Elections by Congregation: Council (non-divisional constituency) - Trinity Term 2022

Results

On Thursday, 9 June 2022, the following was duly elected to Council to hold office from MT 2022 until the start of MT 2026:

Professor Sir Charles Godfray, MA Oxf, PhD Imp, Balliol, Oxford Martin School

[The votes recorded were: for Professor Ariana, 508; for Dr Bispham, 393; for Lukasz Bohdan, 262; and for Professor Godfray, 569.]

Vacancy

One member of Congregation, not necessarily being a member of any division and not in any case being nominated in a divisional capacity, who shall be elected by Congregation, to serve until the start of MT 2026 [vice Tania Boyt]

 

General Notes

Electronic elections

The elections on 9 June will be conducted electronically.

Nominations

Hard copies of nomination forms will not be processed. Completed nomination forms should be sent as an email attachment to the Elections Office by 4pm on 12 May. Please ensure that the nominators listed in section D are also copied into the email when the nomination form is submitted, as this will act as verification of the nomination in lieu of supplying original signatures.

General requirements and eligibility

All candidates are asked to note the general requirements which apply to all committee members, as set out in Council Regulations 14 of 2002 (General Regulations of Council for Committees).  Current members seeking re-election are also asked to check for specific restrictions on consecutive service. For further information, please see the eligibility and amendments to nominations sections within the Information about University elections pages of the Elections website

Candidate’s statement

Candidates are invited to include with their nomination forms a written statement of no more than 250 words, setting out their reasons for standing and qualifications for the office being sought. In the event of a contested election, these statements will be published both on-line and in the Gazette.

Contested elections

In the event of a contested election, the successful candidates will be determined by an electronic ballot. An email with further instructions will be sent to eligible voters on Wednesday 25 May, using the email addresses provided in the electronic register of Congregation (NB with few exceptions, notably clinical staff, this will be the work address ending ‘ox.ac.uk’). Candidates’ statements will be published in the Gazette dated 26 May. Voters may wish to read these statements before completing their electronic vote. The voting period will close at 4pm on 9 June.

Uncontested elections

If the number of nominations received by the closing date is no more than sufficient to fill the vacancies, the candidates nominated shall be deemed to be duly elected as of the close of the nomination period on Thursday, 12 May. When required, places will be allocated according to academic standing, as defined in Council Regulations 22 of 2002, Part 2: Academic Precedence and Standing. If the number of nominations received by the closing date is less than sufficient to fill the vacancies, those candidates nominated will be deemed elected unopposed, and the remaining vacancies will lapse, in which case, in accordance with the regulations, the places must remain vacant until appointments are made jointly by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors.

Period of office

All vacancies are from the beginning of MT 2022 unless otherwise stated. In accordance with Congregation Regulations 2 of 2002, in any election where vacancies are to be filled for periods of different length, the elected candidates shall hold office so that the tenure of those who receive more votes shall be longer than that of those who receive fewer votes; but if the election is uncontested or if two candidates receive the same number of votes, the candidate senior in academic standing shall hold office for the longer period.

Further information

For further information, please contact the Elections Office

General Information about this constituency

This constituency is comprised of three members of Congregation, not necessarily being members of any division and not in any case being nominated in a divisional capacity, who shall be elected by Congregation.

Elections to this constituency does not restrict candidates to members of the faculties in the academic Divisions. This means that all members of Congregation are eligible to stand for election, to nominate a candidate or to vote.

The full term of office is four years (or less, when a by-election is held to fill the residue of the term of office for an elected member who is standing down early).

The terms of reference and membership of Council are set out in Statute IV.

Council is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor and meets on Mondays of weeks 4 and 9 of each term (week 8 in Michaelmas Term) and in July and September. Meetings begin at 2pm and usually last for 2-3 hours.

Members of Council are the University's charity trustees and have a responsibility for ensuring that Council conducts itself in accordance with accepted standards of behaviour in public life, embracing selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. They must also play an appropriate part in ensuring that the business of Council is carried out effectively, efficiently, and in a manner appropriate for the proper conduct of public business. Key skills include the ability to see issues from all angles, to discuss and question without being adversarial, to accept collective responsibility for decisions and to exercise common sense across a broad range of matters.

