OXFORD, England - At Oxford University, time is measured in centuries. Students in billowing black academic gowns walk past the 14th-century Congregation House, the oldest university building in Europe, on their way to class. New College, one of the university's 39 colleges, is so named because it was founded in 1379. And during the English Civil War, King Charles I made Christ Church his residence, convening his parliament in the college hall.
These days, however, the scent of change wafts through Oxford, where a battle is raging over the modern identity of the world's oldest English-speaking university. Seven months ago, New Zealander John Hood became the first vice chancellor in Oxford's 900-year history who was not promoted from within the university. (The vice chancellor is the head of the university; chancellor is an honorary role, held by Lord Christopher Patten.)
During Hood's short tenure, the administration has proposed changes so sweeping that the British magazine The Economist recently deemed them the "most fundamental reforms to the university since the establishment of the college system in 1249."
The changes address governance as well as academic life. Dons (as Oxford academics are called) make up the university parliament, which has final say over all changes. Academic proposals are considered at both the college and university level. But the administration wants to streamline decision-making by creating an independent Board of Trustees to oversee university finances and a single Academic Council.
Of the academic proposals, the most contentious is a plan to use academic review to determine pay and address underperformance. Oxford prides itself on its undergraduate tutorial system, where students work one-on-one or in small groups with dons. With too much focus on academic review, many dons say, Oxford will begin to prize research above education.
Many dons think Hood - who spent nearly two decades in senior positions at Fletcher Challenge, a large former building and energy corporation in New England - is trying to impose corporate-style flow charts and PowerPoint presentations on the process of learning. While the university parliament approved Hood's appointment, many dons now question their decision.
"People thought he would bring a breath of the great wide world into this place," said professor Alan Ryan, warden of New College, "but Hood comes in used to a much more managerial kind of system and behaves like every other CEO." Driving the proposals is a looming financial crisis that if left unchecked, the administration fears, will cause Oxford to lose its footing on the global university stage.
"We're still able to attract and retain staff of the very highest quality," said Bill Macmillan, the academic pro vice-chancellor. But looking 10 years ahead, we have to ask ourselves what we have to do to stay in that position."
According to Oxford, the annual education for an undergraduate cost about $33,700 in 2003. Since government-approved tuition fees cannot exceed about $5,400 the university has been struggling to make up the difference through college endowments, university gifts, and research. Proposals to create a single Academic Council and a Board of Trustees to oversee finances would, supporters of the overhauls say, create a clear governing structure. Supporters believe transparent governance is essential to instilling confidence in prospective donors and will lead to increased university giving. A few corporate suits, they believe, are needed amid the tweed. "World-class means more funds," said professor Michael Earl, dean of Templeton College, "and we have to be as professional as we can in order to raise those funds. People want to be convinced that we're running ourselves well."
But many dons fear that amid the proposals to make Oxford more cost-effective and efficient, the university's core qualities are being left by the wayside. "This isn't about diehard, old-school reactionaries wanting to defend a way of life and a modernizing vice chancellor," said Alan Ware, professor of politics at Worcester College, "it's much more subtle than that. It's about different views about how you reform what is a very complex institution, and reform it effectively. It's about how, not about if."
Many dons are opposed to a change in Oxford's balance of power. Currently, dons have final say over all decisions, financial and academic, through the university parliament. But the Board of Trustees would take over decisions relating to institutional governance. "What makes Oxford unique is partly that it's an academic democracy, and these reforms threaten to stop that," Ryan said. It's possible, he added, that "we're being told to vote away our own power."
Debate on the governance proposals has been postponed until November. At last month's meeting of the university parliament, dons voted overwhelmingly against a proposal to use academic reviews to address underperformance and determine pay. Buried between the lines of the proposal, many dons say, is an emphasis on corporate productivity that threatens to erode what they see as Oxford's unique atmosphere of intellectual freedom.
While Oxford already has peer review, the vagueness of the proposal left many dons afraid that publication and research, not teaching, would be the measures of academic success. Such a system, they say, would mark a shift away from the tutorial system and toward research. Many dons also fear that academics would no longer have the freedom to make mistakes and take chances with their work. "We object to the possibility that people whose research has not gone successfully for various reasons might find themselves mid-career without a job," Ware said. "If you want to offer people low salaries after long periods of training with no stability, what's the incentive?"
Despite the early setbacks, the administration will continue to push for change. "We're not going to live on the past," Macmillan said. "To be the place that people want to come to in the future, you've got to change the institution while retaining its core qualities." But for all the talk of drastic changes and contentious debate, Oxford's 14th-century walls force the tensions into a historical frame. "People ask me if this is the biggest fight Oxford's ever seen," Ryan said, "and I say: well, we did survive the Black Death, the Reformation, and the English Civil War."