No 6780
Thursday 24 April 2025
Vol clv No 29
pp. 494–527
The General Board has agreed to propose the establishment for a single tenure of a Kidani Professorship of Integrated Cancer Medicine from 1 October 2025, assigned to Department of Oncology. The salary costs of the Professorship will be fully funded by a gift of £4,200,000 as endowment to be held on trust by the University to form a fund called the Kidani Integrated Cancer Medicine Fund. The final portion of the donation is due to be paid in May 2027. In the interim, the initial funding from the donor is sufficient to cover the salary and other costs of the Professorship.
The establishment of Kidani Professorship of Integrated Cancer Medicine aligns with the School of Clinical Medicine’s strategic vision. The holder of the Professorship will be a senior member of the Department of Oncology and will play a key role in the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. A clinically qualified person may be appointed to the office of Clinical Professor in accordance with Statute E I 7(x). The exact division of activities of the Professor between teaching, research and administration will be dependent upon whether the appointment is clinical or non-clinical.
The General Board has agreed, on the recommendation of the Council of the School of Clinical Medicine and the Faculty Board of Medicine, that appointments shall be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and preference will be given to those candidates with expertise in Artificial Intelligence applied to the field of the title of the office.
The Council is submitting Graces (Graces 1 and 2, p. 505) for the approval of the establishment of the Professorship for a single tenure in the first instance and in perpetuity once the agreed funding is received in full, and an endowment fund to support the Professorship.
The General Board has agreed to propose the establishment in perpetuity of a Childers Professorship of Irish History from 1 October 2025, assigned to the Faculty of History. The salary costs of the Professorship will be fully funded by a gift of £3,600,000 as an endowment to be held on trust by the University to form a fund called the Childers Irish History Fund.
This appointment will enable the Faculty to ensure that Irish history continues to remain an integral part of the Historical Tripos. The officeholder will be expected to contribute to the Part Ia Outline papers such as Early Modern Britain or Modern Britain and Ireland, 1750 to the Present, and in due course will also offer a Part Ia Sources paper. In addition, the Childers Professor will be expected to contribute to existing papers, for example, The British Reformations and their Discontents, or British Worlds, 1750–1919 and also offer new topics in Irish history. At postgraduate level, the Childers Professor depending on their focus on the period of Irish history, could potentially contribute to the M.Phil. courses on Early Modern History, Modern British History, Economic and Social History, Political Thought and Intellectual History, or World History. Senior Professors with named Chairs all contribute significantly to postgraduate teaching and M.Phil. supervision. The Childers Professor will also be expected to supervise up to a maximum of six Ph.D. students.
The officeholder will be expected to make a significant contribution to the next REF exercise, with an impressive track record of publications and an ongoing significant research output which could qualify for part of the Department’s submission. The Childers Professor will be expected to contribute fully to the administrative life of the Faculty, including administration of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and to take on various officer roles as requested.
The Childers Professorship of Irish History is central to the Faculty’s strategic plan. This donation is the end-product of long-term fundraising efforts and cultural diplomacy with the Irish Government by members of the Faculty. Irish history now forms a conspicuous part of the Faculty’s undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. It has proved an especially attractive element for students enrolled on the History and Politics Tripos. The appointment of the Childers Professor will enable the Faculty to secure the place of Irish history as part of the curriculum beyond the retirement in 2027 of the current Professor of Modern and Contemporary History. It will complement existing strengths in British and imperial history and ensure that the Faculty can compete with other leading institutions (notably Irish universities and Oxford) to attract excellent researchers in the field. Oxford has at present the only endowed chair in Irish history in Britain, which has given it an edge in attracting the best global talent at Ph.D. and postdoctoral level.
The General Board has agreed, on the recommendation of the Council of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty Board of History, that the appointment shall be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature shall be open without limitation or preference to all persons whose work falls within the general field of the title of the office.
The Council is submitting Graces (Graces 3 and 4, p. 506) for the approval of the establishment of the Professorship in perpetuity and an endowment fund to support it.
