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	Statutes of Northern Ireland
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IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - LONG TITLE

An Act to make further provision with respect to University
Education in Ireland.
[1st August 1908]
FOUNDATION OF TWO NEW UNIVERSITIES AND PROVISIONS AS TO QUEEN'S
COLLEGESFoundation of two new universities in Ireland and dissolution
of the Royal University and Queen's College, Belfast.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 1

1.(1) His Majesty may, if pleased to do so, by charter, found two
new universities in Ireland (in this Act referred to as the new
universities), those universities respectively to have their seats at
Dublin and Belfast.

(2) The two universities shall be bodies corporate under such names
respectively as His Majesty may be pleased to determine, and the
governing bodies of the universities shall ... be constituted in
manner provided by the First Schedule to this Act.

(3) The Royal University of Ireland and Queen's College, Belfast,
shall be dissolved as from the appointed day.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 3
Prohibition of tests.

3.(1) No test whatever of religious belief shall be imposed on any
person as a condition of his becoming or continuing to be a
professor, lecturer, fellow, scholar, exhibitioner, graduate, or
student of, or of his holding any office or emolument or exercising
any privilege in, either of the two new universities ...; nor in
connection with either of those universities ... shall any preference
be given to or advantage be withheld from any person on the ground
of religious belief.

(2) Every professor upon entering into office shall sign a
declaration in a form approved by the Commissioners jointly under
this Act, securing the respectful treatment of the religious opinions
of any of his class.

(3) Nothing in this section shall apply to any professor of or
lecturer in theology or divinity; provided that no test of religious
belief shall be imposed by the governing body of either of the two
new universities ... on any such professor or lecturer as a
condition of his appointment or recognition by the governing body as
such professor or lecturer.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 4
Statutes for universities.

4.(1) The statutes for the general government of the new
universities ... shall be made in the first instance ... as
respects the new university having its seat at Belfast by the
Belfast Commissioners appointed under this Act, and, after the powers
of these commissioners determine, by the governing bodies of the
universities.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1927

(3) Statutes made under this section may regulate any matter
relating to the government of the university ... (including the
appointment and remuneration of officers) or otherwise concerning the
university ... so far as that matter is not regulated under this
Act or by the charter of the university.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 5
Statutes to be laid before Parliament.

5.(1) When any statute has been made under this Act, a notice of
its having been made and of the place where copies can be obtained
shall be published in the [Belfast Gazette], and the statute shall
be laid as soon as may be before both Houses of Parliament.

(2) If either House of Parliament within forty days (exclusive of
any period of prorogation) after a statute has been laid before it
presents an address praying His Majesty to disallow the statute or
any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken on the
statute or on the part thereof to which the address relates; but
this provision shall be without prejudice to the making of a new
statute.

(3) The governing body of a university ... to which the statute
relates, or any other person, corporation, or body directly affected
by the statute, may, within three months from the notification
thereof in the [Belfast Gazette], petition the Lord Lieutenant in
Council to disallow the whole or any part thereof.

(4) The Lord Lieutenant in Council may refer any such petition to
the Irish Universities Committee, with a direction that the committee
hear the petitioner personally or by counsel, and report specially
to the Lord Lieutenant in Council on the matter of the petition.

(5) If the committee report in favour of the disallowance of the
statute or any part thereof, the Lord Lieutenant may, by Order in
Council, disallow the whole or part thereof accordingly, but any
such disallowance shall be without prejudice to the making of a new
statute.

S.6 rep. by SLR 1927

Grants in aid of universities.

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 7

7.(1) The sum of twenty thousand pounds payable under the Royal
University of Ireland Act, 1881, shall, instead of being paid as
provided by that Act, be paid, as to one half thereof to the new
university having its seat at Dublin, and, as to one half thereof
to the new university having its seat at Belfast.

(2) There shall be annually paid out of moneys provided by
Parliament for the general purposes of the new university having its
seat at Belfast ... the sums specified in Part I of the Third
Schedule to this Act.

Subs.(3) rep. by SLR (NI) 1954

(4) Any sums paid under this section shall be applied by the
governing body of the university ... in accordance with their
charter or statutes, but no such sum shall be applied for the
provision or maintenance of any church, chapel, or other place of
religious worship or observance, or for the provision or maintenance
of any theological or religious teaching or study:

Provided that nothing in this provision shall prevent the recognition
by the governing body of the university of any professor of or
lecturer in theology or divinity as a professor of the university
so long as the professorship is founded and maintained entirely by
means of private benefaction, or the use of any building belonging
to the university ... for any teaching given by such professor, or
for any other religious teaching no part of the cost of which is
defrayed out of public funds. But no student shall be compelled to
attend any such theological teaching, or religious instruction, and
no professor of or lecturer in theology or divinity shall be
eligible for membership of the General Board of Studies or of any
Faculty other than the Faculty of Theology.