Elected members of Council will ordinarily be expected to serve on a small number of other committees (typically between one and three, usually including at least one of the main committees of Council i.e. PRAC, GPC, Education Committee, Personnel Committee, Research Committee).

For further information, please contact the Head of the Governance Secretariat.

Nominations

Nominations for elections to this constituency are published weekly in the Gazette and on this website as they are received and processed. The details of any nominations received can be seen by clicking on the candidate's surname in any adjacent tabs.

Professor Proochista Ariana, SM Harvard, DPhil Oxf, Mansfield, Medicine

Nominated by:

Helen Mountfield QC, Principal of Mansfield

Professor Patricia Daley, Jesus, Geography and Environment

Professor Adrian Hill, Magdalen, Medicine

Professor Matt Jarvis, St Cross, Physics

Professor Kevin Marsh, St Cross, Medicine

Professor Sarah Rowland Jones, Christ Church, Medicine

Lucinda Rumsey, Mansfield, English

Professor Diego Sanchez-Ancochea, St Antony’s, International Development

Dr Rebecca Surender, Green Templeton, Social Policy and Intervention

Professor Helen Swift, St Hilda’s, Medieval and Modern Languages

Dr Edward H Bispham, MA DPhil Oxf, Brasenose/St Anne’s, Classics/Ancient History

Nominated by:

Professor Rhiannon Ash, Merton, Classics

Professor Nick Barber, Trinity, Law

Dr Anna Clark, Christ Church, Classics

Professor Katherine Clarke, St Hilda’s, Classics

Professor Roger Crisp, St Anne’s, Philosophy

Professor Cécile Fabre, All Souls, Politics

Professor Ian McBride, Hertford, History

Professor Simon Shogry, Brasenose, Philosophy

Professor Andrew Wilson, All Souls, Archaeology

Lukasz Bohdan, MA Exe, Mag Jagiellonian, MBA Open, Assurance Directorate

Nominated by:

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Principal of Somerville

Tony Brett, Corpus Christi, Medical Sciences/IT Services

Alison Broadby, Humanities Divisional Office

Professor Chris Conlon, Oriel, Medicine

Professor Sue Dopson, Green Templeton, Saïd Business School

Dr Anne Edwards, Brasenose

Dr Tracy Gale, St Hilda’s, Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Divisional Office

Graham Ingram, Assurance Directorate/IT Services

Richard Ovenden, Balliol, History

Professor Anne Trefethen, St Cross, Engineering Science

Professor Sir Charles Godfray, MA Oxf, PhD Imp, Balliol, Oxford Martin School

Nominated by:

Dame Helen Ghosh, Principal of Balliol

Professor Patricia Clavin, Worcester, History

Professor Tim Coulson, Jesus, Biology

Professor Patrick Grant, St Catherine’s, Materials

Professor Dame Angela McLean, All Souls

Professor Dame Sarah Whatmore, Keble, Geography

Contested elections

In the event of a contested election, candidate statements will be published in the Gazette and on this website. The details of any candidate's statements received can be seen by clicking on the candidate's surname in any adjacent tabs.

As a member of the collegiate University since 2003, I have benefited from inspiring colleagues, a nurturing environment, and extraordinary students. I have been afforded the opportunity to contribute to an increasingly diverse community of global health leaders. I work continually to realise the University’s strategic priority of fostering inclusive and supportive environments to further enhance diversity and innovation. As course director for the MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine, I have extended opportunities for access to underrepresented students from LMICs with tremendous potential to effect positive change in their contexts through securing more than £3,600,000 in graduate scholarships. I recognise that recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds necessitates efforts to support them to succeed. This involves creative curriculum design and teaching innovations. I am immensely proud to have been recognised by Oxford SU with six teaching awards to date, including the Special Recognition Award, and by MSD with a Major Educator Award. I share my passion for teaching through Divisional teacher training workshops as well as workshops across our Oxford Tropical Medicine sites in Thailand (MORU and SMUR), Vietnam (OUCRU) and Kenya (KEMRI). As a current member of the University’s Education Committee, I advocate for graduate education, encourage multidisciplinary conversations, and help inform educational policy decisions. I am also involved in efforts to address attainment gaps, a significant challenge to meaningful inclusion efforts.

