Tim Soutphommasane, the first chief diversity officer at one of Britain’s most storied institutions, is no stranger to controversy.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.It is dinner time mid-week, just before term break at Oxford, and we are sitting at the high table in the splendid old dining hall at Balliol, which claims to be the University of Oxford’s oldest college.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Soutphommasane had written another four books, worked at the University of Sydney, married Sarah, a fellow university administrator, and had a son, Danton. He also served as an outspoken race discrimination commissioner between 2013 and 2018, successfully battling Coalition government attempts to water down sections of race legislation deemed to stymie “free speech”.
In May, 16 Oxford students were arrested when they staged a pro-Palestine sit-in at university offices, and a month later, some exams were cancelled after protesters stormed a building on campus. But if Soutphommasane is feeling the heat, he’s not showing it. “It is a really difficult time everywhere, isn’t it?” he says.
Behind the beauty and tradition, however, lies an administrative structure as maze-like as the cobbled laneways that surround the colleges. Departments and faculties funded by the central university body deliver laboratories and lectures, while the 36 self-governing undergraduate colleges are responsible for admitting students and delivering the distinctive tutorials for which Oxford is known.
“Our research shows that two-thirds of Britons believe initiatives on diversity and inclusion are good, and this isn’t limited to the more progressive segments of the UK but across more socially conservative groups too,” he says, waving a fork for emphasis.
Twitter/X opprobrium was reignited some years later when he questioned Australia’s “Fortress Australia” mentality during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that lockdown should be a last – not first – resort.
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