Thursday 30th January 2014 - Confusing titles in higher education

I spent part of today with a couple of Principals, a couple of Presidents, and a Rector -  as well as some Vice-Chancellors.  Most of these people were all actually in the same role - head of a university.  But there were a number of different titles on display. During the day I also met some Provosts and some Deputy Vice-Chancellors and Pro-Vice-Chancellors.  There were also Chancellors at the dinner I attended in the evening. A number of Pro-Chancellors and Chairs of University Councils were also present.

Most people, even those working in Universities, would find it hard actually to disentangle this variety of titles.  Students certainly find it difficult, and ordinary people in the street must find it even harder.  In my role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor I sometimes refer to my 'boss', and students then ask who the Chancellor is - leading me into explanations of the fact that the University's 'boss' is the Vice-Chancellor and that despite what seems to be a subservient title he is the head of the university and that role does not lie with the Chancellor.  But then in other universities the person in charge is the Principal, or the President, or the President and Vice-Chancellor (which sounds like two different people), or the Warden, or the Rector.  And Pro-Vice-Chancellors elsewhere are known as Pro-Wardens, or Sub-Wardens, or Vice-Principals, or Vice-Presidents, or titles such as Vice-President and Dean. But we all have the same functions in our institutions.

I have been reading references for promotions to readerships and personal chairs. (There's another odd title - a 'personal chair'.)  When these come from people working in universities outside the UK there is often great confusion - "From my reading of his CV, Professor X richly deserves promotion to the title of Reader".

If we were to try to reform this plethora of confusing titles we could go one of three different ways.  We could adopt the titles of public limited companies and name the 'boss' as the Chief Executive, surrounded by others with executive titles - and with Unviersity Council members seen as non-executive directors, with a Chair of the Board.  But that sounds rather too commercial for some tastes.  We could alternatively go for the North American mode of a President and Vice-Presidents.  For my money we would be best adopting the practice throughout Europe of a Rector running a university, supported by Vice-Rectors.  Many European universities do have some sort of Council, with a Chair.  That would do - without titles such as Pro-Chancellors: 'Council Member' is serious enough for thsoe 'non-executives' who aren't in the chair role. 

But what about the 'Chancellor' title?  There is no equivalent role in any European university I am familiar with.  That potentially opens up a discussion as to the role of Chancellors (noting that a single member of the Royal Family is actually Chancellor of a fifth of Russell Group universities).  Perhaps I'll leave that for another day.