THE final phase in the battle over reforms for the University of Oxford begins tomorrow when John Hood, the Vice-Chancellor, calls on dons to approve changes to a "white paper" detailing plans to hand strategic control to outsiders.
After 13 years of arguing over various models to replace a 900-year-old tradition of self-governance, there is a certain weariness among the dons at Britain's oldest university. Like all feuds, the plotting behind the scenes has been thick. But, after the most striking alternatives had been ruled out, Dr Hood's opponents decided to push for an all-or-nothing vote in a high-risk attempt to defeat the plans. Just one amendment remains on the table, proposed by Lord Butler and Sir Derek Morris who are strong supporters of Dr Hood and his proposal for a board of directors with a majority of members from outside the university. The amendment proposes that, after five years, a "lay" chair of the council of the university could choose to have a majority of eight internal members, with seven outsiders from business and commerce.
Critical academics said that this move is a sop to the sceptics and that, even if an extra place were granted to an internal member, it would not alter the council substantially in their favour. Robin Briggs, a senior research fellow at All Souls College, who has been at Oxford for 45 years, was among those behind two recently rejected amendments. "The old-boy network is being shaken up, and I have plenty of sympathy for that, but I strongly feel we're going in the wrong direction," he said. "People want to feel that it's their university and they run it. We want to press for less oligarchy and more democracy."
However, Gavin Williams, Editor of the Oxford Magazine, insists that the case has not been made for the policymaking body to be made up largely of people drawn from the legal and business world. Along with others, he fears that, should the reforms go ahead, financial considerations could outweigh academic ones. "Our worry is that decisions will be made without reference to the primary values and purposes of the university, which is (sic) academic," he said.
Dr Hood was forced to water down his latest proposals to ensure that the dons retained some control over the appointments. This came a year after he was forced to drop compulsory performance appraisals for academic staff. Tomorrow the Congregation of dons finally votes on whether to accept the reforms and the amendments to the governance paper.