Univ Record 2018

studentship, the Oxford-Anderson Humanities Scholarship, will provide support
towards any academically outstanding candidate who earns a postgraduate place in the
College who intends to pursue a Humanities subject which Univ offers. This permanent
studentship begins a mini-campaign for the College to grow its inventory of studentships
in Humanities subjects in order to be a “preferred College” for Oxford’s budding
humanists. This mini-drive will seek to establish studentships which will complement
the increased number of studentships in scientific subjects which were created from the
anonymous Radcliffe benefaction in 2012.
Private philanthropy also benefited the sciences this past year. A seven-figure
benefaction was pledged to fund a tutorial post in Computer Science at Univ. This is
the third Fellowship to become endowed in the past three years and will strengthen
the College’s research and teaching capacity in the growing field of Computer Science.
We wish to thank Mr Raymond Ting for his generosity and Professor Bill Roscoe,
FREng (1975, Computer Science and Mathematics) for his assistance in securing this
tremendous benefaction.
Finally, our Old Members continued to offer generous funding for the College’s
undergraduate student support in the form of college bursaries, the Student Support Fund,
and the College’s new Opportunity Programme. An additional £200,000 was added to
the Opportunity Programme this past year. This signals a tremendous endorsement for
this valuable scheme. Donations for traditional bursaries were also significant and our
Old Members’ generosity has allowed Univ’s bursary programme to be one of the most
comprehensive in Oxford. This support eases our students’ financial burdens and lets
them focus their full attention on academic achievement and learning. I thank all of our
donors who made undergraduate funding their philanthropic priority this year.
Annual Fund
For the fifth consecutive year the College’s Annual Fund surpassed the £1 million mark
in new outright gifts and commitments. 1,929 Old Members made contributions to the
Fund this past year, totalling £1,020,081.
Univ’s final cash and commitments totals for the Annual Fund were down 5.7%
compared with our 2017-17 totals (£1,082,000). This slight drop could be attributed
to a more significant reduction in donor numbers this past year. 203 fewer individuals
contributed to the College in 2017-18, representing a 9% decline compared to the previous
year. While there are many reasons for this, the main factor seems to be the formal
imposition of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and its new guidelines
about how the College may contact individuals for fundraising. The impact of GDPR
was felt most on our student calling programme as fewer Old Members were able to be
contacted and this had a profound effect on our donor numbers and participation rate. The
College’s participation rate dipped below 30% (27.1%) for the first time since 2006-07.
It is difficult to know whether these participation figures are the start of a trend or
whether our donor numbers will bounce back. We are very grateful to all those who
continue to make annual gifts. These donors are giving more per person that those in the
past and they are ensuring that Univ’s Annual Fund is a dependable source of funds for
College operations. I thank our 63 new donors to the 2017-18 campaign. We value their
support and their involvement is felt by every member of our community.
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