A Cambridge graduate from Tyne and Wear is to be editor of The Cambridge Student (TCS) next term. Simon Burdus, 21, who comes from Seaburn, near Sunderland, has already been co-editing The Cambridge Student and will become the paper’s editor next term.

TCS is written and edited by Cambridge students and appears every Thursday in term time. Each 32-page issue has a print run of 10,000 copies. It is read by almost 80 per cent of Cambridge undergraduates.

Simon, who attended Monkwearmouth Comprehensive and South Tyneside College, graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, a year ago with a degree in Management with Geography. At Girton he was responsible for student entertainment, and since graduating he has been working for Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) as both its entertainments officer and business manager.

Next term Simon will also be leading a team of 20 section editors at TCS. “As many as 50 Cambridge students contribute to each issue of TCS. It’s my job as editor to scout for creative talent and pull it all together,” says Simon.

Simon, who plays several instruments, has written a musical based on the TV series The Crystal Maze, devising music and lyrics in partnership with a third-year Cambridge music student, Peter Facer. They have invited the original presenter of the series, Richard O’Brien, to attend the premier of their musical in February 2009.

Simon applied to Cambridge after attending the CUSU Shadowing Scheme for high-achieving state school pupils when he was in Year 12.

“My name was picked out of a hat to be one of two pupils to shadow Cambridge students. I had this weird idea that Cambridge would be full of people wearing tweed and speaking posh. My mam had to persuade me to go as I thought it wouldn’t be somewhere for me,” he says.

“I fell in love with the place instantaneously and decided to apply to study geography. At my interview I was shown a map and asked to talk about it. I said I thought it showed an area with lots of mountains. It turned out to be a map of Ipswich which could hardly be flatter. I got in anyway.”

Simon says Cambridge has given him a huge range of opportunities he would never have found elsewhere. Always highly motivated, he was student president of Girton College, took part in several plays and musicals, and played as many college sports as possible, as well as flourishing academically.

However, he has retained a close affinity to Sunderland and wants to return to his home city. “I want to come back and help Sunderland develop,” he said, “Too many people leave the North East and don’t return because of lack of opportunities. I want to help change this and make Sunderland a place people want to come to.”

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