University charter

Most Canadian universities derive their degree-granting authority from acts of the relevant provincial legislature (e.g. York University Act). Some older universities, including the University of Toronto and McGill University, derive their authority from a royal charter.

In India, a university is established through a formal legislative process.

First, a bill is introduced in either the Parliament of India (for central universities) or the state legislative assembly (for state or private universities). The bill is debated, may be referred to committees, and must be passed by a majority in the relevant house(s) of the legislature. It then receives the assent of the President of India (for central universities) or the Governor of the state (for state or private universities). Once the act is notified in the official gazette, the institution gains legal status as a university and is empowered to confer degrees.^{[citation needed]}

Central universities are created when the Parliament of India passes an act defining their objectives, powers, and governance structure. These institutions are funded and managed by the Government of India through the Ministry of Education and are regulated under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956.^{[3][non-primary source needed]}

State universities (public) are established through legislation passed by the state legislative assembly of a particular state. They are funded and governed by the respective state governments, but must conform to the guidelines set by the University Grants Commission (UGC).^{[citation needed]}

Private universities are also established through state legislative acts, but they are sponsored and managed by private organizations such as educational trusts or societies. They must comply with the UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003 and obtain recognition from the UGC before they can award degrees.^{[citation needed]}

Once the relevant act is passed and notified, the institution gains legal status as a university, enabling it to confer degrees in accordance with the UGC Act, 1956.^{[citation needed]}

The deemed universities are universities that have been accredited by the UGC, under the Ministry of Education. These universities does not have an act which is passed by an assembly.^[4]

Most universities founded prior to 1992 were created by royal charter, although a small number were established by acts of Parliament.^[5] While standard usage in Britain is to use "chartered" only to refer to institutions with a royal charter, in distinction to "statutory" institutions created by act of Parliament,^[6] being established by act of Parliament is sometimes referred to as being "chartered" in international works.^[7]

Chartered institutions – those incorporated by royal charter – differ from those established by other means in terms of their powers as a corporation, their legal relationship with the government, and the status of their members.^[6] Although university charters are issued as royal charters under the royal prerogative, the College Charter Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 63) provides for scrutiny by the Parliament of the United Kingdom (or, since 1999, the Scottish Parliament for institutions based in Scotland) of draft charters that establish "any institution in the nature of a college or university".^[8]

Oxford and Cambridge developed organically prior to the use of charters to establish universities, although both received various privileges by royal charters in the 13th and 14th centuries,^[9] and Cambridge received a papal bull in 1318 that either confirmed its status as a studium generale or conferred this status upon it.^[10] Oxford and Cambridge were formally incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1571 and are civil, rather than chartered, corporations.^[6] Three of the ancient universities of Scotland (St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen) were established by papal bulls, while Edinburgh was founded by the town corporation under authority granted to it by a royal charter. All four ancient Scottish universities are now governed under the Universities (Scotland) Acts.^[6]

Durham University was established by an act of Parliament, the Durham University Act 1832, (occasionally referred to as it being chartered by Parliament)^[7] and was later incorporated and confirmed by a royal charter in 1837.^[11] The University of London received its founding royal charter in 1836, and from then until 1992 all universities were established by royal charter except for Newcastle University, which was separated from Durham and established as an independent university by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle Upon Tyne Act 1963.^[12]

Since 1992, almost all new universities have been granted that status by orders under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or (in England) the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. However, supplemental charters have been used to confer university status on institutions that already had a royal charter. These have included: Cardiff University (previously part of the University of Wales and chartered in 1884) in 2004;^[13] Imperial College London (previously part of the University of London and chartered in 1907) in 2007;^[14] other chartered former colleges of the University of Wales, including the supplemental charter granted to the University of Wales, Lampeter (originally granted a collegiate charter, rather than a university charter, in 1828 as St David's College)^[15] in 2010 to form the University of Wales Trinity Saint David by merger with Trinity College Carmarthen;^[16] and chartered member institutions of the University of London that became universities within the federation following the University of London Act 2018.^[17] A new royal charter was granted to the University of Manchester in 2004 on the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, which formed a new corporation and granted it university status.^[18]

In the US, an act of legislature that establishes a corporation is referred to as a "charter".^[19][20]

Colonial

Prior to the American Revolution, the nine colonial colleges were either established by royal or gubernatorial charters issued under prerogative powers, or chartered by colonial legislatures. These charters remained in force after US independence, and the Dartmouth College Case determined that its charter had the force of a contract and was thus protected from impairment by the state legislature under the Contract Clause of the US constitution.^[21]

Federal

There are several universities which are congressionally-chartered, due to their location within District of Columbia. These include:

• American University,
• Gallaudet University,
• Georgetown University,^[22]
• Howard University, and
• George Washington University.

The Institute of American Indian Arts was chartered by the federal congress in 1986.^[23]

The United States service (military) academies are not chartered, as they are agencies of the federal government itself.

State

Other universities are approved or authorized by state or territorial legislatures — sometimes via explicit charter — and may be public or private universities. The first state charter was issued by the Georgia General Assembly in 1785, establishing the University of Georgia.^[24] Other examples include the charters issued by the State of New York for New York University^[25] and Cornell University,^[26] or the charter of the University System of New Hampshire, part of the state statutes, which establishes the University of New Hampshire and other state colleges within the system.^[27] Sometimes, as with Penn State University, the "charter" is a collection of acts and decrees from state bodies rather than a single document.^[28] Acts that create universities may also be referred to as charters even when not explicitly described as such, as in the case of the California state legislature's organic act of 23 March 1868 that created the University of California, celebrated since 1874 as 'charter day'.^[29][30][31]