From Dumpster-Diving to Raucous Revels MICHAEL DERRINGER
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Friday January 23rd 2009 e Independent Cambridge Student Newspaper since 1947 Issue no 687 | varsity.co.uk »p3 News »Special pull-out »p20 Features Alison Richard It’s here: the Procter & An American in speaks Gamble Varsity 100 2009 Victorian Cambridge From dumpster-diving to raucous revels MICHAEL DERRINGER Varsity survey reveals large disparity in wealth of Cambridge students, with spending budgets ranging from £20 to £400 a week ally helped me to keep down my weekly age of £181 per week compared to the average of £64,000 a year, compared to Caedmon Tunstall-Behrens spending,” said a second-year bin-raider Cambridge average of £112 per week. those at King’s who earn £75,000. A Varsity survey has exposed the huge who wished to remain anonymous. eir parents have the highest income 62 per cent of students at King’s ad- disparity in spending levels among Five and a half per cent of students as well, earning an average of £117,500 mitted they regularly received money Cambridge students. While some stu- said they lived on under £30 a week, a year. Management and Land Econ- from their parents, compared to 40 per dents are living a Brideshead-style ex- according to Varsity’s online survey of omy students were also amongst the cent at St John’s. “To be honest at King’s £112 istence, spending £400 a week, others 783 students. At the opposite end of highest rollers. we’re not really bothered about money, Average weekly spending by are surviving on just £20. the scale, twelve per cent of Cambridge “ ere are some really rich people there are more important things in life,” respondents e ndings illustrate the radically students claimed to live on over £200 studying History of Art. It’s seems a said a second-year English student at di erent experiences rich and poor stu- a week. ese gures exclude rent, but very public school subject, possibly King’s. dents have at Cambridge. While some include all other expenditure. because not many state schools o er it A gender divide in spending levels drink Cindies dry of Bollinger, others “I have noticed there is a signi cant at A-level,” said Megan Cooper, a rst- was found to exist within the University. are joining the ‘freegan’ movement, social divide in Cambridge between year History of Art undergraduate at On average, men spend £126 per week rummaging through supermarket bins those who are wealthy and the less well Churchill. compared to women who spend £99. £74k for food to get by. Some students can o – the gap formed early on as fresh- While some stereotypes were con- “In the end men have to spend money Average earnings of respondents’ only a ord to spend £2.87 a day, ac- ers,” said a third year English student at rmed by the survey, others were on women or they won’t pull,” suggest- parents cording the results. Caius. dashed. e parents of students at St ed one undergraduate at Homerton as a “I’m on a fairly tight budget, and get- History of Art students are the most John’s earned considerably less than possible explanation for this di erence. ting food from supermarket bins has re- spendthri group, spending an aver- those at King’s. John’s parents earn an Continued on page 5 China’s prime minister to deliver prestigious Cambridge lecture Andrew Bellis the University, but tickets will be allo- applications being treated equally. week-long visit to Europe, when he will Since 1858, when the lecture was re- cated a er an online application proc- Mr Wen, 67, has been premier of the visit Britain, Spain, Belgium, Germany established, the Vice-Chancellor has China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is ess. e lecture, which will take place People’s Republic of China since 2003 and Switzerland. appointed a speaker to deliver the an- to deliver a lecture in Cambridge. in the West Road Concert Hall, is al- and is third in the Communist Party’s e Sir Robert Rede’s Lectureship nual lecture. Previous speakers have Mr Wen will give the prestigious ready heavily oversubscribed, although hierarchy, behind the president, Hu is named a er a Lord Chief Justice of included the Duke of Edinburgh and Rede Lecture on Monday February the deadline for applications is not un- Jintao, and the senior speaker in the the Common Pleas in the sixteenth John Betjeman. 