Constitution

The title of the School is the School of English and Scottish Language and Literature.

Membership

All academic, academic-related and secretarial staff of the Departments of English Literature, English Language and Scottish Literature and of the STELLA project are members of the School. Research Fellows, honorary Research Fellows and Research Assistants are included.

Mission Statement

The School will develop teaching and research in English and Scottish language and literature and promote co-operation amongst the three departments at all levels, while ensuring the integrity of each. It will also encourage and promote inter-university and international research and teaching links.

Structure

The School is formed on a confederal basis and will respect the autonomy of the three departments. There will be four standing committees:

(a) an Executive Committee
(b) a Research Committee
(c) a Teaching and Learning and Quality Assurance Committee
(d) a Resource Owners and IT Committee.

The Head of School and the heads of department will be ex officio members of all four committees. Other members will be elected for a period of two years, except for the Teaching and Learning and Quality Assurance Committee (see below). Heads of Committees (b), (c) and (d) will be elected by the committees for a period of three years, renewable for a further three. They will be ex officio members of Committee (a).

Other ad hoc committees may be established for specific purposes with the agreement of all departments. Committees (b), (c), and (d) will report to the Executive Committee, which in turn will report to the School as a whole. The committees will determine their own times of meetings as seems appropriate.

a) The Executive Committee will consist of two members from each department. The heads of department, heads of committees (b), (c) and (d), the Head of School and the STELLA Manager will be ex officio members. One student member from each of the three departments will be elected from amongst class representatives to serve for a two-year period.

The Head of School will be the Convener of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee will elect a Treasurer who will normally be the Head of School. The Executive Committee will review reports by the three other committees and report to the meetings of the School.

b) The Research Committee will include the Head of School, heads of departments, two members of staff from each department (one of whom will normally be the Postgraduate Convener), and others invited for specific issues and occasions on a non-decision-making basis. Where appropriate the committee will be responsible for co-ordinating research activities, research submissions and material for assessment exercises, joint publicity and guidelines for postgraduates, research seminars, library resources, postgraduate well-being, etc. It will report to the Executive Committee.

c) The Teaching and Learning and Quality Assurance Committee will include the Head of School, heads of departments, the STELLA Manager, Conveners of all SESLL undergraduate classes, and others invited for specific issues and occasions on a non-decision-making basis. It will subsume the role of the former Board of Studies in English and departments will be expected to submit major proposals to its Convener for comment in advance of submission to the Faculty Board (e.g. new or substantially modified undergraduate courses or programmes). Having formed a view by consultation as to the likely impact of the proposals on the School as a whole, s/he will decide whether they should be discussed at a meeting of the Committee. In such a case, the student representatives will be invited to the meeting. The committee will also co-ordinate where necessary honours admissions policy, examining policy, quality assurance and assessment and timetabling of undergraduate work, schools liaison, Open Day arrangements, Socrates agreements, etc. It will report to the Executive Committee.

d) The Resource Owners and Information Technology Committee will include the Head of School, heads of department, the Director of STELLA, the STELLA Manager, the three departmental library representatives, and one other member of staff from each department. The Subject Librarian will be invited to attend as appropriate. It will be responsible for Library and IT issues as they affect the School, the School web site, and the development of the STELLA project. Other members may be co-opted as necessary, for example project grant-holders.

Head of School

S/he will summon and preside over meetings of the Executive Committee and of the whole School and will speak for and represent the School on occasions agreed by all members of the Executive Committee.
The Head will hold office for a period of three years from 1 August in the year of selection. The procedure is as follows: At its meeting in the first term of the year in which office is demitted, the nominating department will present its candidate for approval, following which the Executive will announce the candidate to the School. Should approval be withheld by either of these bodies, upon grounds deemed reasonable by the Executive, the nominating department will be invited to submit another candidate. Should agreement still not be reached, the Executive may follow one of four courses: (a) to make a decision to accept the second candidate; (b) to invite the next department in the line of succession to nominate a candidate; (c) to propose a candidate from any of the departments; (d) to hold an open election in the School. If course (d) is chosen, the Executive will appoint a returning officer and invite members of the School to suggest candidates, who must give their consent in writing. The election will be on the basis of one member, one vote. In all cases, the successful candidate will be presented to the AGM for endorsement.

Meetings of the School

The whole School will meet at least once a year. There can, if necessary, be extraordinary meetings of the School, convened by the Head of School, at the request of any member of the School through his/her head of department.

Establishment and Amendment of the Constitution

All proposals relating to the Constitution and any amendment to it must be agreed by all of the three participating departments. A majority will not suffice for change. The existing rights and obligations of all departments, including STELLA, will be recognised by the School, except in those cases in which they are explicitly delegated. Each department will have the right to withdraw from the School. Each department has equal weight in decision making, and any department has the power to veto any proposal.

Finance

Each department will make such annual contribution to the budget of the School as may be deemed necessary to finance any administrative costs incurred by the School, as well as other School activities, such as research seminars. This budget will be controlled by the treasurer who will report to the Executive Committee and to the whole School on expenses incurred. The Executive Committee at its first meeting of the academic year shall on the agreement of each and all of the departments determine the size of the contribution from each department for that year.

Notwithstanding that Scottish Literature is a confederal member of the School of English and Scottish Language and Literature, it is recognised by the School that Scottish Literature is also a member of the School of Scottish and Celtic Studies, and that it has full and equal obligations to the requirements of that School. The other departments have similar rights to belong to other Schools.

Approved by the AGM of 20 September 2005.