The university admissions coordinator at Oxford University has made £5.3m to recruit more than 4,500 students, it has been revealed.
Anne Dixson, director of the Oxford University Student Experience Group (OUSGE), which manages admissions, said the money would be used to hire up to 500 new full-time staff.
The group was formed by Oxford University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the 1960s and was designed to help attract top students from around the world.
Ms Dixsons new job also comes at a time when Oxford is facing criticism from the Government over the admission figures which show a fall in numbers of UK students in the past year.
Ms Oxford’s admission figures have been criticised as inadequate and the Government is expected to ask universities to tighten up admissions in the next couple of years.
The OUSGE has been under pressure to improve the numbers of international students at Oxford and the university’s reputation has also been put under pressure following allegations that students had been bullied at the university.
The number of international applicants fell from around 50,000 in 2016 to about 42,000 this year.
Oxford was also criticised for failing to provide information about the number of applications received for the 2021-22 academic year, which was due to begin in February 2019.
In response to the report, Oxford said it had “committed to doing everything we can to ensure we continue to attract top candidates”.
The Oxford University Department of International Education said it was “very grateful” to Ms Dipsons for her “great work”.
It said it “looks forward to working with her to improve this recruitment process”.
Ms Dirlson has said the move will help boost the university recruitment process for 2019-20 and 2020-21.
The report by Oxford says the new funding will support up to 150 staff in Oxford and Oxford’s new admissions director will also receive additional support from the university, which will provide extra support to universities in the UK and abroad.
“We will be putting in place a dedicated team of staff to support this new team in their roles,” Ms Dignson said.
Oxford University said it would be “incredibly grateful” for the funding and was looking forward to further collaboration with the government.
The university said it will also support the OUSCEG’s work to improve international student numbers at Oxford.
