Vice-Chancellor’s Oration 2020

Professor Louise Richardson has delivered her annual Oration to the University in the Sheldonian Theatre. Here is the full text of the speech: Colleagues, thank you for making time to attend this meeting of Congregation to hear my Oration, an address that traditionally reflects on our achievements over the past year and points forward to outline our direction of travel for the future. I am especially grateful to you for convening today in an environment in which we are obliged to spread ourselves across the vast Sheldonian Theatre to minimize risk of spreading infection. There is a certain irony in our having to abandon the usual setting of the Oration, Convocation House, as that was where the London Parliament met during the plagues of the 17th century. In those days, members of the University were also obliged to practice social distancing, and our academics led the national effort against the plagues then, too. COVID-19 This has been a year unlike any other. A year of fire-fighting to contain a global pandemic and to continue our vital research, teaching and administration under new and challenging circumstances.