Zumba teacher? 'Anti-woke' cleric? 38 candidates line up to head Oxford

By Mark Landler

One is an Anglican clergyman who presents himself as the “anti-woke candidate.” Another is a left-wing activist who boasts that he has never “invaded any West Asian countries.” Still another is a Zumba teacher who says her cardio training would help her face the rigors of the job.
 

These are three of the 38 people in the running to be the next chancellor of the University of Oxford, a largely symbolic, yet enduringly prestigious, post as the titular head of one of the world’s most ancient universities.
 

For the past 21 years, the job has been held by Chris Patten, a former Conservative Party chairman and the last colonial governor of Hong Kong. Patten’s retirement in July kicked off a selection process that has drawn predictably high-flown public figures, but also several earthbound candidates for a post at the pinnacle of Oxford’s dreaming spires.
 

 

“We’ve moved from the old-school approach of a tap on the shoulder to a far more open process,” said Jonathan Black, a fellow at New College, Oxford, who is director of the university’s career services. “The issues the university is facing are very different than when Chris Patten arrived,” he said.
 

For the first time, voters will cast ballots online. About 26,000 alumni of Oxford have registered to vote, with an additional 5,000 faculty and senior staff also eligible. That compares with roughly 8,000 people who voted in the election won by Patten in 2003. The field of candidates will be culled to five in a first round of voting, with a winner selected in a second round in late November.
 

Putting the election online has made it more international. Several are of Indian or Pakistani heritage, although Oxford excluded a bid by Imran Khan, a champion cricketer and Oxford graduate who became prime minister of Pakistan.
 

Oxford declined to say why it had barred Khan, who was ousted in 2022 and is in prison on much-questioned charges of corruption and leaking state secrets. A spokeswoman for the university said it excluded a “small number” of applicants, citing requirements, including that the chancellor must be deemed “fit and proper” as the trustee of a charity, under the terms of Britain’s Charities Act.
 

With a history dating to 1224, Oxford has had a few divisive chancellors, not least Oliver Cromwell. But the post has remained ceremonial — leading lots of be-gowned processions — with scant authority over the university’s notoriously independent colleges and departments. Patten’s predecessor, Roy Jenkins, described the job as “impotence assuaged by magnificence.”

Still, like Britain’s monarch, Charles III, the chancellor is a lasting symbol of Oxford’s academic sovereignty. Some credit Patten with helping to keep Oxford at the top of the world’s academic league tables, despite having a smaller endowment than Harvard or Stanford. “As the king is worth a billionaire or two, a chancellor is worth an American fund-raising campaign or two,” said Timothy Garton Ash, a British historian with positions at both Oxford and Stanford.
 

Tanya Tajik, the Zumba instructor, said in her candidate’s statement that she ran a business with more than 200 employees. But she highlighted pursuits like Indian classic vocals, art and outdoor activities. “There are many other things but these are the things that make me feel I’m suitable for the job,” she wrote.
 

Harry Stratton, the left-wing activist, said he would stand on picket lines with staff members demanding higher wages, or with students resisting tuition fee increases. He said he would campaign for a minimum wage of $19.60 an hour, for all employees.

Matthew Firth, the clergyman, pointed to his background in astrophysics, which he said had inspired him to seek the “transcendental values of truth, unity, beauty and goodness.” He promised a “strong public rebuke” to anyone who would “erode freedom of speech and academic inquiry” or lead Oxford the “way of wokery.”

©2024 The New York Times News Service

That gets at issues that have vexed university leaders across the West, and especially in the United States. The drive for diversity, equity and inclusion has divided campuses, while protests over the war in Gaza have caused upheaval from Columbia University in New York to the University of Southern California.