News & Views item - August 2007

 

 

Oxford's Governance is in the Frame Once Again. (August 8, 2007)

    It was just a matter of time before Oxford's congregation, the 3,770 members of the university's academic, library and administrative staff, and the powers that be were going to be at odds once again.  Now the Guardian writes it has received a "leaked report" that says: "the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) has told Oxford it is not satisfied that the university meets the expected requirements of a publicly-funded higher education institution. Oxford receives millions of pounds of taxpayers' money from the Government."

 

The Higher Education Funding Council for England  urged Oxford to call for a review of its governance through "independent advice" which the university administration has accepted.

 

Both Oxford's Vice-Chancellor, John Hood, a New Zealander and former businessman, and Chancellor, Lord Patton, had been vociferous supporters of a proposed reorganization which would introduce outside business figures into the running of the university, and to give them a majority on the ruling council.

 

On December 19, 2006, with the votes of the congregation counted, 2,537, i.e. 67.3% of those eligible did cast a vote: 1,540 (60.7%) voted against the plans, 997 (39.3%) for the reorganisation, and Professor Hood came close to losing the vice-chancellorship as a result.

 

It happens the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is an Oxford graduate, but the new PM, Gordon Brown is an Edinburgh product, and according to The Guardian, "Mr Brown is certainly less sympathetic to Oxford than his predecessor."

 

In the view of the Higher Education Funding Council for England the plan would "modernise" the university's governance and it claims that other universities, apart from Cambridge, have adopted this model, and that it is "beneficial for the effectiveness of governing bodies in the discharge of their responsibilities, and for the independent scrutiny of outside investors' interests".

 

Clearly the majority of the congregation disagreed believing the changes would leave them hanging on to academic independence "by their fingernails".

 

In the leaked report Paul Greaves, head of assurance at Hefce, writes: "Even though the university is an independent body, we have the right to expect that our interests will be considered, given the large amounts of public money invested in the university over many years. On governance we do not feel at present that we can be satisfied the arrangements meet the requirements for a publicly-funded higher education institution, although it is not our current intention to require the university to adopt a particular governance regime."

 

The  Guardian interviewed a couple of Oxford's academics and got the following responses:

George Smith, professor of materials at Oxford, said it was "deplorable" that the issue of governance was being raised during the summer holidays when the democratic cogs of the university were in abeyance.

 

"There is no real opportunity for this to be discussed," he said. "The university appears to have agreed to a review without consulting its parliament."

 

Susan Cooper, professor of experimental physics at Oxford, said: "I wish Hefce would be more concerned with Oxford's performance than with the number of externals on our council.

 

"Hefce focuses on the wish for an external majority on council, similar to the board of directors of a business. But a business corporation would not have a board with a majority of people whose expertise was in an entirely different area."

While Cambridge University's vice-chancellor Alison Richard has yet to comment, Professor Gill Evans, a history lecturer at Cambridge said the report should ring warning bells for his university, which has a similar governance structure to Oxford.

 

A spokeswoman from Oxford University told The Guardian: "Oxford is not surprised by Hefce's report. We know the university doesn't conform to Hefce's preferred model of governance. Our position remains the same. The council of the university and congregation now need to consider what the next stage will be. There has been general consensus that some change is needed."

 

Hefce has scheduled a reassessment of the university's governance in October 2008 by which time the review is to have been completed.

 

 

Timeline: Oxford University Reform