{"id":2204,"date":"2025-06-15T17:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T16:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?page_id=2204"},"modified":"2025-06-15T17:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T16:28:18","slug":"statement-in-support-of-chancellorship","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?page_id=2204","title":{"rendered":"Statement in Support of Chancellorship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"744\" src=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-15-at-17.27.25-1024x744.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2215\" style=\"width:692px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-15-at-17.27.25-1024x744.png 1024w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-15-at-17.27.25-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-15-at-17.27.25-768x558.png 768w, https:\/\/21percent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-15-at-17.27.25.png 1110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.ac.uk\/about-the-university\/how-the-university-and-colleges-work\/mission-and-core-values\" title=\"mission \">mission <\/a>of the University of Cambridge is &#8220;to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning&nbsp;and research at the highest international levels of excellence.&#8221; Its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.ac.uk\/about-the-university\/how-the-university-and-colleges-work\/mission-and-core-values\" title=\"core values\">core values<\/a> are &#8220;freedom of thought and expression and freedom from discrimination<em>&#8220;.<\/em>&nbsp;Inspired by this, I am standing on a twofold platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>1.<\/strong> <strong>A thorough review of current job creation and retention trends against the background of the University\u2019s mission statement.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The University urgently needs to create new academic positions to maintain its international standing. Over the last decade, the University has found it much easier to create <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1441\" title=\"fresh managerial and administrative positions than academic jobs\">fresh managerial and administrative positions than academic jobs<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">More than two-thirds of staff at the University are employed on a fixed-term basis. They make a significant contribution to teaching and research, yet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucu.cam.ac.uk\/casualisation\/\" title=\"their pay and conditions are miserly\">their pay, conditions and promotion prospects are often poor<\/a>. The trend towards increasing casualisation of staff must be reversed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>2.<\/strong> <strong>A thorough review of transparency, accountability, accessibility and performance within the management of the University<\/strong> <strong>as judged against the background of the University\u2019s core values and mission statement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The University needs an Ombudsman with power to investigate serious abuses or mismanagement and hold the mighty to account. For example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1716\" title=\"recent staff survey\">recent staff survey<\/a> shows high levels of discontent at the handling of bullying and harassment at the University.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The University needs to stop the waste of money on highly paid, external consultancies. This is one of the causes of our current budgetary deficit. The expertise and knowledge present in our own staff greatly exceeds that of most expensive consultancies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">A comparison with Microsoft or Apple a few decades ago \u2014 during periods when those companies lost direction \u2014 is instructive. Like them, Cambridge benefits from a natural monopoly that yields substantial revenues. The university\u2019s powerful brand enables it to generate significant income, which ought to be reinvested into its core mission: teaching, talent identification &amp; retention and research. What\u2019s needed is a reform-minded leader \u2014 like a Satya Nadella or Steve Jobs \u2014 to refocus the institution on what truly matters: education, learning, and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Cambridge\u2019s global brand draws its strength from academic excellence and cultural prestige. It benefits from a devoted alumni network that spans the globe \u2014 many of whom hold influential positions and see philanthropy as a way to give back to the institution that shaped their lives. Their support is directed toward causes that reflect their academic roots or personal convictions \u2014 climate change, frontier research in science &amp; humanities or widening access to education. A steadfast commitment to the University\u2019s mission statement and core values is the greatest gift a Chancellor can provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The best candidate for Chancellor is an internal one who understands its current problems and is active in research, mentoring and teaching. Chancellors should not be elected for a long period. I undertake to serve 5 years only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ast.cam.ac.uk\/people\/wyn.evans\" title=\"(Prof) Wyn Evans\">(Prof) Wyn Evans<\/a> (Institute of Astronomy)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mission of the University of Cambridge is &#8220;to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning&nbsp;and research at the highest international levels of excellence.&#8221; Its core values are &#8220;freedom of thought and expression and freedom from discrimination&#8220;.&nbsp;Inspired by this, I am standing on a twofold platform. 1. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2204","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2204\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}