To VC or not to VC? A university in New Zealand has become the latest in a growing international line to allow its leader to fatten his or her job description with the title "vice-chancellor and president". The country's more traditionally minded academic union considers this bunk.
Somebody, perhaps, is being a tad over-sensitive when it comes to the perceived eclipse of this most English (and Welsh) of solitary university titles, the vice-chancellor.
In its latest newsletter (seventh item down), New Zealand's Association of University Staff gently mocks the recent decision by the ruling council at the University of Waikato permitting its vice-chancellor, Roy Crawford, to also refer to himself as president. The announcement marked one of the year's "more curious" moments, with a "positively odd" explanation to boot, harrumphed the union.
In an email, staff at Waikato had been told that the term vice-chancellor is not well understood in many jurisdictions in Asia and North America, where the assumption is that the chancellor is the chief executive, while the vice-chancellor plays second fiddle. To insist on using it in every circumstance risked sowing "confusion and embarrassment", said the university's barons.
The title of president, on the other hand, is "commonly used and understood in tertiary education sectors globally, and its use serves to eliminate the potential for misunderstanding in international contexts". Effective immediately, Crawford, who came to his current position from Queen's University, Belfast, could therefore also be known as President Crawford.
Strictly speaking, the supposedly confused Asians and North Americans have it right: a vice-chancellor is in fact a deputy to the chancellor. Although, of course, chancellors are typically prominent public figures who serve as ceremonial leaders only (except in Sweden, where vice-chancellor remains the honorary title).
But these distinctions, the Kiwi unionists seem to be saying, have long been understood throughout the world of higher learning, as much so as the chief executive roles of 'president', 'principal' and 'rector' are readily grasped by those in the respective fields.
Still, they might be backing a losing horse here, even within the British Commonwealth. Virtually all the heads of nearby Australia's 40 universities now opt for the double job title. The same appears to be the case for many of their counterparts in Malaysia, Canada and Singapore.
And let's not forget one other bastion of antipodean higher learning, the New Zealand Association of University Staff, whose chief executive has long plumped simply for the title of - you guessed it - president.
