PPH Supervisory Committee Terms of Reference

The PPH Supervisory Committee¹ is to be appointed by the Vice-Chancellor.

The Proctors are to be ex officio members of the committee.

The Supervisory Committee shall have regulatory, monitoring and reporting functions. In the exercise of these functions it shall:

Regulatory

review the terms of the existing licence of each Permanent Private Hall, and, where appropriate, recommend to Council the attachment of new conditions;
keep the terms of existing licences under review, and re-examine any licence where there is cause to do so, and in particular, as specified²;
confirm that the by-laws and practices of each Permanent Private Hall are consistent with the statutes and regulations of the University, particularly in respect of the employment of staff, equal opportunities, harassment, and the protection of freedom of opinion and speech;
monitor the governance structures of each PPH³
advise Council on the appropriate amendment of Council Regulations for the Establishment and Maintenance of Permanent Private Halls in order to take account of the recommendations of the review.
make appropriate arrangements to collect from the PPHs on an annual basis information necessary to conduct monitoring.

Monitoring – academic

monitor annual admissions against the criteria established in the Review Panel report⁴;
monitor procedures of admissions in the light of the Common Framework⁵
monitor the teaching arrangements in each of the PPH’s (see Annex A);
monitor the distribution of graduate students across disciplines in each of the PPHs⁶;
monitor the admission arrangements for the M.Th and the B.Th (and in particular the links with the Theology Faculty) (see Annex B)
monitor the academic standard of the B.Th and the BA in Theology as taught in the PPH’s, especially in the light of the proposed working party between the PPHs and Theology on the B.Th (see Annex B)
monitor the arrangements for appointing teaching staff in each of the PPHs⁷

Monitoring – finances/general

monitor the finances of the PPHs and make recommendations about administrative advice and support where appropriate
monitor administrative support to ensure that adequate arrangements exist, with the possibility that this be achieved by collaboration among halls.
monitor the availability of proper statements of rules governing the conduct of junior members and access to the Conference appeal processes in each PPH
monitor the quality of the student experience in each PPH
monitor the provision made for visiting students in each PPH⁸

Reporting

report to Education Committee where there is cause to examine an existing licence, or for any other cause the committee considers appropriate.
provide an annual report to Council (through Education Committee) on academic, administrative and financial matters (including admissions) and with recommendations for regulatory action if appropriate
advise Education Committee on any applications for changes in approved student numbers⁹
advise Education Committee on any proposal to offer a new qualification within the PPH’s
advise Personnel Committee on applications for a joint appointment with a PPH¹⁰
advise the Development Office on the appropriateness of support for PPH fundraising priorities in the light of appropriate match with university academic priorities¹¹

Annex A

Undergraduate teaching arrangements

Recommendation 14. In terms of the teaching arrangements at the Halls

(a) there should be a Director of Studies for each of the subjects for which each Hall recruits; it is preferable that the Director of Studies should be located within the Hall, although it is recognised that this may not always be the case;

(b) unless a member of the Hall’s religious order (in the case of the Catholic Halls) Directors of Studies should receive an appropriate stipend, in order to be identified within the Hall as a responsible person able to devote significant and sufficient time to academic, intellectual and pastoral development of the students, including responsibility for admissions;

(d) each Hall should maintain a library containing a collection of recent publications sufficient to provide core reading in the subjects in which it delivers teaching;

(e) each Hall should have adequate provision of accommodation for academic administration, and of tutorial teaching and seminar rooms, and should also maintain an adequate IT infrastructure.

Annex B

BA and B.Th.

Recommendation 18. For the BTh

(a) all admissions should use the system of gathered fields (recognising in view of the selection procedures of the participating denominations that one of these should take place in the summer vacation);

(b) candidates should be admitted through a meeting of admissions tutors from participating institutions; and

Recommendation 19. An admissions date for Second BAs in Theology should be instituted in Trinity Term, with a meeting of admissions tutors from participating institutions with Faculty of Theology representation to ensure that candidates are being admitted who meet matriculation requirements and are being compared within a gathered field.

Recommendation 20. The Faculty of Theology should assert a more direct responsibility for the quality and delivery of the BTh as a degree of the University, and the University and Halls should move to ensure greater transparency in the character of other diplomas and certificates that bear the validation of the University.

Recommendation 21. The Faculty of Theology and those Halls teaching for the BTh should establish a working party to consider the issue of strengthening the academic standard of the BTh, through common teaching of a number of papers which would be selected from the BA syllabus. There should be at least three common papers, one to be taken in Part I, and two to be taken in Part II of the course. The working party should also give consideration of the implications for teaching for the BTh at Ripon College.

Recommendation 22. The Faculty of Theology should seek to prevent too great a transfer of responsibility for the teaching of the BA in Theology into the Halls, as this risks the diminishment of the student experience. Three of the papers should be taught by Faculty members outside the Halls, as is generally the common experience of students in Colleges.

Recommendation 23. The right of those Permanent Private Halls which are principally communities of mature students to matriculate school-leaver aged students should be withdrawn.

