[2] Whilst the Acts do not directly apply to the University of Dundee (except insofar as section 13 of the Act of 1966 conferred a power to appoint, by Order in Council, the date for its independence from the University of St Andrews), the same governance structure was ordained for use by that institution in its royal charter.

These are the university court, the general council and the senatus academicus (rendered in English as the academic senate).

The body will typically consist of the principal, any vice-principals, all professors, deans of faculties, heads of schools and colleges, elected representatives of non-professorial academic staff, elected student representatives, the university's chief librarian and any other significant persons specified in university ordinances.

In practice, the chief power of the senatus academicus is to elect a number of assessors to serve on the university court.

The general council is a corporate body of all senior academics and graduates presided over by the chancellor of the university, an official which it elects for life.

Chiefly the general council is an advisory body, and exists to connect alumni with their alma mater.

The general councils were also connected with the Scottish university constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until their abolition in 1950.

The power of conferring degrees is vested in him: this he may exercise either personally when present or by his depute when absent, with the advice of the doctors and masters of the University.The Chancellor serves as President of the General Council once elected.

Prior to the episcopacy losing its authority in Scotland, the Chancellor was commonly the local bishop of the diocese within which the university was situated.

The other senior officials of the university (usually with a specific portfolio of subject or over faculties or colleges) are often titled Vice Principals.

[9] Originally, the Rector was effective head of the university, chosen as an academic from with it, but whose power was diluted by that of the Chancellor – the latter being the official representative of the Church.

In recent times, the Lord Rector was given a statutory position by virtue of the 1889 Act to chair the University Court, although the Dundee rectorship is a notable exception, with the court instead appointing a lay member and the holder of the rectorship not being formally titled 'Lord Rector'.

Rectors in the past century have often been well-known celebrities, politicians or political activists and may not have any personal link to the university beforehand.