Preserving the future of tutorial teaching
World-class academics lie at the heart of Oxford’s programme of teaching. The tutorial system ensures that students have a very special opportunity to engage with, learn from and be challenged by them. This approach is fundamental to the University’s position as a centre of excellence, at both undergraduate and graduate level.
To secure the future of learning at Oxford, the underpinning of these teaching posts is critical. In recognition of this, in 2010 the University established the Teaching Fund with money derived from the Oxford University Press. The cost of endowing an existing teaching post through this fund is £2m. The Teaching Fund contributes £800,000 to each one, leaving a balance of £1.2m to be raised through philanthropy. To date, 63 key teaching posts across the academic divisions have been endowed in this way, towards a target of 75.
Dr Alexandra Gajda
Associate Professor in History and John Walsh Fellow and Tutor in History, Jesus College
Recent economic conditions have had a particularly harsh effect on funding of the humanities. In 2009 Jesus College began an appeal to part-endow its fellowship in modern history. It was to be named in honour of Dr John Walsh, in recognition of his enormous contribution to history teaching at Jesus.
It did not seem feasible to set a target higher than part-endowment, but towards the end of the appeal a major legacy changed the landscape dramatically. It came from David Jones, a retired history teacher who had sent a number of his pupils to Jesus College and who knew Dr Walsh. Added to gifts ranging from small but regular amounts to one-off larger donations, this legacy brought the total up to £1.2m – enough to access the University Teaching Fund and endow the fellowship in perpetuity.
Dr Alexandra Gajda, the John Walsh Fellow, teaches 16th- and 17th-century British and European history to undergraduates, and with postgraduates she focuses on English political, religious and intellectual history of the same period. One of her research projects is a study of English travel to continental Europe in the early modern period; she observes, ‘In our current world, it’s interesting to consider the ways that young gentlemen, future leaders of political society, viewed the relationship between the British Isles and continental Europe.’
Dr Walsh himself was known for valuing pastoral care as an important and unique aspect of the tutorial system. Dr Gajda agrees: ‘A large element of the job is ensuring that our students feel part of a community, through teaching and administration, and also looking after their welfare.’ To support this system and maintain history as a subject at Jesus, she explains, the endowment of the John Walsh Fellowship was ‘absolutely vital’.
Professor Nicholas Tosca
Associate Professor of Sedimentary Geology and Sackler Tutorial Fellow, St Peter’s College
‘The surface of Mars is a great vehicle for teaching,’ says Professor Nick Tosca, who has been involved with two Mars Rover missions through his work on the early evolution of the Martian surface. ‘Any sedimentary geology student can pick out key features that they might be able to recognise on Earth. They get a thrill that they are doing it on another planet and that the same principles of physics and chemistry actually hold.’
Professor Tosca also runs lab experiments chemically recreating ancient water from the traces left behind in sedimentary rock. He says, ‘We want the students to be critical thinkers. That’s the great thing about the tutorial system – the students just come up with the most amazing questions. And as a tutorial fellow you have to make sure you challenge them.’
Winner of the 2015 Mineralogical Society of America Award, Professor Tosca has found great satisfaction in acting as a conduit between students and cutting-edge research. He says, ‘I started doing this because I was fascinated in the science and the research problems, but I’ll probably keep doing it for the rest of my life because of the teaching.’
Professor Tosca’s post was endowed with support from the Sackler Family Foundation.
Professor Jonathan Herring
DM Wolfe–Clarendon Fellow and Tutor in Law, Exeter College
From the age of seven, Professor Jonathan Herring wanted to be a solicitor. After reading law at Oxford he went to work for a big London law firm, but did not enjoy what he remembers as ‘the huge focus on money'. He now concentrates his academic studies on the things which he believes are ‘the most important in life, which aren’t about making money but are our family, our friends, the values of love and care’. This covers care givers, dementia, vulnerable adults, children in care, and gay rights – aspects of the human condition which do not attract the funds available to corporate law.
Professor Herring is full of energy, teaching while seated on a large blue gym ball and literally bouncing with enthusiasm. The Oxford tutorial system is the perfect arena for exploring what can be controversial and emotive subjects. ‘Sometimes these issues have affected students in quite personal ways,’ he says, and teaching in small groups affords ‘space to hear someone’s story and help them to think through how they can learn from that, and use it in their legal thinking and their legal work’.
Professor Herring’s post was secured thanks to support from Woco Foundation.
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