Annual Report
2021-2022
A message from the Warden and Chair of the Governing Body
It is my pleasure to introduce the College’s Annual Report for 2021/22. The last year has seen the return to something close to normality for the College community, following the COVID-19 pandemic that so affected the 2019/20 and 2020/21 years. Most students were able to come to Oxford and attend their course in person, although there remained a small number who were still unable to do so and who received their teaching throughout the year through online and hybrid classes.
Seminar and workshop activities picked up in all the College’s seven Research Centres (more details on this are in the College Activities Report at the bottom of this page), although many of these also continued to use hybrid formulas, not only because not all students were able to get to Oxford but also because of the discovery during the pandemic that it was possible to reach a global audience by offering an online format for our events and growing awareness of the need to cut down on the carbon footprint created by bringing in speakers from across the world.
The technological advances in online connectivity over the past three years have been impressive but we were reminded in the past year that in-person events are a very different experience to online ones. This was amply demonstrated by the very well-attended seminars arranged by our Visiting Parliamentary Fellows, Lord Paul Boateng and Baroness Kate Fall, around the invasion of Ukraine which included presentations, from some of the best-informed people in the US and the UK about the background and context of the war.
The year also saw the refurbished Hilda Besse Building gradually come back to pre-pandemic levels of activity. The refurbished dining hall – named the Wahba Dining Hall, in honour of Dr Magdi Wahba whose family made it possible for us to complete the work on the Hilda Besse Building – now has the largest seating capacity (around 320) of any college dining hall in Oxford and has helped our conference business pick up quickly towards pre-pandemic levels. This is and will continue to be a very important part of the College’s annual income.
At the Governing Body Dinner in June, the College bade goodbye and paid tribute to the contributions of two members of the Governing Body who were stepping down: Dan Healey to retirement and Chris Gerry to take up a new position at the University of Central Asia in Bishkek. The College during the year appointed three new Governing Body Fellows: Maryam Alemzadeh (Associate Professor in the History and Politics of Iran); Lenka Bustikova (Associate Professor in European Union and Comparative East European Politics), and Zbigniew Wojnowski (Associate Professor in Soviet History) who are all taking up their positions in time for the new academic year.
A conspicuous feature of the past two years has been how many Antonians have been playing important roles in the University’s governance: Tim Power is the Head of the Social Sciences Division; Diego Sanchez-Ancochea is Head of Development Studies; David Pratten is Head of Anthropology; Paul Chaisty is Head of Area Studies, in succession to Chris Gerry and before him Rachel Murphy. Nandini Gooptu has been elected to the University Council. David Johnson served as Senior Proctor and Devika Devika was the Vice President for Graduates. I suspect that there is currently no other college which has as many members so involved in helping the University steer its way through what look like very challenging times ahead for higher education in general and the University in particular.
Professor Roger Goodman
Looking forward and looking back
The last two years have seen a period of turbulence for the College, the UK and the globe. Despite our concerns early in the pandemic as to whether the College would withstand the pressures, our performance during this time has been strong; we continue to attract outstanding students from around the globe, and our finances have remained stable thanks to the hard work and commitment of our staff and Fellows. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are planning for a period of continued economic and political turbulence globally, and in this context, we have agreed on a set of strategic priorities for the next five years 2023-2028, which are intended to sustain and safeguard our successes.
Highlights and key stats from 2021-22 are set out below, along with our strategic priorities for the next five years. A full review of the finances and governance of the College, along with a round-up of activities in 2021-22 can be found at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can jump straight to this here.
We raised £9.3m to complete the refurbishment of our Grade II listed Hilda Besse building.
Home to the Dining Hall, Senior and Graduate common rooms, and the Buttery, The Hilda Besse sits at the heart of College life.
Our student body comprised 514 graduates, studying DPhil, MPhil, and MSc courses.
47% DPhil
25% MPhil
28% Master's
We are proud to say that 24% of our students were awarded scholarships
St Antony's is a truly cosmopolitan college; in 2021-22, 82% of our graduates were international students.
...and 283 Visiting and Associate College Members contributed to the rich diversity of our academic and social community.
2021-22 Awards and Prizes
MPhil student Laura Ballerini won the 2022 Eugene Havas Memorial Prize for 'best overall performance' for her MPhil in Development Studies.
St Antony’s Graduate, Elena Kiryakova was awarded the George Webb Medley Prize (proxime accessit) for the most outstanding thesis on Economics
Three St Antony's Governing Body Fellows, Laurent Mignon, Ramon Sarró and Chris Gerry, were included in the University of Oxford's Recognition of Distinction Awards.
