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Dame Elish Angiolini elected next Principal of St Hugh’s

20 February 2012

St Hugh’s College, Oxford is delighted to announce that its next Principal will be the Right Hon Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC. She will take up the post in September 2012.

Dame Elish is the former Lord Advocate of Scotland – the highest law officer in the Scottish legal system. Prior to this she was Solicitor General for Scotland. She was the first woman, and the first solicitor in the modern era, to hold either position.

Dame Elish will take over the role of Principal from Mr Andrew Dilnot CBE, who is to become the next Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford. Andrew Dilnot said: ‘I am delighted that the College has elected such an outstanding figure as Dame Elish as its next Principal. Her pioneering achievements will be an inspiration to people both within and outside the College, and I very much look forward to welcoming her to Oxford.’

Dr John Iles, the College’s Senior Fellow, who chaired the election process, said: ‘Amongst a very strong field of candidates, Elish Angiolini stood out for her combination of leadership qualities and passion for the academic vision of the College. We believe that she is just the person further to develop St Hugh’s as Principal after the exceptionally successful tenure of Andrew Dilnot.’

Dame Elish said of her new role: ‘Founded to give an excellent education to women who were otherwise excluded from Oxford, and now providing a focus for learning and scholarship for women and men from all backgrounds, St Hugh’s College has an inspiring history and an exciting future. I am eagerly anticipating joining the College and aim both to support and celebrate its important work.’

Born in Govan, Glasgow, Dame Elish Angiolini attended Notre Dame High School for Girls and studied Law at Strathclyde University. As Solicitor General for Scotland (2001–6) and then as Lord Advocate (2006–11), she was instrumental in reforming the operation of the justice system in Scotland, in particular making it more responsive to the victims of crime. In addition, she supervised some of the most significant prosecutions in Scotland in the last decade, and acted as the Scottish Government’s legal advisor during a period of major change. Unusually, she held the post without political affiliation and was reappointed as Lord Advocate by the incoming SNP government in 2007. She is renowned for her championing of equality and dignity in the justice system.

She stepped down from her post as Lord Advocate in May 2011, and is currently chairing a Commission of Inquiry on Women Offenders in Scotland, as well as practising as an advocate at the Scottish Bar. She was awarded the DBE for services to the administration of justice in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2011. In the same year, she was granted a Special Achievement Award by the International Association of Prosecutors. She is now a visiting professor at Strathclyde, an honorary professor at Aberdeen University and holds honorary degrees from the universities of Glasgow Caledonian, Strathclyde and Aberdeen. She is also a QC and Privy Counsellor.

For more information, please contact the Press Office, Oxford University, on 01865 280 528 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

St Hugh’s College was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth and is one of the constituent Colleges of the University of Oxford. It was named after St Hugh of Lincoln, the powerful twelfth-century bishop whose swan emblem has become the College’s own. Originally a women’s college, St Hugh’s went mixed in the 1980s. It is one of the largest colleges in Oxford with a diverse student body at undergraduate and graduate level.

St Hugh’s has a history of educating politically active, pioneering women. Notable alumnae in this field include women’s suffrage activist Emily Wilding Davison; Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle; Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; and Theresa May, the current Home Secretary. Equally, the College has fostered the careers of many distinguished scholars, professionals and creative thinkers in numerous fields. The new Principal will be the ninth to hold this position in the college’s 125-year history. Previous incumbents include the archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon (Principal 1962–73), and barrister Derek Wood CBE QC (Principal 1991–2002).

Current Principal Andrew Dilnot CBE is a distinguished economist and broadcaster, whose previous role was as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

For more information, see http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/