2nd. e title has yet to be announced. til midday on Monday. All 350 tickets country’s legislature. century who le an endowment to es- To apply for a ticket, visit www.ad- e lecture is open to all members of will be allocated a er that time, with all Mr Wen’s lecture will coincide with a tablish a lectureship at the University. min.cam.ac.uk/redelecture2009. Something to say? [email protected] Friday January 23rd 2009 2 Editorial Call the Editors directly on 01223 761541 varsity.co.uk e Procter & Gamble Varsity 100 2009 can be found as a special pull-out within this week’s centrefold. Contents Us and them: the institutional divide f you read the Reporter, the University’s official record of business, you will find a world far removed from the concerns of students. It is a world of Graces of the Regent House, of the endowment of Chairs, and the appointment News p1-7 Iof Pro-Proctors and their colleagues. It is not, however, the arcane language which may alienate students from the dealings of the University’s top brass, but the fact that those who run this institution have such different priorities to Varsity Pro le p6 the students. We talk to a magical Cambridge student e University’s administrators are focused on fundraising and public relations. eir top priorities of recent months, by the name of Chris McGeever. for example, have been the Festival of Ideas and the University’s ‘800’ campaign; neither of these is of much importance at all to students. As the Vice-Chancellor tells Varsity, she feels that students have a part to play; but it is never quite clear what that part is. She claims not to feel “removed” from students, but most of us would surely disagree. is is not a Cambridge Spies p7 personal criticism – Alison Richard is wonderfully good at what she does – but an institutional one. Prepare to be scandalised by a Perhaps we should count our blessings. e collegiate and supervision systems, and our unusually high ratio of well-boiled serving of hot gossip. academics to students, means that we have much more contact with dons than do students at most other universities. However, there still seems to be a fundamental disconnection between the top of the University and the students who make up the bulk of its population. It is hard to see a way out of this confusion. e University is inherently fragmented: we all make our own Cambridge – from our College, our faculty, our leisure activities and our friends – and that is not a bad thing. However, all the mem- Comment p9-11 bers of the University should feel united in a common purpose, and that seems at the moment not always to be the case. e University’s ruling body would probably argue that everything they do bene ts students indirectly in the long run. e Essay p9 Yet if this is the case, why do they not tell students so? ere seems to be little e ort to make junior members feel a part Jonathan Birch tells us that Darwin’s of the University as a whole, or to explain exactly how disputes in the Senate House may one day a ect us. It is not that method, not his ideas, are what should the central administration does not care about students; just that they are very bad at showing it. ensure his enduring memory. Spoiling the party p10 Count your blessings: the wealth divide e 800th anniversary is a farce. o many, it may come as little surprise to learn that there is a certain amount of wealth disparity among Cambridge students. However, the idea that some students can spend only £20 a week, while others have £400, is still faintly Tshocking, even while bearing in mind the usual caveats over the reliability of voluntary surveys. When you further con- Magazine p13-28 sider the fact that 63 per cent of students will emerge with over £20,000 of debt, while 20 per cent will have none at all, it is further brought home how much variation there is between our wallets. ere is no easy way out – mass redistribution Penguin perfection p19 of wealth is not the answer, and a plurality of us is (rightly) satis ed with the University’s nancial provision – but the We talk to book designer Coralie Bickford-Smith. richer among us should bear in mind that not everyone is so lucky, even within Cambridge’s storied walls. Submit your letter for the chance to win a bottle of wine from the Cambridge Wine Merchants. Marcus du Sautoy p22 [email protected] is week’s winner is Ben Towse of Churchill College. Meet Oxford’s new Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. Loosen term limits veloping and hosting the best minds Maltby’s magic ball to tackle the most important scien- Dear Sirs, ti c, political, philosophical, histori- Sirs, cal and cultural challenges, we should In your editorial on January 16th be more concerned with our ability With the government stake in RBS set Sport p29-32 [issue 686], you argued that cram- to give demanding material full and to rise to 70%, your columnist Ed Malt- ming intense workloads into short deep consideration than our ability to by’s call (at the time roundly ridiculed) Alternative ski review p31 terms “encourag[es] the idea that run manically in the hamster wheel for the nationalisation of the city in last Read about the Varsity Trip from our Cambridge...[is] exceptional, and of an eight-week term.