Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences
On Friday 15 March 2013, University Council approved the recommendation from Senate that the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences should be renamed, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering.
It is felt that changing the name will highlight more accurately the nature and balance of the research, education and enterprise that is undertaken within the Faculty. It is the Faculty view that this change will improve both internal and external understanding of the role of engineering within the Faculty and improve opportunities for recruitment and other relevant contact with interested parties. The change does not affect the composition of the academic units, how they operate or how they are promoted.
The Deans of both FPAS and the Faculty for Engineering and the Environment (FEE) presented the case for change to a joint meeting of their Faculty Executive Groups and representatives from the Professional Services, where the proposal was ratified.
Mathematics
On the same date, University Council approved the recommendation from Senate that the academic unit, Mathematics should be renamed, Mathematical Sciences.
Southampton has a broad based mathematics community which encompasses a full range of research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research. Comparable departments in other Russell Group universities carry the name Mathematical Sciences as opposed to Mathematics in order to reflect the rich diversity of the discipline, as do the major international research institutes, the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge and the Maxwell Institute in Edinburgh.
The main national body representing the profession is termed the Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS) and the principal funding agency EPSRC also uses the term Mathematical Sciences to describe its remit. It is a good time for us to join them all in using this inclusive and descriptive term.
In both of these cases, the University Ordnances must now be amended and systems will be updated accordingly over the next few weeks.
Once finalised, the full minutes of this meeting of University Council will be available here.