Professor Jennifer Payne installed as Warden of the College
On Saturday 30 September Professor Jennifer Payne was installed as Warden of the College.
Professor Payne will be the 52nd person to serve as Warden of Merton College since the College’s foundation in 1264. She is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and has been a Fellow and Law Tutor of the College since 1998. She was Sub-Warden from 2018-20 and Acting Warden from January-September 2023. Professor Payne is an international expert in financial regulation and debt restructuring.
Commenting on her election, Professor Payne said:
“It is an honour to be chosen to be the College’s next Warden. As a fellow and tutor for 25 years I already know and love the College and I look forward to working with staff, students, fellows and alumni in the coming years to continue to build on Merton’s excellence in all that it does.”
Full details of the historic installation ceremony can be found in the Order of Service. A recording of the service is also available.
Professor Payne is the third woman to have been appointed to the Wardenship, after Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, who was Warden from 1994 to 2010, and Professor Irene Tracey, who held the same office from 2019 to 2022, at which point she stepped down to become the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Commenting on Professor Payne’s election, Professor Alan Morrison, the Sub-Warden, said:
“I and the other members of Merton’s Governing Body are delighted that Professor Payne has become the next Warden of the College. She is a distinguished and influential legal academic who has been an important member of the Merton Fellowship for over two decades. She is thus well-prepared to ensure that our Merton community continues to thrive in the future, and to lead the College as it addresses the many complex challenges faced both by the collegiate university in Oxford and by the United Kingdom’s university sector more generally.”
Professor Payne will serve as Warden of Merton College for an initial period of seven years, with the possibility of renewal for a further five.
