The University Registrar's Office is led by the Registrar who reports to the Vice-President (Academic). The Registrar directs and supervises the Office which is responsible for admissions, registration, class scheduling, room allocation, transcripts and records, and exams. The Registrar forms and executes the Office's budget and implements and administers the University admissions policy as established by the General Faculties Council. He or she is responsible for the academic aspects of convocations, for the preparation and publication of the official University Calendar, and is a member of Deans' Council, an ex officio member of the Committee on Admissions and Transferrability, and Executive Secretary of the Curriculum and Academic Review Committee.

In The University of Calgary's early years, the Registrar reported to the President. The Registrar, which was provided for by statute, was Secretary of the GFC and its Executive Committee, a responsibility later taken over by the Secretary of the GFC. The Registrar was responsible for admitting students to undergraduate faculties and schools; composing instruction brochures for new applicants; coordinating and editing the calendar text submitted by faculties; designing and implementing a registration and class sectioning system; assessing fees and adjustments of fees; maintaining permanent student records and issuing transcripts; scheduling, providing space for and invigilating exams; reproducing and distributing exam papers; collecting and retaining papers after grading; issuing official marks; and collecting and maintaining current information on admissions, curriculum, and degrees to assist policy development.

In 1970 or 1971 the title of the Registrar was changed to Registrar and Academic Secretary to reflect an addition of responsibility as Secretary to the Policy Committees, Joint Policy Committee, President's Executive Advisory Committee, GFC, Executive Committee of GFC, Deans' Council, and the Senate. This involved preparing, circulating and maintaining minutes and other records, and conducting correspondence. The functions as Registrar remained the same. The reporting relationship of the Registrar and Academic Secretary was transferred from the President to the VP (Academic) in 1973 or 1974, apparently because the office of Academic Secretary was not identified by statute and the secretaries for the various Policy Committees could be provided by the VP's offices. By 1978 the title of the Registrar and Academic Secretary had been changed simply to Registrar. The functions of the Registrar's Office have remained essentially the same since that time.

Incumbents have been: John Nicol (1963-1964), Donald Black (1967-1968), W.F.M. Stewart (1969-1974), Gary Krivy (1987-2002), David Johnston (2002-2014), Angelique Saweczko (2014-).