University of Dublin
The University of Dublin, corporately named as The Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a public research university located in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I who issued a royal charter for Trinity College Dublin in her role as "the mother of a university", making it Ireland's oldest operating university. It is also one of the extant seven ancient universities of Great Britain and Ireland and is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College, which is its sole constituent college. Originally established to consolidate the rule of the Tudor dynasty in Ireland, the University of Dublin has historic ties with the universities of both Oxford and Cambridge, and has maintained an academic partnership with them since 1636.
As only one constituent college was ever established, the designations "Trinity College Dublin" and "University of Dublin" are usually synonymous in practice. It is a member of the Irish Universities Association, Universities Ireland, the League of European Research Universities, and the Coimbra Group. The university is headed by the Provost, under the supervision of a Chancellor and six Pro-Chancellors.
History
The University of Dublin was modelled on the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge as a collegiate university, Trinity College being named by Queen Elizabeth I as the mater universitatis. The founding charter also conferred a general power on the college to make provision for university functions to be carried out. So, for example, the charter while naming the first provost of the college, the first fellows and the first scholars, in addition named The 1st Baron Burghley to be the first chancellor of the university. No other college has ever been established, and Trinity remains the sole constituent college of the university. The project of establishing another college within the university was seriously considered on at least two occasions, but the required finance or endowment was never available.The most recent authoritative statement of the position is in the Universities Act 1997. The section relating to interpretation specifies:
Queen Victoria issued the letters patent in 1857 giving formal legal foundation to the senate, and other authorities specific to the university. Subsequently, in a remarkable High Court case of 1898, the provost, fellows and scholars of Trinity were the claimants and the chancellor, doctors and masters of the University of Dublin were among the defendants, and the court held that Trinity College and the University of Dublin "are one body". The judge noted pointedly that "he advisers of Queen Victoria knew how to incorporate a University when they meant to do so" and that the letters patent dealt with "not the incorporation of the University of Dublin but of its Senate merely".
Notwithstanding, the statutes of the university and the college grant the university separate corporate legal rights to own property, borrow money, employ staff, and also enable it to sue and be sued as occurred in the case referred to above. To date the other rights have not been exercised. Current officers of the university are either unpaid and purely honorary, or have duties relating to the college also, for which they are paid, but by the college.
Some of the legal definitions and differences between college and university were discussed in the reform of the university and college in the Charters and Letters Patent Amendment Bill, which later became law, but many of the college contributions to this were unclear or not comprehensive, possibly because it concerned an internal dispute within college as to outside interference and also as misconduct by college authorities in overseeing voting, which led to a visitor's enquiry which in turn found problems with the voting procedures and ordered a repeat ballot. Further contributions on the relationship between college and university can be found in submissions to the Oireachtas on reform of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish Oireachtas, since the university elects members to that body), and in particular the verbal submission of the provost.
Traditionally, sport clubs also use the name "Dublin University", rather than "Trinity College".
The coat of arms bearing the seal was officially assigned to the University Senate on 28 March 1862. The original seal contained the Latin text Senatus Universitatis Dubliniensis.
Organisation
The university is governed by the university senate, chaired by the chancellor or their pro-chancellor. While the Senate was formally constituted by the Letters Patent of 1857 as a body corporate under the name, style, and title of "The Chancellor, Doctors, and Masters of the University of Dublin", it had existed since soon after the foundation of Trinity College being brought into being by the enabling powers contained in the founding Charter. Consequently, the Letters Patent had the effect of converting a preexisting non-incorporated body relying on custom, practice and precedent to establish its authority into a corporate body clearly, and explicitly established in law. The Letters Patent empowered the university senate by stating:The Letters Patent also defined the composition of the Senate:
Each meeting of the Senate is headed by a "caput", consisting of the chancellor, the provost of Trinity College and the senior master non-regent. The practical significance of the caput is that no meeting of the Senate may be convened without it, and each member of the caput has an individual veto on all decisions of the Senate. In attendance also are, usually, the registrar and the junior and senior proctors. There is also a mace holder, the chief steward or his deputy, who proceeds the caput in a procession.. Meetings of the Senate are of two kinds. Meetings to confer degrees, which, according to ancient usage, are known in the university as "public commencements" and are the most numerous, and business meetings, which are concerned with university business other than degree conferring.
