Skip to main contentCambridge University Reporter

No 6293

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Vol cxliii No 16

pp. 298–311

Reports

Report of the Council on General Admission to Degrees

The Council begs leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In this Report the Council proposes that General Admission be extended to cover four days. This proposal is consistent with a recommendation which the Council has received from the Colleges’ Committee, which had previously established a Working Group (chaired by the Master of Magdalene College and comprising three other Heads of House and two University representatives) to consult the Colleges about certain matters relating to Congregations. That Working Group consulted the Colleges on a variety of matters and the suggested change to which this Report refers commanded the support of the majority of Colleges. The Senate-House Syndics have also been individually consulted and have not opposed it in principle.

2. Regulation 13 of the regulations for the Presentation and Admission of Candidates for Degrees (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 184) currently provides that the days of General Admission shall be the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday after either the third or fourth Sunday in June, depending on the date on which Full Easter Term begins. This has been the case since 2000.

In recent years, increases in student numbers and in the proportion of students wishing to graduate in person have generated significant difficulties with both timing and over-crowding across the current three-day period and in the interests of safety more Colleges must now split their sessions. These difficulties have affected the Colleges, graduands and their guests, and those on duty in the Senate-House. The Council accepts that if the recommended aim of starting each day not before 10 a.m. and finishing by or shortly after 5 p.m. is to be achieved, a move to four days is inescapable. It agrees that attempts to curtail the graduation process itself, for example by abolishing the processions around College sessions or by presenting graduands en bloc rather than in groups of four, would be insufficient to make any significant improvement in the timetable, and would, moreover, make the proceedings less dignified and less attractive to graduands and their guests. The Council has therefore agreed to propose extending General Admission to four days instead. This extension would also make it easier to accommodate those Colleges which need to have their graduation ceremonies divided into two sessions. Consultation with the Colleges indicated very clear support for bringing forward the start of General Admission to Wednesday and clear opposition to the idea of a Sunday Congregation.

3. The Council’s proposal, if approved, would have implications for the regulations for the Dates of Examinations and Publication of Class Lists (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 236). The Chairs of those Boards of Examiners which submit their Class Lists very close to the Tuesday before the days of General Admission have been consulted about bringing that deadline a day earlier, to the Monday. They have agreed that this would be possible (albeit, for certain Tripos examinations, this would require the examinations to begin earlier).

4. The Council also notes that the Colleges’ Committee has recommended that from 2014 onward a second Saturday Congregation be called in March to ease overcrowding at the existing Congregation. Provision for this has therefore been made in accordance with Statutes and Ordinances (see the Vice-Chancellor’s Notice of Dates of Congregations 2012–14, Reporter, 6284, 2012–13, p. 109).

5. If the Council’s proposal to extend General Admission is approved, the outline timetable for proceedings at General Admission with effect from 2014 would be along the lines of those set out in the Appendix to this Report (see p. 309). Specific timings for College sessions within each day would continue to be set shortly before General Admission each year in accordance with the expected number of graduands, as is currently the case.

6. The Council proposes that the new arrangements for General Admission to Degrees should come into effect in 2014 and that they should be reviewed by the Council and the Colleges’ Committee in Michaelmas Term 2014.

7. The Council recommends:

I. That, with effect from 1 October 2013, the regulations for Admission to Degrees (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 184) be amended as follows:

Regulation 13.

By amending the regulation so as to read:

13. Every year the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday after the third Sunday in June shall be days of General Admission to Degrees, save that, in accordance to Regulation 3 for Terms and Long Vacation, in any year in which Full Easter Term begins on or after 22 April the days of General Admission shall be the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday after the fourth Sunday in June. On each day of General Admission there shall be one or more Congregations for General Admission to Degrees at such hours as the Vice-Chancellor shall appoint.

II. That, with effect from 1 October 2013, the regulations for Dates of Examinations and Publication of Class Lists (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 236) be amended as follows:

Regulation 5.

By replacing ‘The Tuesday before the days of General Admission’ by ‘The Monday before the days of General Admission’.

