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8.2
34 -
CNAA was interested to learn that, contrary to United Kingdom practice, neither the Chairman nor the Vice-Chairman of the Academic Board were members of the teaching staff. The College found that this arrangement provided for close links between the Academic Board and the College Council and Board of Governors. One clause of the Terms of Reference of the College Council was that it should - 'in consultation with the Academic Board review the instruction and teaching programme of the College'. While such a clause would seem strange in a United Kingdom context, it seemed reasonable to CNAA to establish whether the College Council did endeavour to discharge that responsibility; it was learned that, to date, it had not done so, although the point might be felt to be covered in part by reports made to the College Council by the President on the work of the College.
9.
9.1
9.2
9.3
MEETING WITH THE ACADEMIC BOARD
The visiting party met the Academic Board with 15 members including the Chairman and Vice Chairman present. Copies of recent agendas were supplied to indicate the nature of the business. CNAA endeavoured to establish in the presence of the Academic Board the extent to which the Faculty Boards fulfilled the terms of reference set out in the papers. It was learned that, in the light of the size of the College, the meetings of Faculty Boards were very informal and often not in any sense meetings with a formal Agenda or Minutes.
The visiting party explored the extent to which the Academic Board had been given any significant responsibility for resources, and it was found that estimates were prepared in the departments and routed directly to the President and the Bursar, although the Academic Board would often learn of the resources pressures in the normal course of its business, and thus have some tangential involvement. Members learned that the Academic Board had discussed the viability of a proposed course in Social Work in a situation where there was only the resources to support one specialist teacher. In that situation, the Academic Board had been willing to go ahead with the course with a limit of 10 students recruited to year 3.
The Chairman of the Board agreed that the Board had done little to discharge the responsibility set out in its terms of reference which collectively amounted to the need to do forward planning. The Board had now agreed to his suggestion to set up a Planning Sub-Committee to look ahead five years. While the Chairman accepted that there were a number of aspects in the terms of reference