Lord Chris Smith has been appointed the 109th chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
The outgoing master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, will hold the prestigious office for a decade after edging out the renowned economist Dr Mohamed El-Erian, current president of Queens’ College, in the voting.
Dr El-Erian led the voting after the first count, with 4,818 votes to Lord Smith’s 4,500, but ultimately triumphed thanks to the single transferable vote system used.
It means alternative preferences from those who voted for the individual who polled the least votes are transferred, and that individual is eliminated, before the process is repeated until l just the top two remain.
Lord Smith, a former culture secretary and Environment Agency chairman, took the lead after five rounds of voting, and ultimately won with 10,569 votes to Dr El-Erian’s 8,440. Sandi Toksvig was third in the poll of 10 candidates. The positions in full can be seen below.
Lord Smith said: “To be elected as chancellor of the university I love is a huge honour. I’m thrilled. I look forward to being the best possible ambassador for Cambridge, to being a strong voice for higher education more generally, and to working closely together with the vice-chancellor and her team.”
For the first time, the election was opened to online voting and the option was taken up by more than 23,000 alumni and staff, while almost 2,000 chose to vote in person at the university’s Senate House. Voting was held between 9 and 18 July and the process was overseen by Civica Election Services.
Prof Deborah Prentice, the vice-chancellor, said: “On behalf of everyone at the university, I offer my warm congratulations to Chris on his election. I very much look forward to working with him and building on the strong relationship that we have developed since I became vice-chancellor. Chris has had a long involvement with the university and brings a wealth of relevant experience to this important role.
“I would like to thank the other nine candidates for standing for the role and their willingness to serve Cambridge.”
Lord Smith will replace Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who was elected by the Senate in October 2011 and was installed in 2012.
He replaced Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had held the role since 1976.
Lord Smith will step down as master of Pembroke at the end of July, having held the role since 2015 at the college where he achieved a double first in English as a student.
Born in 1951, he was educated in Edinburgh before attending Pembroke, where he also completed his PhD was on Wordsworth and Coleridge. He was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.
His political career began when he was elected as a Labour councillor for the London Borough of Islington before he became MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983. He helped break down barriers by becoming Britain’s first openly gay MP in 1984.
He joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 and held a number of front bench posts before Labour came to power in 1997.
He served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001 before returning to the back benches and then standing down from the Commons in 2005. Immediately afterwards, he was made a life peer, become Lord Smith of Finsbury.
In July 2008, he became chairman of the Environment Agency, a role he held until 2014.
He also chaired the Advertising Standards Authority from 2007 to 2017.
Earlier this year, a book he edited, titled Pembroke College, Cambridge – The Buildings and Gardens, was released and he told the Cambridge Independent that his time as a student at Pembroke had been “six of the very happiest years of my life”, while his job as master was the “very best job” he had ever had, including his time as culture secretary.
His new role is largely ceremonial and comes without executive responsibilities. The position of chancellor dates back more than 800 years to the foundation of the university. The chancellor acts as a sounding board for senior figures within the university, supports its fundraising and acts as an ambassador for Cambridge.
Advocating and supporting the university’s aims and strategic interests is considered the most significant commitment for the chancellor.
How they voted
Where each of the 10 candidates finished in the voting:
1 Lord Chris Smith
2 Dr Mohamed El-Erian
3 Ms Sandi Toksvig
4 Lord John Browne
5 Professor Wyn Evans
6 Mrs Gina Miller
7 Mr Tony Booth
8 Dr Mark Mann
9 Dr Ayham Ammora
10 Mr Ali Azeem
