2 Once a Caian...
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he best universities seek to serve society. They are not ‘ivory towers’, hidebound with history and cut off from the real world, but adaptable and keen to respond practically to the changing needs and challenges of the times, such as climate change, diversity and equality of opportunity. For many industries and professions, gender parity is still a distant dream – but already 16 of Cambridge’s 31 colleges have chosen women as Heads of House and Caius is one of them. Dr Pippa Rogerson (1986) was installed as the College’s 43rd Master on Monday 1 October 2018. In the first year of her ten-year term, Pippa has been joined by a new Senior Bursar, Robert Gardiner (2018) and a new Senior Tutor, Dr Andrew Spencer (2019). Both come from Murray Edwards College, where they were, respectively, Senior Bursar and Admissions Tutor. Pippa says they are the three College officers who are ‘always on duty.’ The Senior Tutor is vital in ‘trying to attract the best students, support them through their time at Caius, help them to thrive and be the best they can, and go on to be those critical, inquiring, curious people who can use evidence to make up their own minds about the big issues.’ At the May Week Party, Pippa announced her initiative to invite Caian teachers to help
The Next Nine Years Agnetta Lazarus
Senior Bursar, Dr David Secher (1973). ‘I inherited the College in very good shape, both financially and in terms of the rolling maintenance of the buildings, which are two things we really have to keep an eye on. And we are working in a rapidly changing regulatory environment from the government – which will mean that our options are perhaps less flexible than one might imagine. The Augar review may mean we get lower fees, and we already don’t get full cost for the education we provide for home undergraduate students.’ Pippa is not the first Master to underline the importance of the College’s Endowment to benefactors at the May Week Party. Caius can only maintain the excellent, personalised education it offers by using income from the Endowment to make up an annual shortfall of about £5,000 per student. If the Government adopts Augar’s recommended fee reductions without separately compensating universities, that gap may increase to £6,500 pa. Looking ahead, one of the major projects of the next academic year will be the £7.6 million renovation of the College kitchens. Catering will be provided in temporary facilities at Harvey Court while work takes place, with re-opening scheduled for Michaelmas 2020. Pippa believes ‘it’s really important that we have a better working environment and a more hygienic, environmentally sustainable kitchen.’
College benefactors gather in Caius Court to listen to the Master’s address at the May Week Party for Benefactors in June 2019
the College to recruit applicants from a wider range of backgrounds: ‘I want them to channel more people in Cambridge’s direction, to have a two-way conversation with them about what might be holding people back from applying, or what they need to know from us, about how to help their best students to apply.’ She accepts that changes can take time.
‘We’ll take all of next year, really, to bed in, then we probably won’t see the fruition for at least three years, seeing one cohort of students through, so probably five years. With 110 Fellows, 850 students, almost 200 staff and 671 years of history, we can only nudge the tanker in the right direction!’ She is grateful to her predecessor, Professor Sir Alan Fersht (1963) and retired
She has been surprised by the amount of celebratory eating and drinking that Masters are expected to complete. As well as college feasts for historic landmarks, matriculation, graduation, etc., there are numerous university events and Masters are frequently invited to the 30 other colleges. Her personal response has been to adopt a ‘flexitarian’ diet. She is vegan in College,