St Antony's DPhil student Imran Visram was awarded the 2022 Oxford Student Union Award for Welfare, for going 'above and beyond to create a warm and welcoming environment for LGBT+ students at Oxford'.
The refurbishment of the College Hilda Besse Building was recognised by the Oxford Preservation Trust as the 'best building conservation project 2021'.
St Antony’s sustainability initiatives were recognised with a Bronze Green Impact prize at the 2022 Vice Chancellor’s Environmental Sustainability Awards.
St Antony's Fellow, Simukai Chigudu, won a British Academy/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship.
Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of St Antony's won a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship and the Ninth Annual Pushkin House Book Prize.
Strategic Priorities
2023-2028
Student experience
Our focus over the next five years is to improve and enhance the student experience.
We will do this by:
- increasing our accommodation provision and improving the experience for those living out of College.
- enhancing support for our part-time students and those living with their families in Oxford to ensure that the structures we have in place are right for all.
- strengthening our College Advisor system to improve the effectiveness of our pastoral support.
- making student support the focus of our fundraising efforts throughout 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Environment
We will conduct an audit of energy use across our estate and commission a condition survey, using the data that these reports will generate to identify priorities for investment. A key objective will be to cease the use of natural gas for heating, cooking and hot water while improving insulation and the fabric of our buildings.
We plan to maximise the College estate by reinvigorating the academic heart of the College in our Old Main Building, a counterpoint to the newly-refurbished social heart of the College in the Hilda Besse across the re-landscaped College quad.
We seek to reduce our Scope 2 and 3 emissions by decreasing meat and dairy consumption, limiting food waste, and putting in place policies on overseas travel and commuting. The College will continue to support the day-to-day efforts of our Green Impact Team with the goal of making St Antony's a more sustainable place to live and work. We are proud that our 2021-22 initiatives were recognised with a Bronze Green Impact award, and our focus this year is to achieve a Silver award.
Development and external affairs
We will improve our links with alumni through an enhanced Liaison Officer network, a telephone campaign in March 2023, and our continuing programme of webinars, podcasts, and The Antonian magazine termly issues. The Visiting Parliamentary Fellowship series and memorial events now sit with the Development Team and, under a new legacy strategy, we plan to improve our approach to stewarding and recognition.
We have agreed that student support will form the focus of our fundraising efforts throughout 2022/23 and 2023/24, and we have set ourselves the target to raise £500K to create 10 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Scholarships (for students who have done their first degree in a DAC country), with the ambition to secure funding on a rolling basis. Read more about the St Antony's DAC Scholarship. Other priorities are to raise £25k for the hardship fund and £100k for student activities.
In 2023, we will be hosting a 1990s Gaudy, for which we hope to welcome many alumni back to the College. We aspire to raise funds through this event for a special collectively endowed '90s DAC Scholarship' so that this cohort leaves a lasting impact on the College and future Antonians.
Communications
With the appointment of the College’s first Communications Manager in November 2021, there has been a renewed and more strategic focus on our communications channels and the ways in which we engage with our alumni and current College community.
We plan to enhance our online presence to better serve the needs of our external and internal audiences. Our focus in 2023 is to develop a new College website and intranet. We will also continue to work towards increasing our reach and engagement on the College's social channels and through our digital publications, which are: a weekly events bulletin, a weekly student newsletter, a monthly staff newsletter and a termly alumni magazine.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We will take forward the actions prioritised by our new external Equality & Diversity Committee and strengthen St Antony’s as a safe space for discussion and debate. Our new Code of Conduct will help to ensure that all those who are part of and visiting our community feel safe and supported in their interactions. We will invest in developing our people through new training and support for managers and staff. We will also improve the experience for our visiting College Members by anchoring and focussing support.
Records, archives, history
Led by a planned new appointment, we will review and catalogue the College records and archives.
We plan to research and publish an updated College history in celebration of our 75th anniversary in 2025. The College history was last documented in 2000 (The History of St Antony’s College, Oxford, 1950-2000 by Dr Christine Nicholls).
Governance and management
Effective governance and management enable and underpin all our work. Through our Governance Working Group, we will review our governance structures and implement changes to ensure that our approach is as robust as it can be.
We will agree on a new vision and mission for the College and its main Library to better communicate our priorities and core purposes.
All the while, we will maintain a focus on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of College operations, maximising the use of digital technologies to support our work.
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