No 6791
Wednesday 2 July 2025
Vol clv No 40
pp. 692–715
The Council and the General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. Following a governance review, the University of Cambridge Students’ Union will have five (instead of eight) full-time sabbatical officers from July 2025. As a result, there will no longer be two dedicated sabbatical roles with responsibility for access and education policy for undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively. The changes to Special Ordinance proposed in this Report clarify the provisions governing the student membership of the General Board following the changes in the sabbatical officer arrangements.
2. Under the current arrangements, the appointment of student members of the General Board is ex officio. The existing wording of the Special Ordinance refers to the sabbatical officers with responsibility for undergraduate and postgraduate education to allow for changes in the titles of the offices. If a student member ceases to be a sabbatical officer, their place on the General Board becomes vacant.
3. The proposed wording clarifies that the sabbatical officers serving on the General Board will be those elected to hold the undergraduate and postgraduate education portfolios. This will ensure that there is continuity in the membership of the General Board and that there continue to be student members providing undergraduate and postgraduate perspectives. Whether there are two student members or only one will depend on how the portfolios for undergraduate and postgraduate education are presented in the elections of sabbatical officers in the future. The revised wording also proposes new arrangements in the event that a student member ceases to be a sabbatical officer.
4. If these changes are approved, the President (Postgraduates) and the Vice-President (Education and Widening Participation) of the Students’ Union elected in Lent Term 2025 will be the General Board’s student members in 2025–26.
5. No changes to the student membership of the Council are necessary, as there remain two dedicated sabbatical officers in the roles of President (Undergraduates) and President (Postgraduates).
6. The Council and the General Board recommend that Section 2 of Special Ordinance A (vi) (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 71) be amended to read as follows:
2. The members of the General Board in class ( d) shall be at least one and no more than two of the sabbatical officers of the University of Cambridge Students’ Union who have been elected to hold the portfolio or portfolios for matters concerning undergraduate and postgraduate education ex officio.
Members in class (d) shall serve for one year from the commencement of their term of office as sabbatical officers of the Union in July. If a member in class (d) ceases to be a sabbatical officer of the Union before 1 January, the Union shall hold an election to elect a new sabbatical officer eligible to serve in class (d). If no sabbatical officer eligible to serve in class (d) is elected, or if a member in class (d) ceases to be a sabbatical officer after 1 January, the resulting vacancy shall be filled by another sabbatical officer appointed by the General Board from among the remaining sabbatical officers of the Union, after consulting with those sabbatical officers.
Deborah Prentice, Vice‑Chancellor
William Astle
Gaenor Bagley
Sumouli Bhattacharjee
Milly Bodfish
Daniela De Angelis
John Dix
Sharon Flood
Alex Halliday
Heather Hancock
Ella McPherson
Scott Mandelbrote
Ewa Marek
Sally Morgan
Mezna Qato
Jason Scott-Warren
Alan Short
Pieter van Houten
Andrew Wathey
Garth Wells
Deborah Prentice, Vice‑Chancellor
Tim Harper
Ella McPherson
Patrick Maxwell
Nigel Peake
Richard Penty
Alan Short
Jon Simons
Pieter van Houten
Bhaskar Vira
Jocelyn Wyburd