A Governing Body exists to protect the institution's direction from the people running it day to day — including its founders. This is its charter, published rather than described
The Governing Body exists to preserve the Trust's mission, academic depth and long-term identity. It guards direction. It does not run the institution day to day, and it does not control the money.
That boundary is deliberate and it is the most important thing on this page. A body that approves budgets ends up arguing about budgets. This one is left free to ask whether growth is costing the institution its quality, its values, or the experience of a single student — which is the question nobody else in an organisation is structurally free to ask.
Finance reports to the Governing Body for transparency, not for approval.
Members are drawn across education, research, administration, early childhood and advanced sciences, so that no single perspective decides. Terms run three years and are renewable by vote.
Most institutions founded by two people never write this down, and it is the failure that quietly ends them. The charter sets out the sequence in advance, while nobody is angry.
If that vote is tied, the decision passes to whichever body holds the domain — not to seniority, and not to whoever feels more strongly.
| Domain | Final voice |
|---|---|
| Academic | The Academic Council |
| Research | The Research Head with any two academics |
| Administration | The Administration Head with two council members |
| Institutional ethics | A full re-vote of the body, requiring a two-thirds majority |
The charter's own instruction on this is one line: progress must continue, and there are to be no deadlocks.
Standard academic or policy decisions
Strategic expansion or structural change to the institution
Every resolution is documented and minuted. The higher threshold on expansion is the safeguard that matters: growing the institution is harder than running it, by design.
Decisions for decades, not months. It is the last of the charter's guiding principles and the reason the rest of it exists.
From the Governing CharterFour mandatory sessions a year, each with a fixed subject so that the uncomfortable ones cannot be deferred to a quieter quarter.
Vision alignment and academic targets for the year
Outcome review and research progress
Cultural audit and student welfare systems
Annual institutional review and directives for the next year
A full-day governance retreat is held annually to examine long-term growth, identity, culture and academic maturity. The charter itself is reviewed every three years.
Because the honest answer to "what happens to this institution when its founders step away" is not a list of names. It is whether decisions are already being made by structures rather than by individuals, and whether anyone outside can check.
The charter is not aspirational. It is the document the Governing Body signs and works to, and publishing it means we can be held to it.
Read the full Governing Charter
Governance enquiries: [email protected] · +91 99005 20233
