No 6743
Thursday 30 May 2024
Vol cliv No 33
pp. 612–622
8 June, Saturday. End of third quarter of Easter Term.
14 June, Friday. Full Term ends.
19 June, Wednesday. Scarlet day. Congregation of the Regent House at 2.45 p.m. (Honorary Degrees).
25 June, Tuesday. Easter Term ends. Discussion by videoconference at 2 p.m. (see below).
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Discussions (Tuesdays at 2 p.m.) |
Congregations (at 10 a.m. unless otherwise stated) |
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25 June 9 July 16 July |
19 June at 2.45 p.m. (Honorary Degrees) 26, 27, 28 and 29 June (General Admission) 18, 19 and 20 July |
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, 25 June 2024 at 2 p.m. The following item will be discussed:
1. Report of the Council, dated 21 May 2024, on the demolition of derelict buildings on the North West Cambridge Estate (Reporter, 6742, 2023–24, p. 598).
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/.
1Any comments sent by email should please begin with the name and title of the contributor as they wish it to be read out and include at the start a note of any College and/or Departmental affiliations held.
2https://www.scrutiny.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/regent_house_roll/.
The Registrary has received notice from the Clerk of the Privy Council that His Majesty the King, at a Council held on 22 May 2024, was pleased to approve amendments to Statute D II 12, which were submitted under the Common Seal of the University in accordance with Grace 2 of 19 February 2020.1 The changes to Statute permit the Vice-Chancellor to revise the overall degree classification of a candidate in accordance with the advice of a disciplinary panel or disciplinary appeal panel.
The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that in accordance with the relevant regulations, Congregations for General Admission to Degrees will be held on 26, 27, 28 and 29 June 2024. The Congregations will take place at 10 a.m. in the Senate-House.
Tickets will be required for admission to the Senate-House. Graduands should apply through their Colleges for tickets for their intended guests, and other members of the University who wish to be present are also asked to obtain tickets from their Colleges. The safe seating capacity has been reviewed and although six places will continue to be available at each session for those Senior members of the University in general who wish to be present, any College wishing to seat groups of Fellows etc. in their session is requested to issue them tickets within their permitted limit and contact the University Marshal (email: universitymarshal@admin.cam.ac.uk) in advance to ensure that they can be seated appropriately.
The Ceremonies will be divided into separate sessions, with intervals between the presentation of graduands by successive Colleges, although those from St Edmund’s College and Hughes Hall will proceed in a single session and some larger Colleges will divide their session. Guests may not leave except in the intervals. Members of the University attending should wear academical dress. A member who is not acting as an officer at the Congregations or presenting for admission to or receiving a degree and who holds a degree of another university or degree-awarding institution may wear the dress of that degree on this occasion. The days of General Admission to Degrees are on ‘scarlet’ days, so Doctors should wear their festal gowns.
The doors of the Senate-House will be opened at 9.30 a.m. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and graduands are asked to arrive by the following times (for those Colleges with divided sessions, only the time for the first part is given). Timings given are provisional.
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King’s College |
9.50 a.m. |
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Trinity College |
10.45 a.m. (Session 1) |
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St John’s College |
12.10 p.m. (Session 1) |
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Peterhouse |
2.20 p.m. |
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Clare College |
3.05 p.m. (Session 1) |
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Pembroke College |
4.25 p.m. |
The ceremony will end at about 5.15 p.m.
The doors of the Senate-House will be opened at 9.30 a.m. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and graduands are asked to arrive by the following times (for those Colleges with divided sessions, only the time for the first part is given). Timings given are provisional.
|
Gonville and Caius College |
9.50 a.m. (Session 1) |
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Trinity Hall |
11.15 a.m. |
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Corpus Christi College |
12.10 p.m. |
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Queens’ College |
1 p.m. (Session 1) |
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St Catharine’s College |
2.50 p.m. |
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Jesus College |
3.50 p.m. (Session 1) |
|
Christ’s College |
5.15 p.m. |
The ceremony will end at about 6 p.m.
