Cecil Rhodes protest: Oxford University will not bow to demands for removal of statue of benefactor, says Lord Patten

Students are calling for the removal of the statue at Oriel College on the grounds that he was a racist and imperialist

Cecil Rhodes has been described by some as the founding father of apartheid (David Sandison)

Oxford University’s chancellor has defended the institution’s relationship with Cecil Rhodes, the 19th-century benefactor who endowed the Rhodes scholarship programme.

Lord Patten, the former Conservative Party chairman, said the university’s history was “not a blank page on which we can write our own version of what it should have been according to our contemporary views and prejudices”.

Oxford students are calling for the removal of a statue of Rhodes at Oriel College on the grounds that he was a racist and imperialist.

Speaking at a ceremony to install Professor Louise Richardson as Oxford’s first female vice-chancellor, the former Governor of Hong Kong added: “We should not be harried into ill-considered actions… actions moreover which may cast doubt on the ability of some who study here to gain a place at this university on their own merits.”

Professor Richardson said that one of Oxford’s biggest challenges was in identifying and attracting talented scholars.