Oxford Round Table - Criticism and Litigation

Criticism and Litigation

A 2009 report cited critics who claimed that the Oxford Round Table "does not make its lack of academic connection clear." The article noted that pictures of Oxford University are used liberally on the ORT webpage, and quoted a number of ORT attendees who believed they had been invited by Oxford University. One professor expressed "surprise" when she learned that the ORT was not affiliated with Oxford University and concluded that "my conference funds would be best targeted towards a more appropriate venue."

In 2007, Times Higher Education reported that Oxford Round Table had been criticised on the forums of the Chronicle of Higher Education website by people who said it was trading on the name of Oxford University, and failed to properly inform people invited that it had no formal academic links to the university. Other criticisms were that its selection criteria were poor and that it was a "vanity conference."

The University told the newspaper that such external events were "not, as such, authorised or endorsed by the university." The principal of Harris Manchester College said that although the college provided the company with an office, "we don't run the ORT in any sense," and that as far as he was aware, all ORT participants were satisfied. The company defended its selection criteria, and reported that its disclaimer, which is on its website, uses "the exact wording that was provided to us by the legal office of the University of Oxford several years ago." A spokeswoman dismissed the critics as "a few nameless bloggers."

One Oxford University research fellow had sent an email to a US academic criticising the company's practices. An attempt by the Oxford Round Table, Inc., to sue the individual, who is based in England, for libel in the Kentucky courts failed on jurisdiction grounds, and the company threatened to take legal action in the UK. The company dropped the action after the researcher hired her own lawyer.

The conference has also attracted controversy in at least three states over the cost of school boards’ paying for administrators to attend; in Louisiana, this led to "a successful legislative push to tighten travel rules for school board members statewide."