The archive comprises the official records of the governing bodies of UMIST and its predecessor organizations.
From 1903-1956, these bodies were under the control of Manchester Education Committee (MEC), and the archives of the MEC, which are part of the Manchester City Council archives, should be considered as directly related to these records. There is an almost complete set of minutes of the management sub-committee of the Manchester Municipal School/College of Technology, 1903-1956 (TGB/1/1), as well as records of its sectional committees (TGB/1/4); some of the latter are also filed with TGB/1/1. The archive also includes the minutes of the Board of Studies, the main non-University body for academic governance (TGB/1/2), and its sub-committees (TGB/1/3). There are also minute and document books for the committees which oversaw the construction of the original College building (TGB/1/5) and the inter-and post-war extension (TGB/1/6). Also present are minutes of the Applications Committee (TGB/1/7), responsible for non-university students, and the Refectory Committee (TGB/1/8), which was responsible for catering policy; both remained in existence after the changes to College ownership and government in 1956.
Minutes of the governing bodies of Manchester College of Science and Technology (1956-1965) and UMIST (1965-2004) are arranged in a separate section (TGB/2). These include the minutes of Court and Council (TGB/2/1) and the Academic Board (TGB/2/2). Minutes for committees which reported to the Board (TGB/2/3) are present, as are minutes of the Departmental Academic Boards (TGB/2/4) for the period 1966-1984. There are also separate series of minutes for some senior UMIST committees including Planning and Development, 1957-1977 (TGB/2/5), Estates, 1965-1977 (TGB/2/6), Academic Establishment, 1985-1996 (TGB/2/7), Non-Academic Establishment, 1961-1994 (TGB/2/8), Library, 1964-1998 (TGB/2/10), Academic Development and Resources, 1985-1995 (TGB/2/11), and meetings of the Heads of Department, 1961-1974 (TGB/2/9). The minutes of some committees of Council, may be found with the main series of Council minutes (TGB/2/1). Minutes of several committees for the late 1990s to 2004 have not been located.
The archive does not include minutes of the Board of the Faculty of Technology, which was responsible for most aspects of university-level academic matters between 1905-1994. The Faculty was a body of the University of Manchester, responsible to its Senate, and its archive is part of the University of Manchester archives (FTE). There are some gaps in coverage of the minutes notably for the management committee for the School between 1904-1914; also absent are minutes of the departmental academic boards in the period up to the 1960s and the post-1984 period.
Minutes are signed and volumes are indexed unless otherwise stated.
The minutes are an essential source of information about the constitution and activities of UMIST and its predecessor bodies. They provide a definitive record of the organization's policies, strategies and business in the period concerned, and its relations with partners, especially Manchester City Council and the Victoria University of Manchester. The records provide interesting sidelights on the development of technical and technological education in Manchester, at both university and vocational levels. These minutes, used in association with other records in the UMIST archive, are important sources of information for the development of individual academic disciplines at UMIST, such as chemical engineering, textiles, mechanical and electrical engineering etc.