Title of Distinction

The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. However, since there was a limited number of established chairs in these universities and an abundance of distinguished academics it was decided to introduce these Titles of Distinction. This enabled the holders of these titles to be termed 'Professor', a title largely reserved in Britain and Europe (although less so in North America) for those in academia with a distinguished record.