This week, journalist, economist, political analyst and author Will Hutton was named the new Principal of Hertford College, to start this Trinity term.
As a public figure best known for his role on BBC programmes such as Newsnight and his editorship of the Observer, Hutton’s status as a high profile personality makes him an interesting choice for a college which prides itself on being one of the most progressive at Oxford.
The college’s Senior Fellow, Dr Toby Barnard, said, “Hertford is delighted to have Will Hutton as its next Principal. He promises to continue and enhance the college’s enviable reputation for innovation, open access, friendliness and intellectual distinction.
“There is foul weather ahead for all universities, but particularly for Oxford colleges. Hertford is confident that, with Will Hutton’s dynamism and experience of public life, it will emerge from the impending storms much strengthened.”
Hutton himself seemed excited at the prospect of serving “a great Oxford college at a pre-eminent world university,” citing, “a genuine meeting of minds between the fellowship and myself that is exhilarating.”
He has spent the last decade at the helm of The Work Foundation, a not-for-profit think-tank that aims to improve the performance and quality of working life, and has also written many books on economic and political subjects.
Academically, Hutton’s experience is equally varied, as a governor of London School of Economics, a visiting professor at the University of Manchester Business School and the University of Bristol, and a visiting fellow at Mansfield College Oxford.
Hertford’s JCR President, James Weinberg commented that, “[Hutton’s] emphasis on facilitating and participating in open discussion and debate was a delight to hear and would not only foster greater cohesion within Hertford but would inject vitality into college life.”
He added, that Mr Hutton “will not be afraid to ‘rock the boat’ in defence of our collective principles” and that, “that enthusiasm and determination is exactly what Hertford needs to make things happen, both internally and externally.”
As Principal, Mr. Hutton will have overall responsibility for students’ academic work, as well as an interest in their wider activities – social, sporting, cultural, political. He will also lead the various staff teams in college, and represent the college in the university and beyond.
Whilst many students will welcome the renowned economist and successful public intellectual into their midst, some still harboured doubts about his appointment.
An undergraduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that Will Hutton’s long and recent involvement with The Work Foundation “from many perspectives has been detrimental due to that very fact that he would like to turn everything into a thinktank.
“This, I feel, could really affect Hertford as a college in that it is a notoriously active one (on all sorts of fronts – political, charity, etc), and the fact that a principal might not endorse that, or might have little understanding of that feeling, is worrying.”
However, in a report written after interviewing the candidates for Principal, Weinberg concluded, “If we want to be put on the map…if we want someone with drive and originality, as well as the channels through which to exercise it in our favour; then Will Hutton is the man for the job.”
Whether Hutton can live up to such high expectations and praise, or whether he will struggle against the impending tide of higher education cuts, and the idiosyncrasies of Oxford life, remains to be seen.
