No 6834
Wednesday 22 July 2026
Vol clvi No 39
pp. 651–678
23 July, Thursday. Congregation of the Regent House at 10 a.m.
24 July, Friday. Congregation of the Regent House at 10 a.m.
25 July, Saturday. Congregation of the Regent House at 10 a.m.
29 July, Wednesday. Last ordinary issue of the Reporter in the 2025–26 academic year.
23 September, Wednesday. First issue of the Reporter in the 2026–27 academic year.
1 October, Thursday. Michaelmas Term begins. Congregation of the Regent House at 9.55 a.m.: Election and admission of the Proctors. Annual address by the Vice-Chancellor (see below).
The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that she has accepted with gratitude a benefaction of £3.28m from Arcadia Philanthropic Trust to endow two doctoral studentships in the Faculty of History. The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 1, p. 657) to establish the endowment fund.
The Vice-Chancellor announces that the following candidate has been nominated in accordance with Statute A IV 2 for election to the Council, and that it has been certified to her that the candidate has consented to be nominated:
Professor Martin James Burton, Master of
Sidney Sussex College
nominated by: Ms H. J. Hancock,
JN, and Professor C. A. Short, CLH
No other persons having been nominated, Professor Burton is elected to the Council in class (a), to serve with immediate effect until 31 December 2026.
The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that she will deliver an address to the University following the Congregation on Thursday, 1 October 2026 for the election and admission of the Proctors (as required by Statute C IV and the Special Ordinance made under it) and after swearing in the University Constables under the Universities Act 1825.
The election is to be held at 10 a.m. Members of the Regent House and other members of the University community who wish to be present are therefore asked to be seated in the Senate-House by 9.50 a.m.; proceedings in the House are expected to end by 11 a.m.
Tickets will not be issued and refreshments will be served afterwards. Matriculated members of the University community attending should wear academical dress (black gowns, hoods not required).
The Council has received the remarks made at the Discussion of the above Report on 30 June 2026 (Reporter, 2025–26: 6828, p. 524; 6832, p. 638). It has consulted the General Board in the preparation of this response.
The Council notes Professor Evans’ description of the history behind the emergence of the current arrangements for the promotions scheme.
In his remarks, Dr Astle observes that the recommendation proposing the establishment of the four Clinical Professorships (Recommendation II of paragraph 8) has been reformulated. This is indeed in order to ensure that the tenure of the relevant offices can be limited by reference to the officeholder’s NHS contract.1 It does not necessarily follow that a relevant officeholder whose tenure has not been limited by Grace is entitled in all circumstances to hold office until the retiring age, as Special Ordinance C (ii) 12 makes clear that such entitlement pertains so long as they satisfactorily perform the duties of the office.
Special Ordinance C (ii) 12 allows for the tenure of individuals appointed to Clinical Professorships to be ‘limited by Statute or Ordinance or by Grace’. The effect of the recommendation (which has been amended so as to be more explicit as to its operation and effect) is to signify and ensure that the contracts of employment by which Clinical Professors are employed at the University are subject to a condition that they may be terminated if the officeholder ceases to hold a required NHS contract with an appropriate NHS Trust or body (in the immediate cases, an honorary consulting contract). That amounts to a limit on the tenure of Clinical Professors, envisaged by Special Ordinance C (ii) 12, to be effected by Grace, and will be accompanied by appropriate wording in individual contracts of employment. Such fixed-term contracts are permissible as they reflect the general principle that the term of contracts of employment can be limited by reference to the occurrence of an event (or failure of an event to occur), such as the holding of a linked contract.
The amended recommendation clarifies that if the competent authority is notified that a Clinical Professor’s NHS contract is to be terminated, it will act in accordance with the procedures in force for the expiration of fixed-term contracts and take its own decision as to whether to terminate employment with the University. The 2007 Memorandum of Understanding referenced in Dr Astle’s remarks suggests that dismissal by one employer should not automatically result in dismissal by the other. It does not prohibit the University from choosing to terminate the employment of a Clinical Professor if, following its proper procedures, it considers that it is reasonable to do so.
