A Tale of Two Oxfords
From the About page for the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies:
The Centre was founded in 1972 by Dr David Patterson, then Cowley Lecturer in post-Biblical Hebrew, and thereafter the Centre’s President until his retirement in 1992. The University of Oxford, while strongly welcoming David’s initiative, emphasised that the Centre must be financially self-supporting as there was no scope for allocating funds from the University’s central budget. This has remained the position to the present day.
…
Meanwhile, the Centre’s physical integration with the University was accomplished in the autumn of 2000, with the formation of the Oxford University Teaching and Research Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Now known as the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Unit of the University of Oxford, it is housed on the third floor of the Oriental Institute, the construction of which was funded by the Centre’s supporters. The Centre was designated a Recognized Independent Centre of the University of Oxford in 2006.
Page on Hebrew & Jewish Studies
We are told repeatedly that the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies is self-funding and in no way subsidized by Oxford. And its founder Dr David Patterson is referred to, perhaps affectionately, simply as “David.”
How about the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies? The parallel page there says:
The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies is a Recognised Independent Centre of the University of Oxford. It was established in 1985 to encourage the scholarly study of Islam and the Islamic world. HRH The Prince of Wales is the Patron of the Centre. It is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of scholars and statesmen from different parts of the world, alongside representatives of the University of Oxford.
The Centre provides a meeting point for the Western and Islamic worlds of learning. At Oxford it contributes to the multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary study of the Islamic world. Beyond Oxford, its role is strengthened by a developing international network of academic contacts.
Of course, given the fact that the Islamic Centre likely attracts donations from major petroleum exporters (aside from HRH himself), it is possible that the Centre for Islamic Studies is self funding too. And its capacious new building, next to Magdalen college. If so, Oxford does not feel obliged to trumpet this fact.
Interesting contrast, I thought.