THE PRINCE OF WALES WILL VISIT JESUS COLLEGE AND KELLOGG COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Thursday 5th March 2020
Engagement 1
The Prince of Wales will visit Jesus College in recognition of the reinstatement of the Jesus Chair of Celtic, a professorship in Celtic Studies at Oxford University.
Upon arrival His Royal Highness will have the opportunity to meet current students, staff and College Fellows. In addition, pupils from three Welsh primary schools, visiting the college for the day, will offer The Prince daffodils in recognition of St. David’s Day which will have been celebrated a few days prior to the visit. The Prince will then meet the College Principal and the newly appointed Chair of Celtic, as well as college alumni in the dining hall. Whilst in the hall, His Royal Highness will listen to a college choir performance of a Welsh prayer. Before departing, The Prince will view The Red Book of Hergest, a medieval manuscript on special display for the visit.
His Royal Highness previously visited Jesus College in 1971 to open the Habakkuk Building as part of the college’s 400th anniversary celebrations.
Jesus College
The college was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I, at the request of a Welsh lawyer and clergyman, Hugh Price. Today the college continues to maintain strong links with the Principality. About 15% of current undergraduates are Welsh. Chalk drawings of Welsh dragons sit at the entrances to staircases in one of the college quads, and student rooms are bedecked with the Welsh flag.
Jesus Chair of Celtic and Welsh initiatives at Oxford
Since 1877, the Jesus Chair of Celtic has been entrusted to support the scholarship and preservation of Celtic languages, literature and history at the University of Oxford. It is the only Professorship in Celtic at an English University and the appointment to the Jesus Chair of Celtic has been made for the sixth time in its distinguished history to Dr David Willis from the University of Cambridge. Dr Willis’ appointment comes following an eight-year hiatus and a £3.35m fundraising campaign to permanently safeguard the role.
A further £1m donation from Jesus alumnus, Oliver Thomas and his family, will go towards supporting continued Welsh access at the college. The funds will go specifically to the college’s flagship Welsh Access Summer School. The annual summer school, a collaboration with the Welsh Government’s Seren Network (regional hubs in Wales to help sixth formers in Welsh state schools to get into Russell Group universities), invites students from the Principality to experience life at Oxford. In the past three years, nearly 200 young people from Welsh state schools have been welcomed to Oxford to take part in an interactive week of lectures and seminars. Not only has the summer school encouraged more applications from Welsh state schools to Oxford, it has improved the offer rate for these schools that are often underrepresented at the university.
The Red Book of Hergest
The Red Book of Hergest, believed to have been written sometime between 1375 and 1425, is a compilation of chronicles, mythology, romances and court poetry, including a Welsh version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain.
It is best known as a source of the tales of the Mabinogion, along with the White Book of Rhydderch. The manuscript was named after its former home, Hergest Court in Herefordshire, and for its red leather binding. It was presented to Jesus College, Oxford in 1701 by the Reverend Thomas Wilkins of Llanbleddian and is kept at the university’s Bodleian Library.
Engagement 2
The Prince of Wales will visit Kellogg College to receive the Bynum Tudor Fellowship. His Royal Highness will also have the opportunity to hear about the progress being made on a new Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation, in partnership with The Prince’s Foundation.
His Royal Highness will first meet with representatives from both the college and The Prince’s Foundation to hear about the developing plans for the new Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation. In The Hub, The Prince will meet with staff, alumni and current students to hear about their work relating to the impact of rapid urbanisation on health and wellbeing concerns, before meeting multiple Chelsea gold medal winner Andy Sturgeon, to hear about his concept for the redesign of the college gardens. Finally, His Royal Highness will formally receive the Bynum Tudor Fellowship.
His Royal Highness last visited Kellogg College in May 2017, when he met Burmese students seconded to Kellogg College through a relationship with The Prince’s Foundation and heard about the work both organisations were undertaking collaboratively in response to rapid urbanisation.
Bynum Tudor Fellowship
In November 2019 it was announced that His Royal Highness was elected the Bynum Tudor Fellow for the 2019-20 academic year, the highest award Kellogg College gives. The Bynum Tudor Fellowship was established in 2004 as part of the college’s mission to engage with influential thinkers and experienced practitioners in business, policy making, and culture. Previous Fellows include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, entrepreneur Lord Bilimoria, industrialist Sir David Brown, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Director of the McCall MacBain Foundation Marcy McCall MacBain, and businessman and educationalist Dr Ralph Walter.
This year’s award is being given in recognition of His Royal Highness’s contribution to the field of sustainable urban development over the last 30 years. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Kellogg College.
Kellogg College and The Prince’s Foundation
The Prince’s Foundation and Oxford University have a longstanding relationship through an MSc in Sustainable Urban Development, which although run by the Department for Continuing Education, has historically had a strong connection to Kellogg as most faculty members and students on the MSc are members of the college. Kellogg College and The Prince’s Foundation have also run an Urban Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series over the past two years. This successful seminar series lay the ground for establishing the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation.
Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation
The new centre is a joint initiative between Kellogg College and The Prince’s Foundation. It has been established to foster a better understanding of the interaction between these two disciplines (healthcare and urbanisation) to make urban centres environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable, and to provide an environment that supports and sustains health and wellbeing.
The centre brings together leading and influential thinkers, together with the public, in an interdisciplinary approach embracing evidence-based healthcare, sustainable urban development and education, to provide a collaborative forum for organisations active in these disciplines to address crucial issues in current practice.
