Statute II: Membership of the University

Approved with effect from 1 October 2002
(Supplement (1) to Gazette No. 4633, 9 October 2002); amended with effect from 14 October 2003 ( Gazette vol. 134, p. 139, 16 October 2003)

1. Membership of the University is divided into the following five categories:

(1) student membership;

(2) ordinary membership;

(3) Convocation membership;

(4) Congregation membership; and

(5) additional membership.

2. A person is a member of the University if he or she is duly admitted into one or more of those categories.

3. (1) A member of the University shall enjoy the rights and privileges and incur the obligations which are attached by the statutes and regulations to the category or categories into which he or she is admitted.

(2) No member of the University shall be required to pay any fee or other charge (except one required by way of penalty or fine imposed under the authority of a statute or regulation) unless it is required by statute or regulation.

(3) The University may enter into contracts with its members which are not inconsistent with these statutes and regulations made under them providing for rights, benefits, and facilities to be enjoyed by members and specifying the terms upon which they are given or made available.

Student Members

4. A person shall be a student member if he or she:

(1) has the academic qualifications for admission (referred to in this section and in section 5 of this statute as 'matriculation') laid down by Council by regulation;

(2) has been admitted as and remains a member, or has been suspended from membership, of a college, society, Permanent Private Hall, or any other institution designated by Council by regulation;

(3) has been and remains registered, or has been suspended from registration, as a student for a degree or other qualification of the University; and

(4) is to be or has been presented for matriculation as a student member by his or her college, society, Permanent Private Hall, or other designated institution within the period laid down by Council by regulation.

5. Any person serving as an officer of the Oxford University Student Union under the provisions of Part A of Statute XIII shall, during the period in which he or she holds office, be a student member of the University for the purposes of the statutes and regulations.

6. Regulations may be made to provide for:

(1) provisional matriculation where a prospective student member is for good reason unable to be presented for matriculation within the period referred to in section 4 (4) of this statute; and

(2) the ceremony at which the matriculation of student members will take place and the procedure to be followed;

in addition to the matters referred to in section 4 of this statute.

Ordinary Members

7. A former student member who has satisfied the examiners or has been given leave to supplicate for a degree of the University but who has not yet been admitted to any degree is an ordinary member.

Convocation Members

8. Convocation members are those persons who are members of Convocation under Statute III.

Congregation Members

9. Congregation members are those persons who are members of Congregation under Statute IV.

Additional Members

10. (1) Persons who are appointed Bedels under the regulations relating to the holders of that office shall be admitted as and shall remain members of the University for so long as they hold that office.

(2) Council may with the consent of Congregation provide by regulation for the admission of other persons or categories of persons as additional members.

Expulsion

11. (1) A student member may be expelled from membership under Statute XI.

(2) A student member who has been expelled by his or her college, society, Permanent Private Hall, or other designated institution shall cease to be a student member of the University.

(3) Congregation may for good cause, on the recommendation of Council made in accordance with fair procedures to be determined by Council according to the circumstances of the case, expel any member of the University from his or her membership.

(4) Procedures established under sub-section (3) above must include a right of appeal to an independent and impartial tribunal which will give reasons for its decision and (if the member so requires) sit in public and publish those reasons.

(5) Nothing in this section authorises the termination of a contract of employment or infringes the rights or protection given by Statute XII to the persons to whom that statute applies.

(6) In this section the word 'expel' bears the meaning given to it in section 1 of Statute XI.

Resignation

12. (1) A member of the University may at any time by giving notice in writing to the Registrar resign his or her membership.

(2) Resignation of membership shall not relieve the member of any liability or penalty incurred under these statutes or any regulation before the date of his or her resignation.

13. A member of the University who has resigned may, with the permission of Council on such terms as it thinks fit, be admitted or readmitted to any category of membership to which he or she would but for the resignation be entitled to belong.