The Vice-Chancellor's foreword

In September, 750 alumni and their guests joined us for the fi rst Collegiate University reunion weekend. Inevitably, much of the conversation centred on their years at Oxford, and the talks, tours, demonstrations and dinners meant an opportunity to revisit a very special time in their lives. But they were also given the opportunity to engage with some of the urgent issues facing us in the twenty-first century: Lord May spoke on Oxford’s contribution to solving the world’s energy problems, and John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, gave the 2007 Oxford University Society Lecture on global health. The mix of reflection and focus on the future that our alumni enjoyed mirrors the twin tasks of this Annual Review: celebrating our achievements, but also examining how we are facing the challenges ahead.

So in one year we celebrate the pioneering contribution to the debate on global climate change made by the University’s Environmental Change Institute, and we welcome the first cohort of Weidenfeld scholars coming to Oxford from Eastern Europe, Russia, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

In research we are able to report striking success. Research rev-enues, as last year, grew by 16 per cent and now stand at around £250 million. New research contracts valued at £387 million were signed in the same period, an increase of 45 per cent on the year before. Throughout the year, new research centres have been estab-lished. In this Annual Review we focus on three of them: the new BT Centre for Major Programme Management, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance. Taken together, they demonstrate both the global reach of the work we do and how we are adapting to meet the demands of an ever-changing world.

While a great deal changes, the University also takes strength from continuity, and from its history, collegiate structure and institutional values. We reflect here on the continued endeavour of our colleagues in a wide range of academic and research fields. We report on our role in the UK Biobank Project, one of the big-gest prospective epidemiological research studies ever undertaken; on the continuing excellence of our work on cancer; on the work of our Cameron Mackintosh Professors in contemporary theatre; and on the extensive programme of educational outreach projects undertaken by our museums’ outreach officers.

Hence there is plenty of change and plenty of continuity. This is a great University that is flourishing thanks to the individual and collective contributions of its staff and students and the growing engagement of its old members and friends. I hope that you will be inspired by the insight that this Annual Review affords.