No 6764
Wednesday 18 December 2024
Vol clv No 13
pp. 192–206
The General Board begs leave to report to the University as follows:
1. In this Report, the General Board proposes the establishment of a new Department of Public Policy within the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, to be known as the Bennett School of Public Policy. The new Department will expand on (and replace) the existing Bennett Institute of Public Policy.
2. The new Department will:
(a)build on the outward-facing and practitioner-focused ethos of the Bennett Institute with a significant expansion and scaling up of some of the activities which the Institute has successfully nurtured, particularly in the areas of policy research, stakeholder engagement, intellectual leadership and education of future policymakers;
(b)bring together its research, policy and teaching activities across disciplines into a globally distinctive centre, focused from the outset on some of the major challenges of the 21st century, including technological disruption, climate damage and biodiversity loss, the deep-seated productivity challenge and geographically rooted inequalities and their political consequences, and on the tools and skills needed to address them;
(c)enable Cambridge to amplify its research strengths and convening power to become one of the major centres of public policy expertise in the world and a leader in the development of the innovative and rigorous policy thinking imperative in this age of immense disruption and turbulence; and
(d)work as a hub within the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences and across all Schools to become the policy arm for the University, as exemplified by existing successful research and engagement collaborations with researchers in (for example) economics, education, law, public health, computer science, engineering, AI@cam and Cambridge Zero.
3. The new Department will continue and build on the Institute’s success in:
(a)securing a significant amount of research funding from a range of philanthropic donations, grants and corporate partnerships. These have ranged from the White House and United Nations bodies to indigenous Australian campaigners, heritage organisations, Whitehall and UK local and devolved governments. Engagement activities include those in the University’s locality, through the Regional Productivity Forum, Innovate Cambridge, and local authorities in and around the city; and
(b)developing teaching and training programmes in public policy with funding secured from the University’s Surplus Investment Fund, including expansion of the existing M.Phil. course in Public Policy, and launching a new M.Phil. course in Digital Policy.
4. The Vice-Chancellor has accepted with gratitude a benefaction of £10m from the Peter Bennett Foundation to support these developments. This, together with matching investment by the University, and growth in postgraduate activity, will enable the institution to grow rapidly to a Department of viable scale.
5. If this Report’s recommendations are approved:
(a)four academic officers would be reassigned to the new Department from the Department of Politics and International Studies, including the holders of the two Professorships noted in Recommendation II, all of whom have been consulted and support the plans;
(b)the staff of the Bennett Institute have been kept informed about these developments and would transfer to the new Department;
(c)Ph.D. students in the Department of Politics and International Studies, supervised by Bennett Institute staff, are aware and will have the option to transfer to the new Department once it has developed its own Ph.D. programme;
(d)the General Board has agreed to make the General Board Regulations for the new Department and other consequential changes as set out in Annex A.
6.The General Board recommends, with effect from 1 August 2025:
I.That a Department of Public Policy be established within the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, entitled the Bennett School of Public Policy.
II.That the following Professorships be reassigned to the Department of Public Policy:
•Bennett Professor of Public Policy (2017)
•Professor of Public Policy (2016)
III.That in Regulation 1(a)of the Ordinance for the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 601), the reference to the number of Departments within the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science be amended from ‘four’ to ‘five’.
IV.That the Ordinance for the Bennett Institute for Public Policy Fund (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 789) be retitled the Department of Public Policy Fund and be revised to read as follows:
1. The funds received from or on behalf of Peter W. Bennett, together with the funds received from the Peter Bennett Foundation and such other sums as may be received or applied for the same purpose, shall form an endowment fund called the Department of Public Policy Fund to advance research in the field of public policy by supporting a Bennett School of Public Policy.[1]
2. The Managers shall be responsible for the administration of the Fund and the application of its income and shall comprise the Head of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, who shall be Chair, the Chair of the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science, and the Head of the Department of Public Policy.
3. The income of the Fund shall be applied towards the following:
(a)the payment of the stipend, national insurance, pension contributions, and associated indirect costs of the following offices and posts payable by the University:
(i)the Head of the Department of Public Policy, which may, subject to the provisions of Special Ordinances C (vii) A.10 and C (ix) 9, be held concurrently with a University office;
(ii)two Bennett Lectureships or such other named teaching offices (including more Bennett Lectureships and/or Professorships) as the Managers shall determine;
(iii)Bennett Senior Visiting Fellowships, the holders of which shall be appointed by the Managers, in accordance with criteria and for a period of tenure and a stipend determined by the Managers, the stipend within a range approved from time to time by the General Board, with one or more Fellowships being appointed from the income of the Fund in any financial year;
(b)the support of the Department of Public Policy in such manner as the Managers shall determine.
4. Any unexpended income in any financial year, including income accrued during a vacancy in the offices and posts supported by the Fund, may, at the discretion of the Managers be carried forward for use as income in accordance with Regulation 3 in any one or more subsequent financial years, including the support of additional Lectureships and Fellowships.
[1] See the General Board Regulations for the Department of Public Policy, which uses the title of Bennett School of Public Policy.
Deborah Prentice, Vice‑Chancellor
Madeleine Atkins
Katie Clarke
Tim Harper
Ella McPherson
Nigel Peake
Richard Penty
Jon Simons
Emily So
Pieter van Houten
Bhaskar Vira
Jocelyn Wyburd
The General Board has agreed to make the following changes to General Board Regulations if the recommendations of this Report are approved:
(a)By inserting the following new regulations for the Department of Public Policy in Chapter IX of Ordinances:
1. The Department of Public Policy shall be a Department within the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science and shall have the title ‘The Bennett School of Public Policy’. The Head of the Department shall be the academic head of The Bennett School.
2. There shall be an Advisory Board constituted under terms of reference and membership approved from time to time by the Faculty Board of Human, Social, and Political Science. The membership of the Advisory Board shall include at least four external members who have experience of government, policy and business. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Board to advise the Head of the Department and the Faculty Board on policy for the future development of the Department.
3. The Head of the Department shall be appointed by the General Board on the recommendation of the Faculty Board of Human, Social, and Political Science for a period of five years and shall be eligible for reappointment for a further period of five years. The Head of the Department shall be responsible for the direction of education and research in the Department, and the management of the necessary resources.
4. There shall be an Executive Committee constituted under terms of reference and membership approved from time to time by the Faculty Board. It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to advise the Head of the Department on matters concerning the staffing, resources and administration of the Department.
(b)In Schedule I of the regulations for the Classes of Faculty Board Membership, Elections and Periods of Office (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 609) by amending the number of members of the Faculty Board of Human, Social, and Political Science in class (a)(i) to 5 and class (a)(ii) to 0.
(c)In Regulation 3 of the regulations for Departments and Heads of Departments (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 612) by inserting ‘Department of Public Policy’ under the heading for the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science.