Spring Martlet 2017

Univ’s 20/20 Campaign
Message
from the
Master
In 2006 the College launched an ambitious
ten year campaign to re-endow the College.
The target was £55m for the purposes of
consolidating the tutorial system through
the endowment of fellowships, providing
bursaries for undergraduates from
low-income households, establishing full
scholarships for graduates and maintaining
the fabric of the College buildings. To the
best of our knowledge no other Oxford
college aimed so high. I am delighted
to report that the College closed the
campaign in September 2016 having met,
indeed slightly exceeded, its target.
20/20 CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
• To raise £55m by 2016
• To consolidate the tutorial system through endowment of fellowships
• Providing bursaries for undergraduates from low-income households
• Establishing full scholarships for graduates
• Maintaining the fabric of the College buildings
This has been a wonderful achievement
by Univ’s community of Old Members.
Altogether 4,628 Old Members made
a gift during the ten-year campaign, and
most gave frequently and regularly. The
proportion who made a contribution in any
one year steadily rose over the ten years
and reached 35% by 2015. By the end of
the campaign, the Annual Fund attracted
well over £1m a year in gifts. No other
college in Oxford or Cambridge has raised
funds on the same scale with such regularity.
A special debt of appreciation is owed
to a small group of benefactors, largely
anonymous, who provided ‘challenge
funding’, committing themselves to match
contributions made by Old Members
to the Annual Fund and to our Radcliffe
Graduate Scholarship Fund. This proved a
powerful incentive to prospective donors.
We are particularly grateful, too, to the
Old Members who organised our annual
Golden Anniversary appeals to those who
matriculated 50 years earlier.
The £55m raised by the campaign has
enabled Univ to withstand the political
and economic vagaries of the past decade
and fulfil its fundamental purpose: to
admit exceptionally able and committed
students, irrespective of their financial
circumstances, and expose them to an
intellectually stretching education through
the tutorial system. Three major benefits
made possible by the campaign make the
point. The College can now immediately
fill vacancies in the tutorial fellowship
even when, as happens quite often, the
University fails to make its financial
contribution for a few years. Our bursary
scheme has been built up to ensure that
undergraduates whose household income
falls below £52,000 a year do not have to
rely on any parental contribution to meet
their living costs at Oxford. The number
of fully funded and endowed graduate
scholarships offered by the College has
increased from 4 in 2006 to 35 in 2016,
the largest number of any mixed college.
The College is deeply grateful to its Old
Members and Friends for their generosity
and loyalty.
Sir Ivor Crewe
Master
46 THE MARTLET | SPRING 2017