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Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Centre for Family Research

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Centre for Family Research is an informal group of researchers working within the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. Although it has no formal status in the University, the Centre is a long-standing and well-established research group with an international reputation for its work. It is widely known in both academic and applied circles, and is an important contributor to the University's reputation for valuable research of high quality in the social sciences.

2. The Centre pre-dates the establishment of Social and Political Sciences in Cambridge. It began its life in the mid-1960s under the aegis of the Department of Experimental Psychology and the then postgraduate Medical School. When, in 1970, Dr (now Professor) M.P.M. Richards was appointed to a University Lectureship in association with the establishment of the Social and Political Sciences Tripos, he brought his research group with him, and this has since grown and prospered within the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences.

3. The General Board have received from the Faculty Board of Social and Political Sciences a report proposing the establishment of the Centre for Family Research on a formal basis. After consulting the Council of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and in the light of comments contained in a recent report by a committee set up to review the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, the General Board have agreed to support this proposal and to commend it to the University.

4. The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences has recognized the importance of the Centre, which accounts for a considerable proportion of the externally funded research in the Faculty. In 1995 the Faculty Board assigned the holder of an office of Assistant Director of Research in the Faculty to the activities of the Centre, and for some years before that the Faculty Board had provided half the funding of an administrative secretarial post in the Centre. Over the years members of the Centre have played an important role in undergraduate and graduate teaching in the Faculty.

5. The Centre is concerned with a topic of research - families - which is of enduring interest and provides a breadth that can accommodate a number of streams of multidisciplinary research. These fit well into the Cambridge context; they complement and extend work which is in progress elsewhere in the University in related areas such as Applied Economics and the History of Population and Social Structure.

6. The Centre has four themes of research - Socio-legal Studies of the Family, Youth and Childhood, Psycho-social Aspects of the new Genetics, and Maternity Services. For each of these themes there are strong national and international links, which in a number of cases are of long standing. In the socio-legal field, where much of the research has concerned divorce, the Centre has worked with the Lord Chancellor's Department in the United Kingdom (the Head of the Centre was the Lord Chancellor's Policy Adviser on the Family Law Act), and with the Family Courts in both Australia and New Zealand. Collaborative work is carried out with many other institutions, including the Socio-legal Studies Centre in Oxford, the MRC Medical Sociology Unit in Glasgow, and the Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne.

7. Given that the Centre is well established and has demonstrated the enduring importance of the research which it carries out and the field within which it operates, the General Board are satisfied that it is both timely and appropriate that the University should recognize the Centre and provide it with a formal structure. They believe that there are clear advantages in doing this, not only for the Faculty and the Centre but also for the University. The Centre would benefit from having a stronger management structure. It would enable the Faculty and the University more effectively to monitor and support the activities of the Centre in administering its grant income, and to attend to the conditions of employment and other needs of the various contract research workers employed there. It would also enhance the status of the Centre in the eyes of external funding bodies, would assist fund raising, and would provide appropriate recognition of the Director, the Deputy Director, and all those who have contributed to its past achievements and future prospects. The formalization of the existing state of affairs requires no new resources, and carries no financial implications for the University.

8. The regulations proposed for the Centre are similar to those for other Centres of Studies in the University. The Centre would be an integral part of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and would be under the general control of a Committee of Management.

9. The General Board accordingly recommend:

That, with effect from 1 January 1999, a Centre for Family Research be established within the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and governed by the regulations set out in the Annex to this Report.

4 November 1998

ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor PETER LIPTON MICHAEL PEPPER
JOHN E. CARROLL N. J. MACKINTOSH ADRIAN POOLE
D. A. GOOD D. H. MELLOR KATE PRETTY
D. E. L. JOHNSTON A. C. MINSON N. O. WEISS
JOHN A. LEAKE

ANNEX

Centre for Family Research

Management

1. The Centre for Family Research shall be an institution within the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and shall be under the general control of a Committee of Management which shall consist of:

  1. the Director of the Centre;
  2. the Deputy Director of the Centre;
  3. one person appointed by the General Board;
  4. three persons appointed by the Faculty Board of Social and Political Sciences;
  5. not more than two persons co-opted at the discretion of the Committee.

2. Members in classes (c) and (d) shall be appointed in the Michaelmas Term to serve for four years from 1 January following their appointment. Co-opted members in class (e) shall serve until 31 December of the year in which they are co-opted or of the year next following, as the Committee shall determine at the time of their co-optation.

3. The Committee shall elect one of their members other than the Director to be their Chairman, to serve for three years from 1 January following his or her election. The Administrative Officer assigned to the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences shall serve as Secretary of the Committee.

4. Subject to the powers of the Council, the General Board, and the Faculty Board of Social and Political Sciences, the duties of the Committee shall be as follows:

  1. to promote study and research in family life and kinship, and to co-operate with outside bodies in the encouragement of such study and research;
  2. to administer funds allocated to them for the purposes specified in (a) above;
  3. to supervise the work of staff of the Centre.

5. Five members of the Committee shall form a quorum.

Staff of the Centre

1. The Directorship and the Deputy Directorship of the Centre shall each be held concurrently with a University office in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences.

2. The Director and the Deputy Director shall be appointed by the General Board on the recommendation of the Faculty Board of Social and Political Sciences. They shall each hold office for four years, and shall be eligible for reappointment.

3. Under the general control of the Committee of Management, the Director shall be the administrative head of the Centre and shall be responsible for the direction of study and research in the Centre.

4. Under the general control of the Committee of Management, the Deputy Director shall deputize for the Director of the Centre as required and shall carry out such other duties as the Director shall determine.

5. The Director and the Deputy Director of the Centre shall conform to such conditions of residence as may be determined by the Committee of Management with the approval of the General Board.


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Cambridge University Reporter, 11 November 1998
Copyright © 1998 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.