BURSAR’S REPORT

By Douglas Shaw

The short bursarial story is that St Peter’s delivers an amazing Oxford experience on only two thirds of the core spend of the average Oxford college. Our estate is used intensively as a consequence and there is never much slack in the system. As ever, we need to think our way through our issues because we have not the cash to enable simple fixes. In accounting terms, the College closed out the 2021/22 financial year less badly than we had anticipated at the start. A large budgeted operational deficit might yet scrape over the line as a tiny surplus. If so, in large part this is due to the extraordinary generosity of our alumni. Both those who donate directly to College and those who donate through the Foundation have given significant unrestricted support this year for which we are immensely grateful. Additionally, conference revenue in summer 2021 showed the green shoots of recovery and Visiting Student revenue beat earlier expectations. In summer 2022, it looks like our summer school partners Oxford Royal and Oxford Scholastica are having bumper years from which we too will benefit. It is a tribute to them that they have been able to dial down their businesses and then dial back-up so impressively when COVID allowed. Every single seminar room is being used and the queue of international teenagers for Hall is impressive! Sincere thanks to Mariola Serednicka, our Head of Housekeeping, and her team of scouts for turning College accommodation around so efficiently and to Charlie Kisiel and Jessica Black for hosting these and other conference partners over the year.

Inflation is an issue, however, with which our Finance Team, led by Kathryn Marshall, is grappling. Our cost base is experiencing double digit inflation across the board (the scope of capital works has been shrunk in response), whereas our revenue lines are seeing only single digit rises. Notably, governmentset per capita undergraduate fee income (about a third of our core income) is unchanged in 2022/23 vs 2021/22. The pinch is being felt. Energy costs are budgeted to be £500k in 2022/23 vs £180k this year. Members of College should expect a muscular approach to any suggestion of an open-window / radiator-on dynamic this winter. Energy costs have given strong additional impetus to our sustainability agenda. Led by Facilities Manager Lidia Hemmings, we have made an application to the Low Skills Carbon Fund.

This external funding, if received, will help us identify the most worthwhile energy/carbon reduction projects, be they secondary glazing or solar panels (record temperatures as I write!). This, in turn, might become a grant application for a Heat Decarbonisation Plan which, if successful, would pay for material, energy saving and carbon reducing capital projects around College.

In Michaelmas Term, we started a new system by which students pay for their food. For many years, we have operated Hall on a Pay As You Go basis. Older readers will recall that several previous systems have been used over the years and that cost control might not have been our strong point. But the footfall did not reflect the high fixed costs we incur in bringing ingredients from the Mair Gate to the table.

Having researched how others do it, we settled on retaining the PAYG basis but with a termly pre-paid minimum spend. The minimum spend is set at different levels depending on where one lives: more for those living in than for those in the annexes; more for those in the annexes than for those living out. We trialled this for Freshers alone in 2021/22 before rolling it out to all in 2022/23. The new system has delivered well: footfall increased and food sales were both more stable and more predictable. Having eaten their way through the minimum, most then topped up to continue accessing our good Hall food. And College community life and the social feel of the Hall have both been well served by the enhanced expectation of eating together on a regular basis.

Getting Hall back on track after COVID was an important milestone. The team, led by Colin Purvis, proved very adaptable at creating meals for walking around to those in isolation but it was a pleasure to see formal halls back on. I particularly enjoy seeing students’ parents at Thursday guest nights - it always suggests to me that junior members are proud of their own college and want to show it off. But, alas, after 24 years of terrific service, Colin decided to retire. He had overseen so many terrific evenings in Hall and he will be greatly missed. His eyes moistened as he bade us farewell over some cool beers on the Jonny Fraser Terrace over-looking the History Faculty. His wife, Angie, provided emotional support! We also said good bye to Joao Rodrigues, Colin’s long standing Second Chef and the beating heart of the kitchen. Joao, a Portuguese national, joined us from Nandos 14 years ago, acquired the nickname Elvis on account of his luxuriant and frequently changing hairstyles and became the finished article with us. He is moving to Spain with his young family. Obrigada, Elvis.

So, how to rebuild the kitchen brigade?

We had a terrific range of candidates with which to replace Colin. An interview process, more Ready Steady Cook than MasterChef, designed by Kevin Melbourne, our Domestic Bursar one year in to his role, saw Ave Davies appointed Head Chef. Tony Baughan, once of Wolfson, returned to Oxford, as Second Chef. The early signs are very promising and very tasty!

Our most material capital project is, of course, the Castle Hill House Project. Having excavated down, discovering archaeologicals of interest which delayed the start proper, we are now building up. 114 piles were driven 21 metres deep then filled with concrete. These are the foundations for the podium upon which Castle Bailey Quad, bounded by both Damazer and Westfield Houses, will sit. I am assured that I will be given the keys in the last week of May; I dare not tempt fate by remarking we appear to be on budget also, at this time. If this remains the case, these 54 extra rooms will be in the room ballot at the end of Michaelmas. We’ll still be 50 or so rooms short of a 100% offer to undergrads of living in for three years. So we remain on the hunt for more suites of rooms and we thank Andy Dore, Peter Minns (44 years of service going strong) and Gareth Hathaway for maintaining those we do have and our estate more generally.