Can't keep collegiality down

John Hood, Oxford University's beleaguered vice-chancellor, failed to push ahead with his plans to expand the number of external members of the university's Council last week. And it appears Cambridge University dons are similarly strident in their opposition to an influx of non-academic members on their university's governing Council.

In a Council election at Cambridge that came the same week as Oxford's governance vote, professors and readers opposed to the expansion plans topped the poll. Cambridge dons, like their Oxford peers, value being a self-governing community of scholars, one insider explained.