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I M PACT R E P ORT 2021/22

Contents Thank you: your support matters to Mansfield.............................................................. 3 Mansfield: looking back and looking forward........................................................ 4 Access to Excellence: the McBain Access Officer...................................... 5 Advocacy, activism, and academia:

Maths at Mansfield, past, present and future: The Janet Dyson Fellowship in Mathematics......................................................... 10 ‘What’s important, what do I want to pass on?’: Leaving the gift of education to the next generation............................................ 12 Students: the reason we do what we do at Mansfield.................................................. 14

the life of a Sanctuary Scholar................................ 6

The impact of Mansfield’s generous alumni........ 16

Blazing a trail: the Jonathan Cooper

The impact of your gift............................................ 18

Chair of the History of Sexualities......................... 8

Get involved.............................................................. 20

Produced by the Development team Editors: Gemma McPhail, Outgoing Alumni Relations Manager; Francesca Rigby, Alumni Relations Executive and Shukria Rezaei, Communications Officer Copy Editor: Philip Harriss Design and print: Banbury Litho Photography: With thanks to the support of a generous alumnus, our photographer in residence this year is Ander McIntyre. The majority of images in the magazine are credited to Ander McIntyre and Ian Wallman, with our grateful thanks. The theme of this year’s ‘Impact Report’ is ‘welcome’. This publication has been printed at a carbon-balanced business, using low energy ‘LED’ drying presses which consume around 30% of the energy used by a conventional litho press. The LED press used is 100% alcohol (VOC) free. Plates are chemistry free and all paper used is sustainably sourced. The printer holds ISO 14001 & 9001 environmental certification. The paper used for this publication is FSC Certified. Any FSC accredited stock guarantees that trees harvested are replaced and the area is allowed to regrow naturally. FSC also ensures that parts of FSC managed forests are protected entirely to protect wildlife, plants and indigenous people within the forest. FSC is endorsed by major charities including WWF, Greenpeace and The Woodland Trust. The poly wrap used is made from potato starch, meaning that it’s completely biodegradable and can be put in your home compost.

Mansfield College Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TF T: +44 (0) 1865 270998 E: development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk W: www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk

Thank you: your support matters to Mansfield This year we wanted to produce a special publication to celebrate the impact of philanthropy on Mansfield College, to show you how your donations and your support are making a critical difference to the lives of our students, our academic community, and the future of our brilliant College. The ways in which alumni have contributed, over generations, and invested in the students of the future, has been fundamental to Mansfield becoming the thriving, inclusive and successful academic community it is today. Similarly, it is the actions we take now that will make the difference to Mansfield’s ability to flourish for future generations of exceptional students. I hope some of the stories about the impact of giving on our College inspire you. Turn to the very back page to see how you can play your part. We value every donation, and every donor, be it a monthly gift, or a pledge to support your College in your Will. I am so grateful to you all for your incredible support.

Helen Mountfield KC, Principal

Mansfield: looking back and looking forward Tess McCormick, Development Director & Fellow The past two academic years have been a turbulent time, yet they were truly inspiring in terms of philanthropy to our College. This report allows us to share just some of these uplifting stories. Through what in future we might call ‘the Covid years’, we have seen a huge increase both in terms of the numbers of alumni engaging with Mansfield – perhaps as a result of having to bring your College to you, online – and also in the support the College has been given. It has been beyond heartening to know that in the toughest of times, our alumni community were there for us, when we most needed you. From legacies to regular direct debits to one-off gifts via our new ‘Giving Days’: each and every way in which you support Mansfield, matters. Looking ahead there will be a new major campaign to meet our future challenges focusing on access, excellence, sustainability, and inclusivity. We shall meet those challenges together. For now, though, I want to say thank you, for your support and your belief in your College. I hope you feel proud of who we are today, and I hope you will come with us as we work towards sustaining Mansfield forever.

‘...each and every way in which you support Mansfield, matters.’ 4

Access to Excellence: the McBain Access Officer We were delighted this year to announce a generous gift of £1.65m from the McBain Family Foundation to support our efforts in widening access to Oxford, and to endow graduate scholarships in Human Rights Law at Mansfield. Most of this outstanding donation (£1m) will be used to endow the role of Access Officer at Mansfield. The post is pivotal in enabling College to sustain its vital work in reaching and supporting students with potential from underrepresented backgrounds, allowing them to thrive at Oxford. Mansfield is nationally renowned for its access work and is also a leader in supporting students after admission. We are determined to ensure the College remains welcoming to people from all backgrounds throughout their University career. The rest of the gift, plus partial match-funding from the University’s Graduate Endowment Match Scheme, will endow graduate scholarships at Mansfield, funding students undertaking a Master’s in International Human Rights Law at Oxford, in perpetuity. Mansfield’s Governing Body was extremely pleased to accept this donation, and to welcome alumnus, Alastair McBain, as a Bancroft Fellow, its highest philanthropic honour.

