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Ordinance IX: Removal of the President and Vice-Chancellor

1. This Ordinance sets out the applicable procedure for the Council determining that the President and Vice-Chancellor shall be dismissed and removed from office, for any reason, SAVE THAT where the President and Vice-Chancellor is employed under a fixed term contract, this Ordinance shall not apply to any decision by Council that the fixed term contract should not be renewed or extended when it expires.
2. This Ordinance shall be construed to ensure that the President and Vice-Chancellor has freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing himself or herself in jeopardy of losing his/her job or privileges.
3. The Chair of the Council may at any time request Council to consider the dismissal and removal from office of the President and Vice-Chancellor where:
   
   1. the Chair him/herself considers that there are grounds for such dismissal and removal from office; or
   2. the Chair has received a written request from any member of Council seeking the dismissal and removal from office of the President and Vice-Chancellor and the Chair considers that it raises sufficient grounds for the matter to be referred to Council for decision.
   3. the Remuneration Committee recommends the President and Vice-Chancellor's dismissal and removal from office on the grounds that the President and Vice-Chancellor has failed to meet performance related objectives set by the Remuneration Committee.
4. The Chair of Council may suspend the President and Vice-Chancellor from his/her duties and may exclude the President and Vice-Chancellor from the precincts of the University or any part thereof without loss of salary:
   
   1. where the Council is to be asked to consider the President and Vice-Chancellor's dismissal and removal from office; or
   2. at any other time where the Chair, with the agreement of the Officers of Council, considers that this is appropriate.
5. At any meeting of Council at which the dismissal and removal from office of the President and Vice-Chancellor is to be considered under this procedure, the President and Vice-Chancellor will be invited, with at least two working days' notice, to attend and present to Council before a decision is made and may be accompanied by a representative.  The Chair may request the President and Vice-Chancellor to absent him/herself from any part of that meeting.
6. If the Council considers that it is necessary, before taking any decision on the proposed dismissal and removal from office of the President and Vice-Chancellor, to investigate any matter or establish any facts, it may at its discretion appoint a member or members of the Council to carry out such investigation and make a written report to the Council.  It shall be for the member or members of Council so appointed to determine how any such investigation should be progressed, save that the President and Vice-Chancellor shall be afforded the opportunity to make written or oral representations (as the member or members of Council appointed consider appropriate) before reporting back to the Council.
7. The Council may decide by a simple majority of those present to dismiss the President and Vice-Chancellor and remove him/her from office and whether such dismissal shall be a summary dismissal (i.e. without notice or payment in lieu of notice) or a dismissal on notice or (where provided for in the President and Vice-Chancellor's contract of employment) with a payment in lieu of notice.  If the vote shall be equally divided for and against, the Chair shall have a second and casting vote.  The Council's decision shall be final. 

(amendments approved July 2017) 

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