Transcript: Vice-Chancellor's start of Trinity term 2025 message
Dear colleagues,
I hope you had a good break over the Easter period and are energised and ready for all that Trinity term brings.
I'm speaking to you today from the Faculty of English Language and Literature. It's another one of our fantastic faculties that has been ranked top in the QS World University Rankings for the last nine years. As well as academic lectures, students are able to attend regular creative writing workshops, learning from high profile writers and poets such as David Baddiel, Rachel Cusk, Alice Oswald and the current Visiting Professor of Creative Media, Sir Stephen Fry.
The faculty will be one of those moving to the Schwarzman Centre, Oxford's brilliant new home for the Humanities, later this year, so I'm delighted to speak to you from here during their last term on this site.
There are also several public lectures happening this term here, so do check out their website and come along and listen and learn.
This term will feature a focus on climate and how our academic community, across disciplines, departments and divisions, can come together to help solve the climate crisis.
Researchers from the University are working with academic colleagues, governments, industry and local communities around the world to help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, remove harmful greenhouse gases from our atmosphere, and reverse nature's decline.
They're working to help society adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing climate, striving for a just and equitable transition to a planet less dependent on carbon.
In the first week of June, we will be co-hosting a global summit on climate change and human rights with the United Nations and the International Universities Climate Alliance.
This will feature a range of academic, cultural and public engagement events across Oxford, and a 24-hour virtual plenary on 5 June, World Environment Day, following the sun from the University of the South Pacific to the University of São Paulo via the Sheldonian Theatre.
Over the last few months, we've seen progress on a number of key initiatives designed to enhance experience for working at Oxford.
Thank you to everyone who's engaged with the Academic Career and Reward Framework (ACRF). In response to your feedback, the steering group held in-depth working groups during Hilary term, and this input has shaped a revised timeline, with wider consultation now set for Michaelmas term. You can find updates and contacts on the ACRF web pages.
The 2025 Staff Experience Survey has now closed. Thank you to all who took part. Your views matter, and we look forward to sharing the findings and next steps soon.
There is more to come: over the coming months, a number of our short-term initiatives on Pay and Conditions will progress through their governance pathways, and you'll see an increase in those being launched.
You can expect updates on housing, travel, nurseries, TOIL, access to sporting facilities, and a new Employee Assistance Programme.
During Trinity term, we'll also pilot a project to review the University's approach to volunteering and community engagement.
As someone who's walked the path from postdoc to principal investigator, I know how vital support is at every stage of an academic career. That’s why backing early and mid-career researchers is a personal and institutional priority.
Building on our concordat progress, we are launching a new five-year plan focused on equipping academic leaders with inclusive leadership skills, embedding professional development and annual reviews into research culture, and reshaping employment practices for staff on external funding.
These actions reflect both my lived experience and our commitment to creating a thriving, sustainable research environment where talent is nurtured and careers can truly flourish.
There are a number of events for you to be part of this term, such as the Open Forum on People on 18 May, and please do join me at the Sheldonian on Tuesday 13 May for the final Sheldonian Series of this academic year. Our panellists will be debating the limits and challenges to truth today, and I warmly encourage you to come along and contribute your own questions.
Sign up to secure your place at the event in the link provided or via the Sheldonian Series website.
Lastly, the ever-popular Finance webinar series sees the next event for staff on 9 June. We're doing a lot of financial planning at the moment to support our essential investments. Please do attend the webinar to find out more.
Digital Transformation continues to support colleagues across the University to adopt new technologies: at a recent Build-a-Bot event, over 100 staff explored how custom AI tools can support their roles.
New tools like ChatGPT Edu and Microsoft Copilot are simplifying tasks and unlocking innovation across research, teaching, and administration supported by the AI Machine Learning Competency Centre.
And finally, you will see adverts going out this term for the roles of Pro-Vice-Chancellor in Education and Pro-Vice-Chancellor in Planning, Resource and Allocation. My two wonderful colleagues, Martin Williams and David Prout, will be completing their roles in early September, so we will be recruiting their replacements in the coming months. I will say more at the end of this term about them both and their many, many contributions to this great University. But let me here start by thanking them both on your behalf and mine deeply for their work, which will continue non-stop in their remaining months, I am sure.
Well, that's it for now. I wish you a productive and enjoyable term ahead. Stay well.
Relevant links:
- Faculty of English
- Oxford tops QS World University Rankings in English
- Climate campaign: www.ox.ac.uk/climate-and-environment
- Recent highlights from Oxford’s climate work:
- The Academic Career and Reward Framework
- Pay & Conditions
- Concordat Action Plan
- Open Forum events
- Sign up to the Sheldonian Series event
- Generative AI at Oxford
- University Officers
