Chancellor (education)

===Finland===
In Finland, if the university has a chancellor (Finnish: ''Kansleri'', Swedish: ''Kansler''), they are the leading official in the university. The duties of the chancellor are mainly to promote sciences and to look after the best interests of the university. As the [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of the university (Finnish: ''rehtori'', Swedish: ''rektor'') remains the de facto administrative leader and chief executive official, the role of the chancellor is more of a social, political and even historical nature. However some administrative duties still belong to the chancellor's jurisdiction despite their often arguably ceremonial nature. Examples of these include the appointment of new [[Professor#Finland|professors]] and [[docent]]s.

The chancellor of [[University of Helsinki]] (the oldest and largest in Finland) has also the right to be present and to speak in the plenary meetings of the [[Cabinet of Finland|Council of State]] when matters regarding the university are discussed. Despite their role as the chancellor of only one university, they are often regarded as the political representative of Finland's entire university institution when they exercise their rights in the Council of State.

In the [[history of Finland]] the office of the chancellor dates all the way back to the [[Swedish Empire]], and later the [[Russian Empire]]. Historically the chancellor's duty was to function as the official representative of the monarch in the autonomous university.

The number of chancellors in Finnish universities has declined over the years, and in the vast majority of Finnish universities the highest official is the rector. The remaining universities with chancellors are University of Helsinki and [[Åbo Akademi University]].