Chapter XV

ELECTIONS TO PROFESSORSHIPS

1. Elections to all Professorships shall be governed by the provisions of Chapter XIV and of this chapter except for

1. (a)the Regius Professorships of Civil Law, Physic, and History, and the King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature, to which appointments are made by the Crown,
2. (b)a Professorship limited to the tenure of one Professor only, if established for a particular person by Grace,
3. (c)the following Professorships, to which elections are made by the General Board:
4.  (i)any Professorships on the John Humphrey Plummer Foundation,
5.  (ii)the Quick Professorship of Biology,
6.  (iii)any Professorship the tenure of which is less than a year or is limited to a specified number of years;
7. provided that
8.  (i)any Professorship to which the appointment is to be made under the terms of any trust binding for the time being on the University shall be governed by this Statute only so far as this Statute is compatible with the terms of the trust;
9.  (ii)elections to the Dixie Professorship of Ecclesiastical History shall be made in accordance with the provisions of the Statute relating thereto for the University and for Emmanuel College in common.

2. Except as otherwise prescribed in section 1 above, the election to a Professorship shall be made by a Board of Electors constituted in accordance with either section 4 or section 5 below. Subject to the provisions of section 3, such a Board of Electors may be

1. either(a)a standing Board, of which the appointed members shall be appointed to serve for four years,
2. or(b)an ad hoc Board, of which the appointed members shall be appointed to serve until the election has been made and the Professor has entered upon the duties of the office, or until the General Board has published a Notice of temporary discontinuance under Statute D, XIV, 4(b).

3. A Board constituted in accordance with section 4 may be either a standing Board or an ad hoc Board, as determined by the General Board under section 6 below. A Board constituted in accordance with section 5 shall be an ad hoc Board. The Registrary or a University officer designated by the Council (or a duly appointed deputy appointed by the Registrary or such University officer) shall act as Secretary to a Board of Electors. The membership of a standing Board shall be published at least once in each year. The membership of an ad hoc Board shall be published as soon as conveniently may be after the members have been appointed.

4. If a Professorship has been assigned to a Faculty or Department, or other institution under the supervision of the General Board, the election shall be made by a Board of Electors consisting of

1. (a)the Vice-Chancellor or a duly appointed deputy;
2. (b)eight persons appointed by the Council, two on the nomination of the Council itself, three on the nomination of the General Board, and three on the nomination of the Faculty Board concerned in the case of a Professorship assigned to a Faculty or to a Department within a Faculty, or on the nomination of the comparable authority in the case of a Professorship assigned to a Department independent of any Faculty or other institution under the supervision of the General Board.

5. If the General Board considers it desirable that the assignment of a Professorship should be deferred until the election has been made to that Professorship, the election shall be made by a specially constituted Board consisting of

1. (a)the Vice-Chancellor or a duly appointed deputy;
2. (b)five persons appointed by the Council, two on the nomination of the Council itself and three on the nomination of the General Board;
3. (c)such number of additional persons representing the branches of the subject included in the scope of the Professorship as the General Board shall determine, appointed by the Council on the nomination of the bodies deemed by the General Board to be concerned.

6. When a Professorship is first established, the General Board shall determine, after consulting such Faculty Boards or comparable authorities as are deemed by the General Board to be concerned, whether elections to the Professorship are to be made by a standing Board of Electors or by an ad hoc Board. The General Board shall subsequently have power to review its decision at any time and, after consulting the Faculty Boards or comparable authorities concerned, to reverse its previous decision; such reversal shall take effect from the first day of October next following.

7. Nominations for any Board of Electors shall be made on such dates as will enable the General Board to nominate with knowledge of the nominations of the Faculty Boards or comparable authorities concerned.

8. When a standing Board of Electors is constituted for the first time the members shall be appointed for periods so determined by the Council that in the year next but one and in every subsequent year (a) two of the eight appointed Electors shall retire on the thirtieth day of September, and (b) none of the nominating bodies shall nominate more than one Elector save when a casual vacancy is to be filled.

9. No person shall be appointed or reappointed a member of a standing Board of Electors who at the commencement of his or her period of service or further period of service, as the case may be, would have attained the age of sixty-seven years; and no person shall be appointed a member of an ad hoc Board of Electors who at the commencement of his or her period of service would have attained the age of seventy years.

10. To ensure the representation of opinion outside the University, every Board of Electors shall include at least two persons who are not the holders of any University office as defined in Statute D, I, 1(a) and are not habitually resident within twenty miles of the University Church. At least one such person shall be included among those nominated by the General Board, and at least one among those nominated by the Faculty Board or comparable authority (in the case of a Board constituted in accordance with section 4) or among those nominated by the bodies deemed by the General Board to be concerned (in the case of a Board constituted in accordance with section 5).

11. If a member of a Board of Electors who has been nominated as a representative of opinion outside the University subsequently becomes the holder of a University office as defined in Statute D, I, 1(a) or becomes habitually resident within twenty miles of the University Church, his or her place on the Board shall not thereby become vacant; but when next the body which nominated that person is to nominate a member of the Board it shall nominate a person qualified as in section 10, unless there is already such a person among its nominees.

