OXFORD dons took the first step towards handing control of the university to outsiders yesterday after a dramatic debate in the Sheldonian Theatre in which it emerged that the Government is pushing for the reform.
A letter from the funding council which distributes money on behalf of the Government was produced halfway through the two-hour debate, saying it had held off from demanding changes to the way the university was run only because the proposals were already in train. It helped sway members of the university's policy making Congregation to vote for an amendment supported by Dr John Hood, the modernising vice chancellor, by 652 votes to 507.
Opponents of reform of the 900-year-old university had wanted the amendment defeated because they believed it would make the proposals more acceptable to members of the university when they come back for discussion in two week's time. Dr Hood watched impassively on a gilded throne at the heart of the building designed by Sir Christopher Wren as some of the most senior academics in the land traded insults.
Opponents claimed that the plan to replace the university's council of 26 dons with a body including businessmen would endanger freedom and mean that subject departments would have to curry favour and "grovel for money". They accused Dr Hood, a New Zealander and the first outsider to get the job two years ago, of using "weapons of mass deception" to plead his case "similar to how we got into Iraq" and blamed two "very distinguished former civil servants" for "cleverly but irresponsibly" sidetracking the debate.
Lord Robin Butler, the former head of the civil service, said he did not recognise the description of civil servants as "cunning and manipulative" and backed the vice chancellor, saying there was no need to "tear ourselves apart" over the changes which left the supremacy of Congregation intact. The amendment amounted to a concession because the decision on whether to give a majority of places on the new management board to non academics will be put off for five years. In the meantime there will be seven academics and seven lay members with Lord Patten, the Chancellor, as the chairman.
It is unlikely to satisfy those against the changes who claim the new council will have the power to overrule the academic board and will become Dr Hood's personal instrument of control. The Congregation is due to meet again on Nov 28 to debate the reforms amended to take out the requirement that there must be a majority of lay members on the ruling board in five year's time. Instead the decision would be left to Congregation.