The Simon Goldhill Scandal Deepens

There are more revelations in The Times about Prof Simon Goldhill, as two more female academics come forward. Their stories are here. They are sobering.

“The worst of them was a forced embrace, a sloppy forced kiss, hands all over. These incidents happened over a few years in the early 2000s. They made me feel violated, stupid and disconnected from the world of scholars that I was trying to join. I felt I should keep it a secret.

“When I read about the new incident, I felt it all come back, all that shame, panic and the isolation of it. I felt guilty for not having tried to take an action long ago that might have helped to prevent this student from going through something similar. And I am angry because, since the article was published, I have been in the presence of colleagues making excuses for him” [The Times]

The 21 Group has heard similar stories from women both in the University and the Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation. There is more to come.

Everyone in Cambridge who was aware of Simon Goldhill — whether consciously or not — has, in some sense, been part of a broader culture of concealment. I include myself, albeit indirectly. During my time as a Fellow of King’s in the 2010s, I observed behaviour that I considered highly inappropriate. While I did not personally witness sexual harassment, I did see instances of bullying. (A decade later, I did protest about serious bullying and what Cambridge University did to me will be explored in the Employment Tribunal from 1-28 June 2026).

This kind of quiet complicity is deeply embedded within the fabric of Cambridge life. We are the Cover-up University. And The Times article gives a truly astonishing example. The Provost of King’s College is Gillian Tett.

Cambridge’s arcane structures meant Tett only found out about the conclusions of the investigation by reading The Times earlier this month. It took her until last week to obtain a copy of the report from the university authorities [The Times]

It’s scarcely believable. The Provost of King’s College only found out about Goldhill Scandal by reading ‘The Times’ ! She only obtained a copy of the report last week ! In other words, Cambridge University is so secretive that matters only become known internally via the national press.

However, anyone who has had any dealings with our Human Resources department or the Pro Vice Chancellor for Community and Engagement knows that all the information is very tightly controlled. And everything is denied. This is how the cover-ups work.

Even now, the Pro Vice Chancellor is trying to hush up some recent Employment Tribunal scandals.

In any company, the board of directors and senior executives would know about such serious things. They would discuss them. Similarly, there needs to be much more open discussion about the problems the University has at a high level. Instead, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Community and Engagement wants to tell everyone about a voodoo poll carried out by the Financial Times.

‪The University is a charity, which places an onus on its trustees to ensure that proper oversight of its activities is enacted. If there were a failure in such oversight, I believe that the trustees, in this case the members of Council, could even be held liable.

I don’t believe we can fix our problems while the cover-up attitude of the pro Vice Chancellor remains.

Professor Neil Wyn Evans

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