The word rector ("ruler," from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings.

The Rector is the highest academic official of a university in many countries. At some universities they have the title of rector magnificus.

In Scotland, the position of Rector exists in the five "ancient" universities, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee. It is a post elected at regular intervals by the students of the individual universities, the holder of which is entitled to chair meetings of the university court, the university's governing body. Actual operation of the university is in the hands of its principal (or Vice-Chancellor) and in recent years the rector has often been an outside celebrity (John Cleese and Frank Muir at St Andrews, for example); but nonetheless their position is of some importance to the running of each university. The headmaster of a Scottish school may also be a rector.

In the Anglican church, a rector is one type of parish priest. For historical reasons, some parish priests in the Church of England are called by this term while others are called vicars: a rector directly received the tithes of his parish, while a vicar did not, being paid instead a salary (sometimes by his diocese). In the Church of Ireland, most parish priests are called rectors, not vicars. Outside the British Isles the term is used more loosely.