The Huppert Scandal

The 21 Group predicted that 2026 would be the Year of Scandals for Cambridge University. Those scandals are now arriving thick and fast.

The Simon Goldhill Affair involved a distinguished classicist at King’s College, Cambridge. Allegations of sexual misconduct against him were upheld by the University. His “touchy-feely” behaviour had long been an open secret within both the Faculty of Classics and King’s itself. However, King’s only learnt about the University investigation from articles in The Times.

Now, The Times reports that the geophysicist Professor Herbert Huppert has been excluded from King’s College following complaints of harassment, inappropriate touching, sexualised remarks and other unacceptable conduct. The apparent concentration of cases at King’s strongly suggests that the source of these disclosures lies within the College.

I was once a Fellow of King’s, albeit many years ago. Whilst I did not personally witness inappropriate behaviour, I do recall that Professor Huppert was, among some Fellows, nicknamed “Humbert Humbert,” after the central character in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel. Concerns about his conduct had circulated within academia for years and were widely known, well before formal action was eventually taken.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this latest case is, once again, the culture of secrecy that continues to envelop Cambridge University regarding bullying and harassment.

Cambridge imposed “access restrictions” on Huppert in 2018 after earlier allegations about his behaviour. Despite that he had been in regular attendance at Cambridge events and was subsequently accused of harassing a female staff member at a formal dinner at Jesus College [The Times]

Jesus College is the home of Dr Julian Huppert, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge from 2010-2015. The date of the alleged harassment at Jesus College has not been disclosed. It appears that, despite the “access restrictions” imposed in 2018, Professor Huppert continued to attend university functions and college events in subsequent years. At Cambridge University, the privacy rights of the alleged harasser seem, all too often, to take precedence over safeguarding concerns.

In 2023, further restrictions were imposed when Professor Huppert was barred from attending the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, except under very limited circumstances, by its Head, Professor Colm-cille Caulfield.

Dear all,

I regret to inform you that I have had to restrict significantly the access to CMS of the retired member of DAMTP Professor Herbert Huppert FRS, effectively to the immediate period (+ 10 minutes before and after) of relevant seminars/events which he has been given explicit permission to attend. I would ask that if you encounter him at other times, and especially at any time in the office parts of the pavilions, that you contact reception immediately.

Thank you

Colm-cille Caulfield

Head of DAMTP

The latest investigation seems to have been carried out at King’s College very recently — in 2025, following two further complaints from female staff. However, King’s appears to have been unaware of any previous investigations and restrictions.

Details of the restrictions imposed on Huppert by the university in 2018 do not seem to have been passed to King’s College, where he had been a fellow since 1970. King’s College has been unable to say whether it informed the central university authorities about its 2025 investigation [The Times].

Prof Huppert is now no longer a Fellow or even Member of King’s College. He has been removed from the list of Emeritus Fellows (by contrast, Prof Goldhill remains listed as an Official Fellow, though currently banned from College).

The most disgraceful aspect of this matter is the difference between what Cambridge University says and what it actually does. Here is a statement from the Pro Vice Chancellors, Professors Kamal Munir and Bhaskar Vira, on ‘Breaking the Silence‘ about sexual harassment.

Like most official pronouncements by Cambridge University on bullying and harassment, it is just completely untrue. It is pure propaganda. What is its purpose?

“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control”. [Theodore Dalrymple]

Finally, I note that the University’s attempt to impose reporting restrictions and anonymisation on the forthcoming Employment Tribunal (1 to 26 June 2026) regarding events at the Institute of Astronomy was dismissed last week.

The long years of cover-ups are finally coming to an end.

Professor Wyn Evans (Institute of Astronomy)