Vice-Chancellor’s Oration 2026

I stand here today proudly wearing my Vice-Chancellor’s gown. Richly embroidered in colourful and gold threads – laurel leaves symbolising the ancient practice of honouring scholars interwoven with college crests alongside the University’s – it really is beautiful. Lest you think I did this – I would not fare well in the Great British Sewing Bee – it was done by the skilful Christ Church Cathedral Embroiderers.

Last week I saw another spectacular embroidery, the Bayeux Tapestry. It was breathtaking. Almost 1,000 years old – perhaps a generation older than us – it unfolds, stitch by stitch, how our identity, our nation, was shaped by events leading up to and including 1066 and all that… The successful stewardship of this human endeavour is as impressive as the stunning tapestry – technically an embroidery– itself.

Identity, belonging, stewardship – challenging issues that many societies and nations are grappling with, as must we. You have to wonder, with 7 prime ministers in the 10 years since the Brexit vote, whether it partly reflects a nation not sure of its identity, governments not sure how to shape it at this point in our history – and so they try a new leader. We wish the new government well, and we, as individuals, and as Oxford University, will of course continue to serve the country, contribute to our collective prosperity and help shape the identity of this United Kingdom.

And as thousands of freshers arrived last week, nervous and excited all at once, we know that Oxford will shape them, as they have done us over the past 900 years: forging a collective identity that is Oxford.

But how do you sum up Oxford’s identity? The word that surfaced repeatedly during research for our fundraising campaign was ‘excellence’. It is what we’re about – unashamedly – it reflects our identity well. So, Oxford Excellence was born. We know what excellence looks like in sport, and we do not criticise that ambition to be, to own, to aspire to excellence, like our lads doing so well in the football World Cup. Surely, it’s the same when you take that drug or vaccine? You want a top-of-the-field scientist or clinician of excellence to be behind it.

Lest you think these are just words of self-congratulation, let me give you just a few facts to back up the Oxford Excellence claim and congratulate and thank my wonderful staff and students who have made it so once again this past year. I am so very proud and grateful to you all.

Making a record-breaking 11 years in succession, Oxford University has been named as the world’s number 1 university for 2027 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the most comprehensive and robust evaluation system, including a record near 3,000 universities from 118 countries. Oxford excelled across all 17 performance metrics. It is the longest time any university has held the position in the 21 annual editions of the rankings. And during 16 years, we remain the only UK university to lead a global ranking.

I cannot express how impressive this is – particularly given the intensifying competition from Asia due to their intentional investment into universities. It’s like winning the World Cup 11 times in succession – I’m not asking for an open-top bus tour in subfusc, but it’s a fantastic result that reflects the strength not just of Oxford but of the entire UK higher education ecosystem in which we reside. UK universities make Oxford strong, and I like to think we make the sector strong. It’s a team sport. And that is something for the UK to be proud of, to celebrate, to identify with as it reflects our collective endeavour as a nation to strive for excellence.

And that strength, that excellence, has real-world relevance to the person on the street: contributing to economic growth, jobs locally and nationally, improved health, saving lives. What would Britain be without the global strength of our university sector – especially our research intensives; it would undoubtedly change the UK’s identity for the worse.

People have long thought of Oxford’s identity as a generator, disseminator and curator of knowledge and ideas, but in our 10^th century, we’re developing more purposefully our identity as an incubator of growth and innovation. We’re really good at not just solving the hardest problems facing society and the planet, but, through that, creating jobs and economic wealth. Our thriving innovation ecosystem where we license or spin-out new companies from our research is another source of excellence and pride for the UK. It deserves to be integral to our identity – as I’ve often said throughout my tenure: impact through innovation.

And we’re good at it too. For 6 consecutive years, Oxford has been named the UK’s leading university for spinout creation. This year, Oxford ranked first in Europe for spinout success and value creation from deep-tech and life-sciences spinouts, as well as Europe’s leading university spinout ecosystem. Investor confidence reflects that success – a total of £1.1bn in external investment this financial year – including £740m in the first half of 2026, meaning that Oxford spinouts raised more than those from any other UK or European university, and more than all of those in Germany combined. In fact, Oxford alone represents 20% of all the investment into spin-outs that has gone into the entirety of Europe. Since 2015, Oxford companies have raised more than £4bn from more than 300 investment groups. And, perhaps most importantly, there are around 10,500 people – that’s real, FTE people – working in those Oxford spinouts. Oxford has always been innovating internally – it’s how you stay globally competitive and make impact. But we’re now externalising this identity.

And we’re not done yet. Through Oxford University Innovation alone we are regularly creating around 20 new companies a year – we could do more with increased capital. And we’re good at picking winners – 11% have reached a successful exit of some sort, and 65% remain active. And 39% of Oxford spinouts now have at least one female founder — almost double the national average.

