Well

we can discuss all of this with the boss of Cambridge University Professor Deborah Prentice Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge. Deborah thanks for joining us on the programme today we've heard endlessly about universities complaints about undergraduate funding and some of the other crunches on money but you're concerned particularly about funding for PhDs, aren't you? Tell us what the problem is. So

the funding for PhD students is a focus here at Cambridge because, in fact, it has been reduced over time. We have less funding than we used to have to support our PhD students, and PhDs are critical to so much of what we do at the university that that reduction in funding is leading us to lose talent that we might otherwise be able to recruit to the university. So we're working hard to raise funds for PhD students and are making everybody aware that this is one of our very top priorities. Yeah,

and I have read that some are concerned that, you know, in the long run, if there isn't enough research funding and you don't get those sort of top PhD students, then there could be a sort of threat to the status of Cambridge and university on a kind of global stage. Where exactly is the drop off in funding? Is it in your own funding? Is it from UK Research and Innovation or elsewhere? I mean, there is, you know, the research excellence framework, that's the mechanism that determines where £2 billion a year of taxpayer money actually goes in terms of academic research. That's

right. And we did very well in the last draft. So we have not experienced a drop-off in funding because of the ref. But really, it's a lot of little decisions made by different funding bodies, including the research councils and others, also private funders, that have led to a drop-off in PhD funding. And that's why we're reaffirming our commitment to it and foregrounding the importance of it. I

want to ask you about the government's growth plans. Cambridge and Oxford feature very heavily in those plans. We get lots of these announcements for more infrastructure and for more spending and for more ways to boost the economy. But how important do you think Cambridge is in terms of the UK growth story?

Look, we're thrilled with the focus that the government has placed on Cambridge and Oxford and the ARC. We believe we have a lot to offer the university, I mean, the country. Cambridge already contributes £30 billion a year to the British economy. We think we can do much more, certainly in combination with Oxford and the ARC, we'll be able to do even more than that. So yes, we think we have a very good story to tell. We think we have a lot to offer the country. Professor,

why do you think that funding for research is going down currently? I

don't know that funding for research is going down. We focus particularly on PhD student funding. In fact, there is funding for research, there's no question. And I think that I'm relatively new to the UK just here for two years, but I've actually been delighted with the recognition of the importance of research funding and the importance of universities as driving economic growth. So I have no complaints about that. I do believe that research is a focus in this country in a very positive way. But

then on the PhD fund, on that specific issue, why do you think that the funding is diminishing? If you say it is a kind of collection of decisions from different places, why do you think it is happening now? Honestly, I'm not

sure. What I would say is that I just think that the funding has been redirected to other places. I don't think that there's been in any way a concerted decision not to fund PhDs or devaluing of PhDs at all, not at all. I think actually it's much more directing funding toward other ways of supporting the research enterprise. I just don't want PhD students to be forgotten in the process.