We welcome the news that Cambridge once again comes top of the Sunday Times Good University Guide league table. We are pleased that the table recognises how much we offer students in terms of value for money, increasingly excellent facilities for study and research and the ‘community’ that college life offers.

We have reinforced our standards this year and forged new paths, not only with the opening of a world-class Nanoscience centre on our major new science and technology site, West Cambridge, but most importantly, with the election of Professor Alison Richard as our new Vice-Chancellor.

However, we cannot stress too much that supporting 5* excellence does not come cheap. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the infrastructure going and to pay our staff appropriate salaries in order to maintain this excellence.

We were extremely pleased that the government has accepted responsibility to ensure that first-rate research is properly funded, and that it made a major step in the right direction when it raised its research funding to Cambridge this year by around 15 per cent.

It was disappointing, however, to see that the allocation for teaching dropped by nearly two per cent. We believe this is partly due to the government penalising institutions that have an intake based on high A-level scores. Despite this, we are determined to maintain the quality of our teaching, maintain our low dropout rate and continue our extensive efforts made to increase access.

During the year ahead, we will have to address the highly controversial issue of ‘top-up fees’ and as they are the only increased funding option that the government has offered British universities to close the funding deficit we will have to examine the subject very closely. If the University of Cambridge decides to introduce them, then we must guarantee a ‘needs blind’ admission system and ensure that every possible effort is put into access schemes and increasing the range and level of bursaries.

It is a myth almost as ancient as the University that only ‘rich kids’ are accepted into Cambridge and that it costs a fortune to study here. Last year, 56 per cent of students accepted to Cambridge came from the state sector whilst 23 per cent of home students at Cambridge did not pay any tuition fees whatsoever. In 2002-2003, more than £4 million was awarded in hardship funds, childcare support, travel and book grants, scholarships and prizes.

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