The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. Professor David Phillipson will retire from the office of Director and Curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the end of September 2006. Professor Phillipson holds that office concurrently with a personal Professorship of African Anthropology established for his tenure by Grace 1 of 21 November 2001.
2. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology was established in 1883. The Museum is an integral part of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology; it is the second largest museum in the University and the third largest collection of its type in the UK. All five of the officers with curatorial duties are actively involved in research and teaching in the Faculty and the Museum also supports approximately 150 visiting researchers annually from around the world. The management needs of the Museum have grown during the tenure of the current Director with the growth of outreach activities and the expectations following the award of Designated Status by the Museums and Galleries Commission. The Director of the Museum must therefore have a strong research record and be able to provide leadership for research, teaching, and museum administration. He or she must be able to manage a team of senior curatorial staff, curatorial assistants, and supporting staff, who are responsible for curating and developing the collections, undertaking research and teaching, and organizing public and educational events and activities.
3. The General Board have been advised by the Faculty Board of Archaeology and Anthropology that the prospects for attracting a strong field of candidates for the Directorship would be enhanced if provision were also made for the Board to recommend the establishment of a single-tenure Professorship for a Director of the appropriate academic standing. The School of the Humanities and Social Sciences concur with these views. Such an appointment would be expected to strengthen the research base in Archaeology and Anthropology.
4. Currently, the title of Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is held by the holder of the office of Curator of the Museum, and appointments to the office of Curator are made by the Appointments Committee for the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology. The Board consider that the appropriate way to proceed, on this occasion, would be for the Board to constitute an Advisory Committee, along the lines of a Board of Electors and including persons of relevant senior experience of managing museums, who would consider the applications and make a recommendation for appointment to the Board.
5. If, in the light of advice from their Advisory Committee, with reference to the criteria for promotion to a personal Professorship, they consider it appropriate for the Director to be appointed to a Professorship, the Board would report again to the University, recommending the establishment of a single-tenure Professorship for a named person. The regulations for the Professorship would require the Professor to hold the office of Curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology during his or her tenure.
6. The Board's proposal is comparable to the arrangements which have been made for the Directorships of certain other institutions, for example the Institute for Continuing Education (Reporter, 2003-04, p. 480) and the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance (Reporter, 2001-02, p. 240).
7. The General Board recommend:
I. That approval be given to the procedure described in this Report for the establishment of a single-tenure Professorship, to be held concurrently with the University office of Curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the title of Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
II. That Regulation 5 for the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 554) be amended so as to read:
5. Appointments and reappointments to the University office of Curator and Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which may be held concurrently with another University office, shall be made by the General Board on the advice of a committee specially constituted for the particular occasion.
| 30 November 2005 | ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor | M. J. DAUNTON | ROGER PARKER |
| JOHN BELL | RICHARD FRIEND | PATRICK SISSONS | |
| TOM BLUNDELL | D. W. B. MACDONALD | LAURA WALSH | |
| WILLIAM BROWN | MELVEENA MCKENDRICK | I. H. WHITE | |
| H. A. CHASE |