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No.945 Friday 24th April 2026 varsity.co.uk The Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
Colleges not told about Goldhill investigation
Staff on strike p.6 ▶ ALEXANDER BRIAN ▲
Fitz signs £10m agreement with Chinese university Alexander Brian and Ell Heeps Senior News Editors Fitzwilliam College has signed two agreements with a Chinese university, involving a donation of £10 million to the College over the next three years. Fitz announced on Wednesday (22/04) that Baroness Sally Morgan, the master of Fitz, signed both a collaboration agreement and a funding agreement with Fudan University, a public university in Shanghai, on 20 April in person at Fudan. The chancellor and vice-chancellor also travelled to Fudan to renew the existing memorandum of understanding between Cambridge and Fudan – this was first agreed in September 2019. Documentation seen by Varsity shows that, as part of the collaboration agree-
ment signed with Fitz, Fudan had originally required a building within the College to be named after it – this demand has since been rescinded, and there will instead be an office in Fitz allocated to the ‘Fudan University Centre’. The agreements were first discussed in December 2025, and were approved by the Governing Body of the College in February. The funding agreement details the payment of £10 million by Fudan to Fitz, in annual instalments beginning with £3.3 million in 2026. This agreement was made between Fitz and Fudan’s “charitable entity,” the Fudan Education Development Foundation (FEDF). The money will be donated to FEDF by a Shanghai hedge fund manager, who has previously donated money to Fitz.
However, the documentation also notes potential risks involved in the agreement, which factored into the College Committee’s decision to approve the agreement. It states: “There remains a risk that part or all of the funds donated to FEDF may not be transferred to the College. This could be because either party has triggered the reputational risk clause in the Agreement or for another reason. “It will be important that the College continues to develop a close relationship with […] Fudan […] over the life of the Agreement.” To address these concerns, the College has proposed to form a “collaboration working group,” which will be responsible for reviewing the relationship between Fitz and Fudan: this will
be made up of the bursar, senior tutor, the development director, fellow for research, and Professor David Carwell (a former pro-vice chancellor). The College’s impact assessment for both agreements describes the financial effects of the funding agreement as “significantly positive”: it notes that the collaboration between the College and Fudan will form a significant component of the “Future Fitz” campaign, which seeks to raise £40 million by the end of the decade to support both the College’s Estate Plan, and maintaining current academic provisions including the funding of supervisions. Continued on p.3 ▶
Alexander Brian Senior News Editor Professor Simon Goldhill was able to continue teaching undergraduates while being investigated for sexual and professional misconduct, Varsity can reveal. Earlier this month, The Times reported that Goldhill, 69, kissed and touched a female student in her twenties without consent. The incident occurred in Autumn 2024, but the student did not make a complaint until March 2025, due to fears of damaging her academic and career prospects. During the initial internal investigation, the professor of Greek literature and culture at King’s was able to continue lecturing. Goldhill only stopped teaching for the classics faculty after the University commissioned an external investigation in October. Varsity has seen emails from classics directors of studies revealing that colleges were never informed about the investigation. As undergraduate supervisions are organised at the college level, this meant Goldhill could still be assigned to students after he had stepped away from faculty teaching. Varsity understands this happened to at least one student. An email sent to all King’s students on 10 April, following the article in The Times, said: “The College is waiting for information on the case from the University, which will inform any decisions on what actions the College might take, but we have not received that yet.” The email continued: “Simon is now effectively suspended from teaching and from contact with students while the issue is being investigated and the College seeks to get access to the relevant information around the incident.” The University has a Data Sharing Protocol, which allows it to share information with colleges “if it is deemed necessary and proportionate to do so”. However, this requires permission from both the complainant and the respondent. Continued on p.3 ▶
● Tinie Tempah turns activist p.12 ● Is the Uni selling out to billionaires? p.16 ● The return of The Snuts p.24