University of Keele Act 1962

WHEREAS on the petition of Thomas Horwood, alderman of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Lewis Davies, alderman of the Staffordshire County Council, and William Hutson, alderman of the county borough of Burton upon Trent, His late Majesty King George the Sixth granted a charter dated the eleventh day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-nine constituting and incorporating a college in North Staffordshire with the name of the University College of North Staffordshire (in the Preamble to this Act referred to as the ‘college'):

And whereas on the petition of the college Her Majesty has granted a charter constituting in the parish of Keele in the rural district of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the county of Stafford, a university (in this Act referred to as "the university-) by the name and style of ”The University of Keele” with boards of studies in the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences and such faculties, either in addition to or in substitution for the aforesaid boards of studies or any of them as may from time to time be constituted by statutes or ordinances of the university:

And whereas the court of governors and council of the college are desirous, and it is expedient, that the college should be merged in the university, and that all the property and liabilities of the college should be transferred to and vested in the university:

And whereas the objects of this Act cannot be attained without the authority of Parliament:

May it therefore please Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted, by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. This Act may be cited as the University of Keele Act, 1962.

2. (1) As from the commencement of this Act, the University College of North Staffordshire (in this Act referred to as "the college") shall be by virtue of this Act dissolved and cease to exist, and all property real and personal of every description (including things in action), and all rights and privileges of the college which immediately before the commencement of this Act belonged to or were vested in or exercisable by the college, shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be by virtue of this Act, without any conveyance, transfer or other instrument, transferred to and vested in and exercisable by the university for all the estate and interest therein of the college, and shall be applied to the objects and purposes for which the university is incorporated. (2) Any property which by any scheme, deed, will or other instrument or otherwise is held upon trust for any specific foundation or object of, or connected with, the college shall after the said transfer be held upon trust for and applied, as far as possible, to the same foundation or object of, or connected with, the university:

Provided that any such foundation or object may from time to time be varied or added to by deed under the seal of the university which shall have been approved by a special resolution (as defined by article 24¹ of the charter constituting the university) of the court² of the university but so that the funds and investments for the time being allocated to each specific foundation or object shall remain allocated for that specific foundation or object:

Provided also that any such deed of variation or addition shall not be of any validity until the same shall have been submitted to and approved by the Privy Council and a certificate of their approval thereof signed by the clerk of the Privy Council shall be endorsed on such deed. (3) Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section any property held by the college upon or subject to any trust or trusts (not being a trust or trusts relating to the objects and purposes for which the university is incorporated) shall be held by the university upon or subject to the trust or trusts upon or subject to which that property was held by the college previously to the transfer.

3. On the commencement of this Act all debts and liabilities of the college shall, by virtue of this Act, be transferred and attached to the university and shall thereafter be discharged and satisfied by the university.

4. All agreements, awards, contracts, deeds and other instruments, and all actions and proceedings and causes of action or proceedings, which immediately before the commencement of this Act were existing or pending in favour of, or against, the college shall continue and may be carried into effect, enforced and prosecuted by, or in favour of, or against, the university to the same extent and in like manner as if the university instead of the college had been party to or interested in the same respectively.

5. All professors and other members of and persons attached to or associated with the teaching staff of the college, and all salaried or paid officers and servants of the college, shall hold, as nearly practicable, the same offices and places in the university as they held in the college immediately before the commencement of this Act and upon the same terms and conditions, or upon such varied terms and conditions as the council of the university may decide, without prejudice to any existing rights in regards to tenure of office, salary or other emoluments.

6. Any power or right of the college to appoint or nominate a member of any educational authority, or of the governing body of any educational, charitable or other institution, shall on the commencement of this Act be transferred to, or may be exercised by, the university.

7. (1) A degree conferred by the university shall qualify for any office, or candidature for an office, for which an English university degree qualifies. (2) A degree conferred by the university shall qualify for any privilege or exemption (being a statutory privilege or exemption or one granted by a public authority or other body including an examining body) for which an English university degree qualifies. (3) Where an English university degree qualifies for an office, or candidature for an office, or for a privilege or exemption only if it is a degree of a specific kind, or if it is conferred only on candidates in a specific faculty or school, references in this section to a degree conferred by the university shall be construed as references to a degree of that kind or conferred on candidates in that faculty or school. (4) References in this section to a degree include references to a diploma or other distinction. (5) References in this section to qualification by an English university degree are references to cases where it is not germane to the qualification which university conferred the degree.

8. Any scheme, will, deed or other instrument, whether made or executed before or after the commencement of this Act (including any will made before the commencement of this Act by a testator living at the date of such commencement), which contains any bequest, gift or trust or other benefit in favour of the college shall on and after the commencement of this Act be read and have effect as if the university were therein named instead of the college.

9. The costs, charges and expenses of and incidental to the preparing for, obtaining and passing of this Act, shall be defrayed by the university out of income or out of the capital of the property by this Act transferred to the university.

1 now article 25 (August 1976)

2 now council (July 2011)