Town-Gown Clash Over Oxford Business School

Oxford University dons were set to yesterday on controversial plans to build a £s40 million business school on a greenfield site in the heart of the city.

Academic opposition to the business school has mounted since the plans were announced in July following a £s20 million donation by Wafic Said, the Syrian-born entrepreneur who has close links with the Saudi royal family. A meeting of the university's congregation -- or parliament -- will decide whether to build the new Said Business School on a sports ground currently used by the university's employees.

Many academics have already backed a campaign by more than 1,000 university staff to block the new building. University leaders are confident they will win the ballot, saying that Oxford urgently needs to establish a world-leading MBA - master of business administration - course.

The university's first MBA students arrived last month. But the business school faces more serious opposition from Oxford city council, which appears unlikely to grant planning permission. The site is close to historic buildings near Mansfield College, at the heart of the city.

The university and Said hope the location will help to create an innovative MBA, combining business studies with existing expertise in politics, economics and social studies. But the central location is a problematic one for the university.

In 1963, when it bought the site from Merton College, it promised to maintain the sports pitches as a green space ''in perpetuity''.

Environmental concerns are taken seriously in a city which the Green party counts as one of its few electoral successes. Dr Ian Scargill, a geography lecturer who will formally oppose the plans today, said: ''One of the good things about Oxford is that you get strips of green coming into the centre, providing windows on the countryside right in the heart of the city.''

Such opposition is echoed among politicians on the council, who say the building would breach planning guidelines. Political opponents include Bill Baker, a Labour councillor who works as groundsman at the threatened sports pitches and lives on the site.

Baker -- who sits on the planning committee but is excluded from voting because of his involvement - said: ''Nobody is against a management school but it should not be built here, on a greenfield site".

The university hopes to open the new building in two years, but is likely to be frustrated by councillors demanding a public inquiry into the development. But the university expects to win public support because of the economic impact of the business school. The private sector has already pledged £s10 million alongside Said's donation.

Dr Paul Flather, the university's director of external relations, said: "All the evidence from every major business school in north America and Europe is that they bring substantial economic benefits to the region."

There will be graduates who want to complete projects and want to enter the job market, and we expect areas such as Oxford Science Park to benefit considerably. Within the university, some have criticised the donation because of Said's role as an agent for British Aerospace in the Al-Yamamah defence deal in Saudi Arabia. But a more emotive issue is the potential loss of the sports pitches and clubhouse.

Environmental concerns are taken seriously in a city which the Green party counts as one of its few electoral successes