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After the closure of St Benet’s Hall last year, the University of Oxford is set to lose another permanent private hall as St Stephen’s House will relinquish its PPH status from September 2023. From then on, it will be an Anglican theological college and will not offer any Oxford qualifications other than graduate degrees in Theology and Religion.
Permanent private halls within the university differ from colleges in that they are governed, at least in part, by the Christian denomination which founded them. There are currently five PPHs within Oxford University, with St Stephen’s having attained PPH status in 2003 (currently making it the youngest permanent private hall).
Its history stretches far further back than the twenty-first century however, having been founded in 1876 by members of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. Its principal founder, Edward King, was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford and later became Bishop of Lincoln. Prior to 2003, St Stephen’s was an “associated institution” of the university which matriculated students of Theology and Philosophy. Since becoming a PPH, St Stephen’s has opened its doors to students in a wide range of disciplines, the most common aside from theological and ministerial studies being teacher training.
This change in status means that St Stephen’s House will accept applications from ordinands and the ordained exclusively from the next academic year. In an interview with the house’s newsletter, Principal Robin Ward said that this was “one of the more challenging aspects of the decision” given the significant contributions that non-ordinand students have made over the twenty years that St Stephen’s has been a permanent private hall.
However, Ward argued that the change “secured a future for the College in which we can continue to offer qualifications appropriate for ordinands of every educational background and every age.” When St Stephen’s first became a PPH, the vast majority of their students took Oxford qualifications. More recently, the Church of England’s Common Award – offered in partnership with Durham University – has become popular among students. St Stephen’s became a validated theological education institution delivering the Common Award programme in 2014. This move to an Anglican theological college status allows St Stephen’s to continue this partnership while continuing to offer select Oxford graduate qualifications.
Ward continued by saying that St Stephen’s will be in a position to welcome more visiting academics as a result of this change, which he hopes will “contribute greatly to our aim of widening our offering and expanding our community beyond Oxford.” Academics will also turn their focus towards the Edward King Centre for Pastoral Theology, St Stephen’s online learning platform which launched in 2021. Ward said that “very strong foundations” have been laid for the first online cohort of graduate Theology students using the EKC as their digital hub.
In an external review by the Ministry Division of the Church of England’s Archbishops’ Council it was noted that, while the shift from PPH to Anglican theological college will undoubtedly affect St Stephen’s “horizon, finances, governance, and relationships” in the years to come, it is “by no means understood as a negative move by the House Council, nor by the Principal and Staff, nor by the University of Oxford, and some things will not change.” For instance, it is believed that St Stephen’s will remain part of the Conference of Colleges to discuss issues which impact the university as a whole.
While it is clear that St Stephen’s relationship with the university will change because of the departure from PPH status, its place within the wider community of the University of Oxford remains firm.