MY JERICHO
Dr Kate Tunstall
Worcester College Interim Provost
This meeting was held on November 26, 2019
After a while Oxford colleges blur into one: the quad, chapel, hall, library. Worcester College, in the heart of Jericho, is distinguished by its paradisal gardens with lake (open to all), swans, a rugby field and a brand new building. It is a bit different. Peace in the City centre. It was glimpsed during a My Jericho visit last year.
This tranquil setting, according to the Interim Provost Dr Kate Tunstall, is responsible for Worcester College students being happier, with better mental health, than those at other colleges.
She has realised just how much is going on around the college since being elevated in summer 2019 from a purely academic role to replace Sir Jonathan Bate—he had left rather quickly. “I have never spoken so much to the gardeners before.” is her main noted change. Worcester Head Gardener Simon Bagnall—a Jericho resident—was in her audience. Listening attentively.
Kate Tunstall has spent 21 years at Worcester College and lived in Nelson Street and Walton Street in Worcester properties in her early years. She teaches French literature and completed a PhD on the eighteenth century encyclopaedist Diderot. She is on sabbatical as Head of French for the whole university.
She values her community relations with Jericho and sought out audience feedback on aspects of that which could be improved. As a first step,St Barnabas School would be invited to make more use of the Worcester playing field.
Do colleges specialise? Some began as religious foundations, and a touch of that remains. Teaching though is paramount. Kate Tunstall says all colleges are required to have a ‘minimum kit’ to satisfy central university requirements, offering tuition in a full range of subjects.
There are currently some 400 Worcester students, 66 per cent from the state sector. Kate herself attended a London comprehensive. They also have the largest number of foreign language applicants of any Oxford college.
She admits now to enjoying making speeches and has found aspects of the college administration such as the ‘Audit and Risk Committee’ and the ‘Size and Shape Committee’ unexpectedly interesting.
Change is in the air but a proposal from her and the Fellows that students should no longer stand at the start and end of formal dinners was defeated by the students themselves. But part the Provost’s grand lodgings have been converted to more utilitarian uses—a multi-faith prayer room among them. The two David Cameron-style shepherds huts at the bottom of that magnificent garden will become writing rooms for postgraduates.
Heads of colleges are not often educators like Kate. More usually they are PR figureheads. There is more talk among them about fundraising and ‘the student experience’ than advancing knowledge.
This is the paradox of tradition: if you don’t like Oxford the way it is you may as well be somewhere else. The student privileges are their own ‘symbolic capital’.
“You always feel you couldn’t belong until you do.”
Kate Tunstall is undecided whether or not to apply to take on the role of Provost permanently. Her decision will come in January.
Report by: Roger Howe, additional reporting by John Mair
My Jericho offers a series of independent events organized by Jericho resident John Mair. Many are at at St Barnabas. Others are streamed on YouTube.
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