Running Robinson College: current and future funding

The College was conceived in the 1970s thanks to the vision and generosity of one man, Sir David Robinson, who paid for the construction of the main College building. However, it was always Sir David’s intention that having established the new College, it would be for others to build its academic community and credentials and to fund its future activities. The College matriculated its first few undergraduate students in 1979 to join a small number of graduate students and founding Fellows already in place, with its first large intake the following year when the main College building was ready for occupation.

Although Robinson is only a few decades old, it continues the traditions of Cambridge, which have been built over eight centuries, of educating and training the best minds from around the world to achieve their potential and contribute to the wellbeing and advancement of society and the communities in which they live. Such contributions range across the sciences from the work of Newton and Darwin to that of Crick and Watson; and the arts and humanities with great collections such as the Fitzwilliam and the work of leading minds such as Trevelyan, Wittgenstein and Russell. Notwithstanding its very recent foundation, Robinson alumni are already making significant contributions to the arts, politics, scientific research, education and academic and public life, as well as major areas of industry and commerce, both within the UK and overseas.

By 2009/10, as we celebrated 30 years of integrated undergraduate and postgraduate education at Robinson and as Cambridge University itself celebrated its 800th anniversary, the world of higher education had changed and developed, not least in how it is funded.

We must also change and develop in order to meet the new challenges ahead and ensure that Robinsonians continue to excel and to contribute to society. State support continues to decline: on average only 28% of College income comes from academic fees and charges from government and private sources. The balance is therefore made up by income from conferences and student accommodation, residential services, investments and, very importantly, gifts from our friends, alumni, corporate contacts and grant-making trusts.

To continue to ensure excellence at Robinson, there are three main tasks. We must:

• enable the best students to come to Robinson, regardless of their origin or financial circumstances;
• attract the best supervisors, scholars and researchers from around the world;
• maintain and enhance the College: Robinson’s teaching and research environment.

To fulfil these goals, we must increase the College’s endowment to give it a reliable and independent source of annual income and to build a reserve to renew the buildings.

The College’s investment assets were £16.6M as at 30th June 2009. This sounds like (and is) a very large sum. However, in order to provide for replacing the College’s buildings, a reserve of £40M needs to be built-up. As the main College building, which comprises 85% of the replacement value of the building stock, is just over 30 years old, the College probably has between 20 and 40 years to achieve this task, as modern buildings such as ours were not built to last for centuries in the manner of those of our more ancient fellow Colleges in Cambridge.

The three main drivers of endowment growth are investment returns, fundraising and the operating result. We have a clear strategy that inter-locks these to enable growth in the endowment. We aim to produce a normalised operating result (operating result less donations for the general use of the College) of no worse than zero and to be cash-flow positive (in stark contrast to most other Colleges). This will allow us to take a long-term view of endowment assets (20 years) and to allocate investment capital to those assets which are most likely to produce superior long-term returns. If the normal operating result is zero or above, all donations for general use can be added to endowment rather than being used to pay day-to-day expenses.

Potential Value of the Endowment

Again, the 3 areas which significantly affect a College’s ability to grow its endowment are:

1. Investment return
2. Donations
3. Control of operating spend

The most likely path to achieve the goal is therefore to:

1. Achieve the expected nominal investment return of 8% per annum
2. Raise £500K of donations a year
3. Run a breakeven normal operating result

Achieving our investment returns and normal operating results targets are the responsibility of the College, its students and Fellows. By committing to these goals we can promise that the generosity of you, our alumni, members, friends and supporters, will have the maximum possible impact on the future well-being of the College. It is possible to contribute to this endowment growth by donating in one, or more, of a number of ways, via the:

• Discretionary fund
• New building and amenity funds
• College teaching funds
• Bursaries and scholarship funds