CAMPAIGN REPORT 2018/19 Welcome
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CAMPAIGN REPORT 2018/19 Welcome Welcome to this special edition of the Campaign Report. Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, recently announced the end of the Oxford Thinking Campaign, which raised an amazing £3.3 billion in support of the University and the colleges. Philanthropy makes a significant difference to what we are able to achieve across Oxford – for students, for academics and for the world at large. The donations we’ve received during the campaign – from over 170,000 donors – are supporting scholarships, access, teaching, research, facilities, outreach and much more. This extended report includes examples of the impact that your generosity is having. Although the Oxford Thinking Campaign has drawn to a close, philanthropy remains vital in tackling global issues of the present and the future. The University has bold ambitions to increase the number of graduate scholarships on offer, to build upon progress made in improving access for talented students, and to continue to excel in the delivery of teaching and research of the highest calibre. Thank you for helping to make Oxford an exemplar for the power and importance of higher education, and for your part in helping us to shape a brighter future. Liesl Elder Chief Development Officer University of Oxford Main photography – John Cairns Additional photography – The Ashmolean Museum – The Bodleian Libraries – CERN – M Cornelius / Shutterstock – Tim Foster – Rob Judges – Oxford University Images – Oxford University Museum of Natural History – Gino Santa Maria / Shutterstock – Phil Sayer Further reading – Brent Stapelkamp – Ian Wallman Discover more about the impact – Young Lives / Lucero Del Castillo Ames Design of your support at: – williamjoseph.co.uk www.development.ox.ac.uk/report18-19 6 Contents 2 Securing the future of 22 The power of plant science learning at Oxford research Tutorial teaching is fundamental Researchers in the Department to the University’s position as a centre of Plant Sciences are finding of academic excellence innovative ways to address environmental challenges 4 Developing global thought leaders in the humanities 24 The potential of regenerative medicine Ertegun graduate scholarships are supporting students for the Our understanding of common betterment of humanity conditions affecting the heart, brain and immune system is set to grow 6 Building the library of with the establishment of a new 14 the future institute Thanks to donor support, an 26 Colleges and the campaign unloved historic building has been transformed into a 21st-century Donations to the Oxford Thinking research facility and visitor space Campaign have had a tremendous impact across the colleges 8 Improving young lives around 28 Nurturing young talent the world through cultural exchange An international study into child poverty is improving the Oxford’s links with China and circumstances of young people facing Hong Kong are being strengthened disadvantage and inequality through the Fung Scholarship Programme 22 10 Donations with 30 Teaching in, reaching out transformational impact The University’s gardens, libraries and A number of exceptional donations museums play a vital role in engaging have been made during the with the public and in supporting Oxford Thinking Campaign, with teaching and research at all levels remarkable results 32 The Wolfson Foundation’s 12 Realising potential through commitment to excellence outreach and access Support from the one of the UK’s Oxford’s work with students and largest grant-making charities teachers is expanding every year, is helping to transform the life and thanks to the generosity of donors work of the University 14 Fostering intercultural 34 Thanks to your support… understanding How your donations are making Inspired by a project launched in a difference Berlin, Multaka-Oxford uses museums 28 and collections as a meeting point 36 Recognising our donors for bringing people together 16 Campaign statistics The Oxford Thinking Campaign in numbers 17 Oxford Thinking: a timeline From the start of the campaign to the present day Oxford Thinking: Campaign Report 2018/19 • 1 Securing the future of learning at Oxford With money derived from Oxford happened, we shouldn’t just be thinking University Press, the Teaching Fund about legislation, prime ministers and Tutorial teaching is committed to matching gifts made big institutions,’ she says. ‘Ordinary fundamental to the towards the endowment of 75 core experiences also change who we are, how posts across the academic divisions – we think and what we do.’ University’s position an ambitious goal that was met in just Dr Pooley’s research focuses on the three years, thanks to donor generosity. way in which such experiences influenced as a centre of academic both change and continuity in 19th- and excellence. 