Доклад: University of Cambridge

The University grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with local townsfolk there. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part of English society, the two universities also have a long history of rivalry with each other.

Academically, Cambridge is consistently ranked in the world's top 5 universities. It has traditionally been an academic institution of choice of the Royal Family (King Edward VII, King George VI and Prince Charles were all undergraduates) and has produced 82 Nobel Laureates to date, more than any other university according to some counts.

Organization

Cambridge is a collegiate university, meaning that it is made up of self-governing and independent colleges, each with its own property and income. Most colleges bring together academics and students from a broad range of disciplines (though certain colleges do have particular strengths e.g. Gonville and Caius College for Medicine), and within each faculty, school or department within the university, academics from many different colleges will be found.

The Faculties are responsible for ensuring that lectures are given, arranging seminars, performing research and determining the syllabi for teaching, overseen by the General Board. Together with the central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor, they make up the entire Cambridge University. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the University (the Cambridge University Library), by the departments (departmental libraries such as the Squire Law Library), and by the individual colleges (all of which maintain a multi-discipline library, generally aimed mainly at their undergraduates).

Colleges

All students and many of the academics are attached to colleges, where they live, eat and socialise. It is also the place where students may receive their small group teaching sessions, known as supervisions. Each college appoints its own teaching staff and fellows in each subject; decides which students to admit, in accordance with University regulations; provides small group teaching sessions, for undergraduates (though lectures are arranged and degrees are awarded by the university); and is responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of its own undergraduates, graduates, post-doctoral researchers, and staff in general.

The University of Cambridge currently has 31 colleges, of which three admit only women (Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish). The remaining 28 are now mixed, though most were originally all-male. Magdalene was the last all-male college to begin admitting women in 1988. Two colleges admit only postgraduates (Clare Hall and Darwin), and four more admit mature students (i.e. 21 years or older on date of matriculation) or graduate students (Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish, St Edmund’s and Wolfson). The other 25 colleges admit both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Colleges are not required to admit students in all subjects, with some colleges choosing not to offer subjects such as architecture or history of art, but most offer close to the complete range. Some colleges maintain a bias towards certain subjects, for example with Churchill leaning towards the sciences and engineering, while others such as St Catharine's College aim for a balanced intake. Costs to students (accommodation and food prices) vary considerably from college to college.[citation needed] Others maintain much more informal reputations, such as for the students of Kings College to hold left-wing and Liberal political views, or Robinson College's attempts to minimise its environmental impact.

There are also several theological colleges in Cambridge, (for example Westminster College and Ridley Hall Theological College) that are loosely affiliated with the university through the Cambridge Theological Federation.

Schools, Faculties, and Departments

In addition to the 31 colleges, the University is made up of over 150 Departments, Faculties, Schools, Syndicates and other institutions. Members of these are usually also members of one (or more) of the colleges, and responsibility for running the entire academic programme of the University is divided amongst them.

A 'School' in the University of Cambridge is a broad administrative grouping of related subjects, each covering a specified group of Faculties. Each has an elected supervisory body - The Council of the School - comprising representatives of the constituent Faculties and Departments in each School. There are six Schools:

Arts and Humanities

Biological Sciences, including Veterinary Medicine

Clinical Medicine

Humanities and Social Sciences

Physical Sciences

Technology

Teaching and research in Cambridge is organized by Faculties. The Faculties have different organizational sub-structures which partly reflect their history and partly their operational needs, which may include a number of Departments and other institutions. In addition, a small number of bodies entitled Syndicates have responsibilities for teaching and research, exercising powers similar in effect to those of Faculty Boards. Examples are Cambridge Assessment, the University Press, and the University Library.

Central administration

The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor

The current Chancellor of the University is the Duke of Edinburgh. The current Vice-Chancellor is Alison Richard. The office of Chancellor, which is held for life, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the principal academic and administrative officer. The University's internal governance is carried out almost entirely by its own members, with no external representation on its governing body, the Regent House (though there is external representation on the Audit Committee, and there are four external members on the University's Council).

The Senate and the Regent House

The Senate consists of all holders of the MA degree or higher degrees. It elects the Chancellor and the High Steward, and it elected Members to the House of Commons for the Cambridge University constituency until their abolition in 1950, but otherwise it has not had a major role since 1926, before which it fulfilled all the functions which the Regent House fulfills today, and was the University's governing body, just as the Regent House is today.

The Regent House is the University's governing body, a direct democracy comprising all resident senior members of the University and the Colleges, together with the Chancellor, the High Steward, the Deputy High Steward, and the Commissary.

The Council and the General Board

Although the University Council is the principal executive and policy-making body of the University, therefore, it must report and be accountable to the Regent House through a variety of checks and balances. It has the right of reporting to the University, and is obliged to advise the Regent House on matters of general concern to the University. It does both of these by causing notices to be published by authority in the Cambridge University Reporter, the official journal of the University. Since January 2005, the membership of the Council has included two external members, and the Regent House voted for an increase from two to four in the number of external members in March 2008, and this was approved by Her Majesty the Queen in July 2008.

The General Board of the Faculties is responsible for the academic and educational policy of the University, and is accountable to the Council for its management of these affairs.

Faculty Boards are responsible to the General Board; other Boards and Syndicates are responsible either to the General Board (if primarily for academic purposes) or to the Council. In this way, the various arms of the University are kept under the supervision of the central administration, and thus the Regent House.