Registrar's Office

The Registrar's Office was established on 1 March 1965 following a decision by Council on 30 October 1964 to institute a tripartite system of senior administration to replace the original Registrar's Department. Under the new scheme, the Registrar's Office (under former Registrar V A Edgeloe) retained responsibility for servicing Council and its decisions. This includes all matters associated with Academic and Professional Staff (including servicing Committees dealing with appointments, study leave, staff development and promotions); general administration (including correspondence and records); information services within and outside the University; compilation of submissions to the Australian Universities Commission; computer programming for administration services (for the Academic Registrar's and Bursar's offices); administration and servicing of Committees and Boards relating to scholarships, postgraduate awards and grants for research; building repairs and maintenance and the work of the Sites and Grounds Committee; and secretarial services for various ad hoc Committees and Committees that were infrequently convened.

In effect because of the seniority of the existing Registrar, the Registrar's Office continued to act as a senior administrative unit until 1972.

Following the recommendations of the Committee for the Review of Administrative Structures in March 1972, an equal status was assumed by the three offices, recognised by the adoption from 23 January 1975 of the new Statute "Of Senior Administrative Staff" to replace that of 1900 " Of the Registrar".

No other major changes were made to the status quo in spite of the further recommendations of the 1971 Committee and subsequent reviews until the adoption by Council on 9th May 1980 of the Report of the Committee of Administrative Review (the Corbett Report). Upon the recommendation of this Committee, the tripartite system of administration was abolished from December 1981 and the responsibilities of the Registrar were divided functionally between the Bursar and the Academic Registrar (the latter to be known subsequently as Registrar). The Bursar took on responsibility for building and architectural services in addition to financial and monetary matters and the Registrar (that is the former Academic Registrar) combined the remaining former duties and responsibilities of the Academic Registrar and the Registrar and took over the administration of general staff from the Bursar.

The Office of the Registrar was established from 1 January 1982 and constituted in effect the combination of the functions of the former Academic Registrar's Office with those of the Registrar's Office (as determined in 1965) following the adoption of the tripartite system of senior administration comprising Registrar, Academic Registrar and Bursar. The title of Registrar was adopted in accordance with established usage for the senior administrative officer. Under the new dual administration of Registrar and Bursar, responsibility for building and architectural services was transferred to the Bursar's Office while the former responsibility of the Bursar for general (non-academic and non-professional) staff was transferred to the combined office of Registrar.Administrative computer services, previously under the Registrar, were divided between the Bursar's office and the Registrar's office.

The responsibilities of the reconstituted Registrar's office were defined by Council on 8 August 1980 as Academic and General Administration ( including servicing of Council and most Committees, Faculties, Boards and all student related matters), management of the information office, staffing and industrial matters and the maintenance of statistical and computer data and other records. These various facets of the Registrar's Office were recognised by the formal restructuring of the office in 1982: Secretarial Services Branch (subsequently Faculties Secretariats and Executive Committee Secretariat), Student Administration Branch, Research Administration Unit, Information Services Unit and Planning and Projects Unit (combined subsequently as Central Services Branch) and Personnel Services Branch. The Registrar was to report directly to the Vice-Chancellor in the performance of his duties.

Taken from UAA Provenance Record UAR-0003