THE

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY CALENDAR.

Jutroduction.

UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, TRINITY COLLEGE.

§ I. THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN was founded by Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1591. On the third day of March in that year, a College was incorporated by Charter or Letters Patent, as "the Mother of an University," under the style and title of "The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, founded by Queen Elizabeth."b

Previous to the year 1873, the Provostship, Fellowships, and Foundation Scholarships of Trinity College could only be held by Members of the Church of Ireland. This restriction was sanctioned by Parliamentary enactments in the case of the Provostship and Fellowships (33 Geo. III. c. 21). With regard to the Foundation Scholarships, the limitation arose solely from certain provisions in the College Statutes. All these restrictions were removed by the Act 36 Vict. c. 21. The preamble to this Act recites that it is expedient "that the benefits of Trinity College, and the University of Dublin, and of the schools in the said University, as places of religion and learning, should be rendered freely accessible to the nation," and that all restrictions, tests, and disabilities should be removed.

§ II.-GOVERNMENT.-Subject to the control of Acts of Parliament and Royal Statutes, the government is in the hands of the Board, in conjunction with the Visitors, but in most matters relating to education, as specified in detail below, it acts conjointly with the Council, and in matters relating to the conferring of Degrees, the sanction of the Senate is required.

"Unum Collegium mater Universitatis pro educatione, institutione et instructione juvenum et studentium in artibus et facultatibus, perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturum, et quod erit et vocabitur Collegium Sanctæ et Individuæ Trinitatis, juxta Dublin, a serenissimâ Reginâ Elizabethâ fundatum."-Charta Reg. Eliz. anno regni tricesimo quarto.

b For an account of the various Charters and Royal Letters affecting Trinity College see "Statuta Collegii atque Universitatis Dubliniensis," 1875.

The BOARD consists of the Provost and seven Senior Fellows, and the Fellows, if any, other than Senior Fellows, who may be elected by the Board to the office of Bursar, Senior Lecturer, or Registrar, together with two representatives of the Junior Fellows, and two representatives of the Professors.

The VISITORS are the Chancellor of the University (or, in his absence, the Vice-Chancellor) and the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

The SENATE, or Public Congregation, of the University, consists of the Chancellor, or, in his absence, of the Vice-Chancellor, or Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the time being, and such Doctors or Masters of the University as keep their names on the books of the College in accordance with such regulations as the Board enact. (See p. 20.)

The Caput of the Senate consists of the Chancellor, or ViceChancellor, or Pro-Vice-Chancellor, the Provost, or, in his absence, the Vice-Provost, and the Senior Master non-regent,a who is elected by the Senate.

The Senate is convened only by the Chancellor, or, in his absence, the Vice-Chancellor or Pro-Vice-Chancellor, each of whom, when presiding, has power to adjourn or dissolve its meetings, and has a casting vote. The Chancellor, or in his absence, the Vice-Chancellor or Pro-Vice-Chancellor, is bound to convene the Senate, on a requisition presented to him by the Board, and the Senate shall meet at such time, and for such purpose, as shall be stated in such requisition.

Whenever the office of Chancellor becomes vacant, the Board must, within one calendar month, propose to the Senate the names of three persons, from amongst whom the Senate must elect a Chancellor within one month from the day of such proposal. In computing these periods, the interval between the 1st of July and 1st of October shall not be taken into account, nor shall an election take place during such interval. If the Senate decline or omit to elect, the nomination of the Chancellor passes to the Crown. The Vice-Chancellor continues to hold his office during the vacancy of the office of Chancellor, and, during such vacancy, has power to convene the Senate for the purpose of electing a Chancellor, and has authority to exercise all the functions and duties of the Chancellor, until the election of the Chancellor.

The Vice-Chancellor, if unable to attend any of the meetings of the Senate, is empowered, by writing under his hand and seal, to appoint a Pro-Vice-Chancellor for that special occasion.

The Board has power to alter, amend, and repeal all laws, rules, or by-laws heretofore existing, and to make new rules and

Each Master of Arts is called a regent during the three years following the time he took that Degree. The name originated from the duty formerly imposed on such Masters of regulating the disputations of the Schools.

laws, from time to time, for the more solemn conferring of Degrees by the Senate; provided always that no such new laws, or alteration of existing laws, shall be of force or binding upon the University, until they shall have received the sanction of the Senate lawfully assembled.

No law, rule, by-law, or grace whatsoever, for the conferring of Degrees, or any other purpose, can be proposed to the Senate, which has not been first proposed to and adopted by the Board The Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor presiding is empowered to prohibit any such law or grace from being proposed to the Senate.

Gowns are worn at meetings of the Senate.

The COUNCIL Consists of the following members:-The Provost, or, in his absence, the Vice-Provost; the Senior Lecturer; the Registrar; and sixteen members of the Senate, namely:-two elected by the Board; six elected by all of the Junior Fellows and those of the Professors and of the King's Professors appointed to lecture or examine in the Schools in Arts as hereinafter defined; one elected by those of the Junior Fellows and Professors appointed to lecture or examine in the School of Law; two elected by those of the Junior Fellows and Professors appointed to lecture or examine in the School of Physic; one elected by those of the Junior Fellows and Professors appointed to lecture or examine in the School of Engineering; four members elected by all the members of the Senate.

