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| Leszek Borysiewicz |
Cambridge, Sept. 6: Cambridge has just been named “the best university in the world” but its vice-chancellor, who is off to India, is not getting carried away.
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the 345th vice-chancellor in the university in just over 800 years, agreed that “it is a thoroughly enjoyable and privileged position to be in but I have a healthy scepticism towards league tables”.
Instead, he kept telling The Telegraph it was a “privilege” for him to be received by India.
Borysiewicz, pronounced “Borisavitch” — or simply “Boris” for those who find it hard to cope with his Polish name — will have intensive talks with senior figures in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai from September 12-17, hoping to sort out the nitty-gritty of extensive research collaboration between Cambridge and academic institutions in India.
Currently, there are 270 active projects underway in Cambridge linked to India — “probably more than any other university in Britain”.
The vice-chancellor has set himself a pretty stiff target.
He knows the trend in India is for the cleverest to head for American institutions such as Harvard, which has been pushed into second place for the second successive year in the league table of the 300 top universities in the world compiled by an organisation called the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings.
Borysiewicz admitted: “Yes, there has been a tendency to look at the United States. If you want to set me a challenge, it is about reversing that trend because we think Cambridge has got an enormous amount to offer young academics in India — and more importantly in the long term by building sustainable partnerships with major Indian institutions.”
He realised the value of Cambridge as a brand name, however. “It is a very trusted, high quality brand and I am very well aware that we can contribute and play our part. But the important thing for me is to work from a purpose — not of an institution coming in to dominate or set agendas — it is about working with the agendas that already exist and with equally high quality institutions that I already see burgeoning in India.”
Oxford University came fifth in the tables, up one place from last year, while Imperial College London came sixth this year, and University College London took seventh place.
The rest of the top 10 was made up of US institutions with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in third place, Yale University fourth, University of Chicago eighth, University of Pennsylvania ninth and Columbia University in 10th place.
In total, 17 UK universities were in the top 100. Besides those in the top 10, they were Edinburgh University (20th place), King’s College London (27), Manchester University (29), Bristol University (30), Warwick University (50), Glasgow University (59), London School of Economics (64), Birmingham University (67), Sheffield University (72) and Nottingham University (74).
In many ways, Borysiewicz, whose parents were immigrants from Poland, represents the Indian dream — someone who did not even speak English until he was five but used education as the key to a better future. Significantly, he has not anglicised his name, which many Asians, in marked contrast, once felt compelled to do if they wanted to get on in Britain (especially in fields such as acting).
“No, I don’t feel far removed from my origins,” he said. “My parents came over to the United Kingdom after the war and I was born in Cardiff and very much brought up in a small Polish community in south Wales. So (there was) very much a sense that we had to make our way in the UK.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who did his undergraduate degree at St John’s College, Cambridge, always found time to meet Borysiewicz’s predecessor, Alison Richard, the first full-time woman vice-chancellor the university has had.
Borysiewicz, 60, sees himself perhaps as more of a practical nuts-and-bolts man. “What I am looking to do is to build on that.”
He is a medical man who is a former chief executive of the Medical Research Council. At Imperial College London, he was principal in the faculty of medicine and deputy rector. He has also been a professor of medicine in Wales. His work was crucial in helping to develop the vaccine now routinely offered to girls aged 10 and 11 to prevent cervical cancer.
He is no stranger to India, having travelled to India with David Cameron in July 2010 and returned to the country in February this year.
He wants to establish links in the areas that the Indians consider to be priorities, including, firstly, “the global food security agenda”.
He said: “Secondly, we talked about the importance of the burgeoning pandemic that we are going to have or the chronic diseases. We also talked about India’s energy needs.”
“In each of these areas we can identify real strengths in India,” he said.
“So, for example, in drug discovery which is a very important item both for the Indian pharmaceutical industry but also for the Indian economy, we are looking to establish interactions particularly in Bangalore with teams from Cambridge actually engaging in these processes.”
Borysiewicz stressed: “India is a hugely important world player and such partnerships for me are all about sustainability.”
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