Vice-Chancellor speaks with Kellogg members
On Tuesday 1 November we were delighted to welcome University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Louise Richardson, to our Hub for a chat with Kellogg President Professor Jonathan Michie and Q & A session with College members.
Professor Richardson, who is also a Kellogg Honorary Fellow, spoke with Professor Michie on various subjects, including diversity at Oxford, limited short-term funding for research staff, and the work being done to promote Humanities at Oxford.
During his introduction and in his recent blog about the event, Professor Michie writes:
‘In 2016, the Times Higher had never ranked a UK university as the global number one. That changed in Professor Richardson’s first year as VC, when Oxford was ranked number one. This has continued for each year since. In the 2022 publication giving the full listing, the VC, far from simply reporting Oxford’s strengths and successes, stressed the importance of doing more for early career researchers. She repeated this call at our “In Conversation” event.’
Professor Richardson also noted that, in spite of difficulties faced by research staff at the moment – with limited and short-term funding and contracts – Oxford managed to produce a Covid vaccine, which she was extremely proud of.
The Professors also discussed sustainability, and reminisced about the opening of Kellogg’s Hub building in 2017, the first passivhaus certified building at the University of Oxford:
‘A major topic discussed was environmental sustainability, so it was fitting that the event was in our Hub, with the plaque commemorating the Vice Chancellor’s official opening of the building on June 17th 2017, when she had congratulated Kellogg on having the only passivhaus-accredited building in the Collegiate University, and said she hoped that others across the University would follow our example. More than five years later, our Hub remains the only building in the Collegiate University to have achieved this. Professor Richardson was pleased to report, though, that the new Life and Mind building – the largest construction project in the University’s history – is also aiming to achieve passivhaus accreditation. We will be in good company.’
In January 2023, Professor Richardson will be leaving her role as VC to take up the post of President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. When asked what she would miss most about Oxford, Professor Richardson said she would miss the greenery, architecture, and beauty of Oxford.
Read more about what was discussed in Professor Michie’s blog, My ‘in conversation’ with Dame Professor Louise Richardson
Images John Cairns Photography
