Abbott recalls Oxford school days - Breaking News - Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney Morning Herald

AAP

Tony Abbott's Dr No tag may have its origins in his time at Oxford University, if a speech by the opposition leader is to be taken as a guide.

Speaking at the university during his UK visit on Friday (GMT), the Rhodes scholar said he remembers his education in philosophy there as a "superb preparation" for his current job.

"After a few months of the tutorial system, it started to dawn on me that my tutors wanted my personal assimilation and personal appreciation of the issues under discussion, not a regurgitation of the authorities," Mr Abbott told his audience.

"Reading the best that's been thought and said, forming one's own conclusions and defending them against expert probing, is a superb preparation for any form of advocacy."

But in the view of at least one of his mentors, he should have been a better doubter.

"Alas, as the distinguished historian of the Conservative Party, Lord Blake, observed at my final Provost's collection, `Mr Abbott needs to temper his robust commonsense with a certain philosophic doubt'," he said.

In his speech to Oxford alumni, the coalition leader reflected on boxing ring scraps, terrible handwriting and Australia's bond with old Blighty.

London-born Mr Abbott still counts Sydney University as his alma mater, but in 1981, he packed his bags for The Queens College at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.

"After my final exams, I had to dictate some papers to a typist because the examiner, apparently, had been unable to decipher my handwriting," he said.

Mr Abbott said Australia's ties to the UK would remain as strong as ever.

"Australia's foreign policy should rightly have a Jakarta rather than a Geneva focus but Asia is not the only region where there will be an Australian citizen to be protected, an Australian interest to be advanced, or an Australian value to be upheld," he told his audience.

"As (former Australian prime minister) John Howard often said, we do not have to choose between our history and our geography but should benefit from both."

He also reaffirmed the coalition's pledge to establish a reworked Colombo Plan - the program that brought thousands of Asian students to Australian campuses between 1952 and 1985 - saying he hoped it would become "the Rhodes scholarship of our region".