In education, in universities and medical
schools, the head of administration; in the
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, the member
of the teaching staff charged with the
maintenance of discipline; in Roman
Catholicism, senior cardinal bishop, head of
the college of cardinals; in the Anglican
Communion, head of the chapter of a cathedral
or collegiate church; a rural dean presides
over a division of an archdeaconry. In the
Roman Catholic Church the dean is the senior
cardinal bishop, head of the college of
cardinals.