University of Dublin
The University of Dublin (Irish: Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dublin. It was founded in 1592 when Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter for Trinity College as "the mother of a university", thereby making it Ireland's oldest operating university.[a] It was modelled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and of Cambridge, but unlike these other ancient universities, only one college was established; as such, the designations "Trinity College" and "University of Dublin" are usually synonymous for practical purposes.
The University of Dublin is one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland. It is a member of the Irish Universities Association, Universities Ireland, and the Coimbra Group.
History[edit]
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 ("mother of the university"). 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 ("in place of many') 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".[9] The judge noted pointedly (referring to the then recent founding of University College Dublin) that "[t]he advisers of Queen Victoria knew how to incorporate a University when they meant to do so"[9] 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[10] 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 (chancellor, pro-chancellor), or have duties relating to the college also, for which they are paid, but by the college (the proctors, the registrar, the mace bearer).
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,[11][12][13][14][15] which later became law,[16] 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),[17][18][19][20][21][22] and in particular the verbal submission of the provost.[23]
Traditionally, sport clubs also use the name "Dublin University", rather than "Trinity College".[24]
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.[25]
Organisation[edit]
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2018) |
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 (who is responsible for legal and administrative matters) and the junior and senior proctors (who present undergraduate and postgraduate candidates for degree commencement ceremonies). There is also a mace holder, the chief steward (responsible for college security) or his deputy, who proceeds the caput in a procession. (Attendees stand while the procession progresses to the head of the room). 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 (usually one a year), 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. (A Master of Arts is called a regent during the three years following the time when he or she took that degree; subsequently he or she is designated as non-regent, and one elected by the Senate from among the masters non-regent, by statute, is, according to ancient usage, designated as "senior master non-regent".) 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.
