Oxford University has appointed a new Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Jeremy Harris. Harris, who will start his new job in late October, worked at the BBC from 1974 until 7 years ago when he took up a public relations job for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Harris will be responsible for the University’s communications, both internally and with outside media. He said that he was “looking forward hugely to helping a great institution develop an even greater future.”
Harris is to take over the role formerly occupied by Helen Carasso, who has now moved to the position of Acting Director of Admissions.
Harris’ role is currently being covered until his arrival by the Head of Press Office and the Head of Publications. The Press and Information Office will be under Harris, as well as the Events Office, the Media Production Unit and the Publications Office, which produces the University prospectus.
One of Harris’s main tasks will be to defend the reputation of University Vice-Chancellor Dr John Hood, who last year came under criticism for his academic reform strategy and the primacy given to “business considerations”. Hood welcomed Harris’s appointment, speaking of his “broad strategic experience” and saying that Harris “has clearly demonstrated his leadership skills in a complex and high-profile organisation.”
Harris himself was criticised in 2003 while working as Deputy Head of Staff and Secretary for Public Affairs at Lambeth Palace. A report he had drafted on the issue of gay clergy was leaked to the press, in which Harris considered strategies for “displacing [the issue] at least partially from public and media attention.”
He proposed diverting interest by “finding attractive alternative stories involving ABC” (shorthand for the Archbishop of Canterbury). Suggestions included “ABC as poet – do a reading, make a high-profile Lords intervention, announce a theology prize.”
Harris studied English at Clare College, Cambridge, and completed a PGCE in English and Drama at the University of Nottingham before joining the BBC in 1974. During his time at the BBC, Harris reported from more than 40 countries including assignments at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the first Iraq War. He later also worked as a presenter and foreign affairs analyst on BBC radio.ARCHIVE: 0th week MT 2005
Archbishop of Canterbury’s spin doctor to be employed by University from October
