As Chris Patten declares his interest in the hotly debated but coolly contested chancellorship at Oxford, it seems that he might after all have some competition. Philosopher Andrew Malcolm has put himself forward as a "hands-on reformer", to save Oxford's "battered reputation for integrity and academic excellence and help it regain its lost place amongst the front rank of the world's universities".

Malcolm's claim to fame is a 17-year dispute with Oxford University Press over his philosophy text. He says he is currently paying off legal costs awarded to the university at the rate of 350 pounds a month and would, as chancellor, rectify the legal situation created by the judgment which cost him the case. Last year he opened his "centre for disaffectees" on Broad Street in the heart of the university to embarrass the authorities. He claims he will "eradicate corruption, cash-for-places, croneyism, fustian bureaucracy and the many other such problems that have bedevilled and lately publicly disgraced the university."