The College is delighted to announce that our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Louise Richardson DBE has been elected as Reuben College’s first Honorary Fellow. The election to the honorary fellowship is made in recognition all of Professor Richardson’s work and support in helping to establish the College.
Amongst her many achievements during her time in Oxford, Professor Richardson has raised £175m for the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, and spearheaded initiatives to improve access, making a commitment that by 2023 25% of the British students admitted to Oxford would be from under-represented backgrounds – compared to 15% in 2019. She also led the University’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic through her chairing of the University’s Silver Group.
The world-class research carried out by its academic staff, post-docs and graduate students was a major factor in Oxford’s rise to the top of the Times Higher Education rankings at the start of Professor Richardson’s tenure as Vice-Chancellor. To maintain its pre-eminence in research, Oxford needed to attract growing numbers of high-quality graduate students to join its world-leading research laboratories. The case for a new graduate college was made in the University’s 5-year Strategic Plan (2018-23).
The Vice-Chancellor, as Chair of the University’s Council, led the proposal to establish Parks (now Reuben) College as the University’s 39th college. Liesl Elder (Chief Development Officer), the Vice-Chancellor and President Lionel Tarassenko worked as a team to facilitate the Reuben Foundation's £71m gift to endow the college. Professor Richardson has continued to be supportive of the College’s aims and academic activities since then.
Professor Tarassenko commented that he was very much looking forward to Professor Richardson’s engagement with the Reuben community in her new role as Honorary Fellow.
