The well-educated undergraduate

Professor Richard began her address by drawing attention to the fact that globally rankings, prestige and investments are strongly weighted towards research, making it increasingly difficult for research-intensive universities to give serious attention to the education of undergraduates.

She pointed out, however, that the University of Cambridge has an advantage over many of its peers. The tradition of small-group teaching by academics who are leaders in their fields means that students are educated “up to and beyond the frontiers of knowledge”. The collegiate system fosters an atmosphere in which tutors and students talk across academic boundaries.

Looking back to ideas of great educationalists in the nineteenth century, Professor Richard explored the concept of a university as a place where professors both advance ideas and teach students – a notion that has been debated ever since.

While acknowledging the tension between the two, she refuted the notion that teaching and research were incompatible. “At its very best, teaching invigorates research,” she said.

Professor Richard called for both improvements in funding for undergraduate education and a change in attitude to the importance of teaching.

She went on to discuss the particular challenges that face teaching at Cambridge, exploring the debates of ‘breadth versus depth’ and ‘useful’ versus ‘non-useful’ in terms of learning.

Agreeing that today’s citizens need to be “knowledgeable, numerate and computationally skilled as well as literate”, Professor Richard looked at how the Cambridge system, and in particular its historical Collegiate structure, relates to these requirements.

In the context of a talented, highly motivated student body, much of the learning takes place in an informal setting, Professor Richard argued. In the environment of the Cambridge Colleges, students learn from each other as well as from a multitude of extra-curricular activities, living in “hothouses for unstructured learning”.

Reflection and re-examination of traditions are positive outcomes of responding to new challenges, she maintained, with Cambridge excelling at “invention and reinvention”. She urged the University to promote the “centrality of undergraduate education” in its mission and “reaffirm the teaching responsibilities of all staff”.

Speaking broadly, she said: “We must win public understanding and acceptance of the real costs of undergraduate education, and create the conditions of public support and institutional independence that are key to meeting these costs.”

Professor Richard argued that Cambridge has an opportunity to take a lead in showing that research and teaching can flourish together, in particular within the highly individual collegiate system, which she described as a “brilliant, unplanned, emergent outcome of our long history”.

She concluded her speech by reminding the audience that “change is nothing new here; it happens quietly all the time”. She urged the Faculties and staff to consider a series of questions about the possibility of creating further breadth and flexibility within the Tripos system.

Finally, Professor Richard stressed the importance of not compromising or losing sight of “what we value most”: the many strengths of the Cambridge approach to education with its focus on depth of knowledge and genuine love of learning.

The full text of the speech will be published in The Reporter on Wednesday 4 October.