No 6825
Wednesday 20 May 2026
Vol clvi No 30
pp. 471–485
A Discussion was convened by videoconference. Deputy Vice‑Chancellor Mr Douglas Chalmers, EM, was presiding, with the deputy for the Director of Governance and Compliance, the Junior Proctor, the Senior Pro-Proctor and eighteen other persons present.
The following item was discussed:
(Reporter, 6821, 2025–26, p. 417).
Professor Sir John Aston (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and Churchill College):
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am speaking in my capacity as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and as one of the University’s nominated Trustees for the Rokos School of Government Charitable Trust. I was fortunate to be part of the discussions on the Rokos School of Government for about a year prior to the announcement.
The Rokos School of Government represents an exceptional opportunity for the University. The University’s mission is ‘to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence’. This is a very suitable articulation of the aligned ambitions of the Rokos School, to ensure that research and education across the university makes global impact with governments around the world and their future leaders.
There are many reasons why this gift is of significance to the University. The level of support of this gift will ensure; that we continue to bring and retain world-class faculty, including through a wide-range of joint appointments across the University; that we provide new endowed support for Ph.D. students right across the University; that we train future leaders from around the world through the taught programmes the School will offer; that we support projects and ideas relating to Government right across the Collegiate University; and that we continue to develop world-class facilities on the Cambridge West campus. As an example, the endowed studentships should support 80–100 Ph.D. students over the first ten years across a very wide range of departments and disciplines. It also gives us the opportunity to determine how we might want joint faculty appointments between departments to work on a significant scale.
The need for a different type of School of Government is clear. The world we live in has changed, and the decisions that affect everyone now incorporate science and technology to an extent never seen before. Indeed, strategic advantage worldwide now depends more than ever on rapid technological changes. Any School of Government must ensure there is a strong political, economic and social science basis to its thinking, but it would be easy to ignore (as others outside of Cambridge have done) the now inevitable need for science and technology to be incorporated directly into that basis as well. By situating the Rokos School of Government in the School of the Physical Sciences we are addressing that need head on, while recognizing that the Rokos School needs to engage with every part of the University to achieve its goals.
We are proud of the many Cambridge departments and centres already working in this area. They provide exceptional research and teaching and have remarkable impact within and outside of academia. The Rokos School is now the once-in-a-generation opportunity for Cambridge’s Governmental, Public Policy and (Geo)Political landscape to compete at a level with any other institution worldwide. Cambridge has a long and successful history of building internal collaborations that exist well beyond departmental and other institutional boundaries, and we will want to do likewise here. This environment will also allow disciplines not traditionally associated with policy to participate, from the Sciences and Technology through to all the Arts and Humanities. Cambridge thrives on being an academic-led rather than top-down institution, and so we must leave the ultimate vision for the School to the incoming Head of Department (Dean) and faculty, but also maintain a clear sense that the Rokos School will only succeed if there is wide involvement right across the Collegiate University.
However, this gift also has a wider significance for the University. It is a profound statement of confidence in Cambridge as an Institution. Taken with the very recent considerable government investments in High Performance Computing as well as the largest ever corporate partnership with IonQ in the area of Quantum, the University is breaking new ground on how we can support and achieve the levels of ambition for world-class research and education to which we all aspire. This ambition and confidence are infectious, and while today we are discussing a gift to establish the Rokos School of Government, I very much hope and indeed expect that we will continue in future to engender support for our research and education at similar levels of ambition, retaining and further enhancing our status as a globally leading academic institution.
Dr R. V. L. Doubleday (Centre for Science and Policy and Christ’s College):
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am speaking as Executive Director of the Centre for Science and Policy in support of the General Board’s proposal to establish the Rokos School of Government.
None can doubt the scale of challenges facing societies today. Environmental, technological and demographic transformations pose fundamental questions to governments everywhere, perhaps particularly to democratic governments.
Our University’s mission is to ‘contribute to society’ – the question seems to me to be ‘how can we do more to contribute at this critical moment?’ That is why the Rokos School proposal is so timely – it stands to enable the University to increase the connectedness, scale and impact of our engagement with governments and public policy.
There are impressive existing strengths to build on. In addition to the outstanding range of policy relevant research and teaching across departments in all six schools there are a growing number of cross-cutting initiatives.