On Council, I will draw on my experience to advocate for accountability on commitments to diversity, inclusion, educational innovation, and the well-being of our community.

I believe that Oxford stands the best chance of achieving its full potential, and growing as a diverse and inclusive community, when its members engage actively with its governance, and do so on behalf of the interests of Congregation, and the wider population of institution. My experience as a Proctor provided me with insight into the full spectrum of the workings of the University and its governance, as well as offering some instructive, and sometimes difficult, lessons. I have experience of sitting on Council and of being a University trustee. Just as importantly, my tenure brought home strongly to me how the University is an aggregate of interactions within a very complex range of hard-working individuals: from those who maintain facilities or mow the Parks, to those who support examinations and research grants, to those who sequence genes, look for exo-planets and explicate Schiller. Finally, I have been lucky enough to spend more than two decades engaging with students, without whom there would be no University. The nature of the student experience, from the tutorial to the research group in the lab, in Colleges and Faculties, is central, whether it manifests in pedagogy, sport or welfare. I aim to draw on my direct experience of the enormous range of constituencies and contributions which make up the University. I believe this would usefully inform the opportunity which a seat on Council would give me to contribute to the debates through which the University will confront a very challenging future.

My role as Director of Assurance is to support academic excellence. I believe that focusing on Oxford’s core purpose of research and teaching, respecting local autonomy, and adopting a holistic, participative approach is what matters when delivering professional services. I demonstrated my pragmatic approach and my ability to collaborate for the common good most recently while leading on our COVID-19 response.

My experience covers 20 years as a Board advisor, governor/trustee and non-executive holding senior leaders to account in the private, public and charity sectors, including local government, the NHS, and academia. I have served on and supported numerous Boards, governing bodies and committees (e.g. IT/Digital, Estates, Finance, and Personnel). At Oxford, I support the Audit and Scrutiny Committee and have served on the Saïd Business School’s subsidiary Board, the Saïd Finance Committee, and the Subsidiaries Subcommittee.

I am standing for the Council because I believe that professional services need to reach out and work closely with divisions, departments, faculties and Colleges to support them in delivering the University’s academic mission. I also believe that Oxford’s principle of democratic self-governance is one of its greatest strengths.

It would be a privilege to represent my constituency on the Council. It would further my understanding of Oxford so that I can support academic colleagues effectively. If elected, I would bring my professional insights to bear on the issues that affect Oxford and would champion the views of the Congregation, constructively challenging the University to do its best for all its constituencies.

This is both an exciting and challenging time for the University. Research across the whole university during the pandemic has highlighted the critical role of Oxford and other research-intensive universities in addressing the most pressing issues facing the nation and the world. There are great opportunities to build on our existing strengths and create capacity in new areas. But we also face difficult challenges, perhaps the most important being supporting the people who work here, our human capital, the University’s most precious resource. The Oxford area is one of the most expensive regions of the country to live in causing significant problems for both academic and nonacademic staff; the continuing saga of USS pension reforms raises numerous worrying issues, both now and for the future; and we need to translate the University’s commitments on equality and diversity into more measures that make a difference to people in their working lives. We also face challenges in improving our students’ experience of Oxford and learning lessons from the pandemic in exploring new ways of teaching and interacting. And we have hard choices to make in implementing the University’s excellent net zero and sustainability goals. I would relish the opportunity of helping the University address these challenges and opportunities by joining Council. I am a biologist by background and am currently Director of the interdisciplinary Oxford Martin School within the Social Science Division.

Elections to this body

CURRENT
FUTURE
PAST

Current members of this committee


SEE THE CURRENT MEMBERSHIP

Contact the Elections Officer


For further information, please email the Elections Office.

University of Oxford elections


For general information on the election(s) to a specific committee see this list

or, select the constituency from the list below