In each academic year, the Senate holds not less than four stated meetings for the conferring of degrees; of these meetings, two are held in Michaelmas Term, and two in Trinity Term. The proceedings of these meetings, conducted in a highly formal and scripted manner, are carried out in Latin. The meeting is held in public and can be attended by persons who are not members of the Senate, mostly relatives of people about to receive degrees, although, of course, only members of the Senate, wearing the correct academic dress participate in the formal business, and actually vote, save that general applause is encouraged when relevant. Although voting takes place at these meetings, discussion does not. Voting takes place to elect a senior master non regent, or on whether degrees should be conferred on named candidates. As the lists of persons to receive degrees are voted on en bloc, and as the lists require the prior approval of the board, which itself receives the names of candidates as agreed by boards of examiners, it can be seen that the vote is purely formal, as it is difficult to see any practical circumstances in which it would be legitimate for a member of the Senate to attend a commencements and register an objection. Honorary degrees, while being conferred at a commencements are not even formally voted on there. Voting on a candidate for an honorary degree takes place earlier, at the previous business meeting of the Senate, so if any objection to a proposed honorary degree award is to be made, it must be made then. It follows that there is no opportunity at the public commencements to object to an honorary degree.
At the first public commencements of the academic year the senior master non-regent is elected on the proposition of the chancellor and the provost. The Senate votes on the name put forward by a voice vote, in Latin. The senior master non regent is elected for a one-year term, but may be re elected. The senior and junior proctors and the registrar also make the declaration which is appropriate to their respective offices at that meeting. These officers, although officers of the university, are appointed by the board of the college, one of a number of examples of the line being blurred between university and college, due to history of the arrangement. In the same way, the senior master non-regent, although they could be any non-regent master of the university, is usually the most senior fellow of the college, who does not otherwise hold any college office. Further the provost, while primarily the head of the college, holds a university office as one of the three caput members. As this gives the provost a veto on all university business, this underlines the significance of that office.
These ceremonies are usually conducted in the Public Theatre in Parliament Square of Trinity College. As business is conducted in Latin the Chief Steward verbally asks for candidates to be put under scrutiny by saying "ad scrutinum", with the Doctors and Masters of the Senate present then asked in turn as distinct groups to consent to the degree being awarded to the candidate.
The Senate also holds a stated meeting in Hilary Term for the purpose of transacting business of the Senate other than the conferring of degrees. This meeting is conducted in English. Examples of such business are elections, approving amendments to University Statutes, approving the introduction of new degrees, and agreeing to confer an honorary degree on a specified individual. The actual conferment of such a degree, when agreed takes place at a later public commencements. Both discussion and voting takes place at these meetings, and propositions can be defeated, albeit, in practice, rarely. No business may be put before the meeting save with the consent of the board. Extra business meetings may be held if required. Business meetings are held in private.
Under statutes the University Senate elects two members to the University Council. The University Council is in effect part of the college, and not of the university. It is chaired by the provost, has the senior lecturer of the college as secretary, and governs academic matters. All decisions of the University Council require the approval of the board, but in general any decision of the council that does not require additional financial expenditure is agreed, often without discussion. The Senate also elects members to the Library Committee which oversees the Trinity College Library.
The Visitors are also dealt with in statutes. They consist of the chancellor of the university and one other person, usually, in modern times, a member of the Judiciary, and whose appointment requires the approval of the Senate. They are a final appeal should anyone contest a decision of the board or a procedure within college which has been appealed through departmental school, faculty, council, and board levels and is still contested. The visitors can therefore overturn a decision of the board. Given the chancellor of the university is one of two visitors and has the overall authority in difference of opinion between both visitors, it would seem the board of the college has also some degree of subsidiarity to the university.
It would be fair to say that the practical influence of the Senate has tended to diminish, as at one time it was the only formally constituted forum at which staff of the college, in particular those who were not Fellows, could have an input into the governance of the college and university. With the addition of elected representatives to the board, and the constitution of the council, which was largely elected from the start, issues which might once have been the subject of heated debate at a business meeting of the Senate are now decided elsewhere, with controversy mostly exhausted by the time an issue gets to the Senate for final determination. Consequently, the real importance of the Senate is as a mechanism to ensure that the other bodies carry out their functions properly lest they be queried at a Senate meeting.