University of Cambridge - Not enough bread for research?

The University of Cambridge is spending £2 million per year on subsidising sandwiches while academic journals are being cancelled and students fight for scarce research grants, according to Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering and a member of the university's governing council. During a Senate House discussion of the council's report on the financial position of the university, Professor Anderson said: "Cambridge has many sandwich bars and it's wrong for us to use charitable resources to compete with them." Meanwhile, the university's administration has grown "not just fat but ponderous" and academic departments are suffering, he said. "This year we have six students expected to get firsts (in computer science) who want to do research. We have one studentship to share among them. If lunch costs 20p more, then I'd consider it money well spent if bright students who want to research were able to do so."