College Record 2022/23
The 2023/24 edition of the College Record, the formal record of the academic year at Wolfson College, Oxford. As well as recording the fellowship and membership of the College as it stood in 2023/24, the Record is a chance for members to look back on the previous academic year and take stock of the activities of our many research clusters and societies, to celebrate the achievements of our students, researchers and alumni, and to share news of interest with the whole Wolfson community. This year, alongside updates from members across the world, readers can find reflections on the life of Anders Celsius, Byzantine art, the legal fight for clean rivers in the UK, and Wolfson’s own mysterious Second World War bunker. The Record is edited by Dr Roger Tomlin.
The 2023/24 edition of the College Record, the formal record of the academic year at Wolfson College, Oxford.
As well as recording the fellowship and membership of the College as it stood in 2023/24, the Record is a chance for members to look back on the previous academic year and take stock of the activities of our many research clusters and societies, to celebrate the achievements of our students, researchers and alumni, and to share news of interest with the whole Wolfson community. This year, alongside updates from members across the world, readers can find reflections on the life of Anders Celsius, Byzantine art, the legal fight for clean rivers in the UK, and Wolfson’s own mysterious Second World War bunker. The Record is edited by Dr Roger Tomlin.
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Letter from the Bursar<br />
RICHARD MORIN<br />
This has been another challenging year<br />
for the <strong>College</strong> finances as inflation has<br />
continued to spiral and the increase in the<br />
cost of borrowing has brought about the<br />
inevitable write-down of investment values.<br />
Nevertheless, the underlying health of the<br />
<strong>College</strong> finances, along with our prudent<br />
and cautious approach, has enabled us to<br />
just about balance the books once again.<br />
Thanks to the kindness of alumni and others<br />
we have continued our decarbonisation<br />
programme and have managed to establish<br />
a new, permanently endowed research<br />
fellowship in memory of Sir Isaiah Berlin.<br />
This endowed Fellowship has been created<br />
from the amalgamation of small donations<br />
received for this purpose over many<br />
Richard Morin / Photo: John Cairns<br />
years, and shows that even the smallest of<br />
donations can grow into something substantial and important over time.<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
The adjustment in asset prices because of the increase in the cost of borrowing has<br />
resulted in a substantial fall in the value of our investments, with both public and private<br />
equity, as well as property, being challenged by the changing landscape. A predicted sharp<br />
drop in inflation has yet to happen, but it is still generally believed that inflation will diminish<br />
by the end of this calendar year, assuming of course that no other major catastrophes befall<br />
the economy.<br />
One of the saddest impacts of the current cost of borrowing is that we are no longer able<br />
to raise the £14 million that we had hoped to raise through the private markets to fund<br />
a new ‘Garden Building’ to accommodate fifty new student rooms on our south car park.<br />
The design has now been completed and planning permission achieved, and, originally, we<br />
had intended to borrow the money and service the debt through the income that the new<br />
rooms would have generated. The rise in the cost of interest rates unfortunately means<br />
that this is no longer possible, and we are therefore looking at other options, including<br />
WOLFSON.OX.AC.UK<br />
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