The Wigmore Benefaction and the University Teaching Fund

The preservation of the tutorial system is a shared priority for the College and the University and as Oxford faces a series of steep budget cuts in the years ahead the importance of securing funding, particularly for academic posts has become a real priority.

Barrie Wigmore, who came to Worcester in 1964 to read PPE, and his wife, Deedee, saw an opportunity through the creation of the Oxford Teaching Fund to endow in perpetuity three tutorial Fellowships in History, Economics and Philosophy.  Their donation of £3.6 million, combined with £2.4 million from the Teaching Fund, amounts to a total gift of £6 million.

The College is immensely grateful to the Wigmores for their gift and for their enthusiasm for and continuing support of the College.  This is a superb benefaction.  As Barrie (a former pupil of the recently retired Provost Richard Smethurst) said “Deedee and I are delighted to be able to support the College and Oxford in this way, in the hope that future generations of students will be able to benefit from its incomparable tutorial system”.

Barrie and Deedee with recently retired Provost Richard Smethurst (centre) signing the contract