Mick Bruton

Emeritus Professor Mick Bruton died on 14 November 2024, aged 86.

In UK universities in the 1980s the divide between the Academic and the Administrative was enshrined in the wording of Royal Charters along with freedom of speech, academic tenure and an overarching role for the Senatus Academicus. The Principal was defined as the Chief Academic and Executive Officer and the Registrar the Head of Administration.

This was the template which framed UWIST and hence was carved into the foundation of UWCC in 1988 when the Principal and the Registrar of UWIST, Aubrey Trotman-Dickinson (‘TD’) and Professor Mick Bruton respectively, crossed the park to lead the newly merged ‘University of Wales College of Cardiff’.

Professor Bruton’s successful career in academic Town and Country Planning is overshadowed by his role in shaping what later became Cardiff University. His figure dominated every aspect from the administration of the merger office where spreadsheets fed the Merger Committee to specify how many students, what courses, how many staff, which subjects fell into which departments, where these would be located, who would lead them – everything.

Professor Bruton got things done. His relationship with TD was not always smooth and harmonious as both were strong and focused but between them direction was set and the Registrar’s task was to find the ways and means of delivering, which he did, consistently, vigorously and with a robust determination, a style which he required all those around him to follow. Velvet gloves did not come into it.

The UWIST models of financial management were the rock on which the newly merged College was built and while these undoubtedly flowed from the Principal’s desk, the Registrar was the implementer and guardian to ensure there was no drift. No details were too minor to be overlooked – there was a formula governing the number of administrative staff permitted in each Academic Department, the Principal held a Master Key capable of opening any door throughout the estate, no paper prepared in the central administration was allowed to go to any Committee without having first been signed off in red, by the Registrar, then green ink by the Principal.
His contribution to Higher Education was recognised with the award of CBE.

The same robust style was adopted in handling the situation between the College and the federal University of Wales where it became increasingly clear that Cardiff’s aspirations to become a world-class research-led University were not compatible with the overarching bureaucracy of a federal structure.

The pairing of Principal and Registrar changed with TD’s retirement late in 1992 and the arrival of Brian Smith from Oxford, bringing with him an entirely different consensual style of leadership led to a revision of the administrative structures and the early retirement of the Registrar in 1994.

But this was not the end of Mick Bruton’s story with Cardiff.  He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 1996 and led the body charged with decommissioning public buildings following  Wales’ local government reorganisation which did away with ‘Mid Glamorgan County Council’ with the result that what is now known as ‘The Glamorgan Building’ came into the University’s portfolio.

He moved from Queen Anne Square back to the West Midlands and lived out his days in Leamington Spa.

The years following 1987 represent a period which is absolutely core to the creation, and hence the continued existence of Cardiff University and Professor Mick Bruton was one of the two dominant figures throughout that time.

Alastair McDougall
Director of Personnel 1990 – 2004