Harvard Scholar Is Elected Prime Minister of Tibet’s Government-in-Exile

April 27, 2011, 11:15 am

A legal scholar from Harvard University was elected the next prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, assuming control of political leadership from the Dalai Lama, reports the Associated Press. Lobsang Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School, has studied international law and conflict resolution and has organized conferences between Tibetan and Chinese scholars. The Dalai Lama will remain the spiritual leader of Tibet but said he prefers political leaders to be elected.

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old nassau’67

Now, if only President Obama would appoint Dr. Sangay as Ambassador to China.
gavin_moodie

And continental Europe has the augustly titled rector magnificus (men) and rectrix magnifica (women).
raymond_j_ritchie

In Australia the nice side of the university is represented by the Chancellor who is usually very old and very venerable. The Chancellor opens buildings, gives out awards and degrees. Does not excercise any power and so does nothing to offend anyone.
The dirty work of running the place is reserved for the Vice-Chancellor who actually runs the place and usually follows the Machiavellian principle that it is better to be feared than loved. A reptilian character and a very thick skin are requisits for the job.
jadams65

I was a student at Queen’s University in Canada, which retains the title of Principal for the CEO.
cwanyonyi

To answer your question from a Kenyan perspective, it is a good thing. Regarding education, Kenya is discarding everything British and emulating everything American.
http://jdeveland.com/ JD Eveland

Not too long after I left the Claremont Graduate School (part of the Claremont Colleges, located in, of all places, Claremont CA) back in the middle 1990′s, they decided to promote themselves to become the Claremont Graduate University. The major effect, as far as I could tell (comments from other CGS faculty alumni welcomed), was that everyone’s title got jumped up one rank. Thus “departments” in the “school” became “schools” in the “university”. Department chairs became Deans; the Dean became a Provost. “Directors” of things were still mostly “directors”, however, and (being on the lower end of the scale) “students” remained “students”. Perhaps they should have all become “distinguished scholars” or perhaps “epiphanoids” (seekers of epiphanies?). On the other hand, my current institution (being at the time in the grip of an Evil Wizard, since vanquished) made a run at abolishing all faculty ranks, making everyone either a “professor” or an “instructor”. The eventual compromise appears to have been to retain faculty ranks (full, associate, etc.) as properties of the individual faculty member, while retaining the two classes as types of positions, an arrangement best explained by Evil HR Directors.The Moral of this Tale, if there is one, is probably that you might as well promote your title to the degree possible, since the nominal equivalent of grade inflation is gradually eating away at all titles. There’s a certain “tragedy of the commons” element in this process, but it’s hard to fault anyone for accepting an inflated title in a world where this has become the norm. New! Improved! Now with bleach! Etc.
http://jdeveland.com/ JD Eveland

I can think of a number of administrators I’ve known whose proper title might better have been “Wrecktor Magnificus”…
academya

I am a little bit surprised by reading that “higher education around the world” count only UK and USA. And that the “four year undergraduate degree” is a standard. Which is not the case in UK and in the other 42 countries of the Bologna process.
Ipsmick

I’d go for ‘Supreme Ruler’: has a ring to it.