The Council considers it essential that the tenure of Clinical Professorships is limited in this way. Almost all of the speciality teaching carried out by Clinical Professors is on ward rounds or clinics or in the operating theatre. The Clinical Professor will be treating patients actively and demonstrating to the students the skills, knowledge, deductive capabilities and/or craft skills to treat the patient. If they do not hold the required NHS contract, they cannot treat patients and thus they cannot teach their speciality.
Similarly, most clinical research is carried out by recruiting patients coming to clinics, wards or surgery, to be part of trials and studies. If the Clinical Professor is not actively a clinician by virtue of holding an NHS contract, they cannot have the conversations with patients about the trial/study, recruit appropriate patients from clinics based on their clinical situation and prognosis, or conduct the follow-up in further clinics.
When applications are made for research funding, or to research ethics committees, statements are made by the relevant Clinical Professor about their methodology for conducting the study. This would ordinarily include details about recruiting patients through clinics, inpatient admissions or surgery. Without an NHS contract, the relevant Clinical Professor would be unlikely to be able to fulfil the terms of the grant.
As the Council has previously submitted (Reporter, 2023–24, 6750, p. 802), an NHS contract indemnifies those academics when they carry out clinical work associated with their contract of employment with the University. It also confirms their status as individuals who can carry out clinical work in an NHS setting, are registered with a relevant professional body (such as the General Medical Council) and are on the Specialist register. Administratively, it also confirms that they are eligible to be paid on the clinical pay scales, given that all clinical academics are paid according to those pay scales.
For these reasons, the Council is satisfied that it is necessary for the tenure of Clinical Professorships to be limited by reference to the officeholder maintaining the required NHS contract, and that the fixed-term nature of the related employment contracts is appropriate and permissible.
The Council has accordingly revised Recommendation II in paragraph 8 of its Report to read as follows:
[8.] II. (a) That, with effect from 1 October 2026, a Clinical Professorship be established for each of the following named persons, placed in the Schedule to Special Ordinance C (vii) 1, and assigned to the Faculty, Department or Institution in each case, as follows:
Mr Adel Ezzat Helmy, CAI, assigned to the Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Dr Nicholas John Matheson, assigned to the Department of Medicine
Dr Virginia Felicity Jane Newcombe, W, assigned to the Department of Medicine
Dr Mark Robert Toshner, assigned to the Department of Medicine
(b) That each such Clinical Professorship is made subject to the condition that the officeholder maintains such honorary consultant contract as is required for the proper performance of the duties of the Clinical Professorship (including, where applicable, a substantive appointment with a National Health Service body).
(c) That the condition referred to in paragraph (b) above shall constitute a limitation of the tenure of the relevant office for the purposes of Special Ordinance C (ii) 12.
(d) That where the competent authority is notified that such honorary consultant contract is or may be terminated, withdrawn, revoked or suspended, a review of the continued employment of the relevant Clinical Professor shall be undertaken in accordance with the procedures it has in force from time to time for dealing with the expiration of fixed-term contracts for University staff with limited tenure and may, following the application of those procedures, terminate the appointment.
The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 2, p. 657) to approve the recommendations of this Report, as revised by this Notice.
Owing to staffing issues in the Reporter team, the Financial Statements for the financial year ended 31 July 2025 and the Remuneration report for 2024–25 were only recently published in the Reporter, and therefore they have not yet been included on the agenda of a Discussion (Reporter, 6833, 2025–26, p. 640). As soon as the Regent House has had an opportunity to make remarks on those documents at the Discussion on 6 October 2026, the Council will provide a response to those comments and to the remarks on its own annual Report and that of the General Board that have already been provided. It apologises for the delay.
1References in this Notice to the holding of an NHS contract are used to distinguish this status from the holding of a contract of employment with the University. An NHS contract may take one of a number of possible forms, including an ‘honorary consultant contract’.
Both the Yard and the Combination Room will be closed from Thursday, 23 to Saturday 25 July 2026 for the Congregations of the Regent House. Access to the University Offices will be from Trinity Lane. Only those with admission tickets for the Congregations and other authorised persons will be allowed to enter the Yard during the closure.