The Master Announces the Darwin College Strategic Plan 2022-2032 

As Master, I am pleased to announce our Vision for the advancement and development of Darwin College over the next ten years. Both I and the Fellowship are dedicated to the roll-out of this strategic plan to benefit Darwin College, its members and society as a whole.  

Some Background: 

The University of Cambridge was established over 800 years ago by a group of scholars leaving the University of Oxford due to political conflicts. However, it was not until 1896 that Cambridge admitted its first postgraduate students and only just over 100 years ago, in 1920, that it offered its first PhD degrees. Yet another 44 years passed before the first postgraduate-only College – Darwin College – was created.  In another pioneering move, Darwin was the first College to admit both women and men.  

The College took its name from the Darwin family who had lived in Newnham Grange and the Old Granary for almost 80 years, and who kindly agreed to this special ‘legacy’. 

A Review of Darwin College: 

Darwin is fortunate enough to be home to one of the most intellectually vibrant, multidisciplinary, international and diverse communities  in Cambridge. As we approach our 60th anniversary, the College has around 800 students, 70 Fellows, 50 post-doctoral research associates, 40 staff and over 9000 alumni spread across more than 120 countries. We also have a growing body of Honorary and Emeritus Fellows, Distinguished Associates and other members who contribute to college life.  

Our purpose remains as it was in 1964: to advance education, learning and research. However, there has never been a greater need to deliver and promote research, learning and education for the benefit of society.  It was within this context that we embarked on developing a College Strategic Plan.  

We reviewed our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a series of consultations with Fellows, students, staff and alumni. From these the distinctive characteristics of Darwin College were distilled (see the Report Summary below).  

Building on this, we identified a series of priorities for the College to sustain and strengthen the contribution Darwin makes to both Collegiate Cambridge and society more widely. 

I hope that you will identify with our core values, which are:  

Darwin members will strive for excellence and intellectual rigour in research, education and learning. Diversity and collaboration across academic disciplines, cultural perspectives and personal experiences is valued. 

We seek to welcome, inspire and empower all members of our community and those around us. We are supportive, inclusive, respectful and open in our policies, practices and behaviours. 

We are committed to a sustainable future and to contributing to solving global challenges. The Darwin College community should act as a catalyst for change, add value beyond academic scholarship, embrace global engagement and seek to make the world a better place.  

The Strategic Plan is linked here. I hope, that like me, you will endorse our visionary plan for the next ten years and I very much look forward to working with our global alumni community to help us implement this ambitious Strategic Plan.