Oxford told to review its governance

TdaNews Direct
Published: 10 August, 2007

Oxford has been told to review its governance by the government's higher education funding body.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) has told Oxford, the UK's top university, that it has failed to meet the requirements of a publicly funded higher education institution, the Guardian reports.

The university, which relies on millions of pounds of public money, has accepted the judgement and is expected to seek independent advice on how to go about the reform.

Oxford is currently governed by the congregation, made up of 3,000 of its academics.

This body has previously resisted attempts by the university's vice-chancellor, John Hood, to modernise how the university is run by giving outside business figures a majority on the ruling council.

Mr Hood also proposed to put financial decisions in the hands of external experts, doing away with the dons' majority on the institution's ruling council by cutting it from 25 to 15.

Hefce is pressing Oxford to go ahead with these plans, an approach that several other universities have taken to.

However, lecturers and researchers there fear they would lose their academic independence, and voted against them last year.

A spokeswoman from Oxford University told the Guardian: "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."