A new Saïd Business School extension, opened by the Prince of Wales in February 2013, is now to be named after former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Wafic Saïd, who asked for the new building to be named after Britain’s only female prime minister, paid £15 million towards the extension. It has now been dubbed the Thatcher Business Education Centre.
There are plans for an event to be held in the future to mark the occasion and officially name the building, but the decision has proved controversial.
A statement from the Saïd Business School said, “The naming reflects the wish of the principal benefactor of the School, Mr Wafic Saïd, who was a long-time admirer of Margaret Thatcher. This wish was put before the appropriate university committees and has now been approved.”
In February 2012, when Saïd expressed his hope that the building would be named after the late Mrs Thatcher, some Oxford academics suggested she was an inappropriate figure to honour, a sentiment echoed by a number of current students.
Third year History and Politics student Joe Collin said, “it is unbelievably ironic given Thatcher’s own lamentable disdain for the funding of university education. It is to Thatcher that we owe the vicious ideology of free-market liberalism that has reduced students to consumers and halted social mobility, preventing so many students from actually going to university in the first place.
“Think how many communities around the country would be alienated by Oxford university if they name a section of the university after a woman who tore the soul out of so many northern areas in the 1980s.”
Dan Turner, Co-Chair Elect of the Oxford University Labour Club, said, “Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is still incredibly divisive amongst students and academics. That a politician who destroyed the lives and communities of so many ordinary people in Britain can be considered an inspiration to business students will be, to many of them, insulting.”
However, Dr. Paola Mattei, Fellow of St Anthony’s College, told Cherwell, “It is unfortunate that such decision to name a new facility after a distinguished Oxford alumna should have been highly politicised.”
Jonathan Martindale, Secretary of the Hayek Society, commented, “One would hope that Oxford academics do not view the average well-informed observer as so unintelligent as to presume that acknowledging an individual widely considered to be the greatest British post-war prime-minister is to give the impression of universal academic support for her policies.”
Similarly, Alexander Rankine, Secretary of the Oxford PPE Society, said, “Thatcher is one of Oxford’s greatest modern alumni and to not commemorate her is to ignore the major role she has played in the development of our country and Oxford’s role in turn in shaping her.”
There has been some agreement on recognising the considerable achievements of Margaret Thatcher, regardless of political partisanship. Dr Mattei also emphasised, “Baroness Thatcher dedicated her lifetime to public service, and I am sure even her most ferocious enemies would be able to accept this.Why not respect those Oxford alumni who have left the University with a firm commitment to make a social impact with their actions in the world?”
Despite this, there remains concern that naming a new Saïd building after Mrs Thatcher casts a uniform judgment on the Baroness’s policies and legacy.
Mark Smyth, Treasurer of the Liberal Democrats, said, “I don’t see how naming a building after her is condoning the policies of her government or this one.
“I see the measure as remembering Thatcher as a person of great influence who studied here. Whether that influence was positive or not is beside the point.”
The decision to name the building the Thatcher Business Education Centre comes following the famous decision of congress in 1985 not to award Thatcher an honorary Oxford degree due to her cuts to education. She became the first Oxford educated Prime Minister since the Second World War to be refused the honour.