14 January 2013

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

David Good

Rosalyn Old

N. Bampos

Andy Hopper

Susan Oosthuizen

Charles Bell

Fiona Karet

Rachael Padman

Jeremy Caddick

F. P. Kelly

Shirley Pearce

Stephen J. Cowley

Robert Lethbridge

John Shakeshaft

Athene Donald

Mark Lewisohn

Sam Wakeford

I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay

Rebecca Lingwood

I. H. White

Nicholas Gay

Mavis McDonald

A. D. Yates

Appendix: Proposed order of proceedings at General Admission with effect from 2014

                            Wednesday

                            Thursday

College

Start time

College

Start time

King’s College

10 a.m.

Gonville and Caius College

10 a.m.

Trinity College (2 sessions)

Trinity Hall

St John’s College (2 sessions)

Corpus Christi College

Break

Queens’ College (2 sessions)

Peterhouse

2.30 p.m. (approx.)

Break

Clare College (2 sessions)

St Catharine’s College

2.30 p.m. (approx.)

Pembroke College

Jesus College (2 sessions)

The Congregation will end at approximately 5 p.m.

Christ’s College

The Congregation will end at approximately 5 p.m.

                            Friday

                            Saturday

College

Start time

College

Start time

Magdalene College

10 a.m.

Fitzwilliam College

10 a.m.

Emmanuel College (2 sessions)

Churchill College

Sidney Sussex College

Murray Edwards College /

Darwin College

Downing College

Break

Break

Girton College (2 sessions)

2.15 p.m. (approx.)

Wolfson College / Clare Hall

1.30 p.m. (approx.)

Newnham College

Robinson College

Selwyn College

Lucy Cavendish College /

St Edmund’s College

The Congregation will end at approximately 5 p.m.

Hughes Hall

Homerton College (2 sessions)

The Congregation will end at approximately 5.15 p.m.

Report of the General Board on the re-establishment of a Professorship of Pure Mathematics

The General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The study of Pure Mathematics is concerned with the understanding of mathematical phenomena in themselves. The Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics seeks to reinforce existing strengths in Geometry and Number Theory and develop new directions in Analysis. The Department’s research supports and informs its successful programme of teaching within the Faculty of Mathematics.

2. In their Report dated 4 November 2009 (Reporter, 6166, 2009–10, p. 212) the Board were pleased to announce that the Royal Society had awarded a 2010 Anniversary Research Professorship to Professor W. T. Gowers, tenable from 1 October 2009 for ten years and renewable, subject to review, for a further five years. Professor Gowers has been discharged from undertaking his duties under the Rouse Ball Professorship of Mathematics until the expiry of Royal Society funding.

3. As it is a condition of the Royal Society award that it is not used as substitutional funding, a single tenure Professorship of Pure Mathematics was established with effect from 1 October 2009. The Professorship has now lapsed following the resignation of Professor D. C. Calegari, and the Faculty Board of Mathematics and the Council of the School of the Physical Sciences accordingly propose its re-establishment for a further tenure. The person appointed will be expected to offer leadership in an area or areas of pure mathematics, and to participate in the teaching and research of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

4. The cost of the Professorship will be met from savings released while Professor Gowers holds the Royal Society award and, thereafter, from the suppression of a University Lectureship identified for this purpose. Any additional costs will be met from funds available to the School. This has been endorsed by the Council of the School of the Physical Sciences and the General Board have accepted the Department’s proposal for the establishment of the Professorship on this basis.

5. The Board are satisfied that an appointment at this level will be likely to attract a strong field of applicants. They are assured that suitable accommodation for the Professor is available in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, which has undertaken to provide the necessary support and facilities. The Board have agreed to concur with the view of the Department that election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature should be open to all persons whose work falls within the title of the Professorship.

6. The General Board recommend:

I. That the Professorship of Pure Mathematics be re-established from 1 September 2013 for one tenure, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

9 January 2013

L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor

M. J. Daunton

Robert Kennicutt

Philip Allmendinger

Simon Franklin

Rachael Padman

N. Bampos

C. A. Gilligan

John Rallison

H. A. Chase

David Good

Amanda Talhat

Sarah Coakley

Sadie Jarrett