Talk:Rector (academia)

Vicar
This comment used to be in the text of this entry:


 * huh? Is anyone else sure about this? I thought a 'Rector' was a religious minister in one of the churches... is it both?

There is a historical distinction between vicar and rector that has to do with collecting tithes. The new article on vicar discusses it, and I have harmonised this article with it. ---Ihcoyc

Peter Ustinov wasn't the Rector at Durham, he was the chancellor. He was previously Rector at Dundee, though.

--Amortize 12:55, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

In the Anglican church, a rector is one type of parish priest, sometimes referred to as a parson.
 * Is "parson" used in England any more? It is never used in the Episcopal Church in the USA. Except in the song "Winter Wonderland", the word is seldom used here at all.Rockhopper10r 19:32, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * rarely in the UK, though it is still extand. I have removed the reference to parson because it appears to mean that a rector is referred to as a parson (which is wrong). Someone with better literary ability than me can perhaps reword it. Francis Davey 11:52, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

University of Dundee
Just to add, Dundee University is a spin-off from St Andrews and is not even 50 years old. It is NOT an ancient university!

- I'm sorry but the age of a universitys charter does not affect its classification as an ancient, Students have been studying at dundee since 1881. because of this and its longstanding roots as part of standrews. It is therefore classed as an ancient

Look at article on ancient university where it is defined as pre-C19. Out of interest, in England, a university founded in 1881 University would be called a Red Brick university. I have modifed the article accordingly. - Op. Deo 09:26, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Indeed, that is correct, but nonetheless the status of Dundee as the 'child' of St Andrews makes it technically an Ancient. I hope the wording I've settled upon at this juncture should satisfy all parties. Lordrosemount 01:09, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Scots language, North Germanic language cognates
User:Op. Deo removed the following contribution on 18 Sept 05:

"Rector is the Scots language cognate of the Nordic language rektor."

He did not explain why.

He also, I can only assume by accident, removed the perfectly valid interwiki link Rektor and categories. Could I request that when Users wish to delete part of a contribution, that they do not use revert, but rather manually remove the relevant bit. Otherwise they waste other people's valuable time adding back in the valid bits.--Mais oui! 18:11, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * What was the point in saying that it's a cognate of the scandinavian term? What did that add to the article? Doops | talk 18:36, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Sorry, it was an accident from carelessly using a small window and not noticing the additional categories etc. Doops has expressed my feeling about the bit I had intended to delete. Having looked at several dictionaries (albeit not a Scandanavian one) I had concluded that the orgin of the word rector from Latin in C15, e.g. SOED, and its use in England was most probable origin from which it was transfered to the Scots language - Op. Deo 18:50, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Of course "rector" in English, Scots, Scandinavian, and other languages originally comes from Latin; so in that sense of the word they're all cognates. But that's a pretty pointless use of the word "cognate" which is more useful for words linked in more ancient and less obvious ways. Doops | talk 19:35, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The point about the Nordic cognate is that it means exactly the same thing re. schools and universities, which I strongly suspect comes from cross-North Sea contacts, rather than from the Latin root word, which means something slightly different. Similar idea to Scots language Kirk (church) and Swedish language Kyrka (church), which both come from Greek language, yet clearly have some other common, shared, regional history separate from the Greek root. Never mind. Probably too much like Original Research to be applicable to Wikipedia.--Mais oui! 20:25, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * All the universities in question would have had their original charters, academic statutes, etc. written in Latin; the article already points out that some countries' universities had rectors and others had chancellors, etc. (And as for "kirk", it's cognate not only with Scandinavian versions but with English "church" and German kirche too.) Doops | talk 20:37, 18 September 2005 (UTC) PS -- oops; it didn't make that point very clearly after all; so I've updated it to do so. Doops |  talk 20:45, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Usage in ECUSA
Although there is some variation, generally speaking in the Episcopal Church in the USA, a rector is a priest in charge of a parish and a vicar is in charge of a mission. Usage varies a bit, but not so much that it would be appropriate to say a rector is "sometimes" in charge of a parish. "Usually" is more appropriate. Rockhopper10r 20:12, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * The canons do in fact define the terms (and don't mention vicars). I've updated the section accordingly. Mangoe (talk) 21:52, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

The Greeks
Prytanis is not obviously cognate to "rector", so I don't know what the Greek claim is doing in there. Mangoe (talk) 13:28, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

List of nations
Is it really necessary to list here all the nations of Europe where "rector" is a recognized term for an academic administrator? It interrupts the narrative and may be more appropriately listed as a footnote.Parkwells (talk) 18:52, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Rector in Argentina
The reference to head of schools (Facultades) being rectors is wrong. The head of a school is called Decano (Dean), while Rector applies only to the head of the whole university — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.195.95.182 (talk) 01:53, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Merge?
Shouldn't this be merged with Chancellor (education)? It's the same function largely, just a different name. This article even admits this. Malick78 (talk) 16:36, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I would support a merge. Doremo (talk) 17:40, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * In principle I agree. Would be interesting how to name the new article though. The rector is addressed as rector even in English, so chancellor would not be a verbatim translation. So do we take the minority global name because it is common in the Anglophone world and this is English Wikipedia, or do we take the term (rector) used in more countries as well as used in English to identify these dignitaries from outside the English cultural influence; to present a less biased global view on the topic. Also note that in some countries e.g. Germany the Kanzler and the Rector are different positions in the board of a university. Arnoutf (talk) 19:43, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Can't think the rector of my secondary school would have approved. Looks like an awkward and poor merge. . dave souza, talk 22:14, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130204123528/http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/works/chancellor.html to http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/works/chancellor.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080504043351/http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/chancellor.html to http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/chancellor.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110813193010/http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/court_rector_role.pdf to http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/court_rector_role.pdf
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Is the frequent use of the word "mal" in this article an error?Jonathanlynn (talk) 17:30, 14 January 2021 (UTC)