Rector

The word rector ("ruler," from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings. The term and office of a rector are called rectorate.

In languages such as German, Norwegian, Swedish and Polish, the spelling is Rektor; in Italian, the word became Rettore.

Contents

[edit]

Academic rectors

The Rector is the highest academic official of many universities. It's used widely in Europe, including Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, the Benelux, Spain, Portugal, and Scotland. In Latin American countries, such as Brasil, Mexico and Peru, it is also very common. In Germany the position of head teacher has this designation.

At some universities this title is phrased as Rector Magnificus or Lord Rector.

A notable exception to this terminology was England, where universities were traditionally headed by a "Chancellor", and this was followed in countries under English influence.

[edit]

Scotland

In Scotland, the position of Rector exists in the four ancient universities, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh as well as Dundee.

The post (technically Lord Rector, usually just Rector) was made an integral part of these universities by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. The Rector chairs meetings of the University Court, the governing body of the university and is elected at regular intervals by the matriculated students of each university.

In recent years the Rector has become more of a figurehead. The chief executive of the university is the Principal (or Vice-Chancellor).

Rectors have often been elected from the world of celebrity (Peter Ustinov at Dundee, and John Cleese and Frank Muir at St. Andrews, for example), but nonetheless their position is of some importance to the running of each university.

Gordon Brown, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, was Rector of Edinburgh University while a student there.

The head teacher of a Scottish secondary school may also be a rector.

[edit]

England

At Oxford and Cambridge, English universities headed by chancellors, most colleges are headed by a master. At a few colleges, this role is instead played by a president or a warden; and at two of the Oxford colleges - Lincoln College and Exeter College - the head is called a rector.

[edit]

The Benelux

The head of Dutch universities is called rector magnificus, as in some Belgian universities (notably the oldest and largest, KULeuven).

The title rector is also used for the head of some Dutch secondary schools, but less then Conrector (not necessarily collegial).

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Ecclesiastical rectors

[edit]

Anglican churches

In the Anglican Churches, a rector is one type of parish priest. For historical reasons, some parish priests in the Church of England are called by this term while others are called vicars. Roughly speaking, the distinction was that the rector directly received the tithes of his parish, while a vicar did not, being paid instead a salary (sometimes by his diocese). The term has been re-used to designate the priest in charge of a team ministry (See also curate.)

In the Church of Ireland, Scottish Episcopal Church, and Anglican Church of Canada, most parish priests are called rectors, not vicars. Outside the British Isles the term is used more loosely. In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, "rector" is usually used for the priest in charge of a self-sustaining parish while the priest who heads a mission—a congregation supported by the diocese—is generally called a vicar.

[edit]

Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church, a rector is a priest appointed by the diocesan bishop to take charge of a church not belonging to a parish.

This is often the case with the cathedral of the diocese, which, in the Anglican Communion, would be headed by a dean. The specific term in the Roman Catholic Church is Plebanus.

A rector can also be in charge of the main church of a Catholic university or the church of a seminary. Rectors of those institutions have special obligations under canon law.

[edit]

Rectorates in politics and administration

  • Rector provinciae was the Latin generic term for the governor of a Roman province, known since Suetonius, and specifically a legal term (as used in the Codices of Theodosius and Justinianus) since the Diocletian's Tetrarchy (when they came under the authority of the Vicarius of a diocese and these under a Pretorian prefect), regardless of the specific titles (of different rank, such as Proconsul, Praeses, Consularis, Corrector provinciae)
  • For the use of the style duke and rector of Burgundy by the Zähringer dynasty claimants to viceregal powers as regent in the Arelat kingdom of Burgundy within the Holy Roman Empire, see King of Burgundy#Rectorate of Burgundy
  • The Comtat Venaissin in southern France was administered by a rector since it became a papal possession till 1790 (on 24 May its States General -representative assembly- proclaims a constitution, but remains loyal to the pope).
  • For similar gubernatorial use or as Chief magistrate in city states in the Adriatic, see Rettore
  • In a few 'Crown lands' of the Austrian Empire, one seat in the Landtag (regional legislature of semi-feudal type) was reserved for the Rector of the capital's university, notably: Graz in Steiermark (Styria), Innsbruck in Tirol, Wien (Vienna) in Nieder-Österreich (Lower Austria); in Bohemia, two Rectors seated in the equivalent Landesvertretung
[edit]

Sources and References