Vice-Chancellor John Hood is bracing himself for a renewed barrage of opposition from academics after his latest plans for the future of Oxford University were released. Dr Hood's controversial Green Paper was voted down in May this year by Congregation, an ancient 3,500-strong parliament of Oxford dons, who were furious at proposals that outsiders should assume more control over University governance.
The University claims that the new proposals take account of concerns expressed by Congregation, but dons contacted by The Oxford Student have dismissed them as a mere 'watering down' of the earlier plans and have criticised the Vice-Chancellor for wanting to take power away from the academic community and place it in the hands of external individuals, including representatives from the business community.
"The new plans retain the key dangerous idea of taking authority away from academics and giving it to a chief executive vice-chancellor and a committee with a heavy weighting of outsiders," said Gillian Evans, a Cambridge professor who is heavily involved with the governance debate at Oxford. Dr Hood's latest proposals envisage a slimmed down ruling council with an equal balance of outsiders and internal representatives, with Chancellor Lord Patten as its chair, and the creation of a new academic board to deal with academic issues. After Lord Patten's tenure comes to an end, the majority of council members would be outsiders.
Academics from a range of disciplines have told this newspaper that the proposals do nothing to address the growing concerns at the lack of internal scrutiny of the way the University is being governed. Congregation, which is the sovereign body of the University, has stopped regularly meeting over the past five years, and Nicholas Bamforth, a law tutor at Queen's, says that there is a widespread feeling that key decisions are being taken without checks and that the machinery has got out of control. He fears that the latest paper will intensify the problem. "The design of the proposed committees will make it almost impossible, in practice, for independent voices to be heard. Short of calling meetings of Congregation every fortnight, there will be no way to hold the central administration to account on a practical, issue-by-issue basis. The implications of this, if mistakes are made, are very alarming," Mr Bamforth said. "It's all about where the power is going to end up," added Professor Evans. It's the rare oligarchy that doesn't get a little power-crazed and there is a fair chance that Oxford will go the way of Blair's sofa government, with the emasculation of Parliament, if this goes ahead."
Whilst critics argue that the proposed method of appointing the council, whereby Congregation could only vote on candidates approved by a nomination committee, erodes their power to directly elect the institution's leaders, the University administration disagrees. "The plans retain Congregation as the ultimate power body of the University. Congregation could move a vote of no confidence in Council if it tried to do something they didn't like. So ultimate power would still rest in the hands of the 3,500 members of Congregation," a spokeswoman for the University said. The new proposals will be debated by Congregation on 1st November.
Last term a number of articles in the influential Oxford Magazine suggested that Oxford should establish an internal 'Board of Scrutiny' along the lines of a similar board at Cambridge, an idea which has already been rejected by the University. But The Oxford Student understands that a number of senior academics are planning to publish an alternative proposal to Dr Hood's plans that incorporates an internal Board of Scrutiny and bring it before Congregation in the near future.
The latest battle over Oxford's future comes as a number of key aspects of University life look set to be reformed. The provision of library services has been a frequent subject of discussion and the latest 'Corporate Plan' to emerge from the University makes references to a number of changes to one of the largest library systems in Europe. It promises to "reduce the cost of delivering a high-quality library service by concentrating onto a smaller number of sites and investing in lower-cost, high-density, depository storage". This strategy, centered around a new multi-million pound depository on the Osney Mead industrial estate outside Oxford, has previously been described as "lunacy" by professors. "New isn't always good," says Professor Evans, "look at the Sackler and the British Library Reading rooms. I'd be much happier if these plans had not gone so far without proper consultation of staff and student reader needs - no-one has asked us what we want."
With Oxford facing an estimated £200m budget deficit, the search for answers will have severe implications for students. "The self-governing structure and the college system are among Oxford's greatest strengths, alongside the creativity and talent of the individuals that work here," said Dr Hood. "[These] proposals [are] aimed at preserving what is best, while at the same time making the decision-making process less remote and more efficient." But he has a fight on his hands. "The present Oxford system already contains far too few checks and balances. John Hood's proposals will make this even worse," insisted Mr Bamforth.