File: Manchester Business School

Registrar's papers relating to the Manchester Business School. These concern the constitutional status of the School within the University of Manchester, which became an issue of contention in the early 1990s. The 1973 University charter had defined the School's status under Ordinance XXI. The University felt this did not define adequately the relationship between the University and School, which enjoyed a degree of administrative autonomy (it had its own council). There were concerns that the University Council's financial responsibility for MBS activities were inadequately defined, especially with regard to the relationship with the Universities Funding Council, established in 1988. Attempts to resolve the issue by granting MBS a new corporate status as a company limited by guarantee or alternatively full integration into the University's faculty structure, were rejected. In 1992, some business members of the MBS Council resigned in protest at what was seen as University encroachment over its activities. A revised University Ordinance defining the status of MBS was agreed (ordinance IX). This established a School Board which reported to the University Council, and defined the role of Director of the School in relation to the University (the previous ordinance had not done so).