U. of Cambridge Prepares to Revamp Its Governance
By David Walker
Chronicle of Higher Education
December 4, 2001
London
The governance of the University of Cambridge will be thoroughly
overhauled, Sir Alec Broers, the vice chancellor, told a private meeting
of senior faculty members last week.
Its "federal and diffuse" structure impedes decision making and has
become an obstacle to Cambridge's competing with other world-class
institutions, he said, according to faculty members who were at the
meeting.
A spokeswoman for the university confirmed that proposals for
constitutional reform were being discussed and would be made public
early next year.
The trigger for the discussions was a report on the failure of a new
accounting system for the university. (See an article from The
Chronicle, November 23.) Michael Shattock, a former registrar of the
University of Warwick, said in the report that a "culture of amateurism"
existed inside Cambridge's administration.
A focus of reform will be the Regent House, a 3,000-member body that
holds substantial authority over the process for revising the
university's policies. Members include faculty members and Cambridge
residents who hold M.A.'s from the institution.
Mr. Broers said that the Regent House's structure inhibits the
university's capacity to make decisions. While Cambridge administrators
did not specify what reforms they would seek, they have complained that
it takes too long for the Regent House to make decisions, that small
groups of faculty members can ambush the decision-making process -- as
few as 10 Regent House members can call for a vote on a measure -- and
that Cambridge cannot respond quickly enough to proposals from
businesses or potential donors