Watch Out Cambridge

The Prime Minister of Singapore has warned of foreign competition to Cambridge.


Speaking at the 800th anniversary gala dinner, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the University was losing out to world competition. 

“The best United States universities – Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT – have become outstanding centres of teaching and research. Top Ivy League universities are now at least on a par with Cambridge,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee, who studied Maths at Trinity, also highlighted the threat posed to Cambridge by the rising reputations of institutions in China and India.

His comments come just weeks after the Times Higher Education declared Cambridge the second best university in the world, knocking Yale down to third place but coming second to Harvard.

Cough up for Cambridge

Mr Lee claims his alma mater is increasingly unable to compete with other Universities’ staggering budgets. Harvard alone has an endowment of US$26 billion. 

A university report earlier this year threatened that Cambridge will be forced to charge US-style tuition fees of up to £7,000 per annum if stingy government funding levels do not increase.

But M.A. Cantab may still be worth more than a degree in equine studies from Anglia Ruskin; Mr Lee conceded that “Cambridge remains a great university”.

No comment was given by Loong on the slipping state of Oxford, which in recent rankings worryingly fell to fifth place, behind Imperial, UCL and Yale.