What the Rector does
First and foremost, the role of the rector is to preside at meetings of the University Court - the highest governing body of the University.
The Court exists to oversee the mangement of the University, with special emphasis on strategic leadership and accountability. The Principal leads the actual management of the University, but even he/she is accountable to the Court, which comprises senior staff and a majority of unpaid, external, independent 'lay' members, meeting about five times a year. This is the place where all the big issues are decided - budget allocations, financial policies, academic policies, estate development and capital projects, staff and student provisions, and so on.
Since 1858, the rector has been elected by the students, and the fundamental purpose of the position has remained unchanged ever since. The ancient universities were conceived as communities, in which the students were the main interest group. The best way to ensure that their interests were always at the forefront of the minds of those actually running the university was to allow the students to elect the leader of the governing body.
This is of enormous value to the student body, as it means that they choose the person to hold even the most senior university staff to account. It also means that the three student members of the Court - the Association President, the Director of Representation and the Rector's Assessor - are each given a fair opportunity to raise the issues that matter most to you.
In addition to being President of the University Court, the Rector also plays an informal, pastoral role.
The rector can open doors and help to release log-jams where the formals mechanisms for resolving issues appear to fail. A rector with the time, sincerity and commitment to get to know the student body and engage with their issues, and the skills to influence effectively, can make a valuable contribution to the student experience, as well as to the life and reputation of the whole university.
For a comprehensive overview of the role of Rector, please see the handbook produced by the Scottish Rectors' Group entitled 'The University Rector'.
The Rector's Assessor
Appointed by Kevin Dunion in May 2010, the current Rector's Assessor is Amanda Litherland.
The Rector's Assessor is a voluntary position, with the main role being to act as the link between the Rector and the student body, to aid and advise the Rector, and to sit on the University Court as a full member. The Assessor meets regularly with the Rector to advise on policy issues, discuss upcoming events and campaigns and ensure the Rector has a coordinated media and web presence in St Andrews.
Find out more here.
The Rector's Assessor is a voluntary position, with the main role being to act as the link between the Rector and the student body, to aid and advise the Rector, and to sit on the University Court as a full member. The Assessor meets regularly with the Rector to advise on policy issues, discuss upcoming events and campaigns and ensure the Rector has a coordinated media and web presence in St Andrews.
Find out more here.
Scottish Rectors' Group
The Scottish Rectors' Group comprises the Rectors and their Assessors, together with Students' Association sabbatical officers, from the four ancient universities and Dundee.
A relatively recent development, the Scottish Rectors' Group exists to bring the five rectors together to discuss the broad issues affecting Higher Education in Scotland.
A relatively recent development, the Scottish Rectors' Group exists to bring the five rectors together to discuss the broad issues affecting Higher Education in Scotland.
History
When you go into the Old Union Coffee Bar, you'll probably spot that the walls are decorated with the names and photographs of past rectors. What is a rector? What do they do? The answers lie here.
From the foundation of the University there has existed the office of Rector. The Lord Rector, since 1858 a figure from outside of the University, is elected by the matriculated students and holds office for three years. He presides over the University Court, the supreme governing body having responsibilities for the finances, appointment of staff and general managerial functions. The Court's twenty-five members come from within the University, the local community and beyond. The Lord Rector, in his capacity as the chairman, is the students' guarantee that the Court can be stopped from making decisions contrary to their interest.
This is best symbolized by the fact that the figure of Laurence of Lindores, the University's first Rector, graces the mace which now precedes the Lord Rector at formal events. A former “inquisitor of heretical pravity,” Lindores executed at least one man who got in his way.
Following the medieval era, the custom was to elect a Lord Rector who was famous on an international level, to bring him to St Andrews for the traditional Rectorial Drag, to listen to his improving speech during the Rectorial Address and then to forget about him until it was time to elect a successor. Former Lords Rector were quite pleased with this plan and, as such, St Andrews' students were graced with such speeches as John Stuart Mill's Rectorial Address on the topic of “Independence” and J.M. Barrie's on “Courage,” the latter of which has become a classic in its own right and is reprinted in nearly all editions of the man's works.
