Inspektor

Inspektor (or inspehtori in Finnish), Swedish for inspector, is the largely honorary chairmanship of student nations in Lund and Uppsala universities in Sweden and University of Helsinki in Finland. The inspektor has a supervisory role in their nation and presides over most important functions. It is a quite prestigious role to be invited to undertake as it implies the trust and respect of the student community. The inspektor may be of either gender and is usually a professor (although in Sweden any member of the university's teaching staff is acceptable). The position originated in the 17th century as a way for the university administration to keep watch on the student population after Uppsala, Helsinki and Lund universities realised that they were unable to forbid the nation system outright.

In many nations, the inspektor is also the chairman of the nation's governing committee. They used to be present at the nation's annual general meeting (known as a "Landsskap") as well as other special occasions such as the Newcomer's Feast ("Novichfest" or "Recentiorsgasque"). Mostly it is the inspektor who makes the speech of honour at the end of each formal dinner in the nation and at the end of each semester they ceremonially "send the students home".

Inspektors now also exist at some technical colleges, at some other universities and in some Swedish student unions. In the latter, the inspektor has some role as a person to whom one may complain about university processes.