Alastair McBain

‘We are thrilled to receive this generous gift from the McBain Family Foundation. We have been very grateful to receive funding for our Access post in recent years from supportive friends and alumni of the College, but to have the post secured in perpetuity is a great boost and a compliment to our success. We look forward to continuing the work led by Helen Brooks our Director of Admissions. Sara Harb, our wonderful Access Officer since 2019, will sadly be leaving us in September 2022, but we are delighted to welcome as her successor as McBain Access Officer, Sarah Large.’ Lucinda Rumsey, Senior Tutor

‘Being a Sanctuary Scholar has changed the trajectory of my life, and I’m eternally grateful for that.’ 6

Advocacy, activism, and academia: the life of a Sanctuary Scholar Thanks to the generous support of the Council of Lutheran Churches, in 2021 Mansfield welcomed its inaugural Sanctuary Scholar, Ilham Abdalla Tagelsir Ali. Born and raised in Sudan, Ilham draws upon life in her home country for inspiration in all her pursuits: advocacy, academia and artistry. Ilham talked to us about her experiences, studying for an MPhil in SocioLegal Research. What are your research interests? They’re pretty diverse, but human rights research has shaped my entire academic career so far. My main interest is Sudan. My dissertation focuses on morality policing and the role of the Public Order police and courts in Sudan, with particular reference to the gendered dynamic of Public Order. I’ve also worked as a Research Assistant in the Centre for Law, Brain, and Behaviour at Massachusetts General Hospital. I examined the intersection of neuroscience and law, with a focus on juvenile justice. How we define legal behaviour in young people is loaded with ethical, social, and political considerations. It is a precarious situation that we must deal with delicately. A better understanding of young people’s brain development could transform how we deal with young offenders. My other research interests include urban planning in areas affected by conflict or the climate crisis. In Sudan, there’s a disproportionate number of internally displaced people in the capital, Khartoum. Reconsidering how we do urban planning in the context of mass displacement is crucial.

What have you found most challenging about your research? There is a real accessibility issue when searching for data and literature on my current research topic. It’s not that literature doesn’t exist, rather, Sudan has suffered under a horrible dictatorship and has been cut off from the rest of the world – particularly after US-imposed sanctions in the 1990s. The country has only recently been removed as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. It’s been difficult to gather my data. What have you learnt from your course, and how has your time at Mansfield, and more broadly studying at Oxford, equipped you for your future pursuits? I want to go into activism and work for a nonprofit think tank. Studying for the MPhil in Socio-Legal Research has diversified my research portfolio to include Social Sciences. The main thing I’ve learned is the importance of developing a methodology. How do I present data, and what are the ethics of this when I’m dealing with sensitive topics? At both Mansfield and Oxford, I have developed relationships with leaders in the field, unlike anywhere else. Being a Sanctuary Scholar has changed the trajectory of my life, and I’m eternally grateful for that. What role does academia play in social justice and activism? It’s important that scholarly work is connected to the real world, and is linked to policy, practice – and, of course, people. I also think that grounded, empirical scholarship plays an important role in shedding light on what’s happening on the ground. That’s why it’s crucial that academics use accessible language for readers. Education leads to positive change, especially if it’s made available to everybody.

Blazing a trail:

the Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexualities A new post to lead and expand the study and teaching of LGBTQ+ History at Oxford has been created at Mansfield, thanks to a £4.9m gift from Professor Peter Baldwin and Dr Lisbet Rausing, historians and co-founders of the Arcadia Fund (a prominent philanthropic foundation). The Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexualities has been established in the Faculty of History in association with Mansfield. It is the first fully endowed specialist post of this type in the UK. The professorship has been named in honour of Jonathan Cooper OBE, a barrister and inspiring advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ rights across the globe, who died suddenly in September 2021. Over the last 50 years, an increasing awareness about the narratives of people of diverse sexualities and genders has been one of the most significant developments in the discipline of history. LGBTQ+ History has a strong and growing presence in Oxford’s curriculum at all levels, and the Jonathan Cooper Chair will steer the direction of this research and teaching. Helen Mountfield KC, Principal of Mansfield College, commented: ‘As an Oxford historian, lawyer and a friend of Jonathan Cooper, I am proud that his enduring contribution to the history of LGBTQ+ emancipation will be recognised and celebrated by the post named in his memory.’

