Sir Leszek Borysiewicz celebrates recent achievements and the most successful fundraising year in the history of the collegiate University
Our commitment to Europe runs deeper than access to research funding, or the issue of student and staff mobility. It is a commitment to a shared cultural and intellectual heritage, of which we are firmly a part. On this subject, the University has a duty of leadership that it will not abandon.
In his seventh and final address to the University of Cambridge, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, emphasised the University’s key role at the centre of a global community of scholars.
“The collegiate nature of the University has been, and remains, one of our greatest strengths. Bound inextricably by history, and by a joint responsibility for students, today the University and the 31 colleges work in a common endeavour more closely than at any time I can remember.”
Alongside the increase in the provision of graduate scholarships awarded by the University over the past six years, he cited widening access as a personal priority:
“Attracting students based on their abilities rather than their social or educational background is one of the ways in which we fulfil our mission to contribute to society. Our undergraduate student body is more diverse than ever before.”
Research excellence, he said, “is the defining feature of our institutional landscape, and integral to establishing our international reputation.”
Cambridge’s ability to be a world-leader in research, he added, requires investment, and the University’s full commitment to supporting the people who are at the front line of research.
“Our postdoctoral community is the engine that powers our research capacity. Today it comprises nearly 4000 researchers across all fields –the fastest growing staff group."
"Providing better conditions for them has been a particular focus of mine over the past few years, and has been the primary role of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, created three years into my tenure.”
Cambridge’s aspiration to being a truly global university, he said, is best expressed in its instinct for seeking out excellence and setting up enduring and mutually beneficial collaborations:
“International partnerships are now an inextricable part of the University’s make-up,” he said, citing the successful Cambridge-Africa Programme, crop science collaboration with the government of India, and the forthcoming launch of a Cambridge-based centre for ethics and law in association with the Max Planck Institutes."
"These partnerships, he added, “will be more crucial to our success in the future than ever before.
On Cambridge’s role in the new Tier 4 visa scheme for overseas Master’s students he said:
“The fact that Cambridge was one of the four UK institutions chosen to pilot a new streamlined visa scheme for overseas students is a clear indication that we are not only trusted by government in our handling of international students, but that we are one of the UK’s best destinations for them."
Highlights of the past year included the opening of the Maxwell Centre, in West Cambridge. The Department of Chemical engineering and Biotechnology, he added, will start undergraduate teaching in its new building this Michaelmas term.
“The expansion of the biomedical campus and the development of North West Cambridge are the most significant capital investment projects in the history of the University,” he said, “and they have already had a transformative effect on the city itself. The first occupants of the North West Cambridge site are expected to arrive in early 2017.”
Referring to the University’s fundraising campaign he said: “We do not seek financial gain for its own sake. But financial security is central to guaranteeing our autonomy, and to being able to fulfil our mission to the best of our capacity. Philanthropic fundraising is a major component of that financial security.”
“This has been the most successful fundraising year in collegiate Cambridge’s history, with more than £210m raised in a single financial year. This brings the total raised in this fundraising campaign to £743m –a testament to the generosity of our alumni and supporters.”
Turning to the challenges ahead, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned the introduction of a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the enactment of the Higher Education and Research Bill as opening the possibility of “a wholesale transformation of the way we deliver and evaluate education.”
“In parallel, the creation of a new body amalgamating the seven UK research councils confronts us with a complete transformation of the research funding landscape as we know it.”
Turning his attention to the prospect of the UK’s departure from the EU he said:
“The outcome of the [23 June] referendum was not the one I was an advocate for, and certainly not the one that I think would have been best for the University."
"But it is our responsibility, as a community of scholars and researchers, to make sure that Cambridge continues to thrive in spite of the UK’s departure from the EU.”
“We must seek the opportunities that arise from [Brexit] –not least the opportunity to emphasise our vocation as an outward looking institution, engaging more widely with the world.”
He added: “Our commitment to Europe runs deeper than our access to research funding, or even the essential issue of student and staff mobility."
"It is a commitment to a shared cultural and intellectual heritage, of which we are firmly a part. On this subject, the University has a duty of leadership that it will not abandon.”
Reflecting on Cambridge’s resilience in the face of challenges, he said:
“We take strength from our strong sense of community. We take strength from our ability to translate academic influence into global leadership and influence. And we take strength from our commitment to contributing to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.”
Sir Leszek, who on 1 October 2017 will hand over the Office of the Vice-Chancellor to Professor Stephen Toope, current Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, finished by saying:
“I have cherished being part of a global community of inquisitive and creative men and women –from freshers, to professors, to our enthusiastic and committed alumni across the world."
"I have felt privileged to be entrusted, by this very community, with the leadership of one of the world’s greatest institutions."
"And though in a year’s time I will be handing that responsibility over to my excellent successor, I will never cease to feel that Cambridge is where I belong.”