Cambridge University raised £150 million in 2022-2023 from gifts and donations. Such money must be used to support our core mission of teaching and research, as described in the pledges below.
Many parts (~80 %) of the University work well, but some parts (~20%) do not. The latter are the cause of a serious drainage of money (comparable to the yearly deficit of £50 million ). This needs addressing immediately. The Chancellor has the power to drive reform.
Cessation of misspending is not enough. The University is an asset rich organisation. It needs to leverage and raise capital to invest in its core mission — teaching and research — and not simply engage in cost cutting. The new Chancellor must advocate this viewpoint, otherwise the University risks a real prospect of collapse and neglect.
Pledge 1: Support and fund initiatives to expand access to study at Cambridge
Access to higher education in the UK today is restricted in ways that are structural, economic and ideological. For example, there are significant geographic disparities in undergraduate application and acceptance rates. One of the very welcome initiatives of the current Vice Chancellor has been to visit parts of the UK which have low Cambridge entry rates (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North, Midlands, Yorkshire & the Humber) to encourage more applications.
The Vice Chancellor has also rightly made postgraduate studentships a key strategic focus for Cambridge, describing the loss of domestic research students since 2017 as a “catastrophic fall”. Research students are the lifeblood of any research university. UKRI’s current recommended rate for a stipend for a PhD student is £20780 per year (tax free). The take home pay of someone on national living wage is about £20950 (after tax). There’s the problem … the best undergraduates have little financial incentive for another 3-5 years on the breadline, when they’re already tens of thousands in debt. By comparison, ETH Zurich pay their PhD students 55000 CHF (after tax) a year.
This is an area in which the new Chancellor must offer every support to the Vice Chancellor’s existing initiatives.
Pledge 2: Champion ethical investment and sustainability-focused fundraising
We should be guided by the University’s mission statement & core values. These are incompatible with any support for the arms trade.
Easy access to arms prolongs wars (as we see in Sudan, Ukraine & the Middle East today), enabling both state and terrorist actors to continue violence unabated. The University should not have any investments in companies associated with the arms trade whatsoever.
Climate change, ecological collapse and biodiversity loss are urgent existential threats, posing catastrophic risks to humanity. The University has already pledged to divest from all direct and indirect investments in fossil fuels by 2030. The University also has an ambitious strategy, aiming to reach Net‑Zero emissions by 2038. This will be all the more challenging in an era of tight budgets.
The new Chancellor needs to ensure the university rigorously upholds its core values in both these areas.
So, if you think the ideal Chancellor is an Auric Goldfinger figure — an unethical financier flying around the world on a private jet, and fundraising by cutting deals with dictators and oligarchs — vote for someone else. I’m not your candidate!
Pledge 3: Promote transparency and accountability
Cambridge University is secretive. Transparency and accountability needs urgent improvement and reform.
Freedom of Information (FOI) is enshrined in law. If an employer breaks FOI laws, then they can be taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Just 2% of UK employers account for half of all complaints raised with the ICO. The ‘usual suspects’ are all present — our political parties, high street banks, social media providers such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, and health authorities. But, it also includes … Cambridge University.
The last decade has seen the growth of a powerful managerial class in Universities which has little scrutiny or oversight. It is often disconnected from the Statutes and Ordinances that govern University institutions. The consequences are soaring senior management pay, opaque finances, lack of accountability for decision-making and widespread use of non-disclosure agreements.
The new Chancellor must be truly committed to open governance and drive change in the University.
Pledge 4: Create fresh academic posts
Two thirds of the researchers in the University are supported on fixed-term contracts (research associates, postdoctoral workers, research fellows). The University takes the benefits but completely absolves itself of the responsibility. Cruelly, the risk in the system is entirely borne by the fixed-term researcher.
The University has repeatedly failed to do even small things to improve the lot of such people. For example, if unestablished staff give a lecture, then the University pays £87.85 per lecture. Let us say it takes one 8 hour working day to create a new one hour lecture from scratch. This works out at £9.76/hr, whilst the 2024 national living wage is £11.44/hr. These ungenerous sums do not suggest that the University is interested in supporting early-career academics or fixed-term researchers.
The University’s record on academic vacancies is amongst the worst in the Russell Group. It urgently needs to create new academic positions to maintain its international standing in teaching and research. Over the last decade, the University has found it easier to create fresh managerial and administrative positions than academic jobs.
Many UK Universities offer their own funded Fellowships that lead to permanent positions. For example, the University of Edinburgh supports early career researchers by recruiting a cohort of Chancellor’s Fellows. In 2024, up to 38 such Fellowships were available, with the jobs transitioning to open-ended Lectureships.
The University can, and should, be doing much more to help early-career academics and fixed-term researchers.
Pledge 5: Advocate for an environment where all can flourish
As of 2024-2025, there are about 13100 staff, 12900 undergraduates and 12010 postgraduates at the University. The Chancellor must champion an environment in which all these ~ 40000 individuals are able to flourish.
The University often follows the maxim: “The less you intend to do about something, the more you must keep talking about it“. Equality, diversity and inclusion in the University has become largely performative, with little meaningful action actually being taken (but a lot of words spoken).
This is all quite unlike Cambridge University as it really could be. The magnificent role it could play in encouraging greater empathy, diversity, kindness and inclusion, as well as fostering public interest in scholarship and learning, is undermined by its culture.
We are all the poorer for this.
Harassment, discrimination and mistreatment are common at Cambridge. Formal policies exist, but there is widespread tolerance towards misconduct, especially by senior figures. For example, victims of sexual harassment (whether staff or students) often find their allegations are not taken seriously.
The new Chancellor must chart a definitive path toward radical change in the culture of the university. This demands immediate, uncompromising focus.
Pledge 6: Enrich the student experience
Students do not just learn in lecture theatres and laboratories. They learn in clubs, on sports fields or on the river Cam, on the stage, in the concert halls or running ‘Varsity’ or CSU.
They learn by volunteering or other non-academic pursuits — including demonstrations and peace camps!
As a student in the 1980s, I benefited from membership of a wide range of societies. I wrote for ‘Varsity’, then called ‘Stop press’. I also participated in the student occupation of Lady Mitchell Hall! Students have every right to engage in non-violent protests!
The new Chancellor must encourage and support all activities that enhance student engagement and learning in the very broadest sense.
(Prof) Wyn Evans (Institute of Astronomy)