Indian government helps fund centre for sustainable development at Oxford University college
7 December 2012
The Government of India has provided around £3m in funding to help launch a UK-based centre on sustainable development named after Indira Gandhi and based at her alma mater, Somerville College, Oxford.
Drawing on the research expertise of Oxford University academics to address some of the most pressing issues for India and the world in the 21st century, the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development will strengthen the existing relationship between Oxford University and India, and provide scholarships for Indian postgraduates.
The Indian government’s contribution is matched by a further £5.5m from Somerville College and Oxford University. In total Somerville College is looking to raise £19m. The centre will support India’s future leaders in sustainable development and forge lasting partnerships between Indian institutions of learning and the University of Oxford. Central to the project is interdisciplinary research into areas directly relevant to India’s development in the 21st century, including food security, environmental sustainability and international governance.
The University contribution to the start-up funding is from Oxford’s new Graduate Scholarship Matched Fund, which matches funding provided for postgraduate scholarships on a 60:40 basis (the donor providing 60% and the University 40% of the eventual total).
Ensuring the best postgraduates from India and around the world can study at Oxford regardless of means is a top priority for the University. Five fully-funded scholarships will be available to Indian students studying at the centre, with scholars encouraged to return to India to put their expertise into practice.
In addition, postdoctoral positions and fellowships will be established. The new centre will ultimately be housed in a new building on Oxford University’s Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the heart of the city, adjacent to Somerville College.
A spokesperson for the Government of India said: ‘The Indira Gandhi Centre will be a leading centre for research on environmental issues that were especially dear to Indira Gandhi’s heart and are of vital, and increasing, relevance to India’s, and the world’s, future. It will play a major role in supporting India’s efforts in sustainable development as well as forging lasting partnerships between Indian institutions of learning and the University of Oxford.
‘It is fitting that the centre is being named in honour of Indira Gandhi, one of the most prominent world leaders of the 20th century, who showed unprecedented and pioneering leadership on the issue of sustainable development, far ahead of her time. She did so within India as well as internationally. As the only foreign Head of Government to address the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, Mrs Gandhi brought the development agenda into the mainstream of the environmental discourse. These challenges resonate today more than ever before.’
For more than six centuries, the University of Oxford has treasured its links with India. Building on these strong historic foundations, Oxford is committed to deepening and extending strategic collaborations in India, particularly in areas such as food security, environmental sustainability, international governance and global culture.
Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: ‘Oxford research aims to address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and sustainable development is vital to India and to the world. We are proud to count Indira Gandhi among our alumni, and proud of our longstanding relationship with India. The new centre and the generous support from the Indian government are the latest testament to that relationship and its development in this century.’
The centre was formally launched today in New Delhi. Speaking at the launch, Dr Alice Prochaska, Principal of Somerville College, said: ‘Somerville College is extremely proud to have contributed to the education of Indira Gandhi, the first female Prime Minister of India and one of the most important statespeople of the 20th century. This new Centre for Sustainable Development will honour Indira Gandhi’s legacy to the world by addressing key issues of global significance.'
The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development is expected to be fully established in time for the centenary celebrations of Mrs Gandhi’s birth on 19 November 1917.
For more information, contact Amy Crosweller (press@some.ox.ac.uk or +44 1865 270685)
Notes to Editors
*Indira Gandhi, the third Prime Minister of India and the second female head of government in the world, read Modern History at Somerville College, starting in October 1937. Illness obliged her to leave Oxford at the end of her first year, but she was later given an Honorary Fellowship of the College. As Prime Minister of India, she visited Somerville again during her trip to Oxford in 1971 to receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law.
*The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development will focus on three core activities: advancing research, developing talent and facilitating collaboration. The centre will help support the next century of India’s growth by educating, connecting and supporting its future leaders in sustainable development and forging lasting partnerships between Indian institutions of learning and the University of Oxford.
*Somerville College was founded in 1879 and is named after Mary Somerville, one of the best-known women scientists of the nineteenth century. Past students include politicians and policy makers such as Margaret Thatcher and Shirley Williams, as well as scientists Dorothy Hodgkin and Janet Vaughan, and authors Iris Murdoch and Vera Brittain.
*Somerville College’s links with India date back to 1889, with the arrival of Cornelia Sorabji, who was not only Somerville’s first Indian student, but the first Indian woman to study at any British university. Somerville’s founding Principal, Madeleine Shaw Lefevre, was among those active in raising funds to enable her to come to England. Cornelia Sorabji went on to become India’s first female barrister. Since then, Somerville has welcomed many generations of Indian students, most notably Indira Gandhi.
*The University of Oxford has had links with India for more than six centuries. The first recorded Englishman to arrive in India was from Oxford (Father Thomas Stephens from New College, in 1579). His letters lay the foundation of Anglo-Indian literature. The first Oxford professorship relating to India was established in 1832; Indian students first came to Oxford in 1871, when entry opened to non-clergy; and Oxford’s Indian Institute was founded in 1883. More recent milestones include the founding of the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony’s College (1982); the appointment of Oxford’s first Professor of Indian History and Culture (2002); and the first MSc in Contemporary India (2008).
*The University of Oxford has made providing financial support to postgraduates a major priority. In 2010 the University conducted a survey amongst postgraduate applicants who had been offered a place at Oxford but turned the offer down; 75% of the Indian respondents cited lack of funding as the main reason for this.
*The Oxford Graduate Scholarship Matched Fund will aim to raise £100m for new graduate scholarships by July 2017. Each scholarship with be funded 60% from philanthropic donations (up to £60m in total for the fund), with the University committing the remaining 40% (up to a £40m commitment to the fund by the University). All Master's and doctoral (DPhil) courses are eligible for the funding, including full-time and part-time, and 'professional' courses like the BCL, MBA and Master's in Public Policy. The scholarships will cover the full costs of fees and living expenses for postgraduate students and will be awarded based on academic merit. Applicants for postgraduate courses at Oxford will automatically be considered for scholarships through the Matched Fund and will not need to submit a separate application. The first scholars funded by the fund are expected to arrive in 2013-14.
*The world faces an increasing number of threats to natural resources, health and global security. Climate change, water supplies and the provision of enough food for a rapidly increasing global population are all major international concerns. India will play a critical role in averting a global crisis. India’s 1.25 billion people already account for nearly 20% of the world’s population; and with a rapidly growing middle class, the country’s demand for resources will become ever greater over the next 20 years. India still has approximately 500 million people without reliable access to electricity, around 250 million lacking access to safe drinking water and millions of rural poor exposed to rising food prices and changing climate conditions. Although it is increasing, India’s investment in research and development is still relatively small. Building on expertise across all four of the University of Oxford’s academic divisions, the Indira Gandhi Centre will create an opportunity to direct greater research towards more inclusive sustainable growth.