The Divisional Office

The divisional officers, working under the Divisional Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, Chris Price, provide administrative support for the governance of the Division.

Most of our staff are based in the Divisional Office at the John Radcliffe Hospital. The Divisional Office also hosts the Medical Sciences Graduate School, which is also located at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and the Medical School Office, which is co-located at the John Radcliffe Hospital and at the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre in South Parks Road.

Our location within the hospital is key to fostering our relationship with the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and promotes cohesiveness and responsiveness at the interfaces between our mutual teaching, training, research and clinical activities.

The Divisional Office and its officers:

• Provide leadership to and act as advocates for their cognate grouping at all levels of the University and externally
• Coordinate and broker relationships and attendant initiatives across the division, with other divisions, with other University bodies, colleges and with external partners, achieving agreement on divisional priorities as required
• Support and advise constituent departments and faculties in all areas of academic activity
• Liaise with and work alongside central university administrative offices in the furtherance of institutional strategies and policies 
• Manage a range of operational functions supporting departmental activity, for example making academic appointments; running doctoral training accounts
• Collaborate with relevant external groups and bodies on matters of divisional interest (e.g. research sponsors, discipline-based associations, donors, and other external interested parties)
• Provide the staff work to ensure that the divisional board’s statutory responsibilities are carried out

These activities are undertaken in collaboration and consultation with relevant departmental, college and central university bodies as appropriate.  The operational implications of these important responsibilities have increased very substantially since the divisions were first created since 2000.