Andrew Hamilton Succeeds John Hood as Oxford's Vice-Chancellor. (October 5, 2009)

Professor Andrew Hamilton, FRS was Benjamin Silliman Professor of Chemistry, a Member of Yale's faculty since 1997 and the university's Provost since 2004, when he was nominated as the next Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford this past June. His research group was working on molecular recognition. For example the "group has developed a novel combinatorial library approach to artificial receptors which can be used in identifying both strong binding hosts and highly active catalysts".

As provost of Yale, Professor Hamilton controlled a pre GFC endowment worth US$22.5bn (£11.45bn, compared with Oxford's £3.4bn). He took over from New Zealander John Hood as Oxford's 296^th vice-chancellor on October 1.

Professor Hamilton wouldn't be drawn as to his agenda for the university but did emphasise that any move to raise the current £3,225 a year cap on fees would have to be matched with a big expansion of financial support for students: "We must take great care not to fail the students [by] allowing a degradation of the quality of education that is provided by the great universities of Great Britain. But also not to fail them in the commitment that the great universities must make to any student who has the academic credentials, the academic potential to attend. The commitment that we must make to them [is] that they will attend Oxford irrespective of their economic circumstances. Oxford has a very generous bursary offer, but obviously as this debate unfolds we've got to reinforce that and quite frankly improve it. Particularly as any discussion of a change in fee might or might not occur," and he added, "[The university's] Financial sustainability is, without any question, going to be one of the biggest challenges for us."

It is clear that the funding approach of universities such as Yale, Princeton, Harvard and Stanford, where Herculean efforts at fund raising from alumni are the order of the day together with the commitment that all accepted students will be able to attend the university irrespective of their economic circumstances, will influence Professor Hamilton's stewardship of Oxford. In his opinion universities will have to diversify their funding sources to become less dependent on the government as spending is cut. Options include improving alumni donations, higher fees and more collaboration with industry.