Ready to run

With a significant proportion of students actively thinking about standing for public office, I wanted to create a space for that thinking to happen.

With a constantly evolving political landscape, Calum Miller, Senior Fellow of Practice in Public Management, saw an opportunity to create a place which was specifically and practically tailored to helping students who hope to stand for election.

Calum himself has spent his career working in and around politics. Prior to joining the Blavatnik School in 2012, he was a senior civil servant in the UK for 13 years, serving as Principal Private Secretary to the Cabinet Secretary, Head of the UK Civil Service and to the Deputy Prime Minister. For the last four years, he has served as a Councillor for the Liberal Democrat Party in Oxfordshire. “Whether you work in a political or non-political role around government”, he observes, “it’s absolutely vital to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by politicians.”

He set up the Ready to Run seminar series to support students to make an informed decision about entering public office and to give them a toolkit for campaigning successfully. The teaching is informed by the data and evidence on what works and covers campaign tactics and templates. There is a practical element too – students are encouraged to deploy their knowledge by workshopping and refining a campaign plan with their peers.

The sessions “have to be highly responsive to the changing nature of campaigning around the world”, notes Calum. Students often come from different contexts, with varying rules for processes like selection.

Many of them will also face different biases if they don’t fit into a standard model for politicians in their country. In the face of these barriers, the teaching aims to empower and equip students as much as possible.

Calum is clear-sighted about the fact that financial resources is also a limiting factor for campaigning. He praises the School’s Political Leadership Scholarship, which gives fully funded support to individuals from the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland planning to stand for office. It’s “a wonderful investment in a new generation of talented political leaders”, Calum enthuses. “We desperately need high quality, well-trained, highly-skilled people to go into public office”.

While the Ready to Run series aims to cultivate the skills and experience needed to campaign and take office, Calum is also involved in teaching the Executive Public Leaders Programme, an intensive two-week programme bringing senior public sector leaders to Oxford to learn from outstanding practitioners and one another, in highly interactive discussions, debates and simulations. Current politicians are also encouraged to attend the course. He notes that “having both political and non-political leaders in the classroom unlocks a whole breadth of new solutions and ways of working on both sides”.

Learning from those with different experiences of the campaign trail is something that Calum also wants to bring into the Ready to Run series as it develops. He has plans to platform more expertise from a range of talented alumni who are currently designing and running campaigns that work around the world. By bridging this practical experience with evidence-based learning, he hopes that every student in the classroom will leave with the foundation they need to be ready to run.

The sessions have to be highly responsive to the changing nature of campaigning around the world.