Oxford academics are currently engaged in a vicious battle with the Vice -Chancellor John Hood over proposals for reform of the university governance system that could see business leaders and politicians responsible for running the institution. If the proposals are carried in the vote on Tuesday 14 November, the 900 year-old tradition of self governance at the university will end.
The reforms are designed to comply with a report written by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which recommends the introduction of a majority of external seats in the University Council. Proposed changes include a bicameral structure composed of the University Council and an Academic Board. Council membership would be reduced from 23 seats to 15, with seven lay members, seven internal members and a lay chair. Ruth Collier, a university spokesperson, stressed the benefits of such reforms. She explained "the Vice Chancellor will chair the Academic Board but not the Council, thus spreading out power." But some members of the Congregation, Oxford's main legislative body, feel that the proposal to create a body in which the majority would consist of external members is tantamount to a loss of independent governance. A flysheet signed by 23 Congregation members declared "a financially-focused Council would have ultimate authority over the Academic Board."
Alan Strickland, President of the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) agreed that the union would like to see a greater proportion of internal members, including students in Council, adding that "reforms would streamline university governance, allowing it to work in a more coordinated and effective way".
While Strickland recognised that the suggested reforms were the product of months of open discussion and debate, Susan Cooper, Professor of Physics and current council member, argued that Hood "eliminated any possibility of compromise". She added, "we do need change, but we want change for the better, not change to conform to an arbitrary idea of 'best practice'". Moreover, Cooper emphasised that Tuesday's vote might lead to the isolation of the University of Cambridge, whose union still retains a majority of internal members. A Cambridge spokesperson said that the university "is on an entirely different cycle of deliberation with respect to governance compared to Oxford". CUSU President Mark Ferguson concurred, stating "Cambridge has a nuanced, slower pace of reform; a constant state of renewal as opposed to Oxford's current state of upheaval".