Bake Off and QI star Sandi Toksvig and anti-Brexit firebrand Gina Miller are on the shortlist to be the next chancellor of Cambridge University.
Both are hoping to become the first woman to hold the ceremonial position in its 800-year history.
But fellow candidate Wyn Evans, an astrophysics professor at the university, warned they may lower the tone at the highbrow institution.
'If Cambridge needs a high-profile or celebrity chancellor to be noticed, we might as well give up and rebrand the university as a reality TV show - Keeping Up with the Cantabrigians,' he said.
Ms Toksvig, 67, who studied law, archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge, questioned whether it was 'time for a change'.