Such men as these did their duty as it was then constituted; they braved the travel to the East Neuk of Fife, drank copiously during the Drag, delivered their addresses and then sodded off back to their important lives elsewhere.
In the tumultuous decade that was the 1960s, though, the students got the bright idea that it might be fun to have a “working Rector” who might actually utilize the powers granted unto him by the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1858 to their best advantage. It would seem as though the passion for improving speeches died out at some point during the era of “free love” and a desire to actually have a Lord Rector who would come to St Andrews and discharge his duties regularly grew in its place. Further, the students began the current trend of electing the so-called “celebrity” Lords Rector, men famous from the television and such. Given this, it ought not be shocking to find comedians such as John Cleese and Frank Muir on our list of Lords Rector.
As a side note concerning Lord Rector Cleese, it is worth pointing out that aspects of Fawlty Towers are thought to be based on experiences of his at a local hotel during the final nights of his Rectorship.
A prominent Fifer once said, “Help does not come free, the price is that you have to ask for it.” That Fifer was former Lord Rector Donald Findlay and it's as true now as when he said it a few years ago. The Lord Rector, as he put it, can often fill the need “for students to have a representative who could open one or two sticky doors, who could reach a few otherwise deaf ears and who was sufficiently long in the tooth to make himself a thorn in the flesh of those who would rather students were seen and not heard.”
Former Rectors
1859-1862 Sir Ralph Anstruther
1862-1865 William Stirling-Maxwell
1865-1868 John Stuart Mill
1868-1871 James Anthony Froude
1872-1874 Charles Neaves
1874-1877 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
1877-1880 Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne
1880-1883 Sir Theodore Martin
1884-1886 Donald Mackay, 11th Lord Reay
1886-1889 Arthur Balfour
1889-1892 Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
1892-1898 John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
1898-1901 James Stuart
1901-1907 Andrew Carnegie
1907-1910 John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
1910-1913 Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
1913-1916 John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair
1916-1919 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig
1919-1922 Sir J. M. Barrie
1922-1925 Rudyard Kipling
1925-1928 Fridtjof Nansen
1928-1931 Sir Wilfred Grenfell
1931-1934 Field Marshal Jan Smuts
1934-1937 Guglielmo Marconi
1937-1938 Robert MacGregor Mitchell
1938-1946 Sir David Munro
1946-1949 Sir George Cunningham
1949-1952 David Cecil, Lord Burghley
1952-1955 David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford
1955-1958 David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Viscount Kilmuir
1958-1961 Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby
1961-1964 C. P. Snow
1964-1967 Sir John Rothenstein
1967-1970 Sir Learie Constantine (from 1969 Baron Constantine)
1970-1973 John Cleese
1973-1976 Alan Coren
1976-1979 Frank Muir
1979-1982 Tim Brooke-Taylor
1982-1985 Katharine Whitehorn
1985-1988 Stanley Adams
1988-1991 Nicholas Parsons
1991-1993 Nicholas Campbell
1993-1999 Donald Findlay
1999-2002 Andrew Neil
2002-2005 Sir Clement Freud
2005-2008 Simon Pepper OBE (Simon's installation address can be found here)
2008-present Kevin Dunion OBE
From the foundation of the University there has existed the office of Rector. The Lord Rector, since 1858 a figure from outside of the University, is elected by the matriculated students and holds office for three years. He presides over the University Court, the supreme governing body having responsibilities for the finances, appointment of staff and general managerial functions. The Court's twenty-five members come from within the University, the local community and beyond. The Lord Rector, in his capacity as the chairman, is the students' guarantee that the Court can be stopped from making decisions contrary to their interest.
