Cambridge University Reporter


Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Faculty of Computer Science and Technology

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

1. In this Report the General Board propose the establishment of a new Faculty of Computer Science and Technology, within the School of Technology, with a Faculty Board which would take over the responsibilities of the Computer Science Syndicate. The Faculty would comprise the Computer Laboratory as its sole Department. These proposals are consistent with recommendations made following a General Board review of the Computer Laboratory in 2003.

2. The Computer Laboratory was established (as the Mathematical Laboratory) in 1937. It was renamed as the Computer Laboratory in 1970, encompassing both its academic activities and the University Computing Service, and supervised by the Computer Syndicate. The Syndicate was replaced in 1991 by separate Computer Science and Information Technology Syndicates, with a common chairman and a degree of cross-representation. The Computer Science Syndicate was charged with overseeing the academic programme of the Laboratory while the Information Technology Syndicate was charged, inter alia, with overseeing the development and application of Information Technology in support of the activities of the University and the Colleges and with supervising the University Computing Service. The Computing Service was finally established as a separate institution in 2001. The Computer Laboratory continues as a Department independent of any Faculty and falls within the School of Technology.

3. The Laboratory has grown rapidly in recent years: it now has 35 academic, 35 research, and 25 support staff, and has responsibility for some 470 students in five degree programmes. This growth means that it now has ample staff to operate the conventional Cambridge governance structure of a Faculty and Faculty Board, and also that it has many extra responsibilities which a Faculty Board structure would help it to discharge more effectively. The introduction of devolved budgeting will add to those responsibilities, and reinforces the case for increasing participation by the Laboratory's staff in decision-making. The Faculty arrangement would also be more recognizable than the Cambridge Syndicate structure to the many outside individuals and organizations with whom the Laboratory interacts.

4. Given the development of Computer Science and the Laboratory, encompassing its broader activities in Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics, the Computer Science Syndicate have recommended to the General Board that it is now timely to consider the establishment of a Faculty of Computer Science and Technology. This would be an acknowledgement of the extent to which the subject has matured within the University and of the fact that the Laboratory is an internationally recognized centre of excellence, and would contribute in no small way to the structures needed to encourage collective participation in the Laboratory's further development.

5. The Syndicate have further proposed that the Computer Laboratory be reconstituted as a Department within the Faculty. A departmental structure allows well-defined responsibilities and powers to be assigned to the Head; and this would help the Laboratory to continue to interact decisively with the many outside bodies with whom it must, given the nature of the discipline, necessarily deal.

6. The General Board fully support these proposals, with which the Council of the School of Technology concur, and recommend that the University should establish a Faculty of Computer Science and Technology, within the School of Technology. The Faculty Board, which would replace the Computer Science Syndicate, would be constituted as follows:

class (a)(i)The Head of the Computer Laboratory
class (a)(ii)Four Professors assigned to the Faculty or to the Computer Laboratory
class (b)Two members appointed by the Council after consultation with the General Board
class (c)Four members elected by the Faculty
class (d)Up to two co-opted members
class (e)The Departmental Secretary of the Computer Laboratory as holder of a specified office
class (f)Three student members (one undergraduate student and two graduate students)

7. The Degree Committee for the Computer Laboratory would be replaced by a Degree Committee for the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology to consist of all the members of the Faculty Board except for those in class (f), plus up to four further co-opted members.

8. Appointment or reappointment to offices in the Computer Laboratory would be made by an Appointments Committee constituted in accordance with Statute D, XVII, 3 or, in the case of a joint appointment between the Laboratory and any other Department, by a special Appointments Committee constituted in accordance with Statute D, XVII, 4.

9. The General Board accordingly recommend:

I. That a Faculty of Computer Science and Technology be established from 1 January 2006 and that Computer Science and Technology be included in the Schedule appended to the General Regulations for Faculties (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 540).

II. That, with effect from the same date, the regulations for the Computer Laboratory and Computer Science Syndicate (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 569) be rescinded and that all references in the Ordinances to the Syndicate be replaced by references to the Faculty Board of Computer Science and Technology.

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

1. By replacing all references in the Ordinances to the Degree Committee for the Computer Laboratory by references to the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology.

2. Regulations for the constitution of the Faculty Boards (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 541):

Constitution of the Faculty Boards

(i) By inserting into Schedule I (the composition of the Faculty Boards) the following entry for the Faculty Board of Computer Science and Technology:

Faculty BoardClassesTotal
 (a)(i)(a)(ii)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f) 
Computer Science and Technology142421317

(ii) By amending Schedule III (Membership of Faculty Boards in class (e)) by inserting the following entry for the Faculty Board of Computer Science and Technology:

Faculty BoardRepresentatives of cognate studies
and method of appointment
Holders of specified offices
Computer Science and TechnologyThe Departmental Secretary of the Computer Laboratory

3. Schedule to the regulations for Degree Committees (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 548):

By deleting the Computer Laboratory from the Schedule.

4. Regulations for Departments and Heads of Departments (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 548):

By removing the entry for the Computer Laboratory from under Departments independent of any Faculty, and inserting under Departments within Faculties the following entry for the Faculty of Computer Science and Technology:

Computer LaboratoryA person appointed in accordance with Regulation 2.

9 November 2005ALISON RICHARD, Vice-ChancellorM. J. DAUNTONROGER PARKER
 JOHN BELLR. H. FRIENDJOHN SISSONS
 TOM BLUNDELLRICHARD HUNTERLAURA WALSH
 WILLIAM BROWND. W. B. MACDONALDI. H. WHITE
 H. A. CHASEMELVEENA MCKENDRICK