Patten's university challenge

Chris Patten bustles in from the House of Lords, where he has been receiving an induction. He is now a fully fledged peer, togged out in ermine for special occasions. But that is nothing new for him. As chancellor of Oxford University, he has to wear even more sumptuous gear, including a train carried by a page boy.

Chris Patten bustles in from the House of Lords, where he has been receiving an induction. He is now a fully fledged peer, togged out in ermine for special occasions. But that is nothing new for him. As chancellor of Oxford University, he has to wear even more sumptuous gear, including a train carried by a page boy.

The former governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner, and Environment Secretary is busy developing a new specialism - higher education, which has to be good news for the sector. Unlike Roy Jenkins, who met Tony Blair for private tête-à-têtes, Patten, now 60, is a natural communicator who enjoys controversy and relishes the limelight. He intends to spend a quarter of his time on his new role.

In his lovely house in Barnes he is surrounded by Chinese antiques, books about Oxford and photographs of his beautiful daughters. The artefacts sum up his great passions. He first became interested in higher education, he says, as governor of Hong Kong in the 1990s, when he was chancellor of every university on the island. "I should think I could go in the Guinness Book of Records for giving out more degrees than anyone else," he says.

Now, as a peer and chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle universities, he is taking the opportunity to bang the drum for higher education. "I want, in the House of Lords and more generally, to be an advocate for British higher education and for European higher education and research," he says.

European universities are underfunded, badly maintained and receive little support for research. Spending on research and dvelopment is just over one half that of the United States. Patten would like to see the creation of a European science and research agency to drum up more funding.

Huge sums of money go on the Common Agricultural Policy and regional development, much of it supporting yesterday's industries. That is why he wants a shift in resources towards spending on research, technology and education to make Europe more internationally competitive.

Oxford graduates knew what they were doing when they elected him to the ceremonial and public job. The former chairman of the Conservative Party will raise the profile of the university and help it to fight some important battles. In the first few months of his chancellorship he has waded happily into the big issues - animal rights, access and university funding. Higher education badly needs some high-profile spokesmen. Oxford has a new vice-chancellor, John Hood, an outstanding manager, who is busy trying to transform the university into a solvent and well-run institution. But he is quiet and unassuming. Patten will provide the political cover for Hood's reforms and ensure that Oxford becomes a leader in higher education policy.

In Hong Kong, the universities were being expanded as the island moved from a low to a hi-tech economy. The cleverest graduates were needed to improve the skills base. But the governor became convinced that this was not enough of a rationale for higher education.

"There is an economic argument but it is sometimes exaggerated," he says. "Universities are an important part of a plural liberal society. We should stress the role of universities in producing an educated, informed and conscientious citizenry. We should be more prepared to argue the case for research driven by curiosity, not just by economics."

Such talk is almost heretical today. The Blair government, as much as Thatcher's in the 1980s, has been at pains to emphasise the economic purpose behind higher education: it makes individuals richer and it makes the nation richer.

Patten is given to quoting Plato on the subject. When a pupil asked him the worth of what he was about to learn, Plato declared "Give him a coin and send him away". Patten would clearly like to do the same to Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Like Plato, neither the politicians nor the universities should be shy of talking about the public good in higher education, Patten believes.

"It is sad that the liberal argument for universities has largely gone by the board," he says. "It is sad that, on the whole, universities have not taken a more active role in arguing their case and dominating the debate on the future of higher education."

He attributes some of that to the feebleness of spokesmen who think that the only way to persuade the Government to cough up money is to talk about the economic benefit of universities. But the fact is that there is no direct relationship between investment in higher education and subsequent GDP growth.

A product of a Catholic direct grant school (Patten attended St Benedict's in Ealing), he believes that universities have to do more to attract disadvantaged students. To that extent he agrees with the Government. But he believes that Oxford and Newcastle are doing all they can.

"In Newcastle all too few kids stay on at school," he says. "There is a poverty of ambition. How can the universities make up for that? They don't need to be bullied and pushed by government or Whitehall agencies. We all know that the Office for Fair Access was set up to persuade Labour MPs to support top-up fees. I am in favour of doing as much as possible to expand access but I am not in favour of it if it means sacrificing standards."

In particular, Patten takes exception to the new benchmarks on access which mean that Oxford and other leading universities have to meet much higher targets for the number of students they take from disadvantaged communities. "I think that the benchmarks are pretty absurd and rather insulting to universities that are doing a huge amount," he says.

Oxford's new chancellor chooses his words carefully, but says what he thinks and speaks with passion. Tony Blair could find himself with a new thorn in his side. Top-up fees should have been set higher, says Patten, at around £5,000 rather than £3,000, although in a liberal society you should really leave it to the universities.

When he is not arguing on behalf of higher education, this most liberal of Conservatives is writing books. His current work is on the relationship between Britain, Europe and America, and will be published by Penguin in the autumn. He has just finished a 3,000-word chunk on Blair and Iraq. His next book will be on the limits of national sovereignty and the extent to which nation states have to co-operate to solve today's problems.

I am conscious that Patten wants to get back to his writing. His dog wanders in for a pat. His wife, Lavender, reminds him that they have a date that night to see the latest Chinese art movie, 2046. Oxford dons should be counting their blessings. They have a chancellor who knows much about a lot of things, who will charm them and give them good publicity. What more could they want?

l.hodges@independent.co.uk