Principal's Blog: 6 November 2025

Freshers Week

Freshers Week goes by in a whirl and within a few days the newbies are settling in and navigating their first reading list. I must confess that I generally make a similar speech, each year at the welcoming Hall meeting,  and for obvious reasons am not usually found out about this (save for the attending Fellows who know it by heart). I suggest to the students that they try everything in Oxford before settling on their main things to concentrate on (but not all at once) and that learning here will be different to school work. I distil these into some “Principal’s Principles” which I suspected folks forget as soon as I utter them. But apparently not – a student present this time was restarting their degree and did recall them! The message from all of us at Freshers’ induction is to be themselves, cherish their time with us, and remember to put their academic studies first. We are really well served by the JCR and HCR Freshers Week reps who put on a terrific schedule.

Sir Vernon Bogdanor

We had a great audience and great reception for our former Politics Fellow Sir Vernon Bogdanor who spoke about his latest book “Making the Weather”. This takes in the lives of six men who were political giants but did not make it to Number 10 such as Roy Jenkins, Enoch Powell and Nigel Farage (although the trajectory of the latter may yet compel a rewrite). He brought some fascinating perspectives on their careers from his long experience of watching politics and politicians.

Organ recitals

Our interim Director of Music, Alex Flood, has introduced organ recitals every fortnight on a Thursday lunch time. Christian Wilson who used to be our Director of Music and is now at Keble College gave the first recital in week 2 and showed what a wonderful and versatile instrument it is (for which many thanks again to Gerald and Margo Smith for enabling it). I look forward to the other concerts.

There was a full house for the Platnaeur Concert on 31 October, Halloween. This featured the acclaimed Tippett Quartet joined by the pianist Emma Abbate to perform Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 Op. 74 and the Schumann Piano Quintet in E flat major Op. 44. I reflected how much I will miss Oxford, sitting in the beautiful antechapel with its magnificent vaulted ceiling listening to world class musicians.

Chapel

Chapel has started the year very strongly with big attendances. So far this term we have welcomed as guest preachers in chapel the Revd Polly Falconer, the Racial Justice Advisor for the diocese of Oxford. Polly preached an excellent and deeply moving sermon as part of our Black History month service. We have also hosted the Revd Dr Lorraine Cavanagh, a theologian and writer, who has written on subjects ranging from the theology of the cross to surviving child abuse.

Congratulations

I want to congratulate Lola Wendon for her success in Finals.  She was the highest-graded First in her cohort in Fine Art and was awarded the Gibbs Prize as a result.  In other good news, Dr Clinton Lau’s excellent Biochemistry teaching has been recognised by the Medical Sciences Division in the form of an early career teaching award.

We also congratulate our Director of Music, Polina Sosnina  and her husband Alex, on the birth of their first child, Maia.