No nonsense

The University of Cambridge's internal standards watchdog, the board of scrutiny, has highlighted a flaw in Cambridge's online consultation on reforming its ancient governance structures.

The proposals include controversial plans to empower the vice-chancellor - hitherto a mere civil servant to the university's self-governing community of scholars - as a chief executive.

In its response to the consultation, the board of scrutiny pointed out that the electronic questionnaire was not flexible enough to accommodate the answers it wanted to give. The board took issue with the question: should the vice-chancellor be the principal academic administrative officer of the university? It noted: "A no answer is, superficially at least, a nonsense... However, a yes answer might be interpreted as indicating support (for the plans to enhance the vice-chancellor's powers)."