Bursar’s Report

In 2020 we marked the 25th anniversary of Mansfield being awarded a Royal Charter, attaining full University of Oxford College status after its previous incarnation as a Permanent Private Hall.

Mansfield’s Royal Charter was officially granted by The Queen on 11 April 1995, but by that time the College had already established its reputation as an Oxford institution that did things a little differently. It was, for instance, the only Permanent Private Hall to be included within the University’s admissions process.

The Royal Charter was presented to the College on 24 June 1995 by The Lord Bancroft of Coatham (1922-1996), during a special day of festivities to mark the occasion. Those attending the College’s Royal Charter Day celebrations were treated to a musical performance by the ‘Royal Charter Wind Ensemble’, an exhibition entitled ‘From Theological Hall to Oxford College’, and a glut of strawberries and cream.

Mansfield was the first undergraduate college at Oxford to gain a Royal Charter for over 30 years, and as a consequence of its new status, the University Council increased the number of undergraduates permitted to study at the College from 132 to 162 students.

Since gaining its Royal Charter 25 years ago, College has changed in a myriad ways, yet Mansfield remains fully committed to the principles upon which it was founded. In 2020 we strive to reflect these progressive values: an ethos of openness; of inclusion for those traditionally excluded or marginalised; and a belief that academic excellence can be achieved at any time of life, under a variety of circumstances, and regardless of background.

At Mansfield, we strive to cultivate an atmosphere of self-reflection, questioning, and a culture of ideas. That spirit was called upon in response to the death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.

As an educational institution with a long history and a great deal of cultural power, Oxford University – like many other organisations – has been part of the social power structures that have upheld race inequality. We still live with racism and inequality, but in our own times, with our own mores, we have the power to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between different groups in society. Mansfield’s Fellows, College staff, MCR and JCR are working together to do just that. In particular, we are keen to ensure that diverse voices and perspectives are recognised, valued and responded to.

We are particularly proud that we were the first college in Oxford to start an ‘equality library’ of books and (during lockdown) online materials about race and equality. The project was supported by alumnus Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989), as part of his gift to College for varied initiatives this year. We have shared the idea with other colleges, with a view to diversifying and enriching thinking and areas of the curriculum considered worthy of exploration.

After being contacted by Mustaqim Iqbal (Jurisprudence, 2018), the JCR’s BAME Representative, with a modest list of suggestions for books that the Library could purchase to aid education on racism and racial issues, we set about reviewing our current collection and expanding the Library’s existing range of resources. After reaching out to students, staff, the Governing Body and others, we collated a list of more than 50 books crossing a wide range of disciplines, including Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors.

This will be an evolving and intersectional equality project with student well-being, collaboration and education at its heart. A Mansfield education is about considering and valuing all perspectives and voices, not just those traditionally at the fore.

Thanks to our wonderful librarians, Clare Kavanagh and Sally Jones, books are now distributed to the relevant sections throughout the Library, and there is also an accompanying guide and rotating display selection. We hope that in the course of students’ time with us, this initiative will help them encounter a more diverse curriculum, and become more aware, more critical, and more fruitful thinkers because of it.

In 2020, we celebrated 20 years since the inception of our highly successful Access to Excellence Campaign.

Launched by Professor David Marquand, Principal 1996-2002, and supported by Guy Hands, the Sutton Trust and the Higher Education Funding Council England among others, the initiative grew out of Mansfield’s mission as a College: to make an Oxford University education available to all those with the academic potential to benefit from it, regardless of educational background. As a result of innovative outreach efforts over two decades, particularly targeting Further Education and sixth-form colleges, Mansfield welcomed over 90% of its UK undergraduates from nonselective state schools in the academic year 2019/20; and more than 40% of its offer-holders were from the most disadvantaged educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the same year, on the Norrington Table, Mansfield was rated fifth of the 39 Oxford colleges for academic excellence. Our next step is to focus on helping students access equal chances after they leave the University, by supporting them to build social as well as educational capital. We believe it is essential now more than ever, that voices in leadership positions – whether in politics, industry, education or other sectors – better represent the diverse society that makes up the UK today.

Mansfield Access Ambassadors