AGY-3567 | Academic Board [Newcastle Teachers' College/Newcastle College of Advanced Education/Hunter Institute of Higher Education

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The earliest indication of the existence of the Academic Board is in late 1969, however the Board could have been established at any time between the commencement of the Teachers’ College itself in 1949 and this first identified reference. [1] The Academic Board consisted of the Principal of the College, the Vice-Principal and heads of departments, with four additional members elected by the academic staff. It was “responsible to the Principal for making broad recommendations on any matter affecting the College programme,” and the various Course Committees were, in turn, responsible to the Academic Board “for the structure and administration of the respective courses.” [2] The transformation of the Teachers’ College into a College of Advanced Education in 1974 seems not to have effected the continuity of the Academic Board, nor on that of the two Boards of Studies (in Primary and Special Education and in Secondary Education), established some months earlier, which reported to the Academic Board. [3] Further such subsidiary Boards were set up during the following years; eight in all existed by the end of 1978. [4] Shortly after the creation of the College of Advanced Education, the Academic Board also set up an Executive Committee, consisting of the Chairman and five other members, to consider matters of business on behalf of the whole Board, and act, when authorised, on its behalf. [5] The College Bylaw, gazetted on the 25th February, 1977, defined the Academic Board as “the principal academic advisory board to the Council on matters concerned with the educational work of the College.” [6] From the beginning of 1979, the several Boards of Studies, which up until this time had reported directly to the Academic Board, were made subordinate to three School Boards – of Education, of Paramedical and Community Welfare Studies, and of Visual and Performing Arts - which were in turn subordinated to the Academic Board. The first two School Boards each began to function in March; the Board of the School of Visual and Performing Arts did not meet until July. [7] A further restructure, effective from the beginning of 1988, resulted in four, rather than three, School Boards reporting to the Academic Board – those of Administration and Technology, Education and Humanities, Health, and Visual and Performing Arts. [8] The Academic Board continued to function until the end of the College of Advanced Education as a separate institution. It met for the last time on the 4th October, 1989, and its last Report was presented to the meeting of Council held on the 19th October, [9] less than a fortnight before the abolition of the College under the Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act, 1989. [10] Endnotes:
[1] The first identified reference in the Newcastle Teachers’ College Calendar, 1970, p.19. There no earlier source was identified at the time of registration [2] Newcastle Teachers’ College Calendar, 1970, p.19.
[3] Newcastle College of Advanced Education Calendar, 1976, p.6.
[4] loc.cit. for the first such, the Board of Studies in Art (1975); the Minutes of this and later Boards are held, in whole or in part, at the University of Newcastle Archives.
[5] Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Academic Board, pp 1, 9, 11 and passim.
[6] Bylaw, cap.V, div.2, para.10(a); N.S.W. Government Gazette, No.20 (25th February, 1977), pp 726-752, at p.738.
[7] Council Minutes, p.348 (resolution C.138/78); Minutes of the School Board, School of Education, p.1; Minutes of the School Board, School of Paramedical and Community Welfare Studies, p.1; Minutes of the School Board, School of Visual and Performing Arts, p.1.
[8] Council Documents C4:88, C23:88 (incorporating PC2:88) and Hunter Institute of Higher Education: highlights of our forty-year history 1949-1989 (unnumbered inclusion with Council Documents for the meeting of the 19th October, 1989), p.4.
[9] Council Minutes, pp 1637 – 1642.
[10] N.S.W. Government Gazette, No.105 (27th October, 1989), p. 8844; Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act, 1989, Section 11(1).