Reporter 11/11/98: Election of student members of the Council and of Faculty Boards: Notice

Election of student members of the Council and of Faculty Boards: Notice

Student members of the Council are elected by 'the students in the University' (Statute A, IV, 2); similarly, student members of Faculty Boards are elected by 'the students in the Faculty' (Statute C, IV, 2). The regulations governing such elections require the Council and the General Board respectively to make rules defining the term 'student' for this purpose.

The Council and the General Board have recently reviewed the current rules (Rules made by the Council for the election of student members of the Council, Statutes and Ordinances, p. 122; Rules made by the General Board for the election of student members of Faculty Boards, Statutes and Ordinances, p. 542) and the regulations under which they are made, and have agreed that a number of changes are desirable, as follows:

Qualifying date for inclusion in electoral rolls

Regulation 10 of the regulations for the election of members of the Council (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 120) requires the Registrary to publish electoral rolls of those persons who are eligible to vote and to stand as candidates in the election of student members of the Council. The qualifying date for such eligibility is 31 December. However, the comparable regulations for the election of student members of Faculty Boards (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 538) give 31 October as the qualifying date. The use of two different dates to define eligibility leads to confusion, and the Council are submitting a Grace to the Regent House (Grace 1, p. 137) proposing the adoption of 31 October as the qualifying date for the rolls used for elections to the Council, thus bringing arrangements for Council elections and Faculty Board elections into line.

Definition of the term 'undergraduate'

Rule 3 of the rules made by the Council and Rule 9 of the rules made by the General Board define the term 'undergraduate' as a student whose course of study is one leading to the B.A. or B.Ed. Degree. The Council and the Board have agreed to extend this definition so as to include students reading for the B.Th. Degree and, for the avoidance of doubt, those reading for the M.Eng. or the M.Sci. (who are also necessarily reading for the B.A.).

Eligibility of Graduate Students

Rule 6 of the rules made by the Council excludes from the status of 'student' any Graduate Student whose name was entered on the Register of Graduate Students more than four calendar years before 31 December next preceding the election concerned. Rule 7 of the rules made by the General Board contains a similar provision, phrased in slightly different terms. These rules have the effect of excluding any Graduate Student who leaves Cambridge after completing the course for the M.Phil. Degree and who returns to Cambridge at a later date to work for the Ph.D. They also produce the anomaly that some Ph.D. students in their fourth year of study are eligible to vote, while others are not. The Council and the Board have agreed to amend these rules so as to exclude Graduate Students who have been registered for their current course for more than four calendar years; they have also agreed that the qualifying date in both cases should be 31 October.

Amendments of rules

Amendments of the current rules have accordingly been approved as set out overleaf.

The rules made by the Council (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 122) have been amended as follows:

Rule 3.

By amending the rule so as to read:

3. The term undergraduate shall mean a student in the University whose course of study is one leading to any of the following degrees: B.A., M.Eng., M.Sci., B.Ed., B.Th. The term graduate student shall mean a student in the University who is not an undergraduate so defined.

Rule 4.

By replacing the words 'the B.A. Degree or the B.Ed. Degree' by the words 'any of the degrees specified in Rule 3'.

Rule 6.

By amending the rule so as to read:

6. The Registrary shall not include in either roll the name of any Graduate Student who, on 31 October next preceding the election, had been registered for his or her current course of study or research for more than four calendar years, or the name of any Graduate Student holding a Fellowship of any College on 31 October next preceding the election.

The rules made by the General Board (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 542) have been amended as follows:

Rule 6.

By replacing the words 'for the B.A. Degree or the B.Ed. Degree' by the words 'for any of the degrees specified in Rule 9(a) below'.

Rule 7.

By amending the rule so as to read:

7. The Registrary shall not include in any electoral roll the name of any Graduate Student who

either	(a)	on 31 October next preceding the election had been registered for his or her current course of study or research for more than four calendar years,
or	(b)	held a Fellowship of a College on 31 October next preceding the election,
or	(c)	was a member of a Faculty at the most recent promulgation of the lists of the Faculties.

Rule 9.

By amending sub-paragraph (a) so as to read:

(a)	the term undergraduate shall mean a student whose course of study is one leading to any of the following degrees: B.A., M.Eng., M.Sci., B.Ed., B.Th.;

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