12. Whenever a vacancy from any cause other than lapse of time occurs on a Board of Electors (other than on an ad hoc Board after the Electors have first met to consider a vacancy in the Professorship), a new Elector shall be appointed to fill the vacant place. If an appointment to a standing Board of Electors is made after the Electors have first met to consider a vacancy in the Professorship, the Elector so appointed shall not take part in that election, and his or her predecessor shall retain the right, subject to the provisions of section 13 below, to take part in the election. If the General Board publishes a Notice under Statute D, XIV, 4(b) temporarily discontinuing the Professorship, the publication of the Notice shall have the same effect for the purposes of this section as if an election had been made.

13. If an Elector is or becomes a candidate for a Professorship, he or she shall be disqualified from acting thereafter in the matter of that election, and the remaining Electors shall have power to act.

14. A Board of Electors shall have power to act notwithstanding one or more vacancies in the number of its members, and shall have power to adjourn and generally to regulate its own procedure, provided that

1. (a)no election shall be made earlier than the day following that on which the qualifications of the candidates have been considered in the first instance at a meeting of the Board;
2. (b)no election shall be made unless two-thirds at least of the members of the Board (exclusive of any member disqualified by being a candidate) are present at the time of voting and a majority of the members present vote in favour.

15. A Board of Electors shall have power (a) to enquire whether any person or persons other than those who have submitted applications would accept the Professorship if offered, and (b) to offer the Professorship to a person who has not submitted an application, provided that such a person's qualifications have been considered at two meetings held on different days.

16. The following provisions shall apply to all Professorships other than those limited to the tenure of a single holder:

1. (a)When a Professor is due under Statutes or Ordinances to retire, the Vice-Chancellor shall report the fact to the General Board not later than the division of the Michaelmas Term of the academical year next but one preceding the year at the end of which the retirement is due to take place.
2. (b)When it becomes known to the Vice-Chancellor that a vacancy has occurred or will occur in a Professorship otherwise than by the holder's becoming due to retire or by the expiry of the period for which he or she was elected, the Vice-Chancellor shall report the fact to the General Board at the next opportunity.
3. (c)If a vacancy is due to occur in a Professorship by the expiry of a period of discontinuance of more than three years, action shall be taken in accordance with subsection (a) above as if the end of that period were the end of the year in which a holder of the Professorship is due to retire. If a period of discontinuance is three years or less, action shall be taken in accordance with subsection (b) above.

17. When the Vice-Chancellor has reported under section 16 above that a vacancy has occurred or is expected to occur in a Professorship, the General Board shall consider whether the conditions relating to the Professorship should be modified, or whether the Professorship should be terminated or temporarily discontinued. For this purpose the General Board shall consult such Faculty Boards or comparable authorities as are concerned, and also the Council of the relevant School, and shall ask whether they recommend that the vacancy should be filled, and if so whether they recommend (a) that candidature for the Professorship should be limited, or alternatively that preference should be given by the Electors, to persons whose work is connected with a particular area of study within the general field of the title of the office, or (b) that candidature should be open without limitation or preference to all persons whose work falls within that general field. In reaching a decision on these questions the General Board shall take into account, but shall not be bound by, the recommendations of the authorities consulted under this section.

18. (a) Not later than the end of the eighteenth month after the Vice-Chancellor's report under section 16 of a vacancy or an expected vacancy in a Professorship, the General Board shall

1. either(i)agree that the vacancy shall be filled;
2. or(ii)ask the Council to promote a Grace for the termination or temporary discontinuance of the Professorship from the date of the vacancy;
3. or(iii)ask the Council to promote a Grace extending by a specified amount the period prescribed by this subsection within which the General Board is required to act under sub-subsection (i) or (ii) above.

(b) Not later than the date specified by subsection (a) above if the Board agrees that the vacancy shall be filled or if the Professorship is one that the University is required by any Statute or trust to maintain, or not later than the end of the term next following the term in which a Grace under subsection (a)(ii) above has been rejected, the Board

1. (i)may ask the Council to promote a Grace for the amendment of the Statute or Ordinances prescribing the conditions relating to the Professorship,
2. (ii)if the Professorship is one to which no such Statute or Ordinances apply, shall determine the conditions which shall relate to the Professorship at the next election.

19. Not later than the end of the twelfth month after

(a) the General Board has agreed under section 18(a)(i) that a vacancy shall be filled without the need for approval by Grace under section 18(b)(i) of any modification of the conditions relating to the Professorship, or

(b) the University has approved or rejected any Grace submitted under section 18(b)(i) or has rejected any Grace submitted under section 18(a)(ii),

the Vice-Chancellor shall publish a Notice inviting applications to fill the vacancy.

20. (a) If at the end of two years from the date of publication of the Notice inviting applications for a Professorship the Electors have been unable to make an election they shall report this fact and the reasons for it to the General Board. The General Board shall then

1. either(i)grant the Electors a further period of not more than two years in which to make an election,
2. or(ii)publish a Notice discontinuing the Professorship for a specified period which shall not extend beyond the end of the seventh academical year following the date of publication under section 19 of the Notice inviting applications.

(b) If the Electors have been granted a further period of two years under section 20(a)(i) and within that further period have again been unable to make an election they shall report this fact and the reasons for it to the General Board. The General Board shall then

1. either(i)recommend the Council to ask the Chancellor, or, if the office of Chancellor is vacant, the High Steward, to appoint the Professor;
2. or(ii)publish a Notice discontinuing the Professorship for a specified period which shall neither be less than one year nor extend beyond the end of the seventh academical year following the date of publication under section 19 of the Notice inviting applications.