Towards our centenary: a message from the Master, Professor Judith Buchanan

In 2029, St Peter’s will be celebrating both the centenary of our founding and the 50th anniversary of the admission of our first women students. As we review our first century and move into our second, there will be lots to celebrate. To prepare for this key moment in our history, we are putting in place ambitious plans for broadening our engagement, deepening our impact and securing the future of the College. St Peter’s has excellent momentum and is in good heart. Thank you to all who have lent us support in different ways, and continue to do so, so that we can go on inspiring minds and changing lives across the generations.

To help us deliver on our plans, for academic year 2026-2027, I will be concentrating on the outward-facing aspects of my role as Master, investing time on centenary planning projects for College and engaging in more outreach work. In particular, I am delighted to be spending more time than usual in the coming year with alumni, friends and supporters across the worldwide community of St Peter’s. I am, for example, looking forward to connecting with old SPC friends, and to meeting new ones, at our upcoming alumni events in Singapore, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Tokyo, Mumbai, Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Rome, London and, of course, right here in Oxford.

Giving greater focus to the outward-facing aspects of the role for the coming year in this way is timely for College as we prepare for the centenary. It will, however, sadly but necessarily take me somewhat away from other things in College. To make this possible, my excellent colleague, Dr Huw Dorkins, a distinguished geneticist and long-standing member of the St Peter’s College fellowship, will be leading on the internal business of College for this period, in role as Acting Master. Dr Dorkins knows College well, cares about it deeply and carries my full confidence and that of the Governing Body. Academic year 2026-2027 therefore represents a unique, time-bounded collaboration across the split portfolio of the Master’s role. It’s going to be a wonderfully busy year for the College and a stimulating one both for me as Master and for Huw as Acting Master as we make progress on College’s key priorities. At the end of this year, all aspects of the Mastership come back together in one reunified portfolio as we thank Huw for his service and my role as Master returns to the status quo ante.

As I meet up with many of you across the coming year, I will look forward to hearing your ideas about how we might best celebrate the centenary of our College. And if you have interesting SPC-related memorabilia (especially items from the first half of St Peter’s history) lurking in the attic or at the back of a wardrobe and looking for a home, do bear us in mind. We are interested!

There are good things ahead for St Peter’s, our students and our wider community as we move towards our second century confidently and with a strong and grounded sense of what matters. It’s both more meaningful and more fun to deliver on ambitious projects together as the cross-generational community of the College, and, as we prepare for our first centenary, I hope that a very significant number of you will want to engage in one way or another and be part of the ongoing story of your College. Please do keep an eye on our events schedule for alumni events in College, including our forthcoming public talks, and around the world.

As I write, we are poised at the very start of the new academic year in Oxford and so I take the opportunity to wish you all a good year ahead.

Professor Judith Buchanan

September 2026