Ranging from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, founded in 1989 in the School of Technology, to most recently the Bennett School of Public Policy, launched as its own department in 2025 within the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
There are, of course, a huge number of other excellent initiatives launched between 1989 and 2025. If I attempted to list them all I would likely miss many significant entities. These existing strengths illustrate the potential role for the Rokos School as a catalyst and support:
•to add capacity for training a greater number of future public leaders
•to connect and support existing initiatives across Cambridge, bringing interdisciplinary insights to bear on public policy and enabling far greater impact.
From my experience at CSaP I know how much relevant work is going on across the University and how much appetite there is to increase the contribution of our expertise and evidence to public policy.
What we currently lack is the scale of support and connective infrastructure to make the most of the intellectual resources we have. The Rokos School could help catalyse this potential, and that’s why I so warmly support it.
Dr S. J. Cowley (Faculty of Mathematics):
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am Secretary of the Board of Scrutiny, but I speak in a personal capacity.
This donation is very welcome news, as just explained by Sir John Aston and Rob Doubleday.
One aspect which might benefit from further elucidation is in paragraph 4 of the Report where it is noted that:
The benefaction has been donated to a new charitable trust, subject to Regent House approval of this Report’s recommendations and to registration with the Charity Commission. Under the terms governing the trust, the trustees are obliged to invest the donated funds in the University Endowment Fund and to provide the new institution with an annual grant to cover its costs.
Would it be possible to give some justification for the funds being channelled through a Trust rather than directly to the University?
When the Stephen W. Hawking Professorship of Cosmology was established, part of the donation from the Avery-Tsui Foundation was similarly channelled through a charitable trust. The Deed Agreement of that Trust was published, as was the Guide for Trustees, where the risks and proposed operational arrangements were identified and discussed. Some members of the Regent House had concerns about those arrangements. Moreover, some of these concerns may possibly been manifested in the eight years that it has taken to make the first appointment (albeit part-time in the first instance) to that Chair.
Following precedent, and to ensure good governance and transparency, please will the General Board publish the Deed Agreement of the Trust established in association with this benefaction?
Professor R. J. Bowring (Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies and Selwyn College), read by the Junior Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, this Report is surely too opaque and thin on detail for the University to accept it as it stands. The preamble is so vacuous that I had to read it a number of times before gleaning a modicum of sense, and it is followed by what can only be politely described as yet further waffle about ‘collaborations across disciplinary boundaries’ and bringing ‘together leaders to discuss interdisciplinary ideas’. Is there anything here that we do not do already? I would not accept this kind of empty rhetoric from a first-year undergraduate. What is more, how this might relate to Government and why Cambridge must create this new faculty is not at all clear. What emerges is that we are being asked to accept a benefaction of £130 million for something that we do not need on condition that the University will contribute £26 million of its own funds and then commit itself to raising a further £60 million. At a time when faculties that teach core subjects are being put under extreme pressure to reduce expenditure this simply beggars belief. We are also being asked to accept the establishment of a School within a School, as if nomenclature in Cambridge were not complicated enough, and a professorship in a field as yet undefined. I fear that this has all the hallmarks of a vanity project and I would suggest that the vets, who are mercifully still with us, be asked to examine its teeth. The golden rule of fundraising is that if the donor, no matter how generous, cannot be persuaded to fund something that the University actually needs, the gift should be politely but firmly rejected.
Professor J. S. Simons (Department of Psychology and Emmanuel College), read by the Senior Pro-Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I write as Head of the School of the Biological Sciences in support of the proposal to establish the Rokos School of Government, which reflects Cambridge’s distinctive strength in bringing together science, technology, and the humanities to address urgent public challenges. The focus on practical leadership, cross‑disciplinary thinking, and service to society makes a compelling case for this once-in-a-generation initiative.
The proposal is welcome in recognising an important role for the University as a whole. A School of Government of this kind can serve as a genuinely university-wide asset, strengthening Cambridge’s ability to bring together expertise across disciplines in response to the challenges facing the world.
I hope that the School of the Biological Sciences will have an important role to play in the proposed work. Many of the most pressing issues facing society now sit at the intersection of biological processes affecting organisms, populations and ecosystems, with impacts on policy, regulation, ethics, and public decision-making, and this proposal offers a valuable framework for those connections to be deepened and made more visible across the University.
