EVEN AMONG Oxford’s illustrious alumnae, she is one of the most notable. Yet Baroness Thatcher was snubbed by her old university as prime minister, when it declined to award her an honorary degree.
Now, one of the university’s biggest donors hopes to remedy the situation by naming a major new building in her honour.
Wafic Saïd, the Syrian-born billionaire, has donated £15million towards a new facility at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, and has indicated that he wants to name it after Lady Thatcher, whom he described as a “lioness”.
Yet, in an echo of the 1980s, the proposal has divided the university and threatens to escalate into a major row.
On one side, Oxford academics including Prof Niall Ferguson, the television historian, and Baroness Kennedy, the Labour peer, have backed the plans for “The Thatcher Building” as a fitting tribute to the former premier. The proposal would go before the university’s administrative committees for approval.
Opposing the move are Left-wing academics who are confident of raising the 20 signatures from objecting dons required to trigger a ballot of Congregation, the university’s ultimate authority in which more than 3,000 academics are eligible to vote.
It was Congregation that rejected Mrs Thatcher for an honorary degree in 1985, making her the first Oxfordeducated prime minister since the Second World War to be refused such recognition.
In a sign of its current political balance, Congregation last May passed a vote of no confidence in David Willetts, the Conservative universities minister, over his highereducation reforms.
Bernard Sufrin, an Emeritus Fellow of Worcester College who lectures in computer science, said signatories would be “lining up” to force a vote.
“I hope that those responsible for naming the building will take advice from those – now retired – leading members of the university who oversaw the embarrassing fiasco of an honorary degree for Lady Thatcher being proposed, only to be rejected by a large majority of the Congregation,” he said.
“It is inconceivable that Congregation would accede to such a naming.”
Prof Howard Hotson, a historian and Fellow of St Anne’s College, said: “The naming of a building would seem to offer Margaret Thatcher a larger marker of esteem than an honorary degree, and it would seem to be giving the blessing of the university on her particular approach to business and economics.”
In the pro-thatcher camp, Dr Alice Prochaska, the principal of Somerville College, where the former premier read chemistry, said she was a respected and cherished alumna.
“Certainly people here would be very pleased to see a new building named after her. I have no doubt at all that she herself found the vote opposing her honorary degree extremely hurtful.
“But the years have passed and Margaret Thatcher’s stature as a world stateswoman is unquestioned, and we are terribly proud that we educated this country’s first woman prime minister and such a commanding figure.”
Lady Kennedy, who became principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, in September, said: “I’m a new girl but I remember the business about the honorary degree.
“It was at a time when there had been a whole lot of cuts to education and it was a way of making a point.
“But we are now looking at somebody who is nearing the end of her life and there is no doubt, whether people approve or disapprove of her, she has had an incredible impact.”
Prof Ferguson, who is a senior research Fellow of Jesus College, said: “I think it is a splendid idea.
“Wafic Saïd is giving Oxford University a chance to expunge the memory of its earlier insulting decision not to award Margaret Thatcher an honorary degree.
“As Britain’s greatest postwar prime minister, she is long overdue an honour from her alma mater.”
An Oxford spokeswoman said: “Lead donors are usually able to name buildings and Mr Saïd has a clear right in this respect. No final decision has been taken as to whether the building should be named.”