A master (more generically called a head of house or head of college) is the head or senior member of a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

within a collegiate university, principally in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The actual title of the head of a college varies widely between institutions. The role of master varies significantly between colleges of the same university, and even more so between different universities. However, the master will often have responsibility for leading the governing body of the college, often acting as a chair of various college committees; for executing the decisions of the governing body through the college's organisational structure, acting as a chief executive; and for representing the college externally, both within the government of the university and further afield often in aid of fund-raising for the college. The nature of the role varies in importance depending on the nature of the collegiate university. At loosely federated universities such as the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, each college is self-governing and the head of a college acts much like a

vice-chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

. At more centralised universities where colleges are not independent institutions, a college head will have much less power and responsibility.

University of London

Inasmuch as the colleges of the

operate as semi-autonomous universities, sharing certain student services and administrative facilities but undertaking independent teaching and research, the heads of these colleges have almost the same level of responsibility as a

of a non-collegiate university. However, in addition to governing their own institutions, the heads of the colleges of the University of London are ex-officio members of the university's Collegiate Council, one of two major decision-making bodies in the central university.

Terminology

Although the head of a college is often called the Master, many different titles are used. Despite these differences, the actual title used by a head of a college holds little practical significance. In the case of the more ancient colleges, these titles are translations from the original Latin: thus "provost" was originally ''praepositus'', and "warden" was originally ''custos''.

References

{{reflist Terminology of the University of Cambridge Terminology of the University of Oxford University College, Oxford Academic administrators

University of London

Terminology

See also

References