3 Oxford-born companies – OrganOx, Oxford Ionics and Dark Blue Therapeutics – over the past year alone have been acquired in deals worth more than $3.4bn combined. These successes illustrate the long-term impact of translating world-leading research into practical applications – with thousands of lives saved. They also demonstrate the virtuous cycle of innovation at Oxford: value generated through licensing, investment and company creation can return to the University and its researchers, supporting further research, proof-of-concept funding and the next generation of Oxford innovation. A co-founder of one of those exited spinouts, Professor Constantin Coussios, is my new Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation and I know he will drive this agenda forward at pace and scale. And, for the first time in our history, we have re-invested just over half of our proceeds from innovation to support the next wave – evidence of us putting real resource behind our promises.

It is estimated that over 2 billion people worldwide are using or benefiting from a piece of research that came from Oxford – and I’m not including our discovery of the technology behind the lithium battery used in mobile phones or penicillin. That’s impact. Uncompromising Oxford excellence shaping the UK’s identity.

None of this happens without a strong research base. Another first, another record year. Oxford competitively won over £800m of research income in the last financial year– once again the highest research income of any University in the UK by nearly £200m. Additionally, we continue to attract large‑scale partnerships, such as this year’s £50m partnership with GSK to explore the potential of cancer prevention through vaccination, and a £118m partnership with the Ellison Institute of Technology on applying AI to vaccine development.

And our balance sheet remains robust with strong liquidity and a total net asset value of £6.9bn, representing an 8% year-on-year increase, despite the strong financial headwinds. The University’s investments in the Oxford Endowment Fund are valued at £4.1bn at the last balance sheet date, an increase of £329m year‑on‑year. Its scale and growth are the bedrock for the University’s long‑term research, teaching and stewardship of our built environment, our collections and our people. Let me wholeheartedly extend our collective gratitude and well wishes to Sir Paul Ruddock, Chair for over the past decade, and Sandra Robertson, CEO, for their extraordinary tenures at OUem. Since Sandra became the first Chief Investment Officer in 2007, there has been a growth from £500m to near £7bn – what a legacy of success they have given us.

And that means we have been able to significantly invest in improvements to Property, Plant and Equipment – the other PPE in Oxford: £221 m this past year, stewarding our estate for the benefit of staff and students with more coming under the excellent leadership of my new Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Planning and Resources, Professor Mark E Smith.

However, Oxford is not immune to the wider financial challenges: inflation, energy prices, and subsidising significantly the cost to teach the very high proportion of our undergraduates who are from the UK. I note that more than 1/3 of English higher education providers are currently in deficit. It is time to have that difficult national conversation about how we fund the UK higher education sector. Staying globally competitive is harder each year.

For Oxford, philanthropy so often comes to the rescue – making sure we’re match fit to compete on a global stage. Alumni and non-alumni alike support our Oxford Excellence campaign, launched this year. Oxford cannot benefit the planet or the person on the street without it, so let me here thank each one of you who support us and our mission. It’s essential, it’s impactful and it’s keeping Oxford a great global brand and the UK recognised for excellence.

The Oxford Excellence development campaign, launched this year, is a multi-billion-pound campaign setting out an ambitious vision for the role of philanthropy in shaping Oxford’s contribution to society for generations to come.

This launch comes in yet another record-breaking fundraising year for the collegiate University, with more than £455m in new cash gifts and pledged commitments. That’s 2 record years of fundraising in the past 4 years – and it means we have raised over £1.73bn against our collective target of £4bn. Congratulations and thank you to all those involved across the entire collegiate University for this collective success.

To those out there who want to make impact in the world, join us. You won’t get a better return on investment or legacy. Let me detail one such opportunity: graduate scholarships. If we don’t retain and attract the best graduates in the world by offering them full scholarships, we cannot maintain the pipeline of talent that is the engine room for our research, and all the impact it generates. And although graduate applications have increased by 14% to reach 50,000 applications for just under 7,000 places, signifying continued global attractiveness, we cannot afford to fund more than 1/3, which means we are at risk of losing top talent.

We are rising to meet this challenge. This year, we established several new scholarship schemes: 8 Spärck AI Scholarships, in partnership with the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to support the next generation of AI leaders. 6 Vice-Chancellor’s Sports Scholarships to support 6 outstanding scholar athletes. A new Generative Biology Doctoral Training Programme with EIT aims to recruit 100 students over a 5-year period. We increased by 50% our Academic Futures Scholarship programme that now supports nearly 200 scholars. A fourfold increase in British Heart Foundation-funded doctoral studentships now supports 18 studentships per year. And we have been a University of Sanctuary now for 3 years, and our Colleges of Sanctuary scheme continues to expand with Reuben College joining. This year we have offered 50 full scholarships for graduate students from displacement backgrounds reflecting our values of seeking excellence while providing life-changing opportunities.

