Notices

Calendar

17 May, Friday. Congregation of the Regent House at 10 a.m. (see p. 592).

18 May, Saturday. Congregation of the Regent House at 10 a.m. (see p. 592).

19 May, Sunday. Scarlet Day. Whitsunday.

26 May, Sunday. Scarlet Day. Trinity Sunday. Preacher before the University at 11.30 a.m., The Revd Dr James Gardom, Dean and Chaplain, Pembroke College, and Interim Priest-in-Charge, St Bene’t’s Church. Ramsden Preacher.

28 May, Tuesday. Discussion by videoconference at 2 p.m. (see below).

Discussion on Tuesday, 28 May 2024

The Vice‑Chancellor invites members of the Regent House, University and College employees, registered students and others qualified under the regulations for Discussions (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 111) to attend a Discussion by videoconference on Tuesday, 28 May 2024 at 2 p.m. The following items will be discussed:

1.Report of the General Board, dated 2 May 2024, on the establishment of a Professorship of Social Anthropology (Reporter, 6740, 2023–24, p. 562).

2.Topic of Concern to the University: Abolition of Forced Retirement (p. 576).

3.Joint Report of the Council and the General Board, dated 14 May 2024, on the University’s Retirement Policy and Employer Justified Retirement Age (p. 578).

4.Report of the Council, dated 14 May 2024, on a University Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech (p. 587).

Those wishing to join the Discussion by videoconference should email UniversityDraftsman@admin.cam.ac.uk from their University email account, providing their CRSid (if a member of the collegiate University), by 10 a.m. on the date of the Discussion to receive joining instructions. Alternatively contributors may email their remarks to contact@proctors.cam.ac.uk, copying ReporterEditor@admin.cam.ac.uk, by no later than 10 a.m. on the day of the Discussion for reading out by the Proctors,1 or may ask someone else who is attending to read the remarks on their behalf.

In accordance with the regulations for Discussions, the Chair of the Board of Scrutiny or any ten members of the Regent House2 may request that the Council arrange for one or more of the items listed for discussion to be discussed in person (usually in the Senate-House). Requests should be made to the Registrary, on paper or by email to UniversityDraftsman@admin.cam.ac.uk from addresses within the cam.ac.uk domain, by no later than 9 a.m. on the day of the Discussion. Any changes to the Discussion schedule will be confirmed in the Reporter at the earliest opportunity.

General information on Discussions is provided on the University Governance site at https://www.governance.cam.ac.uk/governance/decision-making/discussions/.

Office of Chancellor

14 May 2024

The Council wishes to update the Regent House and the Senate on its deliberations about the forthcoming search for a Chancellor to succeed The Lord Sainsbury of Turville. At its meeting in March 2024, the Council reflected on how to ensure the success of the search to fill this important office. The Council agreed that a proposal should be worked up to change the term of office of the Chancellor from a lifetime appointment to one for a fixed term of ten years. The Council will provide further details on its rationale for this proposed change in a Report for discussion and decision by the Regent House. The Council intends to publish its Report by the end of May. If the proposal is accepted by the Regent House, the election of a new Chancellor is likely to take place in Lent Term 2025, to allow time for the review of the change in Statute by the Privy Council.

Topic of concern to the University: Abolition of forced retirement

14 May 2024

The Registrary gives notice that she has received the following request for the discussion of a Topic of concern to the University:

Cambridge’s policy of forced retirement, known as the EJRA, claims to achieve:

•Intergenerational fairness

•Effective succession planning

•Innovation

•Academic freedom

It does none of these things.

•Innovation suffers: Forcing arbitrary retirement at 67 or 69 stops innovation. Academics can innovate at any age. To suggest otherwise is ageist.

•Succession planning fails: Top talent won’t join Cambridge knowing they’ll be forced out at 67 or 69. We lose our best professors to other universities by 62 or 64, creating a brain drain and taking their big grants elsewhere.

•Intergenerational fairness is not achieved: The EJRA does not lead to Cambridge promoting its own junior academics. Forced retirement disproportionately also harms women whose careers often develop later.

•Academic freedom: The EJRA is irrelevant to academic freedom. It singles out people based on one ‘protected characteristic’ and discriminates against them.

The EJRA is a destructive policy based on outdated assumptions. It hurts Cambridge’s global reputation and undermines its mission.

This affects everyone. If you’re young now, you’ll face the EJRA’s unfair limits in the future.

Sign the petition to put ‘abolish EJRA’ on the ballot. Protect Cambridge’s excellence.

This request is supported by the 35 members of the Regent House listed in Annex A.

The Registrary has agreed that this topic will be included among the matters for consideration at the Discussion on Tuesday, 28 May 2024 at 2 p.m. by videoconference (see p. 575).1

Annex A

Stipends of the holders of clinical academic offices and payment for clinical responsibility from 1 April 2023

Agreement has been reached on the salary arrangements for clinical academic staff with effect from 1 April 2023. Following a recent meeting of the Board of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, the Clinical Academic Staff Salaries Committee has agreed to translate the award of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration into the salaries of clinical academic staff. The increase, from 1 April 2023, is 6% plus a £1,250 consolidated payment on the scale points for Clinical Lecturers. The pay award will be backdated to 1 April 2023. The increase, from 1 April 2023, is 6% on the scale points for Consultants. The pay award will be backdated to 1 April 2023.

The values of national Clinical Excellence Awards (CEAs) and local CEAs under the previous scheme, discretionary points and distinction awards remain unchanged.

In accordance with the principle that the remuneration of clinical academic staff in Cambridge should be broadly comparable with that of equivalent staff in other UK medical schools, the General Board has agreed to approve revised stipends and scales of stipends for clinical appointments in Cambridge.

The figures currently shown in Schedule II to the Ordinance for Stipends (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 687) are replaced with effect from 1 April 2023 and are as follows:

For Clinical Lecturers on the equivalent of the NHS ‘new’ 2016 pay system:
Clinical Lecturer £32,398 by five nodal points to £63,152

For Clinical Lecturers on the equivalent of the NHS Specialist Registrar scales (pre-2009):
Clinical Lecturer £38,619 by eleven increments to £65,955
University Associate Professor (Grade 10)/Professor (Grade 11) (Senior Lecturer/Reader) scale £61,142 by six increments to £85,973

For Clinical Lecturers on the equivalent of the NHS Specialty Registrar scales(post-2009):
Clinical Lecturer £39,260 by eleven increments to £68,478
University Associate Professor (Grade 10)/Professor (Grade 11) (Senior Lecturer/Reader) scale £61,142 by six increments to £85,973

The offices of Clinical Sub-Dean in the Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Director and Assistant Director of Studies in General Practice are part-time and stipends are determined by local agreement, with reference to the appropriate full-time Consultant salary.

The Board has also approved the following basis for calculating rates of payment for clinical responsibility for University officers with honorary NHS contracts as Consultants:

New (2003) Consultant contract:

If the integrated job plan and the honorary Consultant contract agreed with the NHS covers not less than ten Programmed Activities a week, the annual pensionable payment for clinical responsibility will amount to the difference between the officer’s prime stipend and their notional place on the NHS full-time Consultant salary scale.

That scale is:
With effect from 1 April 2023: £93,666, £96,599, £99,532, £102,465, £105,390, £112,356, £119,323, £126,281.