The General Board has agreed to propose the establishment in perpetuity of a Professorship of Economic History from 1 September 2026, assigned to the Faculty of Economics. The salary costs of the Professorship will be met through existing resources available to the Faculty via a combination of pay savings (from a vacant Grade 11 Professorship) and the Janeway Fund for Economics.
Economic History has long been a core component of the Economics Tripos and this appointment aligns with the strategic plan of the Faculty, meeting an urgent need to address the shortage of teaching and research resource in this field. By 2025–26, the Faculty will be reliant on external lecturers to deliver core Economic History modules, including Paper 5 of Part I, on British economic history.
The officeholder’s activities will be split 40:60 between teaching and research, with teaching duties split equally between undergraduate and postgraduate teaching provision. The former will involve contributing to the delivery of the Economics Tripos and also College teaching duties, whilst the latter will involve supporting the M.Phil. course in Finance and Economics. The holder of the Professorship will also be expected to make a significant contribution to the Faculty’s REF output for the 2029 exercise. The office also has significant research grant income-generating potential, currently in the region of £3m per year.
The new Professor will be expected to build upon existing research collaborations (e.g. with the Faculty of History) and also strengthen the University’s international reputation at the leading edge of research in the field of Economic History. The officeholder’s other responsibilities will also include a leadership role in mentoring junior Faculty, including University and College Teaching Officers, postdoctoral researchers, Janeway Fellows, and research students. The Professor will also undertake normal administrative duties and contribute to Faculty governance.
The General Board has agreed, on the recommendation of the Council of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty Board of Economics, that the appointment shall be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature shall be open without limitation or preference to all persons whose work falls within the general field of the title of the office.
The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 5, p. 506) for the approval of the establishment of the Professorship in perpetuity.
The General Board, on the recommendation of the Academic Standards and Enhancement Committee, has approved changes to update the dates of examinations in the Ordinances for Entries and Lists of Candidates for Examinations and for Dates of Examinations. The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 9, p. 508) for the approval of these changes, as set out in the Annex below.
(Statutes and Ordinances, p. 256)
With immediate effect
Regulation 11.
By adding the following examinations to the list:
Design Tripos, Parts Ia and Ib
(Statutes and Ordinances, p. 259)
With immediate effect
Regulation 2.
By adding ‘Design Tripos, Parts Ia and Ib’ to the ‘Second day of Full Easter Term’ in the list of examinations.
The General Board has approved the re‑establishment of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics. Restructuring within the Faculty in 2017 led to the de‑departmentalisation of the Faculty, with the seven Departments becoming sections, with all financial and strategic planning moved to Faculty level.1 Seven years later, and following an internal governance review, it is clear that this structure has not worked well for TAL and therefore the Department has been reinstated. The commonality in teaching, examining and research amongst modern languages made the new structure a rational move for most parts of the Faculty, but TAL’s size and the interdisciplinary nature of much of its teaching and research leans towards recognition as a separate institution. Greater visibility and an identity of its own will also help to attract higher numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The General Board has approved the following consequential changes to General Board Regulations:
(a)In Schedule I of the General Board Regulations for Classes of Faculty Board Membership, Elections, and Periods of Office (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 605): by amending the number of members of the Faculty Board of Modern and Medieval Languages in classes (a)(i) and (a)(ii) to read 1 and 5 respectively, and removing the footnote.
(b)By inserting a reference to the Department within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics in Regulation 3 of the General Board Regulations for Departments and Heads of Departments (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 608).
(c)By inserting the Department in Schedule 5 of the Ordinance for Payments Additional to Stipend (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 686), in accordance with Regulation 4.
The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 11, p. 508) for the assignment of Professorships from the Faculty to the Department. Other teaching officers, including the holders of the Professorship of Applied Psycholinguistics (Grade 11), a University Associate Professorship (Grade 10) and two University Associate Professorships (Grade 9), have been reassigned to TAL.
1See the Report, Reporter, 6469, 2016–17, p. 651.