University

06 Oct 09

Dame Vivien Duffield has given a gift of £5.1m to the Campaign.

Dr John Hood announced today in his departing Vice-Chancellor’s Oration that The Campaign for the University of Oxford has raised a total of £770 million to date.

He also announced a £5.1m gift by the Chair of the Campaign, Dame Vivien Duffield.

The announcement of Dame Vivien's gift coincides with the changeover of Vice-Chancellors at Oxford (image below left).

Dr Hood said in his Oration: 'Owing to the remarkable generosity of our donors, well over £120 million was raised during the year, bringing the Campaign for Oxford total, raised during the past five years, to the impressive sum of £770 million. The total was most recently augmented by a generous gift of £5 million from the Campaign Chair, Dame Vivien Duffield.

'I thank warmly all who have supported the Campaign in the past year, and all of those volunteers and colleagues who have worked to ensure its continuing success. £770 million is a remarkable achievement in so short a time.'

Putting the Campaign in a wider context during his reflections on the progress of the University during his five-year tenure, he said: 'I will remember those years overwhelmingly as a period when colleagues worked together to advance Oxford’s core research and teaching mission, with singular success.

'External research income has doubled. Our research and scholarship activity has expanded excitingly. Oxford recorded the best RAE outcome and settlement in the UK. The Campaign has raised £770 million and has strong momentum. We have maintained our world-class tutorial teaching. Our portfolio of postgraduate programmes has been significantly expanded. We have radically improved our administration and financial management. We have reinvested wisely in our physical infrastructure, and laid comprehensive plans for the future. More people than ever before want to study here: undergraduate applications are up 24 per cent and postgraduate over 80 per cent. Our admissions processes have been substantially enhanced.

'We should take considerable collective pride in what we have accomplished.'

The £5.1 million from the Chair of the Campaign, Dame Vivien Duffield, will be divided between Lady Margaret Hall, graduate scholarships in the Humanities, the Oxford Institute of Ageing, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, and the Ashmolean Museum.

In thanking Dame Vivien and the Clore Duffield Foundation, Dr Hood said: 'This generous and wide-ranging gift brings us to a significant milestone in our fundraising. It is a testament to the vision and leadership that Dame Vivien brings to the Campaign.'

Dame Vivien Duffield said: 'I am delighted to be supporting Oxford across the range of its needs: new buildings, old buildings, students, collections, research, and my college. Having been an undergraduate here I am proud to be giving back to the University in this way, for the benefit of future generations of undergraduates and graduate students, and the wider Oxford community. The day a new Vice-Chancellor is installed is a perfect time to reflect on the aims of the Campaign and renew our commitment to preserving the best of Oxford for future generations.'

Generous and wide-ranging gift
The range and diversity of the gift will benefit a wide cross-section of the Oxford community, both academic and cultural, and demonstrates the inclusive and collaborative nature of Oxford’s Campaign.

Professor Andrew Hamilton, the incoming Vice-Chancellor, said: 'As an incoming Vice-Chancellor I am delighted and impressed by the fantastic momentum that I see behind the Campaign, and that this gift illustrates. We thank Dame Vivien enormously for her generous donation and for her ongoing commitment to Oxford and the Campaign.'

The Clore Duffield Foundation donation of £5.1m will fund five aspects of the Campaign:

• Lady Margaret Hall: £1.75m
  Donation to support the creation of the new Graduate Centre. This will be named the Clore Graduate Centre in honour of the gift.
• Graduate scholarships in the Humanities: £1.5m
  Endowment funding for three Clore Scholarships.
• The Oxford Institute of Ageing, within the James Martin 21st Century School: £1m
  A gift to support the Institute’s research programme, which will be submitted for matching 1:1 by the James Martin Challenge Fund.
• University Church of St Mary the Virgin: £600,000
  There will also be a gift of £600,000 jointly to the University and the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin (the University Church) to support the building which housed the Convocation and Congregation houses of the University in the later Middle Ages. Dame Vivien's gift is particularly for the Old Library on the upper floor, which will be renamed the Clore Old Library in honour of the gift.
• The Ashmolean: £250,000
  A capital contribution to the Museum’s redevelopment campaign. The Ashmolean Museum will reopen on 7 November 2009 after a substantial redevelopment which will provide 39 new galleries.

The fundraising campaign
Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford was launched on 28 May 2008 with a goal of a minimum of £1.25 billion and is the largest fundraising campaign in European university history. Since its launch on 28 May 2008, some £195 million has been raised by the Campaign, despite the current economic climate.

Significant gifts to the Campaign include:

• $50m donated by Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman to Christ Church, the largest financial gift in the college’s history, and among the largest ever by an old member to an Oxford college.
• £25 million to the New Bodleian Library by the Garfield Weston Foundation, the largest gift ever made by the Foundation.
• A Strategic Development Fund for the Saïd Business School, with a capital value of £25m, created by Mr Wafic Rida Saïd.
• A James Martin Challenge Fund pledge of $50 million. Dr James Martin will offer to match donations of at least US$1 million and up to a total of US$50 million for gifts made to the 21st Century School between 12 March 2009 and 12 March 2010.
• A benefaction of £2.5m to establish a new Chair in the Study of the Abrahamic Religions.
• £1.75m to Wadham from John and Marcy McCall MacBain, given to fund a new graduate centre.
• £1 million pledged by The Shirley Foundation, established by Dame Stephanie Shirley, to assist with the conversion of the St Cross Church, Holywell into a Historic Collection Centre for Balliol.
• £1 million to Lady Margaret Hall from Neil Simpkins to fund the theatre in the new Undergraduate Building.

The Campaign sees the University and colleges working in collaboration to fund three key priorities, all of which benefit from Dame Vivien’s gifts:

• To attract and support the very best students, irrespective of their financial situation, by providing the bursaries and scholarships for future generations of Oxonians to thrive and succeed when they are at Oxford.
• To invest in academic posts and programmes, securing permanent posts and research funding to attract and retain the world’s finest academics.
• To provide the buildings and infrastructure to support some of the world’s most advanced research and teaching facilities and to preserve the unique spirit of the collegiate University.