2011 Hertford College Magazine (Issue 91)

year with our third telephone campaign,
now an essential part of securing Hertford’s
future. With Gift Aid, we secured
£172,195 in donations and pledges. The
majority of these pledges have now been
redeemed and much of the money raised
has gone towards the new Undergraduate
Student Bursaries Programme which began
at the start of this term. All of our students
enjoyed speaking to Old Members
and we hope that receiving a call from
Hertford was also a pleasure even for those
who did not feel able to give at that time.
“ Hertford has been at the forefront
of providing equality of
access to Oxford ”
Since the days of the Tanner scheme
Hertford has been at the forefront of providing
equality of access to Oxford. With
this reputation, and having been one of the
first male colleges to go mixed in 1974,
we were surprised when in 2009 figures
showed that Hertford had a lower proportion
of students eligible for the Oxford Opportunity
Bursary than the average across
the University. The College decided to address
this by establishing a bursary programme,
amongst the most generous in Oxford,
to ensure that Hertford continued to
attract students from less well-off families.
When we began fundraising for bursaries
we had 67 eligible students; this
term we have over 100 and believe this
is likely to increase. The twofold success
is that we have attracted these target students
to come to Hertford and also that
our alumni have been able to provide support
in a time of worsening financial pressure.
We are extremely grateful for this
support and hope that people will continue
to wish to fund this vital project.
Another area where we have been
able to make a direct impact on student
HERTFORD COLLEGE MAGAZINE
Hertford year: Members’ and Development Office news
life is that, thanks to the generosity of
an Old Member, we now have a Stipendiary
Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry,
Dr Mike Laidlaw. For many years Hertford
relied on sharing teaching with St
Hugh’s. When their Fellow in Inorganic
Chemistry retired we were forced to rely
on short-term arrangements which were
both expensive and unsatisfactory. The
appointment of Dr Laidlaw has brought
a welcome degree of continuity and a
real boost to tutorial teaching in College.
There are two other significant projects
under way. Both of these seek to endow
College Fellowships in subjects that
are most at risk from declining university
funding. The first, the Roger Van Noorden
Fellowship in Economics, was launched at
Roger’s memorial event in November 2010.
We have now raised £100,000 towards the
£800,000 endowment of this crucial post.
After five years with no University-funded
post the Economics Faculty finally allowed
the refilling of the University Lecturership
in Economics. Next term we welcome Dr
David Gill as the new Fellow in Economics.
However the funding of this post will
only last as long as he continues to hold it
and so, to protect it against the vagaries of
University finances, it is vitally important
that we are able to endow it in perpetuity.
The second project is the endowment
of the Ellis Barnard Fellowship in History.
When Dr Toby Barnard retires in 2012
neither the College nor the History Faculty
can afford to guarantee a replacement.
However at the beginning of term, the
College launched an appeal under the new
Oxford Teaching Fund where the University
will undertake to pay its portion of a
new appointment in perpetuity if the College
is able fully to endow its share. The
University will put in £800,000 from Oxford
University Press revenue if the College
raises £1.2m. Thanks to the generos-
45.