Combined with our 700 scholars through the Clarendon Fund we are doing well, but we must provide full scholarships to all our graduates, and that is why we have set graduate scholarships as a central focus for the Oxford Excellence campaign.

And we need to tackle other challenges for our international graduates. The Home Office white paper cuts the Graduate route from 2 years to 18 months for most new entrants, tightening sponsorship duties, and the international student levy means a cost of £925 per international student per year from August 2028. This represents a significant cost to the sector at a time when many universities are struggling. Changes to study visas for students from a handful of countries have prevented many from taking up places at UK universities. Where there are problems with international students at some universities, which there are, we must not shy away from tackling them – but we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Sustainable economic growth that benefits all depends not only on scientific discovery and technological innovation, but on effective leadership, sound public policy, strong institutions, thriving businesses and a highly talented workforce that includes the very best from around the world. Look at Britain’s history and what shaped us. This Little World, written by our very own Professor Nandini Das, is a glistening example of that excellence I speak about. Charting a fascinating historical account of Tudor and Stuart England, it reminds us that in forging England, a nation, it was a global story of merchants, migrants, sailors, travellers and spies – testing the very idea of nationhood, identity and belonging. It is a must read.

And Oxford is determined to use both global and UK talent to translate excellence into success for Britain as a whole. Oxford contributed £17bn to the UK economy. Every £1 of Oxford’s research income generates over £11 in impact from research and knowledge exchange activities. Annually, we support around 70 apprenticeships from our Colleges of Further Education, and 57,000 jobs in Oxford and the southeast. Our discoveries save millions of lives – and just one, the COVID-19 vaccine, saved the global economy over £2tn. Those are the facts; that’s the generosity of spirit and contribution that Oxford and many of our great UK universities are making to the person on the street. That’s how you shape an identity for this country while also serving the people of this great nation.

And this is all built on our amazing people. Each year, my Vice-Chancellor’s Awards recognise and celebrate those staff – academic and professional services – who produce those facts, that impact, that excellence. I was delighted to see 170 award entries this year, with more than 1,000 individuals included in the nominations, reflecting the vibrancy of our community.

In 2026, 8 University staff were recognised in the New Year’s and King’s Birthday Honours; 12 Oxford scientists were elected Fellows of the Royal Society and 4 additionally honoured with Royal Society Awards; 2 Royal Academy Engineering Fellows; 6 Fellows of the British Academy. And our alumni are no slackers! 106 received King's Honours this year. With a newly updated alumni board, chaired by Professor Sir Chris Whitty, we want our inspiring alumni more engaged with our mission. I am delighted that 22,000 alumni attended events across the collegiate University, and I have personally enjoyed meeting over 2,000 alumni this past year. They are a constant source of pride. And our wonderful Chancellor, who continues to support Oxford magnificently, gave honorary degrees to extraordinary people this summer drawn from all quarters of the globe and careers.

And, of course, other individuals who have been instrumental to shaping Oxford’s excellence during their tenure have left us this past year. Among many, let me single out just a few: Gill Aitken, Helen Ghosh and Miles Young, who retired, and Malcolm McCulloch, Graham Taylor, Hazel Jessop and Nicholas White who sadly passed.

At my inauguration nearly 4 years ago, I set out 4 priorities – against which we have delivered at pace, evidenced by our successes. However, with my boundless energy, I will keep pushing Oxford to its limits while remaining true to our values, our identity as a place of excellence. My 3 previous orations stressed: an Oxford as a home of light and truth-seeking through our research, truth-dissemination through our teaching and truth-curation through our libraries and museums; an Oxford that doesn’t do easy but takes on the seemingly impossible when others cannot; an Oxford that keeps the human and its story at the epicentre of our teaching and research as we embrace artificial intelligence. An Oxford remembered not for what it discovered, taught or built but for how it did it, with hope in what is possible, truth as the North Star and kindness in our heart. Hope, truth and kindness as our values, our identity.

Council this year approved our Strategic Plan for the next 5 years that builds on this work and takes Oxford forward with ambition and resilience at a time when AI is rattling the world. How will we shape this future world, this future identity for us all? We’re well placed to do so.

Oxford is entering the age of AI with the world’s number 1 computer science department and as the European leader in quantum computing. We’ve been selected to host the new government-backed UK AI Research Lab, part of a £60m UKRI investment in the UK's future AI capability. We established AI@Oxford, as a visible point of entry into Oxford’s astonishing depth and breadth of AI research. Our Computer Science researchers identified key risks in recursively trained AI models, with implications for safety and reliability – what a surprise. Researchers from the Department of Statistics, as part of the OpenBind consortium, are strengthening the data foundations needed for AI in drug discovery, and I’ve mentioned the £118m research programme with our colleagues from EIT to accelerate the development of next-generation vaccines using AI. We welcomed the first cohort of Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellows, supporting international collaboration in AI-enabled scientific discovery. The Oxford Internet Institute's work on AI regulation and the rights of individuals affected by automated decision-making continues to influence policymakers and regulators around the world. The potential of AI to strengthen justice and public institutions is being explored through the newly launched Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, established by the Blavatnik School of Government in partnership with the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

