Oxford University Gazette

Oxford University Development Office Programme

Supplement (1) to Gazette No. 4392

Monday, 26 February 1996

Contents of the supplement:

To Gazette No. 4392 (29 February 1996)

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Introduction

The Development Office's fund-raising programme for the University has been approved by Council, and an outline of it (as at 1 January 1996) is set out below. It may of course be necessary to make changes in the content of the programme from time to time as new needs or opportunities emerge; any proposals for significant changes will be reported to the Committee for the Co-ordination of University and College Fund-raising. The programme is designed

The fund-raising programme [1]

I Core capital projects

In keeping with its three-site strategy, designed to create new cross- disciplinary centres for research and teaching, the University plans to build on the work done during the Campaign by completing all or part of four new centres: the School of Management Studies; the Ashmolean Humanities Centre; the St Cross Site Centre; and the Oxford Institute for American Studies.

The School of Management Studies project requires funding for a wide variety of academic programmes, with academic posts, scholarships, a library, and operational support.

Requirement: £20M. Still to raise: £12M.

The Ashmolean Humanities Centre, part of the University's three-site strategy, will provide library, teaching, exhibition and social space, together with academic posts, for faculties concerned with ancient and modern languages and the material and visual culture of European and Asian civilisations. This involves the faculties of Literae Humaniores, Modern Languages, Modern History and Oriental Studies, and the Ashmolean Museum. The whole project, on a site behind the Ashmolean Museum, will cost some £32 million but is being planned in stages.

Requirement for Phase I: £12M. Still to raise: £5M.

The St Cross Site Centre, another part of the three-site strategy, will be built on land adjacent to the existing St Cross Building and will provide a state-of-the art library, teaching rooms and dedicated facilities for postgraduate students. It will bring together members of the Social Studies, English, and Law faculties. It is planned to use the £6.9 million already raised for the construction of Phase I of the Centre, providing facilities for the Institute of Economics and Statistics and the Economics Sub-faculty, and, by using space thereby released, making additional provision for English and Law. Subsequent phases of this project, costing a further sum of the order of £17 million, while still on the long-term agenda of the Development Office, currently take lower priority than other activities.

The Oxford Institute for American Studies will bring together academics in the faculties of History and Social Studies in the study of the trans-Atlantic history, politics, government, and foreign affairs of the United States and the colonial territories that preceded it. Visiting staff will include leading Americans in public life as well as international scholars. Housed in a newly- designed building between Rhodes House and Mansfield College, it will include library, teaching, and research facilities.

Requirement: £12.5M. Still to raise: £7.2M.

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II Other academic projects

The University is committed to the completion of various major projects begun during the Campaign. First, it has commitments as part of the on-going Europaeum programme, which fosters links with its European partner institutions (the Universities of Leiden, Bologna, and Bonn, and the Geneva Graduate Institute for International Studies). In particular, it is seeking funding for key posts within the Centre for European Politics, Economics, and Society. In addition there are on-going commitments to the Environmental Change Unit's programmes, to the Socio-Legal Studies Programme, to the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) and to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (a biomedical programme).

The requirements are: 

European Studies:             £1.5M  
Environmental Change Unit:    £7.0M  
Socio-Legal Studies:          £4.0M  
OPTIMA                        £4.0M  
Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre:  £0.8M

III Bodleian Library and Cairns (Medical) Library

The Bodleian Library urgently needs support in raising some £500K a year (capitalised at, say, £10 million) for recurrent costs. The Development Office and the Bodleian now share a senior development officer who is responsible to the Director of the Development Office but works in the Bodleian with the Librarian. The availability of the St Cross Site Centre will in due course relieve pressure on the Bodleian by providing space for some material at present held by the Bodleian centrally.

The Cairns Library on the John Radcliffe site requires £1.1M to complete its refurbishment.

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IV New Projects

The General Board has identified a variety of future objectives for the development programme. It has given highest priority to the setting up of a student scholarship or bursary fund in support of needy postgraduate students, in a wide range of subject areas.

Requirement: £10M. Still to raise: £3M.

In addition, the General Board has approved a variety of projects in three categories: eight academic posts; six research programmes; and three buildings. For the time being no resources can be made available for active attention to these needs. What the Development Office plans to do is to write up each project in a form that the Office can use for briefing volunteers and prospects. Where suitable prospects are located, and where there is active support from academics working in the relevant fields, the Development Office will endeavour to take the projects forward.

V Provision of additional non-academic facilities

There is a commitment to provide a University Sports programme (all-weather hockey pitch, and a University swimming pool).

Requirements:
Hockey pitch: £0.3M. Still to raise: £0.13M.
Swimming pool: £2.1M [2] Still to raise: £1.2M.

The Development Office is also providing some support to the Careers Service.

VI Unrestricted income for the University and colleges

The requirement of the University and colleges is to raise relatively unrestricted income through mailings and legacies. The University can most usefully pursue this in conjunction with colleges.

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Targets and Resources

The total requirements quantified under I to V above amount to £57 million, [3] excluding the later stages of the Ashmolean and St Cross Site developments (totalling some £37 million). In addition there are the unquantified proposals cleared by the General Board (see third paragraph under IV above), and the need, also unquantified, for unrestricted income (under VI).

Development Office resources currently amount to an annual budget (1995–6) of £2.23 million, and include a total staff of forty-seven (thirty-one in Oxford, thirteen in New York, two in Tokyo, and one part-time in Seoul).

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Footnotes

[1] The cost figures given are current estimates. The figures for funds received to date, and likewise those for needs still outstanding, are as at 1 January 1996, and obviously will need adjustment as further funding is secured. Any significant changes in the figures will be reported.

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[2] The cost of the swimming pool has not yet been finally agreed but is currently estimated at between £2.1M and £3M. For the purposes of this paper the lower figure has been used.

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[3] Including £10M as the capitalised value of the recurrent funding required for the Bodleian Library.

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