Who was Jonathan Cooper? Jonathan Cooper was a human rights barrister at the forefront of the fight to decriminalise homosexuality around the world. Jonathan, along with his husband, Dr Kevin Childs, had been working with Mansfield’s Principal and Development Director to establish a new Professorship of the History of Sexualities at Oxford before his sudden death in 2021. In 2011, Jonathan founded the charity the Human Dignity Trust, which defends the human rights of LGBT people. He practised for most of his working life at Doughty Street Chambers, alongside Baroness Helena Kennedy, former Principal of Mansfield, and Sir Keir Starmer, a founding member of Doughty Street. Both gave moving eulogies at Jonathan’s memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral in February 2022. We are enormously grateful to Dr Lisbet Rausing and Professor Peter Baldwin for establishing the Jonathan Cooper Chair in honour of their dear friend.

‘Remedying the past is possible, but only by acknowledging it. Then we can give visibility to all those who were erased. We can commemorate and celebrate. And we can say sorry.’

‘Jonny’s first love was history and if there’d been space in his life for him to be anything else he would have been an historian. So, it is particularly fitting that this first Chair of the History of Sexualities is named after him, for it acknowledges his passion and love as much as his reputation.’

Jonathan Cooper OBE

Dr Kevin Childs

Maths at Mansfield, past, present and future:

The Janet Dyson Fellowship in Mathematics In a career at Mansfield spanning 36 years, Dr Janet Dyson taught almost every cohort of Mansfield’s mathematicians. She has left an indelible mark on both the teaching of Maths and the College’s pioneering approach to access and outreach. In honour of Janet’s enduring legacy at Mansfield, our generous Maths alumni have made gifts at all levels to endow The Janet Dyson Fellowship in Mathematics in perpetuity. This endowment of £750,000 ensures that the College will always be able to provide tutorial teaching of Maths, thus safeguarding the precious method of education that allows Mansfield to thrive as a diverse and academically successful college. Chris Foster (Maths, 1997) has generously led the drive for support by providing a 1:1 match on all other donations to the Fellowship. Chris explains, ‘An opportunity to study Maths at Mansfield, especially under Janet, is something I will always be grateful for. Janet is a visionary who went looking for talent in uncovered places and was able to nurture that talent to always get the very best out of people. ‘Elite education is a lot like elite sport: you get the best long-term results when you invest in talent and cast the net as wide as possible. Mansfield has been a pioneer in the latter at Oxford, we just need to do more of the former. If you believe in human progress, we need to be directing more resources to the ultimate driver of that progress – education.’

‘What better way to honour Janet, and support world-class education opportunities for all, than through The Janet Dyson Maths Fellowship?’

Chris Foster (Maths, 1997)

Dr Janet Dyson, Emeritus Fellow and former Tutorial Fellow in Mathematics

‘What’s important, what do I want to pass on?’: Leaving the gift of education to the next generation An interview with Kathryn Flanders (Visiting Student, 1991)

What was Mansfield like when you were here? I came to Mansfield during my Junior Year of college, so 1991/92, and it was like walking into a whole new world. Mansfield was a great fit for international students – embracing this progressive sense of access and opportunity and creating chances for people who might not traditionally fit the ‘Oxbridge Profile’. And it was so valuable to find myself in a completely different environment, where I was not part of the same majority I might have been in back home at college, and to say: ‘Wait a second, who am I, how do I interact with the world?’ And you’ve been teaching English ever since? I worked through a master’s programme and then first got into teaching almost 28 years ago. I started working with younger children, and then moved up to high school level. I love teaching that age range, and the classroom has been a good fit for me in a lot of ways. And I was reading English at Mansfield too! I had some wonderful tutors and having to stand on your own two feet and defend your viewpoint in a very intimate setting – boy, does that force you to come prepared! There is an authenticity to the experience that is hard to replicate; I remember back at home I had friends who had done a whole Joyce seminar and I was thinking, ‘I was in a lecture with one of the top Joyce scholars, who probably wrote the paper you were reading!’

