I to these regulations. The constitution of such a Degree Committee shall be determined by the Faculty Board or other comparable authority, provided that:

(a)the minimum numbers of members shall be ten persons and the maximum shall be twenty persons unless the General Board determines otherwise in an individual case;

(b)no person shall be a member of a Degree Committee who has been admitted as a Graduate Student or who is a candidate for a Diploma or a Certificate or comparable qualification, the regulations for which do not require her or him to be admitted as a Graduate Student;

(c)Degree Committees may co-opt at least one member from another Degree Committee; the co-opted members of the Committee shall serve for one year from 1 January following the date of their co-optation or for the remainder of the calendar year in which they are co-opted, as the Faculty Board or comparable authority shall determine.

2. Each Degree Committee shall nominate one of its members as Chair of the Committee for appointment by the Board of Graduate Studies.

3. The Faculty Board shall nominate a Secretary to the Committee for appointment by the Board of Graduate Studies. Unless the appointed Secretary is an assistant member of staff, he or she may be a voting member of the Committee. The Secretary shall inform the Registrary of any change in the Committee’s membership.

4. Degree Committees shall meet with sufficient frequency to conduct their business in an appropriate and timely manner.

5. No business shall be transacted at a meeting of a Degree Committee unless at least one third of the whole number of members is present. No resolution that a person be recommended or approved for the award of a degree, or that a person be not so recommended or approved, shall be valid unless passed with the concurrence of the votes, cast at a meeting, of one half of the whole number of members of the Committee.

6. It shall be the duty of each Degree Committee:

(a)to recommend applicants for admission as Graduate Students to the Board of Graduate Studies, and to consider matters affecting those Graduate Students within the oversight of the Degree Committee, including review of their subsequent progress, reporting or making recommendations to the Board as appropriate;

(b)to make recommendations to the Board of Graduate Studies on applications for allowances as appropriate under the regulations listed in Schedule II;

(c)to receive the reports and recommendations from Examiners and Assessors on the work of candidates for the degrees of Doctor of Divinity, Law, Science, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Engineering, Education, Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine, and of Master of Science and of Literature, and to make recommendations to the Board of Graduate Studies on whom, in the opinion of the Committee, the degrees should be conferred;

(d)to receive the reports and recommendations from Examiners and boards of Examiners on the work of candidates for the degrees of Master of Philosophy by dissertation and by Advanced Study, Master of Research, Master of Studies, and Master of Education, and for the Certificate of Postgraduate Study, the Advanced Diploma in Economics, and Postgraduate Diplomas in Legal Studies and in International Law, and to submit for publication to the Board of Graduate Studies lists of those candidates to whom, in the opinion of the Committee, the qualifications should be awarded, in a form as prescribed by the Board;

(e)to receive the reports and recommendations from Examiners and boards of Examiners on the work of candidates for the Advanced Diploma in Theology and Religious Studies and the Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings, and to determine those candidates to whom, in the opinion of the Committee, the qualifications should be awarded;

(f)to review and comment on applications for new graduate and postgraduate programmes;

(g)to make an Annual Report to the cognate Faculty Board or comparable authority as those bodies deem necessary or as they may require;

(h)to undertake such other functions as may from time to time be assigned to them by the General Board, the cognate Faculty Board or comparable authority, or the Board of Graduate Studies.
 

SCHEDULE I

Department of Land Economy

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Department of Politics and International Studies

SCHEDULE II

Regulations for the following degrees, diplomas, and certificates:

Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Science, Master of Letters, and Master of Philosophy by Dissertation

Doctor of Business

Doctor of Education

Doctor of Engineering

Master of Philosophy by Advanced Study

Master of Research

Master of Studies

Master of Education

Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings

Advanced Diploma in Economics

Postgraduate Diploma in International Law

Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies

Certificates of Postgraduate Study