Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan who is now behind bars, has entered his name to succeed as the next chancellor of Oxford when the university’s graduates and staff vote later this year. Syed Zulfi Bukhari, one of Khan’s advisors, told The Sunday Times that the former international cricket star applied to run in the election in October to replace Chris Patten, the former Conservative minister.
Khan, 71, served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022 as the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or the Movement for Justice party he founded in 1996. Khan was ousted as the country’s prime minister through an army-backed vote of no confidence in Parliament and has spent the past 12 months in jail over a string of charges.
For centuries, elections to the largely ceremonial role of Oxford chancellor required graduates and staff to wear academic dress to vote in Oxford. However, these peculiar requirements have come at a time when new rules have introduced the possibility for easy candidacy, where nominations and voting are possible online.
Besides his political standing, Khan’s qualifications include eight years as chancellor of the University of Bradford and reading PPE at Oxford’s Keble College in the 1970s while winning honors for the university’s cricket team. He captained the Pakistan men’s cricket team when they won the World Cup in 1992.
Nominations for candidates closed on Sunday. The university said no confirmation of individual candidates would be given before a final list was published in early October. While overt campaigning is rare, among the likely candidates are Elish Angiolini, the former lord advocate of Scotland and principal of St Hugh’s College, and Margaret Casely-Hayford, a former chair of Shakespeare’s Globe, who each would become the first female chancellor in Oxford’s history.
Also in the running, it seems, are backers of the former Labour minister Peter Mandelson and the former Conservative leader William Hague. Voting – online – begins on 28 October. The chancellorship is elected solely by graduates of Oxford and members of its congregation – that is, the university’s academic staff. Although the post is non-executive, the chancellor would chair the committee that appoints the vice-chancellor and is obliged to involve themselves in fundraising, advocacy, and oversight.
University records confirm Patten as the 159th person to have held the position since 1224 of Oxford’s chancellor. Powerful politicians have previously held the post – Robert Dudley, the first earl of Leicester, during the reign of Elizabeth I, and Oliver Cromwell during his period as lord protector.
