Who will be Oxford’s next Chancellor?

Roy Jenkins said that the role of Chancellor of Oxford University was one of “impotence assuaged by magnificence”. No wonder that Imran Khan, incarcerated in his Pakistani prison cell, is so up for it . 

Khan’s surprise bid has been the highlight of an otherwise uninspiring contest, ever since Chris Patten announced his resignation in July. The former Pakistani cricket captain and Prime Minister’s chances look low, given the competition from three more conventional candidates, all British politicians with peerages: Peter Mandelson, William Hague and David Willetts. The role may be as purely ceremonial as Jenkins suggested – Patten has been involved in countless treks through the Sheldonian Theatre bedecked in antique attire. But the choice of the 250,000 alumni and academics who are entitled to vote will say something important about the image the University projects to an increasingly difficult world that confronts it, and the more difficult world that confronts higher education throughout Britain. 

Mandelson, the “Prince of Darkness” of old tabloid headlines, is the frontrunner. He has the enthusiastic backing of the University Labour Club, and is bound to prosper from the fact that his dinner-party guests are now sitting around the Cabinet table. That is an important asset in such a prominent but politically limited role. “I have a great attachment to Oxford but also feel passionately about the University sector as a whole,” Mandelson told the student paper Cherwell . He has been Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University and an Honorary Fellow of his old College, St Catherine’s. But it’s a stretch to say he’s an expert on higher education. Nonetheless, Mandelson’s caustic interventions in British politics and his global reach will stand in his favour. And no one can say he doesn’t know how to brand an image. 

William Hague (a former Conservative Party leader for those who have forgotten) is focusing on the money. As a previous Foreign Secretary of decent renown, he promises an impressive contacts book to be opened up for the University on his appointment. He has the backing of the University Conservative Association. And he has a track record: in the late 1980s, Oxford embarked upon an unprecedented fundraising project to secure its future in the backdrop of Thatcherite cuts. A consultant at McKinsey, Hague was one of those behind the highly ambitious plan to raise hundreds of millions, which far exceeded expectations and has raised billions from international benefactors (such as Stephen Schwarzman, whose centre is soon to open). Forty years later and facing more financial worries, the University possesses far greater assets to back itself up. The initial leader, the work of the University’s Labour Club (with which the present author should admit his affiliation) has prevented a Hague coronation. 

David Willetts’ campaign, a late announcement, is banking more on intellectual capital. Willetts’ long-term experience in the sector is genuine: he has been involved in higher education policy for decades, and was instrumental in the Coalition government’s policies as Minister of State for Universities and Science from 2010-14. Sitting down at the suitably chaotic Bursar’s rooms at New College last week, Willetts told me that the University was initially scared that no serious candidates would apply to replace Chris Patten. Voices were sent out to encourage potential candidates to think of doing so. Willetts needed little encouragement; his admiration for the tutorial system and the “Oxford collegiate tradition” is well documented . Willetts’ voice is an independent one: he was one of the prime movers in the deeply unpopular rise in tuition fees to their current £9,250 cap, yet he’s is also a fervent supporter of “growth”: in the number of degrees, of universities and the number of people in Britain attending them. 

The University need not have been so scared of an empty field: it is already crowded. Imran Khan may be in prison but he has attracted equal amounts of support and criticism . His former wife, Jemima Goldsmith, lives just outside Oxford. Despite gaining international traction for the contest, Khan’s bid is unlikely to wash with the international alumni network. Respectable parents are not too likely to be so keen on a man imprisoned in Pakistan and known as a backer of the Taliban leading the graduation ceremony of their children at the world’s leading university . Other candidates include the current Pro Vice Chancellor Elish Angiolini, and Somerville College President and former Neil Kinnock advisor Janet Royall. 

Does the election matter? Only so much as figureheads do matter for places like Oxford. Patten commanded international respect but was committed during his long tenure to the transformative effect of the education he received. Outreach targets, debates over application processes and financial worries mean that such a well-headed figurehead is ever more important in a role which has seen Oliver Cromwell, William Laud and Harold Macmillan presiding. The choice has been dominated by Conservatives for a long time, probably for too long. The Labour Government would welcome one of their own to the role. The reputation of British universities will not rest on the choice of the alumni who do vote. But their choice will say something interesting about just what kind of a university Oxford is seen to be, in a country whose governing class and public seems increasingly distant from it and the standards it represents. 

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