Dr C. Nifadopoulos (King’s College), read by the Junior Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I matriculated in 1997 at King’s College. I studied for an M.Phil. in Linguistics in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and then completed in 2001 an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the history of linguistic thought, in the Department of Linguistics and the Faculty of Classics. My research explored the emergence of the discipline of etymology in the second century ce. Following a year-long postdoctoral appointment at the Faculty of Classics in Bristol, I pursued a career in law and finance in the City of London. Over the years, I have proudly retained a strong connection with Cambridge, and in particular with King’s. I am currently the Chief Legal Officer and a Partner at Rokos Capital Management, an investment management firm headquartered in London. I should declare that, subject to the approval of the Charity Commission, I will also serve as one of the trustees of the Rokos School of Government Charitable Trust.
It is a privilege to speak briefly today in support of the proposal. As a Cambridge alumnus and someone who is committed to the ongoing success of the University, I believe that the School of Government will provide a further boost to the global impact of this world-class institution: it will do so by connecting the existing exciting areas of research within Cambridge in an imaginative interdisciplinary manner and by bridging the gap between academia and applied government. The commitment underlying the Rokos School of Government is, at its heart, a commitment to a place for wide-ranging ideas right across the fields of government, politics and policymaking. Cambridge’s world-class expertise across the disciplinary spectrum and manifest commitment to academic freedom is precisely the mix needed in the current national and geopolitical landscape. The world our future leaders will inherit is one of great structural change – political, technological, demographic and economic – and the processes of government must adapt accordingly. The School is therefore conceived as an important and necessary tool to equip future leaders by drawing on the full breadth of Cambridge’s disciplines, from the sciences and engineering to history, economics and the humanities. But its ultimate measure will not be just its publications or its convenings; it will be the leaders it produces; the School aims to leave people equipped with the analytical and technological skills, the institutional understanding and the ethical grounding to bridge academic research and practical action; to generate lasting, positive impact in public life around the globe. We believe that the School will be uniquely placed to make an impact beyond the borders of this country and this continent.
Finally, on a personal note, I wanted to say that it has been a great honour to oversee the detailed negotiations that led to the Rokos School of Government announcement, and I consider my involvement with this initiative and the School as one of the great privileges that life has afforded me. I can honestly say that what has struck me throughout this process has been the care, the rigour and the widespread excitement with which the University has approached this project. Cambridge is, quite simply, the right home for the School, and I very much look forward to continuing to work with the Vice-Chancellor, the other Trustees, with colleagues across the Colleges and the University, and with the Regent House, to make the Rokos School of Government the major and lasting success that its ambition deserves.
Professor M. Desai (Department of Sociology and Newnham College), read by the Senior Pro-Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, as the Head of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences I welcome the opportunity to extend the work we do in areas of government and policy through close collaboration with the Rokos School of Government. The establishment of this School is a significant opportunity for the University and, in particular, for our School. The funding available for Ph.D. studentships in areas of government and policy, as well as research collaborations for exciting and innovative projects across the two Schools are particularly welcome at a time when funding is increasingly scarce. It will ensure that Cambridge remains a world‑leading institution in the area of government, while creating new opportunities in areas of practice and leadership.
Professor N. Peake (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Emmanuel College), read by the Junior Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am the Head of the School of the Physical Sciences. I am also a member of the General Board and a signatory of this Report.
I would like to start by adding my sincere thanks for the magnificent generosity and foresight of Mr Christopher Rokos, whose extraordinary, timely and transformational gift will enable the creation of the Rokos School of Government.
The Council of the School of the Physical Sciences warmly welcomes and endorses the proposal to establish the Faculty of Government (Rokos School of Government) as a new department within Physical Sciences. We recognise the importance of fostering engagement and new research at the intersection of science, government and society, and of shaping future leaders equipped to understand and influence complex systems. We also believe that the Rokos School will provide an ideal home for the kind of broad interdisciplinary collaborations that the future demands. The Rokos School will use its resources to forge the strongest links right across the academic University, supporting significant activity reaching into all the six academic Schools and well beyond Physical Sciences.
I believe that the School of the Physical Sciences will provide an ideal home for the new Rokos School:
•Through our existing departments we already support significant activity in quantitative thinking and analysis of complex systems and data, and, through our outstanding Department of Geography, have important activity in the social sciences.
•The major presence of Physical Sciences departments on the West Cambridge site will provide the opportunity, in time, for close tie-in of the Rokos School with academic and commercial activity as the University’s vision for Cambridge West develops.
•Physical Sciences has the experience and capacity within the School office team to undertake the major administrative task of creating a new department from scratch.
I strongly support the recommendation to establish the new Faculty of Government (the Rokos School of Government).