In education, we are doing work to understand how AI is affecting tutorial teaching, formative assessments, marking, and feedback. Having successfully and securely rolled out ChatGPT to all students and staff last year, we are determined to better equip students with the skills to use AI effectively and ethically. Fortunately, our wonderful tutorial system differentiates us from others – it is a unique asset for Oxford. We will secure tutorial fellows and the tutorial system through the Oxford Excellence campaign. It’s going to be more important than ever that students have places where they are taught to think critically and independently.

And 4 years ago, I promised that we would broaden our undergraduates’ education – no-one should be fearful of an equation or graph, and students must be able to communicate well in the written and oral form. We created the Vice-Chancellor’s Colloquium, and it’s been a roaring success thanks to all those colleges, graduates and academics involved. Over the past year, 500 undergraduates participated in 2 thematic cohorts: climate change and artificial intelligence – this year we will keep those themes, but I’m delighted to announce we will now extend the programme to graduates.

The Faculty of Law and the Department of Politics and International Relations launched a new interdisciplinary MSc in Law, Governance and AI. The Department of Education launched a new Postgraduate Diploma in AI in Education. And our Institute for Ethics in AI is collaborating with the BBC on ’Truth & Trust: AI and Young People‘.

Beyond these AI initiatives, our academic divisions continue to deliver again and again. Here are just a few highlights to signify their excellence and impact.

The Schwarzman Centre opened successfully and daily welcomes over 3,000 users – town and gown. The New Humanities library there is so good that students queue up before 9am to get a spot. Sights rarely witnessed... In April, the centre opened to the public and launched its cultural programme with a free 1-day festival called ‘open house’. This was a remarkable piece of public engagement, bringing over 12,000 people to the building to enjoy performances from world-class international, local and student artists and creatives – thank you to everyone involved. In July, we welcomed His Majesty the King for its official opening. And what a day that was. The King met with members of the local community, and children from schools across Oxford sang while others from the local St Barnabas school enthusiastically cheered and waved their little Union Jacks. The Schwarzman Centre was named by the Prix de Versailles as one of the most beautiful university buildings in 2026. Its best prize of all was, naturally though, the Vice-Chancellor’s Overall Outstanding Prize. And fulfilling our ambition to build beautiful buildings that are environmentally sustainable, it has been certified as Europe’s largest Passivhaus university building and the world’s first Passivhaus concert hall.

I’m excited to see the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages launching a new Master’s in Creative Translation. This comes at an important time, amid growing demand for skilled translators to support the UK’s thriving creative industries. And we are blessed with extraordinary academics in our humanities, such as Lyndal Roper, our Emeritus Regius Professor of History, who won the prestigious Holberg Prize for 2026. Is it no wonder that Oxford was announced as the world’s best university for the arts and humanities in the QS World University Rankings for 2026. Oxford’s identity has been and will continue to be firmly rooted in the value of the humanities to the world.

Across the campus, a very different building opened as a joint endeavour between our divisions of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences and Medical Sciences – the Life and Mind Building, creating a world-class interdisciplinary research and teaching environment for Biology and Experimental Psychology. And it’s stunning. And, while I don’t like to talk money, it is the reality of all leadership. So let me here congratulate MPLS’s leadership and all department heads for their determination and success in protecting investment in research, people and strategic priorities while strengthening long-term financial resilience and delivering a financial surplus ahead of plan. This means we can confidently start to invest, and I’m pleased to announce that planning is actively underway for the future development of Osney Mead – a key new home for our fantastic engineering department alongside further economic growth opportunities for town and gown. Oxford’s quantum ecosystem continues to deliver commercial success with a dizzying array of successful spinouts attracting eye-watering investment – alongside international leadership in quantum technologies through our recently opened Quantum Institute.

MPLS is a key division for Oxford when it comes to solutions for climate change. Earth Sciences researchers defined pathways to naturally occurring clean hydrogen, supporting the transition to low-carbon energy systems. Chemistry researchers developed methods to recycle fluorine from persistent ’forever chemicals‘, contributing to more sustainable chemical processes. And Oxford researchers contributed to the study of the second-largest megatsunami ever recorded, a 481-metre-high wave – yes, you heard that right – triggered by a landslide in Alaska. Do watch the video.

Looking to the universe, an international team co-led by Oxford physicists identified one of the largest spinning structures ever discovered — a giant rotating cosmic filament stretching across 140 million light-years. Truly seeing things you people wouldn’t believe…to coin a phrase…

Female academic appointments increased to 21%, up from 17% in 2022. And the pipeline is strong with stars such as Professor Maria Vincenzi, who won the prestigious New Horizons in Physics Breakthrough Prize.

