Activist Tony Booth becomes fifth candidate for role of Chancellor at the University of Cambridge

Prof Tony Booth, the academic and activist, has put himself forward for the role of Chancellor of University of Cambridge University.

If the bid is successful he would become the 109th Chancellor in the university's history. The role, largely ceremonial, is currently held by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who was elected in October 2011 in succession to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who stepped down from the chancellorship in his 90th year, having served since election in 1976.

Lord Sainsbury’s last day in the post is 24 June.

Prof Booth, a former research fellow at the Centre for Commonwealth Education, is the fifth candidate to stand. Also in the running are Lord Browne, the former CEO of BP, Gina Miller, the business owner and political campaigner and only female candidate to declare so far, Prof Wyn Evans, a Cambridge astrophysicist, and Mohamed El-Erian, the president of Queens’ College.

The role is largely pastoral, formal and administrative rather executive. In applying for the position, Prof Booth, a Cambridge resident for 50 years, says that his appointment “would not represent business as usual”.

He adds: “I care deeply about this great university, the education of its students, the wellbeing of all its staff, and the city in which it is located.”

He calls for a “reverse Manhattan project” to restore nature to the city and the region. The project – “to restore nature, including the iconic River Cam, not destroy it” – would be driven by the “exceptionally productive thought” at the university. His credo is a reaffirmation of the fundamental right to freedom of expression – a goal shared by former BP CEO Lord Browne, though perhaps with a different emphasis – and a “new partnership with Cambridge citizens”.

The other challengers have also set out their stalls – Gina Miller as a campaigner for justice, Lord Browne as the protector of intellectual freedom, Prof Evans as a terminator of the university “oligarchy” to become a “self-governing community of scholars”, and Mohamed El-Erian as the man who can strengthen the university’s under-challenge finances by importing a philanthropic model from the US.

The deadline to register is 2 May. Candidates need 50 signatures before being accepted on to the polling card.

Voters in the election will be members of the Senate. The Senate comprises all holders of any master’s or doctoral degree of the university, or the degree of bachelor of divinity of the university, in addition to the current membership of the Regent House.

Online voting starts 9 July, with the first day of in-person voting in the Senate House on 12 July, and the second and final day on 16 July. Online voting then closes, with the result of the vote expected to be announced in week commencing 21 July.