A controversial plan to modernize the governance of the University of Oxford by shrinking its board and including more outsiders has been voted down by members of the university community.

The reform plan was championed by the 800-year-old university’s vice chancellor, John Hood. Among other things, Mr. Hood proposed replacing the current 26-member governing council, which includes four outsiders, with a 15-seat board. Eight of the seats would go to people from outside the university.

A vote that followed a debate on the plan in the university’s Sheldonian Theatre last month did not bode well for Mr. Hood. Now, in a second round of voting that was open to the nearly 4,000 members of the university Congregation, which includes lecturers, librarians, porters, and administrators, the reform plan has attracted 997 supporters and 1,540 opponents, according to The Daily Telegraph. Mr. Hood said in a statement that the opposition to the plan, “twice expressed, deserves to be respected.”