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No 6456

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Vol cxlvii No 22

pp. 370–379

Notices

Calendar

25 February, Saturday. Congregation of the Regent House at 2 p.m (see p. 378).

26 February, Sunday. Preacher before the University at 11.15 a.m., The Reverend Professor Ben Quash, formerly Dean of Peterhouse and Chaplain of Fitzwilliam College, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, King’s College, London (Hulsean Preacher).

5 March, Sunday. End of third quarter of Lent Term.

7 March, Tuesday. Discussion at 2 p.m. in the Senate-House (see below).

Discussions (at 2 p.m.)

Congregations

7 March

25 February

21 March

25 March

1 April

Discussion on Tuesday, 7 March 2017

The Vice-Chancellor invites those qualified under the regulations for Discussions (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 103) to attend a Discussion in the Senate-House on Tuesday, 7 March 2017, at 2 p.m. for the discussion of:

1. First-stage Report of the Council, dated 14 February 2017, on the construction of a new Cavendish Laboratory in West Cambridge (Reporter, 6455, 2016–17, p. 362).

2. Second-stage Report of the Council, dated 14 February 2017, on the construction of a new building for the Department of Engineering in West Cambridge (Reporter, 6455, 2016–17, p. 364).

3. Report of the General Board, dated 15 February 2017, on the establishment of a Professorship of Cancer Sciences (p. 376).

Notice of benefactions

The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that he has accepted with gratitude the offer of a benefaction of US$2m from the Andrew Mellon Foundation as endowment funding, to be matched two-to-one over five years, to support interdisciplinary programmes organized and administered by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, and the first payment of match funding of £1m from the Isaac Newton Trust, also payable over five years. The Council is publishing a Grace for the approval of the regulations to govern an Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Fund, which will receive both these initial funds of £1.5m and any funds received in the future for the same purpose (Grace 5, p. 377).

University Composition Fees

20 February 2017

In the following Notice the Council proposes amendments to the fees for certain categories of students as set out in the Table of Fees attached to the regulations for University Composition Fees.

Fees in 2018–19

The Council proposes that the fees payable for these courses in 2018–19 are the same as the fees paid by continuing Overseas students in that year as approved by Grace 2 of 18 January 2017.

The Council is accordingly submitting a Grace to the Regent House (Grace 4, p. 377) for the approval of the fees set out in the Schedule attached to this Notice.

Schedule

Qualification

Overseas

Overseas

2017–18

2018–19

£

£

M.Eng. Degree and M.Sci. Degree

25,275      

26,538      

M.Math. Degree

18,522      

19,449      

M.A.St. Degree:

Courses leading to examinations in

    Astrophysics

25,275      

26,538      

    Materials Science

25,275      

26,538      

    Mathematics

18,522      

19,449      

    Physics

25,275      

26,538      

Second Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on the consideration of student complaints of harassment and sexual misconduct: Notice in response to Discussion remarks

20 February 2017

The Council and the General Board have considered the remarks made at the Discussion on 7 February 2017 (Reporter, 6455, 2016–17, p. 368) concerning the above Report (Reporter, 6452, 2016–17, p. 326).

Mr Shah expresses concern at the possibility that the University might persist with disciplinary proceedings even when the police have declined to prosecute. The University Advocate already has the power to charge a member of the University in such circumstances, see Regulation 4 of the Ordinance on initiation of proceedings (and also Statute D II 16); it is not a power which the Second Joint Report seeks to introduce.

Mr Shah also expresses concern about a respondent’s right to receive evidence in connection with disciplinary proceedings against him or her. The recommendations in the Second Joint Report are not concerned with the procedural rules for the disclosure of evidence to respondents in disciplinary proceedings. Paragraph 6.2.3(a), to which Mr Shah refers, is a provision in the Procedure for Handling Cases of Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct, which, as paragraph 6 of the First Report (Reporter, 6445, 2016–17, p. 132) makes clear, is not intended to be disciplinary or to involve any finding of wrongdoing. Mr Shah’s concerns will be referred for consideration under the current review of student disciplinary procedures.

Mr Shah also makes comments on the draft Special Ordinance concerning precautionary measures. He argues that there must be substantial grounds before precautionary measures are imposed, that an evidential standard should be specified, that the person on whom measures are imposed should be informed as to the basis for the decision, and that the Academic Secretary should be directed to consider the impact of the measures on the person on whom they are imposed. He also argues that the draft Special Ordinance does not address the incidental consequences of imposing precautionary measures, for example in relation to the payment of fees.

Precautionary measures are not disciplinary in nature; as Section 4 of the Special Ordinance indicates, their imposition does not constitute any penalty or sanction or (as Mr Shah notes) imply any finding of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, the discretion to impose measures cannot be exercised lightly and the Academic Secretary must at all times act in good faith and fairly and impose measures only where he or she considers them to be necessary for the purposes set out in Section 1 of the Special Ordinance. The measures are equivalent to an administrative suspension pending investigation or similar process; accordingly there is no need for a formal evidential standard, which would be applicable only if formal findings of fact were required to be made by the Academic Secretary (which they are not). Under Sections 4 and 5 of the Special Ordinance, before deciding whether or not to impose (or re-impose) any precautionary measures on any person, the Academic Secretary must give that person a reasonable opportunity to submit written representations or, in cases where it is not possible or appropriate to do so due to the urgent or sensitive nature of the matter, a person on whom measures have been imposed is entitled to request a review by submitting written representations to the Academic Secretary. Such representations may include submissions about the impact of any measure on the person in question. In addition, any person on whom measures are imposed must be notified in writing of the grounds for imposing them. As regards incidental consequences, the draft Special Ordinance provides that the Academic Secretary may, at the request of a student on whom precautionary measures are imposed, allow a term of residence, put the student in standing for the purposes of examination, or agree such other academic arrangement as he or she may think fit. The remission of fees will be handled in the usual way by the Applications Committee or the Board of Graduate Studies, as appropriate.

The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 3, p. 377) for the approval of the recommendations of this Report.