The Story of Nuffield Australia & Nuffield International

Lord Nuffield established the philanthropic Nuffield Foundation in the UK in 1943 with a grant of 4,000,000 Morris Motors shares, at the time with a value of UK £10,000,000 — a vast fortune! Its charter was ‘the advancement of health and social well-being and the care and comfort of the aged poor.’ These objectives were later extended to include ‘agricultural advancement’. Under it the Nuffield Farming Scholarship scheme was launched in 1947 with the selection of three scholars, a woman and two men — Jane Bennet-Evans (later Kenyon), Edward Stokes and John Rowsell. The larger organisation is now approaching its 80th year with over 1,700 scholars world-wide and 15 countries involved. Few organisations have the resilience and longevity of this scholarship scheme and, with the expanding number of countries seeking membership, arguably the program has never been stronger.

In 2017, Nuffield in the UK produced a book ‘The Story Behind Nuffield Farming Scholarships’ (written and edited by Gill Bullock and Anne Beckett), a much-needed history of the scheme from its origins in 1947, and a valuable resource and source of information. The purpose of this history of Nuffield is not to replace it, but to add to and update it with the benefit of hindsight, and to record the story with a focus on Australia’s contribution before and, more importantly, during the most formative period of the international organisation’s development — the 20 years following 1995. Australia’s contribution to the evolution of the program both at a national and international level. Arguably this period, and Australia’s contribution, has had a fundamental impact on the evolution of Nuffield world-wide.

This history largely records events up 2015 in detail, and some events to the present day. It is for others to record the story since, when the passage of time has the benefit of sharpening our perspective. I have embarked on updating the story, not least because I have been in a unique position (with others I have consulted) to record the journey.

Often the reason decisions were made is as important as the decisions themselves, and where possible I have tried to comment on this.

Peter Nixon (1990)

July 2025