And Oxford’s impact on the person in the street continues through our Medical Sciences. We launched the world's first phase I clinical trial of a vaccine against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, and the first in-country therapeutics trial has recently enrolled its 100th participant just 12 weeks after the outbreak was announced. Our RECOVERY trial was recognised by Baroness Heather Hallett, Chair of the COVID-19 Inquiry, as one of the pandemic's 2 major success stories, alongside the national vaccination programme. This trial remains one of the most influential clinical research programmes in modern medicine, identifying effective COVID-19 treatments at unprecedented speed and scale, alongside the globally transformative vaccination programme.

Oxford Global Health launched a major new fungal disease programme, bringing together expertise from all our academic divisions. This is now one of the world's fastest-growing and most neglected global health threats, causing 2.5 million deaths each year. But we’re on it…

The division also celebrated major research milestones this year, reflecting our commitment to tackle the hard problems no matter the challenge. We celebrated 30 years of the Million Women Study, one of the world's largest and most influential women's health studies, involving 1.3 million UK participants and led by the wonderful Professor Dame Valerie Beral. Congratulations also to the OpenSAFELY team who won a Queen Elizabeth’s Anniversary Prize for pioneering secure access to NHS data for research.

Underlining Oxford's Social Sciences Division as a global convenor, the 2026 Social Sciences Impact Conference convened more than 300 researchers, policymakers and practitioners from over 50 universities. To help our colleagues accelerate impact, we launched a new Social Sciences Catalyst Fund to help researchers develop innovations capable of delivering social and economic value at scale. And, through our newly launched United Nations Peace and Security Fellowship, we brought UN practitioners to Oxford to develop research-informed approaches to conflict prevention and peacekeeping.

The Local Policy Lab, in collaboration with Oxford Brookes and Oxfordshire County Council, appointed its first Chief Scientific Advisers, embedding Oxford research into policymaking on workforce skills, health, living standards and opportunities for children and young people in the region.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, a milestone to be celebrated with the opening of the Global Leadership Centre at the restored Osney Power Station tomorrow afternoon. Supported by a transformational £15m gift from Wafic Saïd, this investment reflects Oxford's conviction that leadership is itself an engine of economic growth.

And I’m pleased to report that the pipeline of talent in social sciences is both excellent and healthy with 4 social scientists securing prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grants, and an exceptional 10 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships being awarded. And because gathering and creating a shared sense of belonging for those staff is facilitated by our built environment, new investment in refurbishing the Manor Road Building is vital and timely.

It’s clear from these few examples that we deliver and make impact. We welcome that linking local growth and universities as anchor institutions is now an explicit government priority. You heard the statistics earlier. We’re leading in the UK and Europe in innovation, spinouts and wealth creation, and in large part this success is facilitated by Oxford Science Enterprises investing and building our companies and going from strength to strength under current leadership. Innovation was one of Oxford’s best-kept secrets, but no longer. Oxford has always been a place of innovation – we simply didn’t identify ourselves that way. As I often say, you cannot survive and remain competitively world leading for over 900 years if you don’t innovate, don’t challenge yourself intellectually and don’t adapt. I sense we’re more comfortable now owning it as part of our identity, and we’re certainly getting more professional at realising its benefits to the UK and the world.

Of course, one of our earliest spinouts was Oxford University Press, and OUP continues to thrive both commercially and in terms of its mission. ‘Rage bait’ was the Oxford Word of the Year, in contrast to ‘peace’ as the Children’s Word of the Year. Gives you pause to reflect. OUP competitively acquired Karger Publishers, which represents a significant investment in research publishing, and they announced the first 10 winners of OUP’s inaugural First Book Prize, awarded to early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences. A terrific initiative.

And we must keep our children and adults reading in this world of AI, as the recent PISA report highlights. OUP is helping and is a proud partner organisation of this year’s National Year of Reading. Celebrating 40 years of the Oxford Reading Tree, OUP has helped over 30 million children learn to read all over the world. Their report, Teaching the AI-native generation, explored how young people in the UK perceive and interact with AI in their education. It revealed that 80% of 13–18 year olds use AI in their schoolwork – important data for us as we increasingly inherit those students. And in Kenya, OUP supplied 1.6 million Grade 10 textbooks to more than 9,000 public senior schools and offered training to more than 11,000 teachers. Combined – what extraordinary impact.

