University College Oxford Record 2020

LEAVING
FELLOWS
A CHANGE IN MASTER
Sir Ivor Crewe joined the College
as Master in 2008, arriving from
his previous post as Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Essex. He signed
up for a maximum 10-year term of office,
but in fact ended up staying for 12 years
in total (more on that below). Although not a
record for the longest duration of a Mastership
(which is held by Nathan Wetherell, who served
for 43 years between 1764 and 1807), it is
nevertheless a substantial period of service to
the College, and much has been accomplished
during Ivor’s tenure.
Although Ivor is not himself an Old Member
of Univ, he and Lady (Jill) Crewe had wellestablished
connections to the College. Their
daughter Deborah (1990, PPE) studied here,
and it was at Univ that Deborah met her future
husband John Davis (1988, Engineering). Clearly
reporting back positively on her experience,
Deborah’s brother Daniel also came to Univ,
arriving in 1996 and also studied PPE.
There have been a great many changes to
the College under Ivor’s watch. He arrived as the
College finished its kitchen refurbishment and
buttery extension (together with the Butler Room
above it). Soon, a new archive store was created,
and there was further extensive construction
with the refurbishment of the Goodhart Building,
a project that brought the student rooms up to
date and added a new storey. Another project
involved 10 Merton Street, that the College had
purchased from the University in 2005. It initially
remained occupied by the Philosophy Faculty until
their new building in the Radcliffe Observatory
Quarter was completed, and was then occupied
by the nascent Blavatnik School of Government,
as it also awaited its new ROQ building. In 2016
AND
STAFF
10 Merton Street was renovated
and taken into functional use by
the College, and now houses the
Academic Office and Development
Team (releasing office space to muchneeded
student bedrooms elsewhere in
the College), and also provides space for a
second Univ library and relocated Law Library.
Not content with these projects the College
began ambitious plans to expand its footprint on
the Staverton Road site. This was facilitated by
the fortuitous acquisition of the Fairfield Nursing
Home on Banbury Road, and in particular the
gardens behind it that adjoined Univ’s Staverton
Road site. This created a much-enlarged plot that
extended from Woodstock Road in the west to
Banbury Road in the east. Urged to contemplate
a grand vision for North Oxford by attendees of
the Ditchley Park retreat in 2016, the Governing
Body advertised a commission to create an
exciting masterplan for the site, which was
eventually won by Níall McLaughlin Architects,
with landscaping design provided by Kim Wilkie.
Overall, this project is the biggest the College has
undertaken since the original Staverton Road
site was commissioned. At the express request
of the Governing Body, Ivor agreed to remain
in post an additional two years beyond the
statutory maximum of ten to help oversee the
development of the masterplan. As Ivor leaves
office the College is poised to secure planning
permission for the McLaughlin design, and is now
busy putting in place a package of funding to
bring it into fruition.
Buildings and construction have not been the
only developments to have been presided over by
Ivor. In part triggered by a concern that escalating
undergraduate fees would deter students from
applying for graduate degrees, the College vastly
26 University College Record | October 2020