Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer colleges, having been founded in 1937, as well as one of the smallest, with around 90 postgraduate students and 60 academic

fellows Fellows may refer to Fellow, in plural form. Fellows or Fellowes may also refer to: Places *Fellows, California, USA *Fellows, Wisconsin, ghost town, USA Other uses *Fellows Auctioneers, established in 1876. * Fellowes, Inc., manufacturer of wor ...

. It was also the first Oxford college to accept both men and women, having been coeducational since its foundation. Its architecture is designed to conform to the traditional college layout and its modernist spire is a landmark for those approaching

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

from the west. As of 2021, the college had an estimated

financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...

of £282m. Due to its small intake, it was the wealthiest educational institution per student in the world as of 2013. Since 2017, Nuffield has committed to underwriting funding for all new students accepted to the college.

History

Nuffield College was founded in 1937 after a donation to the University of Oxford by Lord Nuffield, the industrialist and founder of Morris Motors. On 16 November 1937, the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

entered a Deed of Covenant and Trust with Lord Nuffield.Loveday He donated land for the college on New Road, to the west of the city centre near the mound of Oxford Castle, on the site of the largely disused basin of the Oxford Canal.Tyack, p. 300 As well as the land, Nuffield gave £900,000 to build the college and to provide it with an endowment.Colvin, p. 174 For the creation of Nuffield College and for his other donations he was described in 1949 by an editorial in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' as "the greatest benefactor of the University since the Middle Ages". From its inception, Nuffield College initiated a number of trends at both Oxford and Cambridge. It was the first college to have both women and men housed together. It was also the first college to consist solely of graduate students. In addition, it was the first in modern times to have a defined subject focus, namely the social sciences. Nuffield appointed its first fellows in 1939, but the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

meant that the college's construction did not begin until 1949. During the War, Nuffield hosted the Nuffield College Social Reconstruction Survey, which examined issues related to post-War reconstruction. Nuffield admitted its first students in 1945, and received its

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

from the hands of the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...

on 6 June 1958.

Buildings

Nuffield is located on the site of the basin of the Oxford Canal to the west of

. The land on which the college stands was formerly the city's principal canal basin and coal wharfs.. Nuffield College Tower

The architect

Austen Harrison Austen St. Barbe Harrison (1891–1976) was a British-born architect. While British, Harrison spent most of his career overseas, and mainly in the Middle East. His works include the British Representative's Residence, Amman, the High Commission ...

, who had worked in Greece and Palestine, was appointed by the University to design the buildings. His initial design, heavily influenced by Mediterranean architecture, was rejected by Nuffield, who called it "un-English" and refused to allow his name to be associated with it. Harrison reworked the plans, aiming for "something on the lines of Cotswold domestic architecture", as Nuffield wanted. The plans were approved by Lord Nuffield in 1940. Construction of the college began after the war in 1949. Restrictions on construction after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

meant that work on the college was not completed until 1960. The original plan for the college to occupy land on both sides of

Worcester Street Worcester Street is a street in west central Oxford, England. History The street used to be called Stockwelle Street, also running along the line of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street, to the north of the current Worcester Street. T ...

was scaled down as a result of budget and material shortages, and to this day the land to the west of the college is occupied by a "temporary" car park. In one change, the tower, which had been planned to be ornamental, was redesigned to hold the college's library. It was the first tower built in Oxford for 200 years and is about tall, including the flèche on top. The buildings are arranged around two quadrangles, with residential accommodation for students and

in one, and the hall, library and administrative offices in the other. The chapel has

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows designed by John Piper. The architectural aesthetic of the final design, particularly the tower and its flèche, has attracted some criticism; unlike the other "dreaming spires" of Oxford, Nuffield's tower is a masonry-clad steel-framed book-stack. The architectural historian

Sir Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840' ...

said that Harrison's first design was Oxford's "most notable architectural casualty of the 1930s";Colvin, p. 166 it has also been described as a "missed opportunity" to show that Oxford did not live "only in the past".Richards Reaction to the architecture of the college has been largely unfavourable. In the 1960s, it was described as "Oxford's biggest monument to barren reaction".Smith, p. 28 The tower has been described as "ungainly",Tyack, p. 301 and marred by repetitive windows. The travel writer

Jan Morris (Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the ''Pax Brita ...

wrote that the college was "a hodge-podge from the start".Morris, p. 205 However, the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, although unimpressed with most of the college, thought that the tower helped the Oxford skyline and predicted it would "one day be loved".Pevsner, p. 65 The writer Simon Jenkins doubted Pevsner's prediction, and claimed that "vegetation" was the "best hope" for the tower – as well as the rest of the college.Jenkins

Research

Around a third of Nuffield's

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s hold appointments at the University of Oxford as lecturers, readers or professors. In addition, the college fully funds around a dozen "Official Fellowships", which the college views as tenured research professorships (although most also teach on the University's graduate programme), and about a dozen three-year Postdoctoral research fellows. The college also houses a number of young scholars who hold distinguished awards, such as

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

post-doctoral fellowships, some senior research fellows and a group of research-active

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

and honorary fellows. The college also produces works in the Nuffield Election Studies. The college is also home to the Centre for Social Investigation, an interdisciplinary research group examining inequalities and social progress in Britain. The college was the birthplace of the "Oxford School" of

Industrial Relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, ...

