Wolfson Plans & Prospects 2019

President’s message
How can I help Wolfson
College as an organisation
best support its students and
Fellows, who are the reason
we exist?
A message
from the President
Sir Tim Hitchens
Since becoming President of Wolfson
College in May 2018 I’ve often been
asked how I’m finding it. To which my
answer is that it’s proved one of the
most stimulating periods of my life. I
am shifting from one strong culture –
the discretion, efficiency, and political
discipline of public service (when at its
best!) – to another – the independence
of thought, creativity and competition
of ideas which is Oxford University
(again, when at its best…). Every
day I meet someone whose research
interests fascinate and challenge me.
And every day I discover something
else new which Wolfson people
are discovering. Haruki Murakami
famously said that if you only read the
books that everyone else is reading,
you can only think what everyone else
is thinking; being at Wolfson is like
reading a whole new library.
So the question I ask myself is: “how
can I help Wolfson College as an
organisation best support its students
and Fellows, who are the reason we
exist?”.
I have deliberately taken my time
in thinking through where Wolfson
College should go in the next ten
years. I have lots to learn, both of
Oxford process and culture, and
also the views of all those people
who make up a College and whose
opinions matter: the Fellows, the
students, the Emeritus Fellows, the
College supporters, the staff. I’m not
in a hurry, and the Governing Body
isn’t in a hurry, to uproot things which
work well.
Now, after twelve months in the job, I
have come to three broad conclusions
which seem to me important.
First, that at Wolfson we provide an
extraordinary home in Oxford for our
students from around the world. The
architecture of Powell and Moya,
expressing confidence in the future
and wearing so much better than
any other piece of 1970s architecture
I know. The culture of friendliness,
informality and intimacy which sets
us apart from so many other parts of
Oxford. The family friendliness.
And yet we can provide rooms here
for fewer than half our students,
and not all our first-year students
who want one. So it is a priority to
increase the number and quality of our
accommodation, while ensuring rents
stay affordable.
Second, that Hermione Lee’s brilliant
insight was that without an intellectual
heartbeat, a graduate college risks
becoming simply a boarding house.
The new Academic Wing, Auditorium
and this year the Buttery give us
great assets. Our clusters have
moved the intellectual heart of Oxford
a little further northwards. We are
playing to our strengths, particularly
our strengths across all of Oxford’s
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2019 . 1