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The Oxford Round Table is a series of interdisciplinary conferences organized and run by Oxford Round Table, Inc. - a name denoting an Illinois not-for-profit corporationCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

The mission of the Oxford Round Table, according to its website, is "to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of contemporary issues that affect the public good in all its various forms and ramifications."

Conferences

The first meeting of the Oxford Round Table was held at St. Peter's College in 1989, sponsored by The Norham Centre for Leadership Studies of the University of Oxford under the direction of Dr. Vivian Williams and by Virginia Tech, under the direction of Kern Alexander. The organisation brings together scholars and others from a variety of backgrounds (new professors and PhD students, college presidents and deans, school administrators, religious leaders) to discuss research on specific topics usually related to public policy. In its early years, the conference was held every other year, and the organization financed the attendance of participants by raising funds itself (more than £80,000 in 1993).

A 1993 article in the Times Higher Education Supplement noted that "the Oxford conferences are going very well" and had gained "international interest."

One of the earliest conferences, in 1993, was on the links between education and the business sector. It brought together education ministers from major developing and transition countries, representatives of major multinationals (such as Apple, Boeing, BP, and Honeywell), U.S. state officials, and the World Bank. A major highlight was a paper by Dr. Edward Dneprov, education minister of Russia, on education reform there.

In 2008, there are 25 scheduled sessions of the conference - ten in March and fifteen in July/August.

Oxford Colleges lease their facilities during spring break (March and April) and during summer (July, August and September) for academic conferences and other activities. These activities are coordinated by Conference Oxford, an arm of the University of Oxford.

Publications

Papers presented at a 2002 session of the conference appeared in a book published by McGill/Queen's University Press.

The Oxford Round Table publishes a quarterly journal titled The Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table . The stated mission of the journal, according to its website, is "to disseminate knowledge with regard to salient issues in public affairs."

The journal is published on-line. It is not indexed by Ebsco.

Company history and officers

Kern Alexander, Professor of Excellence at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, founded the Oxford International Round Table on Education Policy in 1989. However, it was not incorporated until 1994, when it was established in Florida as a for-profit corporation, with Alexander as president. It was administratively dissolved in 1996. Alexander also incorporated the Oxford Round Table, Inc., a Florida for-profit corporation; it was established and dissolved at the same time as the Oxford International Round Table on Education Policy.

In 1995, the Oxford Round Table, Inc., a for-profit Kentucky corporation, was incorporated by Samual K. Alexander III (son of Kern Alexander). It was administratively dissolved in 1998 and reinstated in 2006.

In December 2001, the non-profit Oxford Round Table of Godstow Hall, Inc., was incorporated in Kentucky by several members of the Alexander family. In May 2007, the non-profit Oxford Round Table, Inc., NFP, was established in Illinois.

In the 2007 annual report of the Kentucky for-profit Oxford Round Table, Inc., the company officers were: President, Kern Alexander; Vice President, Elizabeth Alexander; Secretary, Shenette Campbell. As of the 1/2008 annual report, J.C. Buckman is listed as the President, Karen Price as Vice President, and Wesley Alexander as secretary.

Criticism and litigation

On 21 December 2007, Times Higher Education reported that Oxford Round Table had been criticised on the forums of the Chronicle of Higher Education website by people who said it was trading on the name of Oxford University, and failed to properly inform people invited that it had no formal academic links to the university. Other criticisms were that its selection criteria were poor and that it was a "vanity conference."

The University told the newspaper that such external events were "not, as such, authorised or endorsed by the university." The principal of Harris Manchester College said that although the college provided the company with an office, "we don't run the ORT in any sense," and that as far as he was aware, all ORT participants were satisfied. The company defended its selection criteria, and reported that its disclaimer, which is on its website, uses "the exact wording that was provided to us by the legal office of the University of Oxford several years ago." A spokeswoman dismissed the critics as "a few nameless bloggers."

One Oxford University research fellow had sent an email to a US academic criticising the company's practices. An attempt to sue the individual, who is based in England, for libel in the Kentucky courts had failed on jurisdiction grounds, and the company was now taking legal action in the UK.

The conference has also attracted controversy in at least three states over the cost of school boards’ paying for administrators to attend; in Louisiana, this led to "a successful legislative push to tighten travel rules for school board members statewide."

References

Welcome to Oxford Round Table
The Journal of Education Finance: Table of Contents Vols 15-33
^ Huw Richards, "All Rhodes lead to reform," Times Higher Education Supplement, 8 October 1993, p. 8.
Richard Margrave, "International Partnership," The Times, 1 November 1993.
Oxford Round Table web site
Oxford Round Table web site
F. King Alexander and Kern Alexander (eds.). 2002. The University: International Expectations. Reviewed by Anthony Potts, History of Intellectual Culture, Volume 4, No. 1, 2004.
Welcome to the Forum on Public Policy
EBSCO Information Services, Electronic Media Catalogue, accessed 2008-03-16
College of Education Faculty Research Profiles: Kern Alexander
^ Corporate report filed with Florida Secretary of State, Division of Corporations, accessed 2008-03-16
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Alumni Association, Kentucky Kappa Alumni Association Alumni News 1960-1964, last update 13 September 2001, accessed 5 March 2008
^ Cite error: The named reference kysos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Application for reinstatement of corporation, filed with Kentucky Secretary of State, accessed 2008-03-16
Annual corporate report, filed 18 January 2008 with the Kentucky Secretary of State, accessed 2008-03-16
Cite error: The named reference ilsos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Annual corporate report, filed on 10 May 2007 with the Kentucky Secretary of State, accessed 2008-03-16
'Oxford' events firm under fire, Melanie Newman, Times Higher Education, 21 December 2007, accessed 6 February, 2008
Mary Swerczek and Matthew Brown, “Trip is a lesson, but not in frugality,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), August 30, 2003, Metro p. 1; “A new outrage in the Abbotts,” Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), February 1, 2007; Nancy Averett, “School board chief won't seek district's help in paying for trip,” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), July 30, 2003, p. B9.

External links

Category:

Conferences