Description
Book SynopsisThe University of Cambridge, having suffered hard times before and after the First World War, prospered during the post-war years up until the 1970s. During that period British governments were generous to universities, and respected their independence. As this attitude dissolved, Cambridge obtained a surge in non-government research grants and contracts, and became world famous. But it is now suffering from a financial squeeze caused by repeated cuts in government funding, accompanied by a tide of political intervention. Using the university’s financial records and other statistics, Robert Neild traces the nature and scale of these changes and how they have affected the character of the university, plotting its financial history from 1850 to the present day.
Trade Review‘Neild is to be thanked and congratulated for shining a light into the murky finances not only of Trinity Cambridge as Oxbridge’s wealthiest college […] but now also of the University of Cambridge itself.’ —David Palfreyman, Bursar of New College, University of Oxford, in ‘Oxford Magazine’
‘Prof Robert Neild of Trinity has turned his attention to a detailed study of Cambridge University finances… Until the Second World War, the educational aspect of university life was less important than the opportunity it gave rich young men to establish friendships with others… Prof Neild glimpsed the last of those days when he himself was at Trinity in 1957.’ —Mike Petty, ‘Cambridge News’
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Preface; List of Tables and Charts; Chapter 1 Financial Infancy and Reform; Chapter 2 Impoverishment; Chapter 3 The Government Steps In; Chapter 4 The Inter-war Years and the 1939–45 War; Chapter 5 The Acquisition of Land for Expansion; Chapter 6 The Ancien Régime; Chapter 7 Government Policy since 1945; Chapter 8 Income and Expenditure since 1945; Index
