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LONDON - Oxford dons have voted against a controversial proposal that could have seen their power over financial decision-making at the university eroded by outside interests.
New Zealand vice-chancellor John Hood had proposed doing away with 900 years of tradition by removing the dons' majority on the university's governing council.
But a postal ballot of nearly 4000 members of the Congregation, the ancient university's highest authority, rejected the proposal in a postal ballot.
"A total of 1540 members (60.7 per cent of those voting) voted against proposals, and 997 voted in favour," the university said in statement.
Dr Hood, a former company director and vice chancellor of Auckland University, said he would stay on as vice-chancellor, adding that he respected the results of the postal ballot and an earlier vote in November.
He had proposed reducing the ruling council's size from 25 to 15, with seven internal and seven non-university members, plus a chairman, initially the chancellor, Lord Patten.
After five years the chairman could have been replaced by an external appointment, reducing university members on the council to a minority.
Some dons had feared the proposals would dilute their powers and lead to cost-cutting measures such as the end of one-to-one tutorials and an increase in the number of foreign students, who often pay double the fees of British undergraduates.
But the university authorities said the proposal had been put forward to bring external expertise to Oxford's finances.
The university would like to emulate the fund-raising success of American universities such as Yale and Harvard.
Dr Hood said change in some form would still have to occur at the university.
"Colleagues on all sides of the debate have recognised that good governance must always be a priority for a great institution like Oxford," Dr Hood said in a statement.
"In that sense, it is a challenge that is always before us. So, the issue was not, and is not, whether there has to be change, but what kind of change."
- REUTERS
