Free speech is the “number one concern” of Cambridge’s new chancellor. In a wide-ranging interview, former New Labour culture secretary Lord Chris Smith said his priority in the job would be “the defence of academic freedom and freedom of speech”. Elected in a close contest in July, Smith said that there have been “occasions when Cambridge has hit the national press over particular freedom of speech issues”.
However, the chancellor defended the University’s decision to seek injunctions on protestors over the last year. Although he acknowledged the University should “enable and encourage protests”, he insisted Cambridge had “been right to seek very specific injunctions to protect the ability of all students to be able to take exams”.
The chancellor said his other priorities include “championing… Cambridge as a centre for innovation and a catalyst for growth”, as well as “enabling the colleges and the University to work more closely and collaboratively together”.
Smith also stressed the need to “make even further progress on widening participation” and make Cambridge a “welcoming and inclusive place” for any prospective student. Last month, Cambridge students launched Cambridge University Society of Women (CUSW), a “proudly single-sex society for women at Cambridge”, which has been criticised as “transphobic” by some other student groups. Asked about the ongoing debate surrounding women’s only spaces, Smith said it is important “for women to be able to feel safe in spaces that are designated for them”.
However, he also said that the University must ensure transgender students “have spaces available to them as well” and trans people must have their needs “genuinely met”. When pressed, Smith seemed hesitant to commit to a University stance on the issue. While acknowledging that the University should remind the organisation “of the importance of inclusivity and welcome”, he said “it’s not up to the University to tell the people who are creating this society what they should be doing”.
Asked about the tone of the discourse surrounding trans students in Cambridge, Smith stressed the need to “humanise and personalise” the debate. “We are talking about individual human beings here, frequently going through a really difficult and challenging period of their life, and our job has to be to support them.” Yet he believes free speech is paramount. He mentioned the philosophy professor Kathleen Stock, who left the University of Sussex in 2021 after being attacked for her views on sex and gender identity. “I disagree strongly with much of what Kathleen Stock has to say,” he said, “but I would defend her right to say it.”
In Smith’s view, academic freedom has to be “the bottom line”. He rejected “kowtowing to anyone… trying to determine what a professor can or can’t research”. This comes amid the news that academics at Sheffield Hallam University were reportedly intimidated and pressured by Chinese officials.
Smith doesn’t want to cut ties with China, arguing that the University “can’t simply refuse to have anything to do” with “an increasingly important part of the current world,” but argues that “we need to get the balance right”. This freedom of expression, he insisted, should also extend to students. He reaffirmed his commitment to “protests that don’t provide… disruption”. Yet this “very strong” support, he argued, is consistent with the University’s costly use of injunctions to limit protest on its property, and some college-owned land.
An investigation by student newspaper Varsity revealed that Trinity College, St John’s College and the central University spent over £400,000 on law firms to help tackle encampments on their sites. This spending is especially controversial in light of the Board of Scrutiny’s report, which warned that Cambridge’s financial position “remains of concern”.
The report projected a deficit of £39 million for the academic year 2025-26, albeit lower than in previous years due to controversial spending cuts. While the chancellor accepted that “the University’s finances are facing challenges”, he was keen to stress that “this is something affecting higher education across the country”. He said he is “limbering up” to argue with the UK government. “If [the government] are serious about wanting to promote economic growth, universities are a key part of that,” he said. Smith envisions a bargain, whereby universities can “ramp up their ability to stimulate growth and educate the future generation of creative people in return for better funding of universities”.
When asked about the University’s recent commitment to partial divestment from arms industries, Smith was more circumspect. “It is not a simple issue,” he said, and it is “up to the University Council to consider the Virgo report as carefully as they possibly can”. He was keen to stress that “it is not my place to tell them what to do”.
But he was vocal about the University’s sustainability failings. The Board of Scrutiny claimed last month that the University is giving “the impression that sustainability is no longer a priority”. Smith, a former chair of the Environment Agency, feels the University’s sustainability objectives are “really important”. He urged his colleagues to “hold fast to the sustainability objectives that they have, and the progress to net zero”, which he wants to see “as rapidly as possible”.
Smith is aware that his role is “primarily ceremonial,” and lacks the “direct decision making” of previous roles in government. But he is confident in the chancellor’s potential to “nudge, persuade, and steer” debate and decisions within the University.
His message to students is to “hold fast to your beliefs”. “Be determined in what you study here, and what you go on to do in the world, to make a difference.”
As to the difference he hopes to make during his tenure, he said: “I would hope that by the time I depart as chancellor, Cambridge will be a thriving, innovative, and inclusive University, and that I may have been able to play a little bit of a part in ensuring that it gets there.”
[Further reading: Tinkering with ECHR definitions will not help the government]
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