More locally, and after 3 years of us convening local stakeholders to set a united vision for Oxford and Oxfordshire around economic growth and job creation, we successfully launched Equitable Innovation Oxford, or Equinox, last November, attracting more than 200 attendees. I’m pleased to report that nearly 100 Oxfordshire-based organisations have now signed the Equinox Charter including corporate partners, SMEs, local authorities, community groups, investors, developers and representatives across the ecosystem. Equinox is a platform to drive regionally anchored, nationally significant growth with outcomes that benefit all. We want to prove that we can drive good economic growth without making the traffic worse or the house prices even more unaffordable – learning from what’s not worked in Silicon Valley and Kendall Square. And I’m pleased to announce that on 23 October a new NatWest regional accelerator partnership will be formally launched to strengthen the commercialisation of University research, support the development of student-led enterprises, and support a broader range of start-ups across Oxford. Did you know that approximately 20% of our students upon arriving here ask about entrepreneurship opportunities? – their appetite increasingly supported by our Enspire hub and college efforts, such as Christ Church Oxford Edge. And Equinox has endorsed Oxfordshire Youth by setting up an Oxford University-led Foundation, funded mainly through an OSE-powered Founder's Pledge.

However, from the time I co-wrote the spin-out report in 2023 for the previous but one government, and with it recommendations on how to drive economic growth at pace and scale via our universities, I have repeatedly said there are 5 additional things we need all governments to help with if we are to realise the full potential of our innovation ecosystem: regulation, infrastructure, capital, talent and procurement deals for a greater market share, such as the NHS. Why is it that most of our unicorns – billion-pound companies – leave the UK just when they are about to deliver jobs, tax returns and growth? The research and development often stays here, unsurprisingly, but the companies with their jobs leave. Why? Largely, it’s those 5 things…

I know that colleagues in government understand the challenge and it’s been great to work with them over the past 4 years to resolve these issues. And that is why the growth commission for Oxford is so important, as is the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor, or OxCam, including Cranfield (soon to be King’s). Additionally, we have developed meaningful relationships with regional partners, such as the one with that great city of Liverpool – my parents’ birthplace – and its university and mayoral authority - LivOx. My hope is that we can and will provide a credible counter-offer to those companies and increase our chances of keeping them in the UK so that they can grow and deliver here.

If we get this right, such partnerships as OxCam and LivOx, and working with our other fantastic universities and major cities, will mean we really can create an innovation ecosystem to beat all – but this one will be built on the UK’s values, our shared identity. It will be one that embraces not only our brilliance in biotech, life sciences, physical sciences but includes the humanities through creative industries and social enterprises. We would be unbeatable. That’s the prize, as I’ve been saying for the past 4 years.

And there are other ways we impact society and the person on the street: the nation’s treasures that we also steward within the Ashmolean Museum, History of Science Museum, the Museum of Natural History, Pitt Rivers Museum, Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and the Bodleian Libraries. Together they welcomed a staggering 3.8 million visitors this past year alone.

In June, the Museum of Natural History officially completed its 8-year-long new ground floor redisplay project known as ‘Life as We Know It’, covering themes of ecosystems and biodiversity, evolution and earth – complete with a new presentation of the Oxfordshire dinosaurs, including Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur ever to be scientifically named. I personally placed her (or his) jawbone in the cabinet and that was such a thrill. The Oxford Botanic Garden received a major grant of close to £1m from the Julia Rausing Trust to build a new Centre for Plant Conservation. But our historic glasshouses need support and replacing, if anyone is listening. In keeping with our ethical stewardship, the Ashmolean Museum returned a 16^th-century bronze of Saint Tirumankai Alvar back to the temple in Tamil Nadu, back to being an object of worship.

Our gardens, libraries and museums are a key shop-window into Oxford. But I want my home-town people to actually feel that having the world’s number 1 university on their doorstep really does make their lives better. I am determined to walk the talk locally as well as maintaining Oxford as a globally leading university. That is why, 4 years ago, I created a new position within the leadership team, focused on local engagement. Beyond Town and Gown: Towards a More Inclusive Oxford is our first report summarising what we’ve been doing. Please read it.

Sport has always been a great democratiser as it levels the playing field for people to connect, as we have found. For the 3rd year in a row, our Young Sport Leaders Programme has strengthened – 80 secondary school children in year 8 come to the University, try new sports, learn from our academics, and connect with our inspiring students. This year we launched the Vice-Chancellor’s Sports Ambassadors Programme, which supports our student athletes to go out to local primary schools and deliver sport enrichment clubs.

A new Oxford Schools Engagement Working Group is coordinating the amazing work that many of our departments and colleges already do with local schools. Collectively though, we want to do more. So, on 15 October we will launch Opening Oxford: A Guide for Schools in Oxfordshire – a guide on how to better access opportunities and programs. Through our increased Community Partnership Fund, we established a partnership with Emmaus Oxford to give people with lived experience of homelessness the chance to work. Kindness in action.

All this excellence is delivered by you, our people, led superbly and diligently by my Pro-Vice-Chancellors, Heads of Division, Heads of Departments and Heads of Colleges. It is a herculean effort and I thank you all, deeply. I do not take our staff for granted, and that is why, 4 years ago, I set my ambition to improve Pay and Conditions for you all. A report with recommendations was produced that same year – a record pace for Oxford. I am pleased that Phase 1 is now delivered, the Oxford Weighting just one tangible response to cost of living in this region.

