News

More than 500 suggested as new Chancellor

(1 September 2004)

The University has received nearly 2,000 suggestions covering a range of more than 500 names for the potential next Chancellor of the University.

The suggestions have come in from the students, staff and graduates of the University - who together total nearly 90,000 people world-wide.

There has been great interest in who succeeds Sir Peter Ustinov, Durham’s 10th Chancellor who died in March after 12 years in office. The honorary post as the formal head of the University was previously held for nine years by Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias. Both Chancellors made a point of presiding at as many degree ceremonies as they could, which means that an estimated two-thirds of Durham’s living graduates received their degree from them.

University officers believe that this personal touch – literally with a handshake from the supreme ballerina or the multi-faceted writer-actor-director-humanitarian – has helped to focus such wide interest in the process of who will succeed them.

The University is making no comment about individual suggestions. A special group of members of the University Senate and Council will be considering the names over the next few months. Their choice may be known by early 2005.