The doors of the Senate-House will be opened at 9.30 a.m. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and graduands are asked to arrive by the following times (for those Colleges with divided sessions, only the time for the first part is given). Timings given are provisional.
|
Magdalene College |
9.50 a.m. |
|
Emmanuel College |
10.40 a.m. (Session 1) |
|
Sidney Sussex College |
12 p.m. |
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Downing College |
12.50 p.m. |
|
Girton College |
2.20 p.m. (Session 1) |
|
Newnham College |
3.40 p.m. |
|
Selwyn College |
4.35 p.m. |
The ceremony will end at about 5.20 p.m.
The doors of the Senate-House will be opened at 9.30 a.m. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. and graduands are asked to arrive by the following times (for those Colleges with divided sessions, only the time for the first part is given). Timings given are provisional.
|
Fitzwilliam College |
9.50 a.m. |
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Churchill College |
10.55 a.m. |
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Murray Edwards College |
11.50 a.m. |
|
Wolfson College |
12.40 p.m. |
|
Robinson College |
1.50 p.m. |
|
Lucy Cavendish College |
2.40 p.m. |
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St Edmund’s College and Hughes Hall |
3.30 p.m. |
|
Homerton College |
4.20 p.m. (Session 1) |
The ceremony will end at about 5.40 p.m.
The Registrary gives notice that the latest time for the receipt of supplicats and any necessary certificates of terms for persons who propose to take degrees at General Admission on Wednesday, 26 June, Thursday, 27 June, Friday, 28 June, or Saturday, 29 June 2024, is 10 a.m. on Friday, 14 June 2024. No further additions to degree lists can be accepted after that date.
The Council has received the remarks made at the Discussion on 12 December 2023 concerning the above Reports (Reporter, 2023–24: 6720, pp. 131 and 141; 6722, pp. 201 and 202). It has consulted with the General Board in preparing this response. The Council apologises for the long delay in its publication, which was postponed to allow a matter before the Acting Commissary to conclude before providing its response.
Professor Evans is concerned about an evolution towards the introduction of governance by ‘management’, citing the involvement of a group of senior officers and others alongside members of the Council and the General Board in a residential Strategic Awayday as an example of this. The Council observes that it would be unusual for it and other senior committees not to seek the input and advice of senior staff on significant developments affecting the University. The final decisions on matters within the oversight of the Council and the General Board continue to be made by those bodies, which may act on advice received or choose to take another path. The minutes of those meetings are available to anyone with a University ID and password. Where decisions require the approval of the Regent House, or the Council and/or the General Board consider that it would be appropriate to seek such approval, that approval is sought. If members of the Regent House wish to comment on the Council’s proposals or put forward their own, they can use the various means at their disposal to do so. The Council and the General Board consult with members of the Regent House and more widely within the University and the Colleges, as appropriate, on proposals for major policy shifts. Where progress is incremental and at an operational level, the bodies concerned provide updates to the Regent House through other means, such as annual reports. An example of this is the work overseen by the Change and Programme Management Board, which published its annual report for 2022–23 recently (Reporter, 6735, 2023–24, p. 449).
There are also comments on the timetable for completion of the review of the University’s Retirement Policy, which currently applies an Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA). In its Annual Report, the Council recounted the reasons for its decision not to accede to the request from speakers at a Discussion in February 2023 to suspend the operation of the EJRA. As Professor Evans notes, an indicative timetable for the review was published on 6 December 2023. In line with that timetable, the EJRA Review Group held two online open meetings on 5 and 11 March 2024, to share information on its findings with members of University staff and of the Regent House (Reporter, 6729, 2023–24, p. 267). The Council has recently published a Report setting out the recommendations arising from that review, and has already agreed to call a ballot on them (Reporter, 6741, 2023–24, p. 578). It stands ready to implement its proposals from 1 September 2024, if they are approved, in time to make changes ahead of the retirement of the next cohort. The General Board and the Council will turn their attention to the postponed review of established and unestablished posts in 2024–25.
Professor Evans asks about the University’s response to the Office for Students’ request for an update on a review of examination regulations. She notes an application made under Statute A IX 1 concerning the decisions made by the General Board during the 2023 marking and assessment boycott. As Phase 1 of the review concerned those decisions, it was paused pending the receipt of the Acting Commissary’s decision on the application. The Council and the General Board expect to publish a Report presenting the review’s Phase 1 recommendations later this term. The Office for Students has been kept informed about the progress of the review. Professor Evans asks whether the minutes of extraordinary meetings of the General Board will be published. These minutes are now available online1 to all those with a University ID and password.