Council has already approved funding of £150m in additional pay over the 5 years following the implementation of the Pay and Conditions review. This year Council approved funding for work to commence on the second phase of Pay and Conditions. Oxford must remain an attractive and rewarding place to work. Our new rental deposit loan scheme is making it easier for staff new to Oxford to make the transition here. 2 new nurseries will open in the coming year, one with University College. Following a successful 9-month pilot, soon all University staff can take up to 22.5 hours of volunteer time per year as leave – giving back to local communities. I am eager to learn from the Academic Workload Working Group’s deliberations, and, related, I’m pleased to announce that with the arrival of our new wonderful PVC for People and Culture, Professor David Doyle, we are going to reboot the Academic Career Reward Framework review this coming year.

The University’s HR Policy Review is now complete and we will implement its recommendations. Last academic year, People Committee approved the requirement for all University staff to complete the Harassment in Higher Education e‑learning course. And we must keep our staff safe in every regard. Our EveryDaySafe programme is central to that goal. Excellence cannot occur without safety being paramount. I am pleased with the progress this year, but we cannot relax. It is the responsibility of us all.

Creating a culture where everyone belongs is, of course, how we ensure we retain and attract the top talent and allow our staff to thrive. It’s a condition of us delivering our impact as an institution. And that is why our collegiate University-approved Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, now in its 3rd year, is called Everyone Belongs.

If you are serious about excellence, the potential for excellence and finding top talent you will end up with a diverse team. I know that, having run a world-leading pain research team for 30 years. Look at the Premier League, or my beloved Everton. As a global university, we draw such strength from having people from so many backgrounds and parts of the world; the diversity of our people is a vital part of our academic and professional excellence.

Through the Sheldonian Series and our EDI Roundtables we continue to model what good academic freedom and freedom of speech looks like. Featuring scholars and voices from a range of fields and viewpoints, we have convened discussions on Cancel Culture, the Power of Activism, and the Power of Satire – with more than 1,300 members of the University and local community attending. The theme for this year is – yes – Identity. And someone integral to our national identity, Count Binface (aka Jon Harvey), who is an alum, will join us.

Approved by University Council in March this year, a new programme of work, the Professional Services Programme, is implementing the recommendations from our Strategic Review of Professional Services. This aims to create a more joined-up and sustainable approach to professional services, while maintaining critical support for local academic and operational needs, and contributing to the University’s broader financial resilience. I am grateful to all those involved for your support and willingness to deliver this once-in-a-generation modernisation of our professional services, and we will support you through the process. I know you will rise to the challenge with grace and ingenuity.

And digital transformation will help. We are strengthening foundational areas such as data and digital identity management, cyber security, and core networks and platforms. The work is focused on areas with the greatest strategic benefit and greatest risk reduction, while continuing to develop and expand our capabilities in AI and digital innovation. Our fabulous new Chief Digital & Information Officer, David White, is confidently at the helm, and we have committed to invest £160m over the next 3 years. And I am determined we are going to get this right, and that is why those services are now part of my Vice-Chancellor’s Office. We’ve committed to a 5-year programme to strengthen cyber security through enhanced central support, embedded expertise in divisions and departments, and improved detection and oversight of cyber risks. All staff are now mandated to renew their Information Security and Data Protection training annually – with consequences, even for me, if you don’t. I cannot stress how important it is that we all work together to protect, to steward our assets, our data, our discoveries.

Safety – physical, psychological and cyber – is everyone’s responsibility.

Careful and innovative stewardship of our estate is vital. We aim to create buildings that are economical to run, support excellent research and learning yet remain comfortable all year round with limited energy inputs, in line with our target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2035. And we’re succeeding – look at the Schwarzman and LAMB buildings. Going forwards, we now have planning consent for strategic developments at Warneford Park; a major new pandemic and vaccine research building will open early in 2028; new academic space at Wellington Square should be ready by 2029; we are working hard to restore the Clarendon Building – a landmark for the city and University that includes restoring the 9 Muses on its top. This will bring Oxford’s architectural heritage back to its intended state for the first time in centuries. Patient and highly skilled stewardship, just like that of the Bayeux Tapestry.

But this stewardship goes beyond buildings, archives and people. It involves the environment and our planet, our biodiversity. You’ve seen my end-of-term message – high up on a cherry picker in the University Parks – and let me here thank the parks team for keeping essential trees and plants alive during the intense heat this summer. And please visit the newly restored genetic garden there: created by 8 botanists and biochemists, it will help students and the public understand better plant biology. Locally, 100 volunteers joined our Oxford Green Estate team to plant 120 oak saplings that will become the core of a brand-new woodland – Bear Wood, on the banks of the Thames near Wytham Woods. And a new Biodiversity Action Plan sets out, for the first time, an estate-wide approach to managing biodiversity across the University. For example, at Park Farm, we are restoring more than 100 acres of hay meadow right in the city centre.

