Surrounded by an ever-vigilant posse of armed secret service agents, William Jefferson Clinton returned to his beloved Oxford yesterday.

More than 30 years ago, the man who would be president enjoyed an anonymous life during his two years as a Rhodes Scholar studying politics at University College.

He dined with locals at the market hall, played rugby, enjoyed long walks around the city and honed his jazz-playing skills.

Mr Clinton swapped Oxford - where he admits failing to set academia alight, but denied inhaling cannabis and dodging the Vietnam draft - for the Ivy League in 1970. Yesterday he was back in the city to open the £13m Rothermere American Institute, next to Rhodes House, which is dedicated to the study of the United States.

After flying in to RAF Brize Norton from Northern Ireland, he travelled to the Randolph Hotel with his daughter Chelsea.

On the way to the institute, he chatted to passers-by before the pair were driven to University College. Chelsea is reported to be considering a place at Oxford, and her visit to University College as well as Oriel and Mansfield colleges did little to subdue the rumours. The pair and their entourage, made up of secret service agents with guns hidden under their jackets, then walked to the institute, off South Parks Road. On the way, Mr Clinton took time to chat to onlookers.

Aaron Pond, who is studying psychology and philosophy at Wadham College, said: "What strikes me is that there are scores of police and he's not even the President any more so I wonder what it must have been like when he was."

Nursery nurse Anthea Edwards, 58, of Banbury Road, Oxford, took the day off to see the former president.

She said: "I saw him when he came to Oxford in 1994 and I think he did a lot for his country - even though he was a naughty boy at times."

One student barracked Mr Clinton for "killing thousands of Iraqi people" while in power. He responded by wagging his finger and pointing out that Saddam Hussein "spent millions on a palace instead of his own people." At the institute, he gave a speech to dignitaries and the international media.

After surviving a minor stumble as he made his way to the podium, he said: "I was asked to give a serious talk and when Chelsea and I arrived this morning it was an Oxford morning - foggy and cloudy.

"But then the sun came out and it was a spring day in Oxford and I shook hands with all the young people."

This, he said, made it "almost impossible" to be serious - but he then delivered a lengthy speech on subjects such as AIDS, world debt, terrorism and the need for countries to work together. The string snapped when he tried to unveil a plaque to mark the opening but the president was left smiling after a comment of an old friend.

Institute director, Professor Alan Ryan, reminded Mr Clinton of the time he failed to attend an Oxford tutorial. "It didn't do your career any harm though," he said.