Sir Robert Chote appointed next President of Trinity College

Trinity College Oxford has announced that Sir Robert Chote will be its next President. He will take up the position on 1 September 2025, succeeding Dame Hilary Boulding, who has held the role since August 2017 and will complete her term of office at the end of August 2025.

Sir Robert Chote

'I look forward enormously to working with Fellows, staff, students and alumni to ensure that we continue to thrive and develop as a centre of academic excellence, a supportive, vibrant and inclusive community, and a valued contributor to public life.’

Trinity’s Vice President, Professor Stephen Fisher, said, ‘After consulting with students, staff, and academics across the College, Trinity’s Governing Body set out to recruit a successor President who would enhance our friendly environment that fosters achievement across the breadth of academic activity of the College, including learning, teaching, research, and engagement with the wider world.

‘We are thrilled Sir Robert has agreed to serve as Trinity’s next President. He has an extraordinary record of achievement in various roles in public life drawing on the fruits of academic research. From economics journalism at the FT, through leading both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Office for Budget Responsibility, to chairing the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Robert has sought to work in and with organisations that are values-led and seek to serve the public good.’

I share the College’s commitment to being forward-thinking and encouraging its community to use its talents to make a positive contribution to the world

Sir Robert Chote

The College is extremely grateful to Dame Hilary Boulding, who not only deftly steered the College through the challenge of the Covid pandemic, but under whose leadership the College has substantially enhanced its activities in numerous areas including graduate student funding, student wellbeing, on-course academic support, access and outreach, public events, and with a substantial development of the College estate, especially in the Levine Building.

Dame Hilary Boulding said: ‘It has been the most extraordinary privilege to serve as Trinity’s President. I’m delighted to add my warm welcome to Sir Robert as the College’s next President. He joins a distinctive and stimulating community that combines a keen sense of its academic purpose with its desire to make a lasting and beneficial contribution to society. I wish Sir Robert success and personal fulfilment in equal measure as he leads the College through the next chapter of its development.’

Distinguished career

Sir Robert Chote is a leading economist with a distinguished career, most notably informing and scrutinising fiscal policy. He has been Chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) since 2022 and of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council (NIFC) since 2021. UKSA is an independent public body charged with promoting and safeguarding the production and proper use of official statistics. The NIFC is an independent public body created to bring greater transparency and scrutiny to the public finances of NI.

He has an extraordinary record of achievement in various roles in public life drawing on the fruits of academic research

Trinity’s Vice President, Professor Stephen Fisher

Previously, Sir Robert chaired the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s fiscal watchdog, from 2010 to 2020, and the OECD’s network of independent fiscal institutions from 2017 to 2020. Before that he served as the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, as an advisor to senior management at the International Monetary Fund, as the Economics Editor of the Financial Times, and as an economics and business writer on the Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Sir Robert studied economics at Queens’ College, Cambridge (where he is now an Honorary Fellow), journalism at City University of London and public policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC. He has honorary doctorates from the University of York and City University of London and was knighted in 2021 for services to fiscal policy and the economy. He is married to Dame Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.