Imperial College Governance
The College's legal status is granted by Royal Charter. This defines the college's aims as:
“to provide the highest specialised instruction and the most advanced training, education, research and scholarship in science, technology and medicine, especially in their application to industry; and in pursuit of these to act in co-operation with other bodies,”and gives the College power to do anything lawful in the furtherance of these aims.
The Charter and attached Statues require the College to have three separate governing bodies, which are as follows:
The Council is the main governing body of the College, dealing with the College finances, property investments and general business. It sets the general strategic direction of the College, with more day-to-day decisions delegated to the Management Board. The ICU President sits on College Council.
The Court meets annually to oversee the work of the Council, with 160 members from within the College, including all the ICU Sabbatical Officers and Faculty Union Presidents, and various external interest groups such as learned societies, professional bodies, local authorities and MPs.
The Senate deals with academic matters, consisting of academic staff plus the Deputy President (Education) and ICU President.
The Visitor of the College, currently Her Majesty the Queen with duties delegated to the Clerk to the Privy Council, has the final say on any matters within their jurisdiction. However, in terms of student appeals against the College, this role has now passed to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. This body handles individual student complaints, but is not a regulator for wider college governance decisions.
The Royal Charter also specifies that:
"In so far as it shall further the educational purposes of the College, there shall be a Students' Union of the College (hereinafter referred to as "the Imperial College Union") for the benefit of the students of the College and in their interests as students. The constitution of the Imperial College Union, its governance, powers and functions and all other matters which the Council may think proper to regulate shall, subject to the provision of this Our Charter, be approved by the Council."
As a result, changes to the Union Constitution must be approved by the College Council after approval within the Union.
College Regulations
The Union and its members are all bound by college regulations which affect a range of the Union's activities and operations such as how we develop our buildings, employ our staff and manage our IT infrastructure. The is also a college disciplinary policy which student officers should be aware of.
Representing to the College
Closer to the ground, committees at the course, department, faculty and graduate school level deal with local academic and associated issues: members include the relevant academic staff, and the appropriate student representatives from year reps to faculty union officers.