UNIVERSITY COLLEGE | New Master, Baroness Amos

Photo: SOAS

Baroness Valerie Amos

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury, CH, PC in September 2020 became the new Master of Univ, the first-ever head of an Oxford college. Born 13 March 1954, she has been a British Labour Party politician and diplomat. In 2015, Amos was appointed the ninth Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, becoming the first Black woman to lead a university school in the UK. She served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in 2010-2015. Before her appointment to the UN, she was British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in 2003-2007. When Amos was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first Black woman to serve as a Cabinet minister. She left the Cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. She was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2001-2003 and Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission in 1989-1994.

An alum of Univ, Sean Denniston of the Washington, D.C. branch of the Oxford University Society, tells me that the latest exciting development at the college is the expansion of its North Oxford space.  The previous Master of Univ, Sir Ivor Crewe, says this is the largest expansion of the college since the 17th century. It is being built with attention to sustainability, biodiversity, and relationship to the local community in North Oxford.