(5) The grants paid under this section shall be in lieu of any
grants payable at the time of the passing of this Act, either out
of the Consolidated Fund or moneys provided by Parliament, to or
for the benefit of the Royal University of Ireland, Queen's College,
Belfast, Queen's College, Cork, or Queen's College, Galway; and shall
be deemed to be in full discharge of all past or present claims
of any such university or college, or of any person holding or
having held any office in any such university or college, to be
maintained or paid out of public money, or to receive any portion
of public money by way of salary, pension, allowance, or otherwise
in respect of that office, and the liability to meet any such
claim shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as a
liability of the university or college in connection with which the
claim arises.

Any such liability to meet a claim for pensions shall be a first
charge upon any money provided by Parliament under this section for
the purposes of the university ... liable to meet the claim.

(6) The governing body of each of the new universities ... shall
prepare annually, in such form as the Treasury shall direct,
accounts of all receipts and expenditure, capital and income, under
their control, and within three months after the expiration of the
year to which the accounts relate shall transmit the same to the
Comptroller and Auditor-General to be audited, certified, and reported
upon in conformity with the powers and regulations prescribed in the
Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, for rendering and auditing
appropriation accounts, and the accounts, with the reports of the
Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon, shall be laid before the
House of Commons not later than three months after the date on
which they were transmitted for audit, if Parliament be then
sitting, and, if not sitting, within fourteen days after Parliament
next assembles.

(7) Nothing in this section shall preclude any money being provided
by Parliament in addition to the sums provided under this section,
either in augmentation of any sums contributed for the purpose of
the universities ... from other sources, or otherwise.

S.8 rep. by SLR (NI) 1954

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 9
Purchase of land.

9. For the purposes of the purchase of land by the governing
bodies of the two new universities ..., the Lands Clauses Acts,
with the exception of the provisions thereof with respect to the
purchase of land otherwise than by agreement, shall be incorporated
with this Act.

S.10 rep. by 1923 c.21 (NI) s.110(2) sch.6

Ss.11, 12 rep. by 1938 c.14 (NI) s.59 sch.3; 1956 c.76 s.57(1)
sch.5; 1976 NI 12 art.82(1) sch.3. S.13 spent

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 14
Transfer of property.

14.Subs.(1)(4) (transfer of property, etc. on dissolution of Royal
University of Ireland and Queen's College, Belfast)

(5) Where any property transferred or appropriated to either of the
two new universities ... by virtue of this section or any scheme
made thereunder, is a private endowment subject to trusts, the
governing body of the university ... shall in the application of
that property as far as possible give effect to the trusts
affecting it, and provision shall be made for that purpose by the
scheme.

S.15 rep. by SLR (NI) 1954. S.16(1)(7) spent; subs.(8) rep. with
saving by 1971 c.56 s.18 sch.8 Pt.II

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 17
Appeals and effect of schemes.

17.Subs.(1)(3) rep. by SLR (NI) 1954

(4) A scheme made by the Commissioners under this Act shall have
effect as if enacted in this Act, and, if it is modified on
appeal under this section, shall have effect as so modified, and
the Commissioners shall cause notice of all such schemes to be
published in the [Belfast Gazette].

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 18
Irish Universities Committee.

18.(1) There shall be a committee of the Privy Council in Ireland
styled the Irish Universities Committee. The committee shall consist
of such number of members of the Privy Council in Ireland, not
being less than five, as the Lord Lieutenant may think fit to
appoint, two at least being persons who are or have been judges of
the supreme court.

(2) The powers and duties of the Irish Universities Committee may
be exercised and discharged by any three or more members of the
committee, so long as one of those members is a person who is or
has been a judge of the supreme court, and, in the case of
appeals under section seventeen of this Act, then so long as two
of those members are persons who are or have been judges of the
supreme court.

(3) The costs of all parties of and incident to the hearing of
any petition or appeal under this Act which is heard by the Irish
Universities Committee shall be in the discretion of the committee.

(4) The Lord Lieutenant in Council may make rules generally for
regulating the procedure of the Irish Universities Committee, and
may, by those rules, prescribe the time within which any appeal
under this Act may be made, and the mode in which any costs
allowed under this Act may be recovered.

S.19 spent

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 20

20.Commencement

IRISH UNIVERSITIES ACT 1908 - SECT 21
Short title.

21.Subs.(1) rep. by SLR 1927

(2) This Act may be cited as the Irish Universities Act, 1908.