Alumni back 'greatest campaign' (From The Oxford Times)

Alumni back 'greatest campaign'

6:47am Friday 6th June 2008

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The grimace so familiar to Have I Got News For You viewers appeared on the face of Ian Hislop as he joined an impressive gang of celebrities at the British Academy in London.

"I hope I get out of here with my wallet," he declared, having witnessed the official launch of Oxford University's campaign to raise at least £1.25bn.

As usual the Private Eye editor was bang on the money.

His old university (Hislop read English at Magdalen in the early 1980s) will certainly be looking to its alumni to back the largest fundraising campaign in European university history.

But then it will also be looking to charitable foundations, trusts, multi-national companies and the general philanthropic public with the odd thousand to spare.

How other educational institutions must look enviously upon Oxford University on days like last Wednesday's campaign launch.

It had no trouble mustering a group of instantly recognisable and respected figures like Michael Palin, Sir Roger Bannister and Richard Dawkins, spanning the worlds of entertainment, broadcasting, sport and science.

Nor could many red-brick universities lay hands on such impressive photocall 'props' as the first Wycliffite Bible, the last photograph taken by J.R.R. Tolkien and the original maquette for Nicholas Hawksmoor's designs for the Radcliffe Camera.

And most crucially there was news of the £575m that Oxford University had managed to raise, even before its new fundraising campaign was publicly launched.

There had also been a pre-launch gift from Dr James Martin, the largest single gift in Oxford's history, to create a 21st Century School three years ago.

A couple of big new announcements were, however, nicely timed for the launch.

The Syrian-born businessman Wafic Said, whose money was responsible for the establishment of the Said Business School in Frideswide Square in 1996, is to contribute £25m to a strategic development fund at the school that bears his name. A similar sum has been pledged by the Garfield Weston Foundation towards the development of the New Bodleian.

It is proof, if any were needed, that this campaign will not only transform Oxford University, but the physical face of Oxford as well.

Turning the 10.5-acre site of the old Radcliffe Infirmary into a flagship site for teaching and research in the heart of the city is expected to soak up £600m, far exceeding the original estimate of £240m.

It represents the university's most ambitious construction project in more than a century, establishing a campus for the humanities and a Mathematical Institute in the heart of the city. To be known as the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the project is likely to take between 15 and 20 years to complete, easily outlasting the so-called 'campaign of campaigns' itself.

The appeal will include a whole range of building projects, all with different completion dates.

The new Institute of Cancer Medicine, which will become Europe's leading centre devoted to cancer medicine, uniting more than 250 researchers and clinicians, will be opening later this year.

The £61m campaign to transform the Ashmolean Museum, with an extension providing 100 per cent more display space, three new environmentally-controlled galleries, a new education centre and Oxford's very first rooftop cafe, is due to open in November next year.

As for the Bodleian Library, the guests at the launch were spared the convoluted planning battle, sparked by the university's insistence that the redevelopment of the New Bodleian is dependent on it getting planning permission to create a £29m book depository on the Osney Mead industrial estate.

The key message about the Bodleian at the launch was that priceless books are having to be stored next to ageing pipes and creaking air conditioning machinery in sub-standard conditions in Broad Street. And the biggest library reorganisation ever undertaken could finally see the Bodleian's treasures properly displayed in a revamped New Bodleian.

Quite a list; and that is just for starters.

Lord Patten, the university's chancellor, could hardly be accused of exaggeration when he described the campaign "as a bold endeavour requiring courage and commitment".

A century ago the university had launched an appeal for £250,000.

Seventy years ago it set itself the target of raising £500,000 to secure its long-term future.

And most recently, in the late 1980s, back in the Thatcher era, when, as a Tory minister, Chris Patten was not held in quite the same affection in Oxford as he is now, the Campaign for Oxford was launched to raise £225m.

But Oxford Thinking, as the new campaign is to be branded, is on an altogether different scale.

Sue Cunningham, the woman charged with raising such a colossal sum, sounded relaxed about the hard work, arm-twisting and charm offensives that surely lie ahead, with the additional pressure that Cambridge is already three years into its own £1bn appeal.

"It has been almost four years in the planning," she disclosed. "It was certainly inspired by the arrival of John Hood, who came as vice-chancellor with a number of things he wanted to achieve."

Ms Cunningham was appointed as director of development for the University of Oxford, having spent five years at Christ Church overseeing the college's Capital Campaign.

One of the remarkable aspects of the appeal is that it will act as an umbrella for the campaigns and appeals run by the fiercely independent Oxford colleges.

It means, says Ms Cunningham, the embarrassment of colleges and the university knocking on the same doors should be avoided.

"All the heads of colleges have signed up to the campaign," said Ms Cunningham. "There are anxieties and sensitivities. But what is essential about all this is trusting each other and earning that trust."

Revealingly, the conversion of the St Cross Church in Holywell into an Historic collection centre for Balliol, supported by the Shirley Foundation, was among the high-profile schemes to be highlighted at the launch.

Ms Cunningham said there was nothing hard and fast about the appeal, which would be flexible enough to include high-priority schemes coming forward from the colleges.

But at the same time, close attention would have to be paid to the donors themselves, she said.

"Potential donors will decide exactly what they want to support and we should listen to them."

She believed that the final total could well exceed £1.25bn. And you will not find anyone at the university willing to say for how many years the campaign will continue.

It will certainly be a new weapon in Oxford's prolonged and difficult bid to be seen as a university that is accessible to students from all backgrounds.

In addition to supporting some 200 academic posts, some of the money will go towards helping students from poor families, with new bursaries.

With the Sutton Trust charity last month reporting that pupils from 100 elite schools dominated a third of places at Oxford and Cambridge, the Al Jazeera correspondent Rageh Omaar had little trouble linking the appeal with anti-elitism.

The man known as the 'Scud Stud' said: "It is important to make sure that benefactors give us as much as possible so it doesn't end up that only those whose parents can afford to send them to Oxford, get to Oxford."

Michael Palin, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on the global benefits that the campaign could bring: "Oxford has a tremendous attraction for people abroad. A third of all students are from abroad, and as someone who travels a lot, I think this is one of the strongest things about Oxford and about this appeal.

"Whether you like it or not, it is an international market we are competing against, and that includes Harvard and the big spenders in America."

Thinking Oxford certainly sees Oxford striding further than ever before down the path of an American system of donations from alumni and benefactors.

Reliance on Government funding is not an option - even if the former Brasenose student featured on the campaign publicity material becomes the 26th Oxford-educated Prime Minister. No wonder Ian Hislop is not letting go of his wallet.

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