Student support and Cambridge’s role as a ‘national asset’ highlighted in Vice-Chancellor’s annual address

Celebrating Cambridge’s most recent achievements – and looking ahead to the opportunities and challenges of the future – she emphasised both the University’s “extraordinary significance” in the UK, and the importance of its global outlook.

Professor Prentice used the speech, in Senate House, to announce the Collegiate University’s milestone success in reaching its £500m student support fundraising target, set in 2018.

This vital philanthropic support was transformative, said Professor Prentice, and had already enabled a number of Cambridge widening participation programmes and initiatives – including the Cambridge Foundation Year and scholarships for specific under-represented groups – to ensure the University continues to welcome students with the potential to thrive here, regardless of background. Student health and wellbeing services at Cambridge had also been transformed with generous gifts to the student support fundraising initiative, she said.

The Vice-Chancellor told Senate House: “I have met the students in many of these programmes, so for me, the student support initiative has names, faces, and life stories attached. It’s a thrilling achievement.”

Describing the University as a “national asset”, Professor Prentice went on to highlight Cambridge’s contribution to the rest of the UK, and its economy – estimated at approximately £30 billion a year.

The Vice-Chancellor said Cambridge’s reputation for expertise and world-class research meant it was uniquely placed to become the “go-to location for the world’s leading innovators”, and pointed to the University’s ambitious plans for Cambridge West and for an innovation hub to bring together researchers, entrepreneurs, spin-outs, and funders under one roof to “help solve the world’s biggest challenges”.

Her address also highlighted other significant milestones and initiatives, including the completion of the Ray Dolby Centre, the groundbreaking of the new Whittle Lab, the expansion of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, and the advanced planning stages of two new hospitals on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital and the Cambridge Children’s Hospital.

Professor Prentice finished the address by paying tribute to the University’s current Chancellor, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who announced last year that he will step down. She expressed the University’s gratitude for “his unwavering service and his commitment to Cambridge.”

Read the full address