Further afield, student-led teams from the Oxford Centennial Arctic Expeditions have just returned from Svalbard and Iceland with data that will hopefully help us better protect the rapidly changing polar environment. And, talking of students, let me finish with those whom we shape and who shape us. It’s great that our undergraduates remain so positive about their teaching and learning, as well as freedom of thought and expression, which remain the foundation of Oxford’s identity.

Our new Access and Participation Plan will strengthen our academic skills provision, disability services, mental health initiatives, and measures to support minority groups. Opportunity Oxford and OppOx Digital now support the academic transition of around 1 in 5 of all UK undergraduate offer-holders to Oxford. It builds confidence, develops academic skills and ensures students feel they belong at Oxford. And we welcome the new leadership at the Office for Students and their willingness to work collectively to resolve the challenges facing students and the sector.

More than 1,100 UNIQ school-age participants – from a staggering 7,800 applications – came to Oxford over 5 weeks for our academic residentials. Undergraduates who were former UNIQ participants help but they also mirror identities that say: you belong here.

And these efforts, among others, really do widen participation. Last year, 3,300 undergraduates were admitted to Oxford – 79% from the UK. Of UK students admitted: 21% came from the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas, spot-on with the percentage of that population at UK universities achieving AAA or better at A-level; 6.6% had been eligible for free school meals – close to the 7.2% achieving AAA or better nationwide. And, when the students get here, we continue to offer one of the most generous undergraduate bursary packages in the UK, totalling over £10m in support given out this year.

But it’s not just financial support. With huge thanks to the colleges for all their efforts and care, this year we strengthened our leadership, governance and strategic delivery of welfare services, with positive responses from students. A new Mental Health Advisory Service pilot progressed well; Harassment and Sexual Misconduct training for students has been developed in partnership with students – it is compulsory for new students arriving. Let me say it again: harassment and sexual misconduct are not tolerated at Oxford.

Keeping students mentally and physically well can often be achieved via activity. I’m pleased to report that Active at Oxford hit record numbers with 64% of students now ‘engaged’ in sport or physical activity this year. Our Varsity match performances are currently outstanding: 125 to 88 in favour of the Dark Blues; and we ranked 14th overall in BUCS, our first women’s Blue Boat Race win in a decade – what joy as I handed over the trophy; won both rugby varsity matches, won men’s BUCS cross-country and handball titles, won Premier South fencing and tennis titles, won the UK Ekiden run, as well as having many other team and individual successes. However, for the 700+ student performance athletes, who help attain these results, and others, it’s a fact that our sport offering is still not good enough. Changing the Game: The Future of Oxford Sport is a new report that provides a roadmap. I said I’d fix this 4 years ago and, let me assure you, we’re making progress: we officially opened the new Dark Blue Crested running track this year; we are on track to open an artificial grass football pitch, a city centre sport and leisure facility, and an indoor tennis centre over the years ahead; and we have major plans drawn up for the main Iffley Road building and rugby football ground.

And when our students eventually leave us, we must help them prepare for the world of work and meet employers’ needs. Careers is doing sterling work in that regard, as well as supporting our fixed-term researchers. Among many innovative new schemes, we now offer 2,000 internships in the UK and internationally through partnerships with employers in the private, public and third sectors, including University departments and museums. And we’ve strengthened Oxford's contribution to social impact through the Making a Difference programme, where students delivered more than 2,000 hours of strategic consultancy, for free, to charities and social enterprises tackling real-world challenges.

For people coming to education late, or wanting to reskill or upskill or just simply keep the brain noodling, Oxford Lifelong Learning is meeting that need. I want to embed this extraordinary resource more firmly within the University and, as set out in the strategic plan, widen our online offering to the world using advances in digital, hybrid learning, and a growing number of tutors across the collegiate University keen to get involved. I look forward to sharing those plans in the coming year and at a time when opening our doors of learning so that more members of society can benefit is of paramount importance.

The difficulty I have when portraying Oxford is its depth and breadth. After 41 years here, I’m still blown away, because one charming aspect of Oxford’s identity is its modesty – odd, considering we’ve a lot to be immodest about. We have so much to offer to help shape the UK’s identity at this critical point in our collective history. Returning to the Bayeux Tapestry, despite us not knowing the identities of the embroiderers – or, for that matter, most of the embroidered – they have been pivotal in telling the story of a nation at the cusp of forging a new identity. Oxford, through its stewardship, values, teaching and research, provides the needles, thread and truth as light, so that our students, our staff, and everyone we work with – identities known and yet to know – continue to embroider on the fabric of our nation, our ever-evolving identity as a place of ambition, excellence, kindness and hope.