Cambridge Cash Crusade

Cambridge University has raised over £1 BILLION in a US-style international fund-raising campaign.

800 Anniversary access alison richard fundraising harvard

Cambridge University has raised over £1 BILLION in a US-style international fund-raising campaign.

The campaign, imaginatively named ‘Transforming Tomorrow’, hopes to expand access to students from different backgrounds.

Over 45,000 alumni have coughed up the cash, which will be used to maintain an "international pre-eminence against better-funded competitors", according to vice-chancellor Professor Alison Richard.

Harvard, for example, has more money than Algeria, and an annual income of $9.33 billion. Cambridge, meanwhile, gets slightly less than a tenth of this from various sources. 

The billion pounds will be used pay for new labs, student halls, and the creation of more teaching posts to attract the best academic staff.

The money will also pay for a number of free and subsidised places, so that people can come to Cambridge regardless of their background. 

The Access Officer for Sidney Sussex College, Alyona Levitin, welcomed this announcement. She told The Tab: ‘It sounds like a really good way to spend a lot of money; anything that helps the less fortunate fulfil their potential is a step in the right direction’. 

‘Transforming Tomorrow’ was launched to celebrate Cambridge’s 800th anniversary, and managed to get the funds two years before the stated deadline.

To put the amount raised into context, on a minimum wage you would have to work for 19,682 years to raise £1 billion, as long as you neglected to eat or sleep.