University

04 Oct 11

Research was the theme of this year's Vice-Chancellor’s Oration, delivered by Professor Andrew Hamilton today (4 October 2011).

Speaking in the Divinity School in the Bodleian Library, Professor Hamilton warned that the health of the UK research base is at risk from cuts to government funding of higher education.

He said: ‘It is dispiriting to say the least to learn that the share of GDP the UK spends on higher education has fallen to 1.2 per cent, thereby pushing it still further down the OECD index, and further behind the international average. And this is while public expenditure on universities elsewhere is expanding. When other governments are ramping up investment in higher education, particularly for research, treading water will not be enough.

‘The international trend is clear. China has a project to make two universities – Tsinghua and Beida - among the best in the world, and is investing over $280 million per institution per year in pursuit of that goal. In all, China is aiming to create more than 100 leading universities in the course of the century. The observation that the Chinese are starting from a much lower base than in the UK, may be true but scarcely does justice to the scale of the challenges that are looming.’

The Vice-Chancellor praised the excellence and diversity of research in Oxford and stressed that the fruits of knowledge can be unpredictable, citing the example of Sir Thomas Bodley who built up collections in languages such as Chinese and Arabic at a time when no-one in Oxford could read them. These collections are now celebrated as vital resources for international scholarship.

‘Wherever you look across the University, the range and quality of research at Oxford is truly remarkable,’ Professor Hamilton said. ‘I know this personally from my discussions with colleagues both in the Chemistry Department and across the University, but it is objectively clear from Oxford’s consistently excellent performance in the Research Assessment Exercise – the predecessor of the REF. It is also reflected in the fact that Oxford’s external research income comfortably exceeds that of any other UK university.’

Professor Hamilton also stressed the importance of postgraduate students in contributing to the quality of teaching and research at Oxford, and to the political and economic condition of the UK as a whole. He said: ‘The health of the UK’s research base depends critically on the supply of talented graduates. Research students in particular are the engine of groundbreaking experimentation, and just as they are drawn to working here with leading academics, so too are we able to recruit the best academics because of the quality of Oxford’s research students. In addition, and no less valuably, they enhance the intellectual life of the collegiate University, and they provide a considerable proportion of the next generation of academic leadership both in the UK and internationally.’

The Vice-Chancellor urged that graduate students should not be ignored in the debate about higher education funding. He pointed out that graduate students make up more than 40% of the student body at Oxford and only just over one in two doctoral students are on full scholarships, whereas a growing number of US universities provide five-year funding packages for almost all doctoral students. This ‘relates directly to the continuing UK debate about equality of opportunity and enhanced social mobility,’ he said. ‘If part of the point and benefit of higher education is to enhance individual life and career prospects, then major funding barriers to the kind of study that can do a great deal to enhance those prospects is hardly equitable, or likely to promote the social mobility that is such an important part of the current higher education debate.’

The Vice-Chancellor also said that Oxford University is making every effort to provide for graduate students. Increasing support for graduate scholarships is a major priority of the Oxford Thinking fundraising campaign and this year is the tenth anniversary of the Clarendon Scholarships scheme for graduates, one of several flagship scholarship schemes at Oxford, alongside Rhodes Scholarships, Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme and others.