Noting the General Board’s summary of the conclusion of its self-effectiveness review, Professor Evans queries whether the Council or the General Board should ‘behave as though answerable only to themselves when considering their ‘effectiveness’’. A self-evaluation, whether externally supported or not, is just one tool for reviewing effectiveness and does not preclude a wider review seeking the views of others, but no indicators have suggested that a significant review is necessary at this time.
Professor Evans suggests that the Board’s Report ‘seems to allow some uncertainty about the duty of the General Board to ask the Regent House for a decision even in the case of a change of Statute’. She appears to have conflated the Board’s review of a Statute’s operation with the approval of changes to that Statute. The Joint Report covering this topic has since received the approval of the Regent House and is now with the Privy Council for review (Reporter, 2023–24: 6724, p. 213; 6729, p. 283).
The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 1, p. 621) for the approval of its Annual Report for 2022–23 (which incorporates the General Board’s Annual Report).
1See https://www.governance.cam.ac.uk/committees/general-board/Pages/minutes-archive.aspx (University accounts only).
The Council has received the remarks made at the Discussion on 19 March 2024 concerning the above (Reporter, 2023–24: 6731, p. 298; 6736, p. 492).
Dr Cowley notes that, in the commentary on these Financial Statements, the Council reports a deficit for the Academic University and the University Group but continues to record its ambition for the Academic University to achieve a modest, sustainable surplus in the long run. In answer to Dr Cowley’s question, the Council takes the deficit, and its role in bringing the Academic University back into surplus, very seriously. The Council discussed options for improving the University’s financial sustainability over the next 2–3 years at its Awayday meeting in March. There will be an opportunity for members of the University community to read more about the Council’s plans over the short and longer term in the next Budget and Allocations Report, to be published in June, and to contribute its views at the Discussion of that Report.
The Council wishes to comment on the following points:
•Dr Cowley refers to Table 2 in the financial review1, which shows the results for the financial year split between operating segments, including the Academic University and Cambridge University Press & Assessment (CUP&A). He then quotes a sentence from the commentary about cash flows (as well as another about the expectation to achieve a sustainable annual surplus over time). Table 2 shows a split of the accounting surplus/deficit for the year between those operational segments; it does not show the cash flows for each segment. The University Group continues to operate a cash surplus, as shown in the consolidated statements of cash flows2.
The Council observes that the Finance Division has taken a conservative view of donation income in the adjusted surplus calculation, excluding both revenue and capital donation income.
•Dr Cowley refers to a sentence about the use of the University’s Endowment Fund (CUEF) from the Council’s Notice dated 20 July 2023 (Reporter, 6710, 2022–23, p. 882). The Council can confirm that distributions from the CUEF are set to ensure, over time, that the capital value is preserved.
The Council can also confirm that the distributions from CUP&A are still preserved for capital expenditure through the Investment Fund; they are not used to subsidise operating performance as Dr Cowley fears.
•The Surplus Improvement Fund is a ring-fencing of a portion of unrestricted reserves. It therefore does not have its own entry in the Financial Statements but is accounted for as part of those reserves.
Referring to the same July 2023 Notice, Dr Cowley asks for an update on the discussions about the University’s maintenance contract. Those discussions have now concluded with a decision, by mutual agreement, for the contract to finish at the end of November 2024. A revised model for maintenance and repairs will be in place after that, following a period of transition. The Estates Division will work with directly contracted maintenance suppliers for specialist repairs, larger works and the majority of planned maintenance, and an in-house first-response team will carry out routine maintenance and simple fixes.
Dr Cowley also remarks on the title of the successor to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Planning. The title of the vacant position has since been advertised as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Resources and Operations (Reporter, 6736, 2023–24, p. 468). The person appointed will have no responsibility for any Division in the UAS, nor will they be taking on a role equivalent to a Chief Operating Officer. The title is intended to confirm the appointee’s responsibilities for providing leadership on the transformation programmes as part of a more holistic approach to the oversight of the University’s resources.