Rector's speech to Postgraduate Awards Ceremony

14 May 2003

Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to our Imperial College Postgraduate Awards Ceremony in this magnificent Hall. It is a day for celebration and an occasion which gives us an opportunity to pay tribute to the wealth of knowledge, talent and high potential gathered here today.

You, as postgraduates, have already achieved a high level of independent thinking and research. I would like to express my admiration for todays graduands, and express my faith that you, as ambassadors for Imperial, will go on to shape and manage the knowledge-intensive, fast moving world in which we live.

I am happy to tell you that Imperial College London remains world class. The latest league tables, (whatever we may think about the methodology) published by the Financial Times, The Times and the Guardian in the past few days, confirm our place in the top three UK universities.

The College performed exceptionally well in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. 75 per cent of our staff work in the top rated 5* departments, the highest percentage in any UK university. We have the highest research funding, the best staff to student ratio and our graduates are highly sought after by employers. Good news for us all.

The Government decided, in its current funding round, to concentrate 75 per cent of the additional research funding for international excellence on five universities. In my opinion, they were absolutely right to do so, not because we were major beneficiaries of that funding, but because we must nurture the highest quality insititutions. For it is from these that the most valuable ideas and best people are most likely to come.

In my opinion, the UK Gross National Product simply cannot sustain more than a handful of truly world class universities. Take the US as an example, a much bigger place, with a lot more money in the system. How many world class universities do they have? I bet we can all think of about seven at most.

It simply does not make sense to attempt to treat all 145 universities in the UK, as though they were equal in quality, potential and objectives.

My prime concern, as Rector, is to ensure that Imperial maintains its world class status. We need to ensure that we continue to attract the best students and staff from around the world and ensure we provide the facilities and amenities they need to learn, research and innovate.

Imperial was established to further the frontiers of knowledge through learning, education and research. For almost a century, since our foundation in 1907, we have produced graduates who enrich society. We also innovate to feed the success of industry.

For Imperial is uniquely positioned to explore the interfaces between science, medicine, management and engineering. With this unique strength we can deliver practical innovations and applications that enhace the quality of life and the global environment.

It is in these areas that the College continues to achieve a high profile for its research and contribution to society.

Only last week we announced a £500,000 endowment to fund the establishment of a Chair in Sustainable Energy the Shell Chair in Transport Engineering. This is part of a broader partnership between Shell and Imperial College aimed at stimulating research, teaching and public awareness of sustainable development in the energy sector. Based in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, the postholder will act as an ambassador for sustainable development technology.

A new Centre for Bioinformatics was formally opened in March attracting a distinguished line-up of international speakers.

Imperial was recently admitted as the first non-US member of the prestigious Oak Ridge Associated Universities. This gives Imperial researchers privileged access to the world-class facilities at Oak Ridge National Labs, near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Professors Roy Anderson and Christl Donnelly from the Division of Primary Care and Population Health Sciences, and their team, have been working with the Hong Kong authorities to model how the disease SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) has been able to spread across the world. Their paper was published by The Lancet last week. This has received intense media interest, with Professor Peter Openshaw, from the our National Heart and Lung Institute, also providing comment.

Imperial, along with Kings College, UCL and Queen Marys has been successful in its bid to run the London spoke of the UK Biobank project. Biobank will be the first national attempt to identify how genes and the environment interact. Professor Paul Elliot from the Division of Primary Care and Population Health Sciences will be leading this project.

David Begg, the new Director of the Business School, is now in post. He has been chairing a commission on behalf of Britain in Europe to assess what would happen to the UK if it rejected the euro. His report was launched last week.

So, looking to the future, we have a major programme of work which will present challenges and opportunities. One of our biggest challenges will be to find ways of securing non-Government funding to develop Imperial in line with our potential and our ambitions.

Many of you will have seen on your way here today the new Tanaka Business School and College entrance taking shape on Exhibition Road. By the middle of next year we will occupy this magnificent building, made possible by our alumnus, Gary Tanaka's, wonderful £27 million gift. This will give the College the prestige and visibility it deserves at the heart of Albertopolis Londons scientific and cultural heartland.

Once you have proudly crossed this stage today, witnessed by your friends and family, and the staff who have taught and guided you, we dont want to lose you. We regard you as part of the Imperial family, and I hope you will continue to feel so yourselves.

We hope that many among you will also go on to support the College. You have all fought hard to be here today and your future paths will be diverse some of you will remain at the College; others will go into the City, industry, finance, healthcare, government, teaching, research. Wherever you go, you have the hallmark of an Imperial education and join a powerful alumni network across the world.

Now all that remains for me to do, is to wish you all bright, promising and fulfilling futures, and to give you an opportunity to thank your families and guests for all their support in bringing you to where you are today.

ENDS