20th-century Britain. How, for example, Siân Pooley, Associate Professor did fatherhood change the way a man worked as a politician or philanthropist? of History and Angus Macintyre To what extent did regional economies The tutorial system lies at the heart of Fellow, Magdalen College shape the opportunities that were an Oxford education, providing students with a rare level of personalised attention Dr Siân Pooley is passionate about better It’s a real privilege to be given from world-leading academics. In the face understanding the connections between of extensive cuts to government funding, everyday life, intimate relationships eight hours a week to sit and talk the University established the Teaching and big social change. ‘In order to Fund in 2010 to help protect this special explain why society works as it does and about history approach to learning. why important historical events have Dr Siân Pooley 2 • Oxford Thinking: Campaign Report 2018/19 available to adults, and therefore the care Opposite: Dr Siân Interacting with students, Pooley in her office they gave to their children? at Magdalen College ‘One thing I’ve been particularly helping them to grasp certain Below: Inside the cryostat struck by is the extent to which local concepts and then seeing the of the ProtoDUNE activism helped to form the emerging detector, a 1/20 scale prototype of one of the welfare state,’ she explains. ‘We tend to penny drop is just fantastic four modules that will assume that those projects of changing Professor Alfons Weber comprise DUNE’s far society were imposed from the top down, detector. Photo by CERN when in fact it was the demands that working-class adults placed on the state advanced neutrino experiments in the that created the most pioneering projects world: the Deep Underground Neutrino of reform.’ Experiment (DUNE). Having the opportunity to spend time Comprised of two state-of-the-art discussing the subject she loves with neutrino detectors and the world’s most students is, Dr Pooley says, one of the best particle-packed neutrino beam, DUNE bits of the job: ‘It totally changes how will enable scientists to search for new you think about your own work because subatomic phenomena. If all runs to plan, you have to put it in a bigger context. the experiment – which is based in the That constant intellectual challenge of United States – will not only shed light helping students to see how different on the origin of matter, but could allow readings fit together, and work out how us to peer inside a newly-formed neutron they can make a powerful argument from star, and potentially even witness the birth those readings, is really enriching as an of a black hole. experience.’ DUNE will begin taking data in 2025, As well as benefiting the tutors, and is expected to run for more than ten Dr Pooley is keen to stress the years. In the meantime, Professor Weber considerable impact that the tutorial says he will continue to act as a conduit system has on those learning through it. between cutting-edge research and his ‘It gives students the freedom to think students, something he takes great pleasure about things that are important to them,’ in: ‘It’s fantastic to see the students she says. ‘That freedom enables them to I have taught as undergraduates become develop intellectual independence and researchers in their own right. It’s really Bel0w: Professor to create what is truly original research satisfying to know that I have played a part Alfons Weber at themselves. It’s lovely to see that journey.’ in inspiring the next generation.’ Pembroke College Alfons Weber, Professor of Physics and Rokos–Clarendon Fellow, Pembroke College Before the Rokos–Clarendon Fellowship was established, physics had not been taught at Pembroke College for more than ten years. ‘The endowment of the post meant that I could restart physics as a subject here,’ says particle physicist Professor Alfons Weber. ‘I started with four students, later six, now I have eight, and we recently started teaching Physics and Philosophy too.’ During tutorials, Professor Weber’s students have the opportunity to engage with, learn from and be challenged by an academic at the very forefront of his field. ‘I’m particularly interested in neutrinos,’ he explains. ‘They’re very strange particles; a trillion go through your fingernail every second and yet we don’t know very much about them. They might be the reason why there is matter in the Universe… why we exist at all.’ Learning more about these mysterious particles, particularly the unique mechanism that allows them to transform from one type to another, is the focus of Professor Weber’s research. In 2014, this focus led him to become UK Principal Investigator of one of the most Oxford Thinking: Campaign Report 2018/19 • 3 Graduate scholars David Bell (left) and Debbie Chow (right) in the garden of Ertegun House 4 • Oxford Thinking: Campaign Report 2018/19 Developing global thought leaders in the humanities Current Ertegun Scholars hail and the senior scholar is also significant. from countries as far afield as Canada, ‘Oxford is one of the top universities Ertegun graduate scholarships Singapore, Romania, Morocco and around so I didn’t know what the people are supporting students for Australia, with the programme bringing would be like,’ says Debbie.