{"id":3137,"date":"2026-01-10T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3137"},"modified":"2026-10-13T05:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T04:15:55","slug":"whats-gone-wrong-at-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3137","title":{"rendered":"What’s Gone Wrong at Cambridge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cambridge\u2019s problem is not lack of money. It is where the money goes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past decade, the university has steadily starved its academic departments in real terms \u2014 while allowing the central administration to expand at pace. The result is a university increasingly run around<\/em> teaching and research rather than for<\/em> them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot uses data taken from the University’s Financial Statement for year ending 31 July 2025 here<\/a>. We have accounted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the people who actually teach students and produce research. As the Figure shows, once inflation is taken into account, departmental spending from 2016 to 2023 is roughly flat. Then it falls sharply. So, departments are expected to absorb more students, more compliance and more administrative work \u2014 with no real increase in resources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While departments have been told to tighten belts, central administration has not. Spending by the central administration has ballooned over the same period. Growth far outstrips inflation and bears little relation to frontline academic needs. Layers of management, strategy units and compliance offices proliferate. If departments are flat-funded, why isn\u2019t the centre?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not just a financial story \u2014 it is a governance one. Resources have been pulled into the centre. Decision-making has become increasingly top-down. Departments are left to implement strategies they had little role in shaping. The university now spends almost as much on managing academic work than on enabling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are often told that these trends are unavoidable \u2014 the result of external pressures or modern university life. They are not. Cambridge chose<\/strong> to protect and expand the centre, to shift cuts and pressure onto the departments. Other priorities were possible. Different outcomes were possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambridge does not have a funding crisis. It has a priorities crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching and research are being quietly squeezed. Bureaucracy flourishes luxuriantly. The academic mission is treated as a cost to be controlled, not a purpose to be served. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until this imbalance is confronted, no amount of rhetoric about excellence or world-leading status will fix what is going wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambridge\u2019s problem is not lack of money. It is where the money goes. Over the past decade, the university has steadily starved its academic departments in real terms \u2014 while allowing the central administration to expand at pace. The result is a\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t