kids have what they need to be happy and successful in the world, but also ensuring that other people have the chance to experience the power of teaching as I did. Hopefully my gift will benefit somebody else that I’ve never even met – and probably never will! What do you hope that your gift will achieve? The world’s in such a difficult place right now, and I think we could all use a little more common sense, and insight, and education, and creativity, to address the problems that just seem to overwhelm us. It’s been so inspiring, just over the past couple of years, to see the practical impact Oxford is having on the world – look at the way we tackled Covid, for instance. These big problems in the world are going to need a collaborative, inclusive effort by people from a variety of backgrounds who bring things to the table that have been underrepresented in the past; no matter where you come from, you have something to offer that’s unique. Part of education is content – ‘this is the stuff you need to know’ – but part of it is the conversation. And I want to welcome people to that conversation. I think that also comes back to the tutorial system: the give and take, the back and forth. I hope that my gift to Mansfield will help bring people from around the world together to be part of the conversation and focus on solving the world’s problems together.

You’ve very generously left a gift to Mansfield in your Will. What led you to that decision?

You also make a donation to Mansfield every year – does the gift in your Will feel different from that?

My husband was also a teacher, a beloved educator who had worked in prisons with incarcerated persons before he came to work in the same school as me. So, both of us were teachers who believed in the value and power of education.

I think so! You know how there’s ‘Monopoly money’, theoretical money? As opposed to your monthly budget, your day-to-day ‘real’ money. The gift in my will feels a little more like that theoretical money – I can be generous with that, and I can plan differently, because I know it’s not going to impact on my shorter-term financial picture.

My husband passed unexpectedly in 2019. And he left such a lasting legacy through the process of his teaching. When I’m around town, I still meet his former students and they tell me how much they loved ‘Mr Flanders’, how he was the first person to tell them they could achieve something, the first person who believed in them. Teaching is important. So, in confronting and understanding my own mortality, as well as my husband’s, I’ve been thinking about the bigger picture – what’s important, what do I want to pass on? I’m not buying a yacht or a third mansion or anything like that, but what’s a good use of the resources I have? Certainly, making sure that my

What advice do you have for Mansfield’s students today? Oh boy! I think what served me well was embracing possibilities, saying yes to things. There’s no reason to say no! Your time at Mansfield is an opportunity to do something you’ve never done before. I think the students that I was with who really welcomed those – sometimes awkward, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes unfamiliar – opportunities were the ones who grew the most and enjoyed everything that Mansfield has to offer.

Students: the reason we do what we do at Mansfield Today’s Mansfield students are exceptional. Making the commitment to study at Oxford, in a more competitive environment than possibly ever before, and then gaining a place, is already impressive. Achieving this goal when you were the first in your family to go to university; or one of very few students at your school to receive an Oxbridge offer; or after you’ve arrived to study in the UK from a different country; or when you had always thought (perhaps even been told) that Oxford wasn’t for you – is still more admirable. Many of our students at Mansfield have overcome a number of these hurdles by the time they arrive here. This makes the support we provide to them at College even more critical. Over the past couple of years, we have received incredible donations from our alumni that have enabled us to ensure that Mansfield College can go above and beyond the norm to provide superlative support to our student community, even in the face of a global pandemic. In one particularly generous example, alumnus Mr Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989) from Germany has pledged £1.25m over five years. His donation

is to be administered flexibly by the College, in support of three areas: outreach and access work at Mansfield; the College’s communications; and to help students in all senses, especially in terms of pastoral care, well-being and welfare provision, academic support, and in ways that will benefit their future lives and careers. Just one example of how Jan’s transformational gift is having an impact is our employment of additional part-time Academic Support Tutors. By providing College-wide and individual study-skills support in areas such as time management, note-taking, and essay-structuring, these Tutors have helped our students gain academic confidence quickly, and so to make the most of tutorials and feedback. Recipients have reported that they find this advice invaluable. We feel we are breaking new ground in assisting our students, some of them from backgrounds of educational disadvantage, to excel at Oxford. In addition, also thanks to Jan’s support, we have been able to sustain increased resources for our welfare team, something that has proved to be of vital importance to our students through and post-Covid. Mitigating financial stresses, through providing direct hardship funds and bursaries, is similarly critical to Mansfield’s students. We do this to the best of our resources, in fair and transparent ways based on need. Gifts of all sizes to the Mansfield Student Support Fund, together contribute to the College’s ability to give the best support to all our remarkable students. We are deeply grateful for your ongoing generosity.

