Vice-Chancellor’s Oration 2018

Professor Louise Richardson has delivered her annual Oration to the University in Convocation House. Here is the full text of the speech: Colleagues, Good morning. Thank you for making the time to attend the ceremony this morning, and to listen to my reflections on the year that has passed, and on our plans for the years to come. It has been a year of highs and lows, of great achievements and deep concerns. The highs have included the fact that, for the third consecutive year, we have been ranked the best university in the world by the Times Higher Education Global Ranking. Many of us have reservations about these rankings and the different metrics they use. It has hardly gone unnoticed, for example, that British universities tend to do best on rankings conducted by British organizations, while American universities do best in the US rankings.