This is best symbolized by the fact that the figure of Laurence of Lindores, the University's first Rector, graces the mace which now precedes the Lord Rector at formal events. A former “inquisitor of heretical pravity,” Lindores executed at least one man who got in his way.
Following the medieval era, the custom was to elect a Lord Rector who was famous on an international level, to bring him to St Andrews for the traditional Rectorial Drag, to listen to his improving speech during the Rectorial Address and then to forget about him until it was time to elect a successor. Former Lords Rector were quite pleased with this plan and, as such, St Andrews' students were graced with such speeches as John Stuart Mill's Rectorial Address on the topic of “Independence” and J.M. Barrie's on “Courage,” the latter of which has become a classic in its own right and is reprinted in nearly all editions of the man's works.
Such men as these did their duty as it was then constituted; they braved the travel to the East Neuk of Fife, drank copiously during the Drag, delivered their addresses and then sodded off back to their important lives elsewhere.
In the tumultuous decade that was the 1960s, though, the students got the bright idea that it might be fun to have a “working Rector” who might actually utilize the powers granted unto him by the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1858 to their best advantage. It would seem as though the passion for improving speeches died out at some point during the era of “free love” and a desire to actually have a Lord Rector who would come to St Andrews and discharge his duties regularly grew in its place. Further, the students began the current trend of electing the so-called “celebrity” Lords Rector, men famous from the television and such. Given this, it ought not be shocking to find comedians such as John Cleese and Frank Muir on our list of Lords Rector.
As a side note concerning Lord Rector Cleese, it is worth pointing out that aspects of Fawlty Towers are thought to be based on experiences of his at a local hotel during the final nights of his Rectorship.
A prominent Fifer once said, “Help does not come free, the price is that you have to ask for it.” That Fifer was former Lord Rector Donald Findlay and it's as true now as when he said it a few years ago. The Lord Rector, as he put it, can often fill the need “for students to have a representative who could open one or two sticky doors, who could reach a few otherwise deaf ears and who was sufficiently long in the tooth to make himself a thorn in the flesh of those who would rather students were seen and not heard.”
Former Rectors
1859-1862 Sir Ralph Anstruther
1862-1865 William Stirling-Maxwell
1865-1868 John Stuart Mill
1868-1871 James Anthony Froude
1872-1874 Charles Neaves
1874-1877 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
1877-1880 Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne
1880-1883 Sir Theodore Martin
1884-1886 Donald Mackay, 11th Lord Reay
1886-1889 Arthur Balfour
1889-1892 Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
1892-1898 John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
1898-1901 James Stuart
1901-1907 Andrew Carnegie
1907-1910 John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
1910-1913 Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
1913-1916 John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair
1916-1919 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig
1919-1922 Sir J. M. Barrie
1922-1925 Rudyard Kipling
1925-1928 Fridtjof Nansen
1928-1931 Sir Wilfred Grenfell
1931-1934 Field Marshal Jan Smuts
1934-1937 Guglielmo Marconi
1937-1938 Robert MacGregor Mitchell
1938-1946 Sir David Munro
1946-1949 Sir George Cunningham
1949-1952 David Cecil, Lord Burghley
1952-1955 David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford
1955-1958 David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Viscount Kilmuir
1958-1961 Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby
1961-1964 C. P. Snow
1964-1967 Sir John Rothenstein
1967-1970 Sir Learie Constantine (from 1969 Baron Constantine)
1970-1973 John Cleese
1973-1976 Alan Coren
1976-1979 Frank Muir
1979-1982 Tim Brooke-Taylor
1982-1985 Katharine Whitehorn
1985-1988 Stanley Adams
1988-1991 Nicholas Parsons
1991-1993 Nicholas Campbell
1993-1999 Donald Findlay
1999-2002 Andrew Neil
2002-2005 Sir Clement Freud
2005-2008 Simon Pepper OBE (Simon's installation address can be found here)
2008-present Kevin Dunion OBE