Lord William Hague of Richmond has been elected by the 24,000 Oxford Alumni and staff to serve as the 160th Chancellor for 10 years. He came first in both the first and second rounds, beating 4 other candidates in the second round. Lady Elish Angiolini, the Principal of St Hugh’s College, came second winning 11,006 votes to Lord Hague’s 12,609 votes. Voters had the opportunity in the second round to rank all five candidates. Lord Peter Mandelson did worse than expected, coming in 4th place and being eliminated in the second stage – he only received 2,484 first preference votes compared to Hague’s 9,589.
Lord Hague thanked his “fellow Oxonians for placing such confidence in me” and promised to dedicate himself to “serving the University I love”. Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Irene Tracey, congratulated Hague on his election to the Chancellorship and said she was “personally looking forward to working with him [and] engaging with his wife”.
William Hague is an Oxford alumnus who studied PPE and graduated from Magdalen College in 1982. After working as a management consultant for McKinsey, where he developed a ‘Campaign for Oxford’, he became an the MP for Richmond, leader of the Conservative Party and later foreign secretary. Ethan Penny, writing for The Blue, has profiled him (alongside the other candidates).
Reacting to his loss, Lord Mandelson posted on Linkedin, congratulating William Hague on his victory and thanking his supporters. He also pledge to “continue to stand up for Oxford and higher education as a whole” while stating that the University has a “bright future ahead” and that Lord Hague “will do an excellent job”.