Rhodes may still fall ... but by the back door

Oxford University seeks to quietly change title of professorship named after controversial colonialist

‘This is less noticeable than the statue being chucked in the Cherwell. Is Rhodes being quietly buried instead?’

‘The university’s morality is rather less consistent than its hypocrisy’

OXFORD University is attempting to change the title of a professorship named after Cecil Rhodes, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, amid claims that Rhodes is “falling by the back door”.

The 900-year-old institution’s council, which is chaired by the vice-chancellor, has backed an amendment to its statues that would see the Rhodes professor of race relations renamed the professorship of African studies.

It comes as a five-year “Rhodes Must

Fall” student campaign to remove a statue of the 19th-century industrialist from Oriel College’s main facade is close to declaring a victory.

An inquiry, set up by Oriel College to examine the legacy of Rhodes after the college’s governing body expressed its wish to remove the controversial statue, is preparing to publish its final report and recommendations.

But while the commission’s findings will be made public, the university has been accused of attempting to “quietly” remove Rhodes’ legacy in other ways, too.

“This is a bit less noticeable than the statue being pulled down and chucked in the River Cherwell,” an Oxford source said. “Is Rhodes being quietly buried instead?”

The Rhodes professor of race relations was created in the early 1950s, following a donation from the then Rhodesian Selection Trust which requested it be named in memory of Cecil Rhodes.

The university has pointed out that the chair has never been funded either by Rhodes himself or his financial legacies.

The change of name, which was recorded in the Oxford Gazette, has already been approved by the university’s council and general purposes committee and must now be approved by Congregation, meaning academics will be able to vote on it.

The university is also proposing that the object of the professorship is changed from “giving instruction in interracial relations to giving instruction in African studies”.

Robert Poll, founder of the campaign Save Our Statues, said: “This shows how the culture war is being fought on many fronts, with statues just the most obvious, physical one.

“The other fronts are quieter and have fewer protections, so what we are seeing is Rhodes falling by the back door.

“It’s ironic that this comes in the same month as the Wykeham professorship has been renamed after a Chinese state-funded company. The university’s morality is rather less consistent than its hypocrisy.”

The Rhodes Commission, which was set up by Oriel College last summer, had been due to report its findings in January but this has now been postponed until early spring.

The inquiry was set up after a longrunning campaign demanding the removal of the Rhodes statue gained renewed attention during the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2016, Oriel College decided to keep the statue in place following a consultation despite protests from campaigners.

But last summer, the majority of undergraduates and postgraduates studying at Oriel voted in favour of the statue being removed due to Rhodes’s connection with Britain’s colonial past.

An Oxford University spokesman said: “The University has recommended that the name of the chair should change to professor of African studies as more appropriate to the post’s present-day academic purpose.

“The move reflects this post’s central role in building the University’s African Studies Centre.”