Under the title 'Choices and Responsibility', Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz discussed the freedom the University enjoys to make choices and the challenges facing Cambridge over the next couple of decades.
“Our track record, full of pivotal moments and sound choices, means we have a lot to live up to as we face today’s big decisions,” he said.
He laid out a series of key questions facing the University: “how we grow without losing our distinctiveness; how we educate increasing numbers of students, especially graduate students; how we develop the research environment of the University and how we engage with those who choose to support us – (these questions) will face us squarely in the next few years. The answers we choose will shape what the University looks and feels like in twenty years’ time.”
“I end with a challenge to the Collegiate University,” he concluded. “I ask that you contribute to these debates. These choices are critical; our responsibility is great. Maintaining our freedom is hard and needs watchfulness. The right to choose has been hard-earned – let us embrace it.”
Following the address a congregation of the Regent House, the University’s governing body, was held at which the new Proctors were elected and sworn in in a traditional Latin ceremony.
The full text of the speech is available here.
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
_______________________________________________
The Vice-Chancellor's annual 1st October address to the University
2 October 2013
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge marked the start of the new academic year yesterday morning (Tuesday) by giving his annual address to the University in the Senate House.