Academic Council
Overview
The Academic Council structure is depicted in the following diagram:
The Academic Council is a body comprising all tenure-track faculty of the University, i.e. all faculty members who are tenured to age 65 and those who are eligible for nomination or re-nomination to be tenured to age 65. The Council provides input on academic matters through its elected Senate and its various standing committees. Meetings for the Council will be held once a year and at these annual meetings, President, NTU (Chairman of the Academic Council) would deliver the State of the University address. Any head of College, School, National Institute of Education (NIE) or S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) who is not otherwise a member of the Academic Council will be an ex-officio member of the Council. The other ex-officio members are Secretary to the University, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resource Officer and Chief Planning Officer/Registrar.
Senate
A Senate, which is the core representative body of the Academic Council, is formed by 50 Academic Council members elected from the various Colleges. President, Provost, Senior Associate Provost, Associate Provost, College Deans, School Chairs, Director NIE, Dean RSIS, as well as Secretary to the University, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resource Officer and Chief Planning Officer/Registrar are ex-officio members of the Senate.
Essentially, the Senate acts on behalf of the Academic Council as its elected representative body. Its key role is to receive recommendations from Academic Council standing committees on matters that they review, for further consideration. The Senate, in turn, elects a Senate Steering Committee from among its members to facilitate its work. (President and Provost will be ex-officio members of the Senate Steering Committee.) The key role of the Steering Committee is to plan subjects for study and discussion by the Senate, i.e. it sets the meeting agenda for Senate meetings. Each elected senator serves a 2-year term. Senators may serve up to 2 consecutive terms following which they may stand for re-election in the 2nd year after their second term.
The first Senate of the Academic Council was elected from among members of the newly formed Academic Council during the election held in May 2008.
An Advisory Board will be elected from among Academic Council members who are tenured full professors. It will provide advice on matters that President or Provost may refer to it.
Other standing committees of the Academic Council may be set up to look into matters in various areas of interest to the faculty.