New Pro-Vice-Chancellor appointed

Professor William James, Professor of Virology, Fellow of Brasenose College and James Martin Fellow, is to become Oxford University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources), in August. In the role Professor James will be responsible for institutional and strategic planning, and resource allocation. Professor James said: 'I'm very honoured to have been chosen to coordinate the University's plans to make best use of its resources in support of its academic priorities. We have entered a period of financial uncertainty, and it will be important for Oxford to use its collective wisdom to sustain our unique contributions to the world of knowledge and continue to open new areas of scholarship. My role will be to ensure resources are most efficiently deployed to support these goals, and to reduce risks to our long term academic achievements by careful joint planning.' Among his duties as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor James will chair the University's Planning and Resource Allocation Committee; take lead responsibility for ensuring the successful implementation and evolution of the objectives within the University's current Strategic Plan; and chair the Joint Teaching and Student Funding Review Group, developing policy following recent developments in national policy on teaching and student funding. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: 'At a time of great change for higher education it is vital that we make the right decisions about how to support and sustain the excellence of our teaching and research in the years ahead.