Jan Fischer (fourth from the right), the Principal and Kofi Annan Scholars

‘It means a lot to me to know that those who’ve studied here before me are playing a part in making my Mansfield experience what it is today. Whatever I go on to do in the future, the opportunities I’ve had and people I’ve met at Mansfield will stay with me.’ Harry Twohig (History, 2019)

The impact of Mansfield’s generous alumni Eleanor Crawford, Regular Giving Manager Mansfield’s community of supporters continues to grow and is providing crucial assistance to students here today. We are sincerely grateful to the 657 donors who, over the last year, have underpinned Mansfield’s commitment to be an open, inclusive and progressive College. Recent conversations between students and alumni have often gravitated towards how the College community has been impacted by Covid-19. As a result of the pandemic, Mansfield saw more students in need of welfare, academic, and financial support, following unexpected changes in family circumstances. However, thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, this year we were able to respond and direct more funding than ever before, towards helping the students who required it most. In 2021, Mansfield welcomed Ilham Abdalla Tagelsir Ali as our first Council of Lutheran Churches Sanctuary Scholar. Then in early 2022, Mansfield was one of the Oxford colleges that took part in a new initiative to raise funds to create new Scholarships to welcome graduate students from Ukraine. Many alumni kindly donated to both the Sanctuary Scholarship initiative, and our new Ukraine Scholarships, during Mansfield’s 135th Birthday Giving Day in May 2022. The 36-hour onsite and online fundraiser was a real community effort, with students, Fellows and staff all taking part in rowing and running challenges, and creating a human chain around the Quad to raise money for College. Together, more than 140 donors raised over £66,000 for priority projects including student support, and our Sanctuary and Ukraine Scholarships.

Reasons to be proud this year 657 donors supporting Mansfield

Over £66,000 given in one day by alumni and friends to provide life-changing educational opportunities

435 regular supporters securing our future

More than £10,000 has been raised to support a student from Ukraine

24 donors helping to welcome our first Sanctuary Scholar

Students celebrating Mansfield’s 135th birthday Giving Day

A student participates in the 36-hour running and rowing challenge

‘I needed to be at University during the lockdown, so I received funding to stay during the vacation. I am so grateful that this support was available, because it helped alleviate some of the challenges I was facing due to the pandemic.’ Matthew Bowen (Theology & Religion, 2020)

Clare Kavanagh, Librarian, rowing and reading during Giving Day

Giving Day

The impact of your gift A TOTAL OF

£7,908,753 FROM

WAS RECEIVED

657 DONORS

BETWEEN 1 AUGUST 2021 AND 31 JULY 2022

11,500 HOURS O F T UT ORI A L T E A C HI NG TO UND E RGRAD UATE S

105 ACCESS VISITS

57 LEGATORS HAVE LEFT A GIFT IN THEIR WILL TO MANSFIELD

With your generosity, this year we have supported half of our undergraduates and over a third of our postgraduate students through scholarships, bursaries and hardship funds. Was the teaching at Mansfield transformative for you? Are you inspired to support Mansfield to go above and beyond? Please get in touch with Tess McCormick on development.director@mansfield.ox.ac.uk or James Bennett on development.deputydirector@mansfield.ox.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss the impact of your giving on teaching, research and the student experience, or if you wish to leave a gift in your Will. 18

Get involved I want to talk about something visionary

Arrange a conversation with Tess McCormick (tess.mccormick@mansfield.ox.ac.uk) or James Bennett (joc.bennett@mansfield.ox.ac.uk).

I want to give to Mansfield

Make a gift securely online (https://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/making-your-gift). For more information on how to give to Mansfield, contact Eleanor Crawford (regulargiving.manager@mansfield.ox.ac.uk).

I want to leave a gift in my Will

Making a gift in your Will is one of the most powerful and transformative ways you can support your College. If you would like to discuss giving to Mansfield in your Will, in confidence and without obligation, contact James Bennett (joc.bennett@mansfield.ox.ac.uk).

I want to share my news with College

We want to hear from you! Email us at development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

I want to volunteer my time

If you would like to volunteer your time as an advocate, ambassador, or mentor for College, contact Fran Rigby (francesca.rigby@mansfield.ox.ac.uk). development@mansfield.ox.ac.uk

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