The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. As a result of an initiative by the Department of French to forge links with the French Embassy, following the closure of the French Cultural Delegation in Cambridge during the summer of 2004, a proposal to establish a Visiting Professorship in the University has been agreed, which has been fully endorsed and supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By the generous provision of funding for this major innovation, the French Government has made it possible for a distinguished scholar to take up residence in Cambridge and to take full part in the activity of the Department.
2. The Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages have a strong international reputation in French and it is expected that the appointment of a distinguished scholar as a Visiting Professor will bring additional expertise to the Department, at no additional cost to the Faculty. The Visiting Professor will be of great assistance with the taught element of its M.Phil. course in European Literature and Culture, as well as with the appropriate scheduled papers in Part IB and Part II of the Tripos, and will be much appreciated by those working towards a Ph.D. Degree in French studies. The arrangement, for five years in the first instance, will be for the secondment on full stipend of a French scholar working in the field of French language and literature to work in the Department of French. The Visiting Professor will be appointed for the Michaelmas and Lent Term of each academical year.
3. The General Board have accepted the proposal from the Faculty Board of Modern and Medieval Languages to recommend the establishment of a Visiting Professorship, to be entitled the French Government Visiting Professorship. The Professor will be elected by the General Board, under the provision of Statute D, XV, 1(c), on the recommendation of an Advisory Committee. As is the case with other Visiting Professors such as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, they propose that the Professor should be entitled to be considered for election as a College Professorial Fellow during his or her period in Cambridge.
4. The General Board recommend:
I. That a French Government Visiting Professorship be established in the University with effect from 1 October 2005, placed in Schedules B and H of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of French.
II. That regulations for the French Government Visiting Professorship, as set out in the Schedule to this Report, be approved.
1. A French Government Visiting Professor shall be elected annually under the authority of Statute D, XV, 1(c)(iii) by the General Board, on the recommendation of an Advisory Committee, comprising the Chairman of the Faculty Board of Modern and Medieval Languages, the Head of the Department of French, the Drapers Professor of French (if not one of the above), and two members appointed by the General Board.
2. The tenure of a French Government Visiting Professorship shall be for a period of not more than two terms, during which time he or she shall be in residence in Cambridge unless granted leave of absence by the General Board.
3. It shall be the duty of the French Government Visiting Professor to participate in the teaching programme of the Department of French.
| 9 March 2005 | ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor | R. H. FRIEND | MELVEENA MCKENDRICK |
| TOM BLUNDELL | RICHARD HUNTER | ROGER PARKER | |
| WILLIAM BROWN | DREW LIVINGSTON | KEITH PETERS | |
| M. J. DAUNTON | D. W. B. MACDONALD | I. H. WHITE |