The Chancellorship candidates are a mediocre bunch, according to The Critic. In the Times Literary Supplement, Mary Beard was uninspired. In Reaction, Adam Boulton was unimpressed (except by his friend, Lord Browne of Madingley).
The consensus is that this is a dismal group of people to choose between!
I agree with them, and I’m one of the candidates!
Previous scientists who became Chancellors include Lord Rayleigh (Nobel Prize for Physics 1904), Lord Adrian (Nobel Prize for Physiology 1932). Whilst I am proud of my scientific contributions, I obviously recognise they’re not in the same class as those distinguished scientists.
I am standing because the University has internal problems that need addressing. No-one else has been prepared to come forward, though many distinguished people in the university agree with me in private.
Online voting ends on Friday 18th July, while in-person voting is still possible on Wednesday 16th July. So, there are many members of the University who are now thinking: which of this dreary group is the least dreary?
Let me give those individuals a reason to vote for Wyn Evans.
I am the only candidate who will serve just 5 years. If I am elected, there will be another Chancellorship election in 2030 with perhaps a more scintillating group of people — Nobel laureates, brilliant administrators, wise elder statesmen.
This group may even cause Mary Beard and Adam Boulton to salivate!
5 years is a good length of time to fix things. I will not be a candidate in 2030 because I hope the University will be in a much better place.
(Prof) Wyn Evans (Chancellorship candidate)
5 Comments
SPARTACUS · 15 July 2025 at 19:38
I voted for Wyn Evans! I know it is nearly impossible he will win but I very much hope he will get many votes. Since Lord BP is highly likely to win the University will need all the Wyn Evans it has to be saved from the rot of Lord BP, American-Queen VC, bunch of mediocre ProVCs, disastrous Registrar and highly compromised and incompetent Head of HR. Bullying, botched internal investigations, huge legal bills, racketeering in favour of dictatorial Directors, extremely poor leadership, downward spiral in the rankings, subpar Heads of School. The list goes on! Wyn Evans knows about it all!
21percent.org · 15 July 2025 at 20:12
Alumni outnumber Regent House.
Older alumni are more likely to vote than younger alumni.
The older an electorate, the more it leans rightwards.
Therefore, Lord Browne of Madingley is the likely winner.
SPARTACUS · 15 July 2025 at 20:30
Lord BP has lots of money and so he can effectively buy the election. If that was not enough the oligarchy that runs the University is making sure that no effort is saved to tilt things in his favour. The Heads of the two richest Colleges have also pitched in. They must be worried that certain members of their fellowship might be exposed otherwise! The place is in total rot!
GamblingMan · 15 July 2025 at 20:59
I think Lord Browne will win for the reasons stated.
The Oxford Chancellorship election ended up (roughly speaking) as right versus left: Hague versus
Angiolini, with Hague winning the final round by about 1000 votes.
So I think it will end up as Browne versus one of Smith or Evans or possibly even Miller at the end.
El Erian seems to me to be fishing in the same voter pool as Browne, so I don’t see him as ending up in the final two.
Eileen Nugent · 15 July 2025 at 23:02
The writers of these articles seem to be looking to be impressed by, inspired by & find all the excellence concentrated in one single candidate. I think there is something inspiring in each candidate & if you combine all the sources of inspiration that can be drawn from each candidate you get an image of a unifying candidate that Cambridge seeks which may not yet exist but could at some future point come into existence. I don’t find this situation surprising, navigating complex times calls for a complex set of individual traits that might only emerge over time in response to being challenged in those complex times. Instead of absorbing “the consensus is that this is a dismal group of people to choose between!” and then discounting all the chancellorship candidates as being dismal, I would instead look closely at all the chancellorship candidates because the chances are that in order for the chosen candidate to eventually succeed in the Chancellorship role the chosen candidate is going to have to become more like each of the other Chancellorship candidates in some specific way.