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Brookes was committed, throughout his life, to the goal of
making education available to all. When he was appointed,
the School was scattered over 19 sites around the city. In
1949, a 25-acre site was secured in Headington and Lord
Nuffield laid the foundation stone six years later.
Brookes referred to the move to Headington as “setting
foot in the Promised Land”.
After his retirement in 1956, the institution was renamed
yet again, becoming the Oxford College of Technology. In
1963, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited the newly
completed site at Headington to preside at its official
opening. Four years later, the Government announced its
decision to create polytechnics, and the Oxford College of
Technology became Oxford Polytechnic in 1970. Six years
later, it acquired a new campus at Wheatley, just outside
the city centre, when it amalgamated with Lady
Spencer-Churchill teacher training college, and in 1988 it
incorporated the Oxford School of Nursing.
Oxford Polytechnic was one of the first to confer degrees
on its students in 1991, and the following year it became
a university under government legislation, deciding to
honour its founding Principal, John Brookes, in its new
title. Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy in
Oxford also became part of the new institution. In 1993,
Oxford Brookes University acquired the 14-acre Headington
Hill Hall site, formerly home to media tycoon Robert
Maxwell. The following year, the University elected
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC as its first Chancellor.
In 1995, the University opened a new £1.3million Centre
for Sport, with a fitness suite, climbing wall, and sports
hall. This was followed by a new Student Centre on the
Headington Hill site a year later, and a new training
restaurant for students of Hotel and Restaurant Management
in 1999. Professor Graham Upton was appointed Vice-
Chancellor in 1997, taking over from Professor Clive
Booth.
In 2000, Oxford Brookes University merged with
Westminster College to create the new Westminster
Institute of Education. In 2001, the University appointed
Jon Snow, the award-winning journalist and Channel 4 News
presenter, as its new Chancellor on the retirement of
Baroness Kennedy QC. Brookes also won the prestigious
Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its MSc course in
Development Practice a pioneering course run by the Centre
for Development and Emergency Practice, for humanitarian
professionals who work with victims of war, disaster and
urban poverty around the world.
Oxford Brookes University began life as the Oxford School
of Art in 1865, when it occupied one room on the ground
floor of the Taylor Institution in the centre of the city.
Five years later the School of Science was incorporated,
offering a wide range of scientific and technical subjects
and evening classes in the University Museum. In 1891, the
School was taken over by Oxford City Council’s Technical
Instruction Committee and renamed Oxford City Technical
School.
John Henry Brookes became Vice-Principal of the Oxford
City Technical School and Head of the School of Art in
1928 and over the next 30 years he exerted a powerful
influence on the development of the institution.
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