Students: 'remove Duke as chancellor'

Students at one of Britain's oldest universities have launched a bid to have the Duke of Edinburgh removed as their chancellor.

About 800 members of the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) backed a motion that "HRH Prince Philip is not a suitable figurehead or representative of the University. The role of chancellor might as well be filled by a piece of root ginger".

The move came in a week when the Queen and the Duke made a high profile visit to the Scottish capital to attend Monday's Royal Variety Performance.

The Duke has held the position for more than 50 years and university rules state he will do so for life.

But at an annual general meeting, EUSA, an amalgamation of the students' union and the Students' Representative Council, were given a mandate to lobby for the University to request the Duke's resignation.

EUSA president Will Garton will also write to the Duke to ask him to relinquish his post.

Jeremy Kemp, 22, proposed the motion and has welcomed the result. "I am very happy but there is still a lot of work to do," he said. "It is still possible for the university and Philip to ignore the will of 20,000 students. But I am fairly optimistic he will take heed and we can change the constitution and allow for elections."

But he cautioned: "Cambridge passed a similar motion in 1999 but Philip ignored the will of the students. "He has a hobby of collecting chancellorships even though he himself is not a graduate."

The university expressed regret over the outcome of the student vote but said it would have "no bearing" on the Duke's position.

University secretary Melvyn Cornish said: "This vote represents much less than 5% of the total student population of the university so I am rather doubtful that it reflects the general feeling on campus. What we do know is that the vote has no bearing on the constitutional position. The Duke of Edinburgh remains the university's Chancellor. He works extensively as an ambassador for the university, raising our profile on various public occasions."

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