Vice-Chancellor
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- For other uses, see Vice-Chancellor (disambiguation).
A Vice-Chancellor (commonly called the VC) of a university in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, other Commonwealth countries, and some universities in Hong Kong, is the chief executive of the University. In Scotland and Canada the chief executive of a University is usually called Principal or President with Vice-Chancellor being an honorific.
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Official role
Strictly speaking, he or she is only the deputy to the Chancellor of the university, but the Chancellor is usually a prominent public figure who acts as a ceremonial figurehead only (e.g., the Chancellor of Cambridge University is HRH The Duke of Edinburgh), while the Vice-Chancellor acts as the day-to-day chief executive. An assistant to a Vice-Chancellor is called a Pro-Vice-Chancellor or Deputy Vice-Chancellor – these are sometimes teaching academics who take on additional responsibilities. Some universities (e.g., Macquarie University) also have a full-time Deputy Vice-Chancellor. In other universities (e.g., Deakin University), there are several Deputy Vice-Chancellors subordinate to the Vice-Chancellor, with Pro-Vice-Chancellor being a position at executive level ranking below Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
Canada and Scotland
Canadian university Vice-Chancellors almost always carry the title of "President (or equivalent) and Vice-Chancellor": likewise, in Scotland, they hold the position of "Principal and Vice-Chancellor". In the Scottish practice the one individual may have two sets of official robes, reflecting a continuing division of responsibilities between the two posts.
Republic of Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, day-to-day operations of the universities are under the directorship of a President (a Provost in the case of Trinity College Dublin). However, the president of each constituent college of The National University of Ireland also has the title of Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the NUI.
United States
In the United States, a Vice-Chancellor is an assistant to a Chancellor, who is generally the (actual, not merely ceremonial) head of one campus of a large university which has several campuses. The head of the entire university is the University President (the equivalent of a Commonwealth Vice-Chancellor), the Chancellor is in charge of one campus, and a Vice-Chancellor is one of the chief assistants. Note that some systems, like the California State University, invert this ranking so that a Chancellor is the head of the entire university.