Lord Patten has confirmed that he will be staying on as Chancellor of the University, despite stepping down as BBC Trust Chairman.
He has recently had major heart surgery, and explained in a statement that he was resigning with immediate effect on the advice of his doctors. “I have concluded that I cannot continue to work at the same full pace as I have done to date, and that I should reduce the range of roles I undertake.
“On this basis I have decided with great regret to step down from much the most demanding of my roles – that of Chairman of the BBC Trust.”
A statement from the University stressed that he would continue his unpaid role at Oxford.
A university spokesman said, “We are pleased that Lord Patten intends to continue to serve the University in the role of Chancellor.”
The news comes a week after Patten received criticism in an open letter from the BBC Radio Forum to culture secretary Sajid Javid, claiming that he had been, “distracted from serving licence-payers properly” by his other roles.
The letter added, “He has been a dreadful advertisement for the BBC due to his astonishingly patronising approach to anyone who has ever questioned him on any matter relating to the BBC.”
As well as being Chancellor, Lord Patten, is an adviser to three private firms, including Lockheed Martin, where he is a non-executive director.
Patten has attracted controversy during his time as BBC Trust Chairman. He had been at the BBC for a year when it was revealed that a Newsnight investigation into sex abuse by Jimmy Savile was cancelled just before broadcast. In the next month, Newsnight incorrectly accused Lord McAlpine of child abuse.
One month later, an audit revealed that in the three years running up to December 2012, the BBC spent £25 million on redundancy payments to high-ranking staff.
On the day of his resignation, Lord Patten pulled out of a planned engagement at the Oxford Union, citing health reasons.
