In most universities and colleges governing body membership consists of independent external or 'lay' members and internal members (staff and students). There should be a majority of external members. The exact categories of membership will be defined in the institution’s governing instruments. Some boards continue to have members drawn from local authorities and other stakeholders, although this is becoming less common.
Typically, staff members will either be ex officio (ie they are there because of the position they hold within the institution, such as pro vice-chancellors or deans), or they are drawn from specific constituencies. Practice varies, but there are two typical constituencies:
Staff governors can be an invaluable source of institutional information, reinforce collegiality, and ensure that the governing body has to take account of the realties of organisational life. On the other hand there may be real or potential conflicts of interest, and some staff governors can find it difficult to act as 'critical friend' to the executive when they are being managed by them. In some institutions elected governors are closely associated with trade union or staff association membership, although in the past guidance has been given by some of the main trade unions that officials should not be governing body members. The issue of staff membership is considered in much more detail in Section 6 of the GuildHE report Getting to Grips With Being a Governor.
Students are the other category of internal governor. In most cases, the president of the student union will be a member of the governing body ex officio but, if there is more than one student member, the other(s) will usually be elected. Student membership is considered in more detail in Section 5 of the same GuildHE report.