Recommendations: 54, 55, 56

Recommendation 54: We recommend that the Government, together with representative bodies, should, within three years, establish whether the identity of the governing body in each institution is clear and undisputed. Where it is not, the Government should take action to clarify the position, ensuring that the Council is the ultimate decision-making body, and that the Court has a wider representative role, to inform decision-making but not to take decisions.

9.1 The Government agrees that the identity of institutions’ governing bodies should be clear and undisputed. It has accepted the Committee of University Chairmen’s offer to advise institutions to support the principle of this recommendation and to take action where necessary to resolve lack of clarity over the roles of their Councils and Courts.

Recommendation 55: We recommend to the Government that it takes action so that: individuals may not serve as members of a governing body for more than two terms, unless they also hold office; it is a requirement for the governing body at each institution to include student and staff membership and a majority of lay members; an individual may not chair a governing body for more than two terms of office.

9.2 The Government also supports in principle the Committee’s proposals to limit governing body Chairmen and Members to a total of two terms of office usually three to four years each; but sees a case for allowing exceptions in more cases than the Committee envisaged. 9.3 The Government accepts the Committee’s suggestion that governing bodies should be required to include staff and student members and a majority of lay members. It is glad that the Committee of University Chairmen is revising its Guide for Members of Governing Bodies accordingly and encouraging institutions to follow this recommendation.

Recommendation 56: We recommend that the Government takes the lead, with the Privy Council, in discussions with institutional representatives to introduce, within three years, revised procedures capable of responding more quickly to an institution requesting a change in the size of its governing body. The intention should be to ensure a response within one year.

9.4 The Education Departments and the Privy Council Office have discussed ways in which the current process can be streamlined, with the aim of ensuring a response to proposed changes in the size of governing bodies within a year. It might also be possible to look at ways in which a streamlined process could be used for other types of requests from institutions to change governance documents. The Government hopes to make progress on this more quickly than within the three years allowed by the Committee.

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