There is a significant Australian presence at Oxford University, as in so many other aspects of UK life. I have just spent a fascinating day there.
First, I attended the opening of the new global HQ of Australian company SAE Institute which runs 54 creative media training institutions in 26 countries around the world. The opening ceremony was performed by HRH The Duke of York, to the delight of staff and students. It was fascinating to chat to the group’s founder Tom Misner, who started as a session musician before building up this global business.
I visited the University’s Pitt Rivers Museum of archaeology and anthropology, which has a world renowned collection of Australian indigenous artefacts. I met Christian Thompson one of the first two Aboriginal students to study at Oxford. He is working on his doctorate, with the support of a Charlie Perkins scholarship to which the British Foreign Office is contributing. He was a really impressive individual, already an acclaimed artist as well as an academic.
I also met the University Librarian Sarah Thomas, at the breathtakingly beautiful Bodleian Library to discuss an exhibition of rare Persian manuscripts which they will be mounting at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne in March.
I spent the evening at Rhodes House, as guest of its dynamic Warden, Dr Don Markwell, who had invited 20 or so Australian Rhodes Scholars around for dinner. There are nine in each year, one from each state and three from an Australia-wide selection. It is an extraordinarily distinguished scholarship, and their predecessors include former PM Bob Hawke and current Opposition leader Tony Abbott. I really enjoyed chatting to the students, who combine high academic ability with wide-ranging extra-curricular interests. I was pleased to hear that they are having a fantastic time at Oxford, which will have a huge impact on their professional lives. I’m sure it will also leave them with an abiding affection for the UK.