Head of college

This article is about the position on a college's staff. For the college degree, see master's degree. For the school offering Masters' Degrees, see graduate school. For other uses, see Master.

A master (more generically called a head of house or head of college) is the head or senior member of a college within a collegiate university, principally in the United Kingdom. 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, each college is self-governing and the head of a college acts much like a vice-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 University of London 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 vice-chancellor 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.

Title	Main institution	College etc. within the main institution, to which the title applies
Chief Executive	University of London	Institute of Cancer Research (held jointly with the title of President)
Dean	University of Oxford	Christ Church
	University of London	London Business School
Director	University of London	Courtauld Institute of Art, London School of Economics, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and SOAS (held jointly with the title of Principal)
Faculty Dean	Harvard University	All houses
Head	Princeton University	All colleges
	Yale University	All colleges. Changed from "Master" on 27 April 2016
	University of Roehampton	All colleges
	University of the Arts London	All colleges
Magister	Rice University	All colleges. Changed from "master" in 2017
Master	University of Oxford	Balliol College, Pembroke College, St Benet's Hall, St Catherine's College, St Cross College, St Peter's College, University College
	University of Cambridge	Christ's College, Churchill College, Clare College, Corpus Christi College, Darwin College, Downing College, Emmanuel College, Fitzwilliam College, Gonville and Caius College, Jesus College, Magdalene College, Pembroke College, Peterhouse, St Catharine's College, St Edmund's College, St John's College, Selwyn College, Sidney Sussex College, Trinity College and Trinity Hall
	Durham University	Grey College, Hatfield College and University College.
	University of London	Birkbeck
	University of Kent	All colleges
Mistress	University of Cambridge	Girton College
President	University of Oxford	Corpus Christi College, Kellogg College, Magdalen College, St John's College, Trinity College and Wolfson College
	University of Cambridge	Clare Hall, Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish College, Murray Edwards College, Queens' College and Wolfson College
	University of London	Institute of Cancer Research (held jointly with the title of Chief Executive) and University College London (held jointly with the title of Provost)
	National University of Ireland	All constituent universities and recognised colleges
Principal	University of Oxford	Brasenose College, Green Templeton College, Harris Manchester College, Hertford College, Jesus College, Lady Margaret Hall, Linacre College, Mansfield College, St Anne's College, St Edmund Hall, St Hilda's College, St Hugh's College and Somerville College
	University of Cambridge	Homerton College and Newnham College
	Durham University	Collingwood College, John Snow College, Josephine Butler College, St Aidan's College, St Chad's College, St Cuthbert's Society, the College of St Hild and St Bede, St John's College, St Mary's College, Stephenson College, Trevelyan College, Ustinov College and Van Mildert College
	University of London	Heythrop College, King's College London, Queen Mary, the Royal Academy of Music, the Central School of Speech & Drama, Royal Holloway, the Royal Veterinary College, St George's and SOAS (held jointly with the title of Director)
	University of York	Constantine College, James College, Langwith College, Vanburgh College
	Lancaster University	All colleges
Provost	University of Oxford	Oriel College, Queen's College and Worcester College
	University of Cambridge	King's College
	University of Dublin	Trinity College
	University of London	University College London (held jointly with the title of President)
Rector	University of Oxford	Exeter College and Lincoln College
	University of Notre Dame	All halls
Warden	University of Oxford	All Souls College, Keble College, Merton College, New College, Nuffield College, St Antony's College and Wadham College
	University of Cambridge	Robinson College
	University of London	Goldsmiths
	Bristol University

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.

See also

• Dean
• President
• Principal
• Provost
• Rector
• Warden