Professor K. A. Munir (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for University Community and Engagement, Judge Business School and Homerton College), read by the Senior Pro‑Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am speaking in my capacity as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for University Community and Engagement, a Professor of Strategy and Policy and as one of the University’s nominated Trustees for the Rokos School of Government Charitable Trust.
Cambridge has always renewed itself at moments of profound historical change and we must do so again now. We are living through a period in which the assumptions that shaped government over the last half century are being fundamentally challenged. Geopolitical fragmentation is reshaping trade, security, and international cooperation. Artificial intelligence is transforming work, decision‑making, and the nature of expertise itself. Social media and digital platforms are altering how public opinion is formed, how democracies function, and how trust is created – or eroded. Demographic change, climate pressures, migration, public health crises, and new forms of inequality are placing extraordinary strain on governing institutions across the world.
At the same time, power is shifting in unprecedented ways. In some domains, technology platforms now possess capabilities, data, and influence once associated primarily with states. New analytical tools and vast data resources are changing how policy can be designed, tested, and implemented. Citizens increasingly expect governments that are faster, more adaptive, more transparent, and more effective – yet many institutions remain structured for a very different era.
This is not simply a policy challenge. It is also an intellectual challenge. We need to rethink how government works, what capabilities governments require, how public institutions maintain legitimacy, and how societies govern technological and economic transformation in ways that are both effective and humane.
I believe this is precisely the right moment for Cambridge to establish a School of Government. Few universities in the world possess the ecosystem that Cambridge already has. We have world-leading strengths in economics, engineering, computer science, public policy, law, history, philosophy, international relations, management, data science, and the life sciences. We have a globally respected business school, outstanding expertise in policy and geopolitics, and deep traditions of interdisciplinary inquiry. Most importantly, we have a culture that combines analytical rigour with public purpose.
The Rokos School of Government would bring these strengths together around one of the defining questions of our age: how societies can govern effectively in conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and rapid technological change.
This should not be conceived narrowly as a school for public administration. It will be global in aspiration and interdisciplinary in design. It will draw insights from different models of governance around the world – democratic and non-democratic, centralised and federal, developed and emerging – while contributing ideas, evidence, and leadership back to them. It will educate not only future civil servants, but also political leaders, regulators, technologists, entrepreneurs, diplomats, and citizens who will shape public life in the decades ahead.
And critically, it will not only study government – it will help reinvent it. That means building expertise in areas such as AI and governance, digital states, geopolitical risk, institutional trust, public sector innovation, quantitative policy analysis, climate governance, health systems, migration, and the future of work. It means creating spaces where technologists work alongside political scientists, economists alongside historians, philosophers alongside data scientists.
Above all, it means reaffirming a principle that has always mattered deeply at Cambridge: that universities do not merely observe the world; they help shape it. The opportunity before us is therefore not simply to create another academic institution. It is to establish a global centre for thinking seriously about governance in the twenty-first century. I can think of few challenges more important – or more worthy of Cambridge.
Mr G. P. Allen (Wolfson College), read by the Junior Proctor:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, those responsible for securing this very substantial benefaction of £130m are to be congratulated. However, the skeletal nature of this Report suggests that the School is a ‘work in progress’ which I would like to comment on.
First, the Board reports that the benefaction ‘has been donated’ to a new charitable trust, subject to the Regent House approving this Report’s recommendations and to registration with the Charity Commission. It is welcome that the trustees will be obliged to invest the donated funds in the Cambridge University Endowment Fund and provide the School with an annual grant to cover its costs. This is an unusual arrangement compared to the ‘standard model’ of a Fund, established by Grace, and governed by regulations in our Ordinances setting out the detailed provisions for managing a Fund’s income. While the concept of an annual grant is some reassurance, such a short timescale suggests significant risk for the University, which will be making long-term commitments to academic staff, as well as difficulties for planning year by year. There are also obvious risks if the trustees use their financial muscle to influence the academic direction of the School. I trust these matters have been thought through. So, will the Board advise the Council to publish the Trust Deed so that the full arrangements are out in the open?
Secondly, will the Board inform the Regent House of the broad allocation of the £130m (or income accruing from it) between academic posts, studentships, premises, and other running costs?
Finally, the Board report match funding from the University of £10m for Ph.D. studentships and £16m for running costs. These are significant commitments given the University’s financial position. Are the match funds from Chest funds or restricted funds and over what period will they be spent?