Award-winning stars of the film Iris, Dame Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, along with the film's director Sir Richard Eyre and actor/director Ian McDiarmid, will be celebrating the life and work of Dame Iris Murdoch at a fundraising literary evening to launch the Oxford Iris Murdoch Appeal on Wednesday 26 June. The appeal, a joint venture between Oxford University and St Anne's College, aims to raise £2.75 million to honour the acclaimed philosopher and novelist with a living memorial at the University where she studied and taught for many years.

The Oxford Iris Murdoch Appeal has two aims: to fund bursaries at St Anne's College which will help break down the financial barriers which can deter students from poorer backgrounds from applying to study at Oxford; and endow a Professorship in Old Age Psychiatry, focusing on Alzheimer's disease, which will draw upon Oxford's existing research strengths to help us understand, treat and, ultimately, cure Alzheimer's and other dementias.

"A celebration of Iris Murdoch" will be held at 6pm at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue in London on Wednesday 26 June. The literary evening, part of The Orange Word season, will include readings from biographies and novels to give a sense of her life and works. All money raised during the evening will be donated to the appeal.

Her widower John Bayley, an Emeritus Professor at Oxford, believes the appeal is the most appropriate tribute the University could pay to Murdoch's life and work, and has pledged his personal support for the project. He said: "Iris Murdoch taught philosophy at St Anne's College for many years, and was an inspiration to many pupils - and pupils who became life-long friends. I am sure that her work for the College, and for the University, could best be recognised by a joint fundraising drive for bursaries, and for a professorship in geriatric psychiatry. I very much hope this will be a success."

The old-age population in the UK has more than trebled as a percentage of the general population over the last century – and the numbers continue to rise. Increased longevity means more people are suffering from dementia, which now affects 20 per cent of those in their mid-80s or older. Endowing a chair in Old Age Psychiatry will enable Oxford to recruit a world-class clinician scientist who will collaborate, co-ordinate and provide leadership in dementia research across the University. Most importantly, it will provide the vital link between Oxford's groundbreaking work in the laboratory and the needs of the patient.

Professor Robin Jabcoby, Clinical Director of the OPTIMA (Oxford Project to Investigate Memory in Ageing) project, said: "We stand, in our current science and understanding of Alzheimer's and dementia, in the same position as cancer research in the early 1970s: on the threshold of vital new discoveries that will revolutionise our ability to deal with the problem.

"Oxford University offers a world-class research environment for the study and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and old age dementia, and is uniquely placed to provide a focus for the concentrated research needed to achieve scientific breakthroughs for these diseases. This fundraising appeal signals Oxford's commitment to finding significant treatments and preventive possibilities in the near future."

The Oxford Iris Murdoch Appeal aims to provide £250,000 towards bursary funds at St Anne's College, where Iris Murdoch was a Tutor and Fellow in Philosophy from 1948 to 1963. The college, which has over 450 undergraduates and 160 postgraduates, is one of the largest in Oxford and is proud of its vigorous and diverse student body. The fund will endow, in perpetuity, three undergraduate student bursaries in humanities subjects, worth £1,000 each year for the duration of a student's course, and a prestigious graduate scholarship worth £3,000, renewable for a second year, enabling a student to continue their university studies.

Dame Ruth Deech, Principal of St Anne's, said: "Iris Murdoch was a passionate advocate of educational excellence throughout her life, and understood better than most the importance of practical support. Her parents were not wealthy, and the opportunities a university education opens up only became available to Iris when she won a scholarship to Oxford.

"What was true for Iris in the 1930s remains true today. It seems entirely fitting, then, that St Anne's should aim to raise funds for bursaries to support talented individuals who might otherwise miss out on what this college has to offer simply through lack of money.

"St Anne's was founded to champion equality of education over a century ago – it is still our goal."

Tickets for "A celebration of Iris Murdoch" at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, at 6pm on Wednesday 26 June are priced £15, plus £1 booking fee. Tickets can be booked in advance on 0207 494 5071.

For more information about the Oxford Iris Murdoch Appeal, please contact the University Press Office on 01865 280528.

Notes to Editors:

• Dame Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Sir Richard Eyre and Ian McDiarmid have shown their support for Oxford Iris Murdoch Appeal by waiving their appearance fee. The event is part of The Orange Word Season, with the Really Useful Group donating the use of the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, for the evening. Peter Conradi, Iris Murdoch's biographer; Josephine Hart and Ed Victor have also lent their support to the fundraising effort.

• Iris Murdoch studied Greats at Somerville College, Oxford, later returning to Oxford to take up a teaching and research post at St Anne's College.

 

Oxford and dementia research

• Oxford is an acknowledged world leader in neurosciences, carried out across several departments including the Department of Physiology, Experimental Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. Coupled with this is one of the strongest multidisciplinary research programmes in common disease genetics in Europe, at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Oxford has also one of the best-developed clinical services in psychiatry as well an established Clinical Chair in Geratology.

• Oxford is also home to the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory in Ageing (OPTIMA), a unique project which has studied the largest cohort of the elderly population over the longest period of time. It has made important discoveries in the fields of brain imaging and risk factors for dementia that hold out real possibilities for preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

• The work of the newly established Oxford Institute of Ageing and the Centre for Ethics in Healthcare (Ethox), are conducting exciting projects on the ethical and sociological issues surrounding dementia and old-age psychiatry which complement the biomedical research at Oxford.

St Anne's College and student funding

• St Anne's was founded to champion equality in education at the end of the nineteenth century, and remains equally committed to this aim in the twenty-first. The College admits only those who display the highest academic potential, imagination and enthusiasm, no matter what their background. As a result the student body, one of the largest in Oxford, is vigorous, diverse and fully mixed.

• Since 1997 all UK and EU undergraduates have been required to make a means-tested contribution to their tuition fees (up to a maximum of £1,075 in the current academic year). In addition, students have to meet accommodation and other living expenses which could add up to around £4,500 each year. St Anne's College, in common with other colleges and the University, has always devoted considerable resources to providing hardship funds for undergraduate and postgraduate students in genuine financial need.

• For more information about St Anne's College, see http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/