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The Schools in Arts consist of the following Schools, viz.:The School of Mathematics, the School of Classics, the School of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, the School of Mental and Moral Science, the School of Experimental Science, the School of Natural Science, the School of History and Political Science, the School of Modern Languages and Literature, the School of Legal and Political Science, the School of Celtic Languages, and such other Schools in Arts as may hereafter from time to time be established.

The Council nominates to all Professorships, except those the nomination to which is vested in some other body or persons by Act of Parliament, or by the directions of private founders, and except also the Professorships in the School of Divinity. Such nomination is subject to the approval of the Board. In the event of the Board refusing its approval to the nomination of the Council, the Chancellor decides whether the grounds for such refusal are sufficient. If they appear to him to be insufficient, he declares the person nominated by the Council to be duly elected. If not, the Council proceeds to a fresh nomination. If no election shall take place within the space of six calendar months from the date of the vacancy, or from the time of the creation of any new Professorship, the right of nomination and election for the purpose of

filling up such vacancy, or of appointing to such new Professorship, lapses to the Chancellor. No person, being at the time a member of the Council, shall be nominated by the Council to any Professorship.

Except so far as is otherwise provided by Act of Parliament, or by direction of private founders, any proposed new rules or regulations respecting studies, lectures, and examinations (other than those connected with the School of Divinity, with which the Council has no authority to interfere), and also any proposed new rules or regulations respecting the qualifications, duties, and tenure of office of any Professor in any Professorship now existing, or hereafter to be constituted, except the Professors and Professorships connected with the said School of Divinity, and any proposed alterations in any existing rules or regulations respecting such studies, lectures, and examinations, qualifications, duties, and tenure of office, save as aforesaid, require the approval both of the Board, and of the Council.

All such new rules and regulations and alterations in any rules or regulations may be originated either by the Board, or by the Council.

No new Professorship can be created or founded by the Board without the consent of the Council.

§ III. TEACHING.-The Examining Staff consists of the Provost, Fellows, and Professors.

The Lecturing Staff consists of the Junior Fellows and Professors.

The greater part of the teaching in the obligatory Courses in Arts is performed by the Junior Fellows. To Professors selected from among them is entrusted for the most part the instruction which is given in the highest departments of these Courses. Special Lecturers are selected to lecture Candidates for Honors.

From the early Statutes it would seem to have been originally intended that the Fellows should carry on the special instruction required by Students desirous of qualifying themselves for particular Professions. But the growing requirements of the Professional Schools, especially the Medical, prevented this design from being carried out, and the special instruction required for the four Professional Schools of Divinity, Law, Medicine, and Engineering, is now, for the most part, delivered by Professors elected to teach special subjects.

Outside the regular Courses in Arts, and the branches of study required in the Professional Schools, there are various departments of learning for the cultivation of which Professorships have been from time to time founded.

§ IV. DEGREES are publicly conferred by the Chancellor or ViceChancellor, in the Senate or Congregation of the University.

The Grace of the House for a Degree in any Faculty having

first been granted by the Board, must pass the Caput before it can be proposed to the rest of the Senate, and each member of the Caput has a negative voice. If no member of the Caput objects, the Proctor, in a prescribed form of words, supplicates the Congregation for their public Grace; and, having collected their suffrages, declares the assent or dissent of the House accordingly; if the placets be the majority, the Candidates for Degrees are presented to the Senate by the Regius Professor of the Faculty in which the Degree is to be taken; or, if it be a Degree in Arts, by one of the Proctors: they then advance in order before the Chancellor, who confers the Degree according to a formula fixed by the University Statutes, and after which the Candidates then subscribe their names in the Register.

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Public Commencements for the conferring of Degrees are held four times in each year on days published in the Almanac. A Diploma is sometimes given to those who are fully qualified for a Degree, but whose circumstances may render it inconvenient for them to wait for the public Comitia; but such persons can exercise none of the rights and privileges connected with their Degree until they have appeared at Commencements, and have had the Degree publicly conferred on them by the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor. An exception to this rule has been made in favour of members of the University who are resident in the Colonies or Foreign Countries. (See page 12.)

A meeting of the Senate for the consideration of names proposed for Honorary Degrees is held at the end of Hilary Term, to which attention is called a week before by notice on the College gate.

The following Regulations with regard to the order to be observed in conferring Degrees at the Public Commencements have been sanctioned by the Vice-Chancellor :

I. The Chancellor announces the opening of the Comitia. At the Winter Commencements the Senior Master non-regent is elected, on the proposition of the Chancellor and the Provost; and the two Proctors and the Registrar make the statutory affirmation.

II. The Senior Proctor supplicates for the Licenses in Medicine, in Surgery, and in Engineering. The Junior Proctor supplicates for the Degrees of Bachelors in Arts. The Senior Proctor supplicates for the other ordinary Degrees.

III. The Senior Lecturer introduces the Moderators to the Chancellor, who presents them with their Medals. The Senior Lecturer introduces the Respondents to the Chancellor, who presents them with their Certificates.

See the forms of presentation and supplication, and also the forms of suspension and absolution, in the University Statutes. Stat. Univ. after cap. xi. The forms for conferring Degrees are given in cap. v..