Oxford Leaving 2 Top Academic Posts Vacant in Financial Crisis

LONDON — Oxford University said today that it is leaving two of the world’s most prestigious academic posts vacant indefinitely, citing a financial crisis brought about by 11% funding cuts under the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The regius chairs in Greek and modern history will become vacant in fall of 1989 and won’t be filled for at least a year, said Anne Lonsdale, an Oxford spokeswoman.

She said the regius chairs--so named because they were created by royal command--could remain frozen beyond 1990.

The decision heightens longstanding concern over the ancient university’s future as a citadel of scholarship and scientific research.

“There is a question mark over our status as a world-class university,” Sir Michael Howard, the retiring Regius Professor of Modern History, said. “We are being starved of essential resources.”

The Regius Chair in Greek was founded by King Henry VIII in 1546, and the modern history chair by George I in 1727. Both are widely regarded as being at the apex of scholarship.

Oxford, Cambridge and Britain’s 44 other state-funded universities have long complained that government spending limits are accelerating a brain drain to foreign universities.