1 Recommendation 8: There should be a supervisory committee appointed by the Vice-Chancellor which shall make an annual report to Council through the Educational Policy and Standards Committee (or its successor). Such a report should cover academic matters (including admissions), and administrative and financial matters, and make recommendations for regulatory action if appropriate. The Senior and Junior Proctors should both sit on this committee.

2 Recommendation 7. The University should have cause to re-examine an existing licence:

(a) if in the case of the four Catholic Halls there is any modification within their statutes that diminishes the commitment or other support of their Order;

(b) if in the case of the Protestant Halls, there is cessation of recognition by the Church as an institution for ministerial formation;

(c) if any Hall shall be shown to be departing from the values of a liberal education conducted in the spirit of free and critical enquiry and debate to which the University holds;

(d) if any Hall, or unit within or associated with a Hall, shall teach for a certificate, diploma or degree, other than those recognised or delivered by the University of Oxford (with the exception of any accreditation awarded to visiting students from overseas);

(e) if the financial circumstances of any Hall shall give cause for belief that it cannot sustain the teaching and support of students at an acceptable level either at the time or within a foreseeable future.

3 Recommendation 5: The governance arrangements of the Permanent Private Halls should contain adequate representation of the stipendiary staff in the decision-making processes of their Hall. Recommendation 6: All the Halls should review their governance structures to ensure they have clear mechanisms and appropriate structures for the resolution of complaints or disciplinary issues, and that these conform to those established elsewhere in the collegiate University. Where these structures are not in place, the Halls should move quickly to establish them.

4 Recommendation 10: The Permanent Private Halls should not admit to undergraduate study a subject cohort whose annual size is unsatisfactory or incapable of achieving critical mass. Entering cohorts should not be less than three in a FHS (including joint degrees where one half is not necessarily in a subject for which the Hall admits undergraduates to read as a single FHS).

Recommendation 11: A Hall may admit a smaller entry in a subject where there are conditions to ensure proper integration of different year groups by means of (a) the provision of an adequate infrastructure for student interaction within the premises of the Hall; and

(b) an adequate provision of living accommodation in or close to the premises of the Hall, available to a substantial proportion of students beyond their first year, so that a collective identity across year groups can be stimulated readily.

5 Recommendation 13: The Permanent Private Halls should continue to recruit and matriculate students for undergraduate degrees of the University of Oxford, on the same basis as the Colleges of the University under the Common Framework. Given the time constraints in which they have to operate during the December admissions exercise, the Halls should be able to call students back for interview in early January.

6 Recommendation 15: The Permanent Private Halls should give consideration to the distribution of graduate students across discipline, ensuring that there is critical mass, either by subject area or in terms of overall numbers. Best practice within the collegiate University requires that there should be a senior member of the Hall in the same discipline. Hence the Halls should conform to this practice.

Recommendation 16.PGCE students in a range of disciplines should have the opportunity to be placed in the Permanent Private Halls. Placement in the Permanent Private Halls should not be restricted to PGCE students in Religious Education, nor should PGCE students in Religious Education be restricted only to Permanent Private Halls. Recommendation 17: The Permanent Private Halls that admit candidates for the MTh should work with the Graduate Studies Committee of the Theology Faculty to ensure that MTh candidates undergo a similar admissions procedure as candidates for the MSt, the MPhil, and the DPhil.

7 Recommendation 30: Those called upon to teach or supervise on behalf of a faculty or department should be members of the relevant faculty or department. This can be achieved either (a) by having been appointed to the staff of a Hall by a panel that contained a representative appointed by the faculty or departmental board, or (b) whose membership has been considered by a faculty/departmental committee. Membership of a faculty or department should in all cases be accorded after an assessment by a departmental committee, unless the person was originally appointed by a faculty or department.

8 Recommendation 29: In the matter of visiting students (a) the Permanent Private Halls should give attention to the needs of their visiting students, and ensure that visiting student programmes do not diminish the academic effort and other support for students matriculated for University qualifications; and (b) the University should review the extent of visiting student programmes across the collegiate University.

9 Recommendation 12: In terms of the general population of undergraduate students, provided that the two conditions set out in recommendations 10 and 11 are maintained, each Permanent Private Hall may apply for permission from the Vice-Chancellor to exceed or alter the number of Home/EU students that it may admit to BA, BTh, BFA, or for a second Honour School, as set out in Council Regulation 12 of 2002. Council and the Educational Policy and Standards Committee should examine any such application having regard to the general structure and distribution of the student body across the collegiate University and the academic strategies of the University.

10 Recommendation 32:The University should not consider the possibility of establishing joint appointments with any Permanent Private Hall unless the Hall in question should be able to demonstrate that it has complied with the recommendations of this review. Where this has occurred, the University should explore the possibility of allowing these Halls to bid for association with departmental lecturerships.

11 Recommendation 34: Where the academic priorities of the Halls match the academic and development priorities of the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions, the University Development Office should provide appropriate resource and advice to enable the Halls to address their fundraising aspirations.

Approved by Education Committee on 5 December 2008