Candidate Statements: 13 June 2013

Nominating Committee for the Vice-Chancellorship

Two persons, not also being members of Council, elected by Congregation

The following candidate statements have been received:

Nicholas C Bamforth, BCL MA Oxf, Fellow of Queen's, Faculty of Law

Oxford's worldwide success in research and teaching is closely associated with its academic values and democratic internal organisation. We recruit internationally distinguished faculty members and attract exceptionally able students on the basis that we are - in departments, faculties and most particularly Colleges - an egalitarian academic community.

Anyone selected as Vice-Chancellor must respect Oxford's distinctive values and structures, while having the ability to build consensus within the academic community about how best to defend, strengthen and safeguard them. An ability to build consensus will also be crucial at a practical level, for example in reinforcing the university's attempts to develop and maintain generous bursaries for students. Members of the Nominating Committee for the Vice-Chancellorship must, as a result, be keenly aware of and sympathetic to the values and structures concerned.

Having served as an elected member of the University Council (2006-10) and as Junior Proctor (2010-11) during the time in office of two Vice-Chancellors, I have seen at first hand and over a five year period many of the challenges which face the holder of that post. I have been able to reflect closely on the qualities which a successful Vice-Chancellor needs in Oxford, and if elected to the Nominating Committee I will do my upmost to ensure that anyone nominated to the post possesses those qualities.

University positions previously held:

• Elected member of Council, 2006-2010
• Junior Proctor, 2010-2011
• Council-nominated member of the Education Committee, 2006-2010

[235 words]

Bill Roscoe, MA DPhil Oxf, Fellow of University, Faculty of Computer Science

I became the university's very first tutorial fellow in Computer Science in 1983. Since then I have always been closely involved in the life of Univ, and was Senior Tutor there 1993-7. I was the final Chairman of the Mathematical Sciences Faculty Board (1998-2000) before becoming Head of the Computer Science Department in 2003, a position I will hold until 2014. In my time I have helped choose (usually leading the selection process) at least 100 Oxford academics.

The university needs the sort of leadership that will both protect Oxford's distinctive and uniquely strong brand as a collegiate university, and carry it forward to meet the ever more extraordinary challenges and opportunities that the modern world brings to the university sector.

[121 words]

Back to Top

Back to Nominations

General Notes:

The nomination period for these elections closed at 4 p.m. on Thursday 16 May.

All members of Congregation are entitled to vote in these elections. Ballot papers will be sent out by Tuesday 28 May. Completed ballot papers must be received by the Elections Office not later than 4 p.m. on Thursday 13 June.

Candidates were invited to include with their nomination forms, a written statement of no more than 250 words, setting out his or her reasons for standing and qualifications for the office being sought. These statements will be available on-line and published in the Gazette dated 23 May. Voters may wish to wait until they have read these statements before returning their ballot papers.

For further information, please contact the Elections Officer.

Back to Top