07 Oct 08

Dr John Hood, Vice-Chancellor

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University has said in his annual Oration that whilst the University must continue to press its case for ongoing public funding, such funding ‘will never, and has never, been adequate to support the extraordinary aspirations of our colleagues’.

Warning that the current financial crisis will have ‘far-reaching political and policy consequences’ affecting the University, Dr John Hood said that ‘the institutional independence and academic freedom we rightly value above all else do require of us, as they did of our predecessors, the will and energy to build up the levels of our endowments and of our philanthropic support. We would do well, I think, eventually to build them up to the point where our collective aspirations can no longer be compromised by external cyclical vagaries, whether those be political or economic in their character.’

He reiterated his view, expressed in last year’s Oration, that in the quest for adequate financial support the University ‘..cannot allow funding to dictate the terms of what we do, or how we do it. An academic agenda shaped by dollar, pound or euro signs would be an appalling betrayal of all we hold so precious’. The priorities of the Campaign for the University of Oxford, which was launched in May and which is already more than half way towards its £1.25bn target, match the academic priorities of the collegiate university, he noted.

The Vice-Chancellor also drew attention to the decision to reduce or phase out funding for three major international graduate scholarship schemes, the Overseas Research Students (ORS) Scheme and the Commonwealth and the Chevening Scholarship Schemes. ‘At a time when the funding of research in the universities of this country has never been stronger, and global relationships more important’, he said such decisions appeared ‘benighted’.

The Vice-Chancellor reflected on the accomplishments of academics and students this year, congratulating colleagues who had received awards from scholarly and other bodies around the world, including Sir Roger Penrose, who was awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for his contributions to geometry and mathematical physics, and Dr Helen Small, who won the 2008 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism and the British Academy’s Rose Mary Crawshay Prize.

Research revenues have continued to grow, reaching around £300 million, a rise of 20 per cent year on the previous year. The value of new research contracts now stands at just under £390 million. Growth has been across the disciplines, and the largest increase has been in the humanities. The proportion of internationally sourced funding has been rising and now stands at 18 per cent, around a third of which comes from the EU.

The year has also seen considerable progress in the development of the University’s estate, including the beginning of demolition work in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the completion of the new cancer research building on the Churchill Hospital campus, the opening of the new supercomputing facility at Begbroke, and the commencement of work on a new building for Earth Sciences. Construction has also begun on the second phase of the Saïd Business School.

Dr Hood highlighted the University’s commitment to sustainability in estates and related activity and to reducing its carbon footprint. Latest technologies, such as ground-source heat-pumps, generators that run on bio-diesel from food waste, sheep’s wool insulation, photovoltaic cells, solar thermal panels, rainwater harvesting systems and green roofs, are being incorporated into the design of new buildings and the refurbishments of old. He also announced that a carbon offsetting scheme for international travel and a new University waste contract to encourage recycling will both begin this year. Individual energy usage plans are also being developed for each of the University’s buildings.

Concluding his Oration, the Vice-Chancellor wished colleagues a productive and successful year and thanked them ‘for their many and varied contributions to the vibrant life and success of this remarkable University during the past year’.