In most pre-1992 universities in the United Kingdom, council is the governing body. (In
post-1992 universities this is the board of governors; in the
ancient universities of Scotland this is the
court.) According to the Higher Education Code of Governance, the council's primary responsibilities include appointing the executive head of the institution (normally titled the
vice-chancellor), delegate powers of management to them, and monitor their performance, with a "clear separation of roles and responsibilities" between the council and the executive. The council is also the principal financial and business authority and the legal authority of the university, and the members of council are the trustees of the university. The council is therefore sometimes called the board of trustees (e.g., at the
University of Bristol). Council will normally have an independent chair and (except at Oxford and Cambridge) a majority of "lay" members, not employed by or students of the university. There is also "an expectation" in the code of governance that council will contain representatives of staff and students (often the president of the
students' union) in addition to the lay members and the university's senior management. At some universities there are external
ex officio members, reflecting their institutional history (e.g., the
Dean of Durham at
Durham University). In the ancient universities of Scotland, the
general council is the consultative assembly of the graduates and academic staff, created by the Scottish Universities Act 1858. These are completely different from the governing-body councils of other British universities, being equivalent to the
convocations of the universities of
Oxford and Durham and the senate of the
University of Cambridge. == United States ==