; it pioneered the development of cost-benefit analysis for developing countries; and it has made a major contribution to the

methodology of econometrics The methodology of econometrics is the study of the range of differing approaches to undertaking econometric analysis. Commonly distinguished differing approaches that have been identified and studied include: * the Cowles Commission approach * th ...

Sport

Rowing at Nuffield is in association with the Linacre College Boat Club.

People associated with Nuffield

Notable students and fellows

Many prominent people have studied at Nuffield, including Mark Carney, former Governor of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

, former Prime Minister of India,

Geoff Gallop Geoffrey Ian Gallop (born 27 September 1951) is an Australian academic and former politician who served as the 27th Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and director of the Graduate School of Government a ...

, former Premier of Western Australia and

Nicholas Stern Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, (born 22 April 1946 in Hammersmith) is a British economist, banker, and academic. He is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Cli ...

, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and President of the

. Notable fellows have included psephologist David Butler, political philosopher

Michael Oakeshott Michael Joseph Oakeshott FBA (; 11 December 1901 – 19 December 1990) was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of ...

, political theorist and economist G. D. H. Cole, researcher of inequality Tony Atkinson, and statistician David Cox, who served as Warden between 1988 and 1994. Among the college's fellows and former fellows are three

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureates,

John Hicks Sir John Richards Hicks (8 April 1904 – 20 May 1989) was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economic ...

, James Mirrlees, and

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...

. Visiting

s include Stephanie Flanders, former BBC economics editor, Tim Harford, author and economist, and George Soros, investor and philanthropist. In 2008, a third of all economists who were fellows of the British Academy had connections to Nuffield, as did a quarter of all political science, sociology and social statistics fellows. File:Mark Carney World Economic Forum 2013 (3).jpg, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England File:Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in WEF ,2009.jpg,

, former

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

File:Geoffrey Gallop Midland (cropped).jpg,

, former Premier of Western Australia File:Nicholas Stern - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2009.jpg,

, economist and academic File:Stephanie Flanders - Chatham House 2011.jpg, Stephanie Flanders, journalist File:Tim Harford in 2012.jpg, Tim Harford, economist and journalist File:George Soros 47th Munich Security Conference 2011 crop.jpg, George Soros, business magnate File:Nci-vol-8182-300 david cox.jpg, Sir David Cox, statistician File:Robert Skidelsky, IEIS conference «The Politics of Virtue, the crisis of liberalism and the post-liberal future».jpg,

Lord Skidelsky Robert Jacob Alexander, Baron Skidelsky, (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Skidelsky read history at Jesus ...

, economic historian

Wardens

* Sir Harold Butler, 1938–1945 * Sir Henry Clay, 1945–1949 * Alexander Loveday, 1949–1954 * Sir Norman Chester, 1954–1978 *

Michael Brock Michael George Brock (9 March 1920 – 30 April 2014) was a British historian who was associated with several Oxford colleges during his academic career. He was Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1978 to 1988. Youth and education Michae ...

, 1978–1988 * Sir David Cox, 1988–1994 * Sir Anthony Atkinson, 1994–2006 * Sir Stephen Nickell, 2006–2012 *

Sir Andrew Dilnot Sir Andrew William Dilnot, (born 19 June 1960) is a Welsh economist and broadcaster. He was formerly the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002, and was Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford between 2002 and 2012. As of ...

, 2012–present

Visitors

The Visitor of Nuffield College is ''ex officio'' the Master of the Rolls, currently Sir Terence Etherton.

Gallery

File:Flight 9.9.06b 011.jpg, Aerial view showing Nuffield College and

Castle Mound Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conf ...

at centre left File:Nuffield College - geograph.org.uk - 1479917.jpg, The spire of Nuffield is prominent in the Oxford skyline File:Nuffield College corner.jpg, College buildings at the corner of New Road and Worcester Street File:Nuffield College From Castle Mound, Oxford - geograph.org.uk - 1614860.jpg, Nuffield College from the top of Castle Mound File:Nuffield College quad.jpg, Sculptures and a pond in the Quad File:Nuffield College windows.jpg, Windows of the lower quadrangle File:Nuffield College, Oxford.jpg, The view from street level File:Nuffield west gate.jpg, The west gate

References

;Notes ;References ;Bibliography * * * * * * * *

External links

*
Virtual Tour of Nuffield College
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1937 Colleges of the University of Oxford 1937 establishments in England