College can be confusing enough for students. But when faced with administrators’ and educators’ names and titles, some students can become overwhelmed. To ease the confusion, we have defined and organized the typical hierarchy of a university of college in the United States.

Most universities are led by a president or chancellor. They function as the Chief Executive Officer of the school and report regularly to a Board of Trustees. This board is composed of community leaders outside of the university itself so they can remain objective amidst decision making. Below a president or chancellor are vice presidents and vice chancellors. They are in essence assistants to the president.

The leading vice president is often called a provost. They are also typically the Vice President of Academic Affairs and function as the Chief Academic Officer. Below the provost are several deans. These individuals are often responsible for and in charge of clusters of programs, like humanities or natural sciences. They are responsible for the human resources of their programs, hiring and firing faculty, creating and maintaining academic policies, fundraising and reporting regularly to the president or chancellor. Deans are traditionally tenured professors that give up teaching in order to administer instead.

Below the deans are department chairs. These individuals are the head officials of particular academic departments and sub-colleges within the university. For example, in one university there would be a department chair of the School of Arts, under a dean who would administer the humanities department, under a provost and president who are responsible for the academics of the entire university.

Of course, in each academic department there exists a hierarchy of professors as well. The highest honor achieved by a professor is that of Emeritus, which is bestowed upon the retirement of those individuals who have made significant contributions to the field. A full professor is generally referring to a professor that has tenure, a position with that university until their retirement. Following tenured or full professors are associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, lecturers – who are generally part time faculty – followed by post doctoral fellows and associates, then research associates and, finally, teaching assistants.

While the list of titles given to university administrators and educators is long, once you learn the hierarchy, it is much easier to understand. All of these people are in positions of great authority and deserve the utmost respect for their work.