Notices by the General Board

Future of the veterinary medicine course at Cambridge

In February 2026, the General Board agreed to publish the analysis conducted by the School of the Biological Sciences and the Department of Veterinary Medicine, which the Board had considered prior to making a decision to continue to admit students to the Vet.M.B. course (Reporter, 2025–26: 6816, p. 355; 6817, p. 362). The analysis is now available at: https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/reporter/documents/vet/vet-med-course-gbpapers-2026.pdf (University account required). The General Board has set up a Vet School Change and Oversight Board to support its work in reviewing the academic and financial plans prepared by the Department. An update on progress to date is available at: https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/reporter/documents/vet/VSCOB-Report-July-2026.pdf (University account required).

Formalising outcomes from the first-year assessment of students on doctoral programmes

With effect from 1 October 2026

The General Board has agreed to formalise award of the Certificate of Postgraduate Study (CPGS) as a possible outcome of a first-year assessment for a doctoral degree. The changes to the General Board Regulations below will allow the award of a Certificate of Postgraduate Study as an outcome of a first-year assessment as well as provided by the Special Regulations for the Certificate. The General Board has agreed other changes to the Regulations to (i) remove duplication with the General Regulations for Certain Postgraduate Degrees; (ii) to align with current administrative arrangements; (iii) and to remove reference to terms, to align with ongoing work in this area.

In the General Board Regulations for the Certificates of Postgraduate Study (Statutes and Ordinances, 2024, p. 578) by making the following revisions:

(a) Revising Regulation 2 to read as follows:

2. The full-time course of instruction for the Certificate shall normally extend over twelve consecutive months and the part-time course of instruction shall normally extend over twenty-four consecutive months, which can for some Degree Committees constitute the initial period of registration for a doctoral degree. The General Board, on the recommendation of the Degree Committee concerned, may agree that, for some specified courses, the full-time course of instruction may extend beyond twelve months. The General Board may also permit a candidate in exceptional circumstances to spend up to twenty-four months from the date of commencement of candidature in study for the Certificate.

(b) Revising Regulation 3 to read as follows:

3. Where a Certificate is offered as a stand-alone course or as the first year of a doctoral programme, a candidate for the Certificate must have been granted admission as a postgraduate student, on the recommendation of the Degree Committee concerned, by the General Board, who shall assign a date of commencement of candidature.

(c) Inserting a new Regulation 4, and renumbering all subsequent regulations, to read as follows:

4. A Degree Committee may award a Certificate to a candidate registered on a doctoral course as an outcome of a mandatory registration assessment.

(d) Removing Regulations 6 and 7 (now Regulations 7 and 8) and renumbering all subsequent regulations.

(e) Revising Regulation 8 (now Regulation 7) to read as follows:

7. Each candidate shall submit two copies of their dissertation, in accordance with detailed arrangements specified by the Degree Committee, so as to arrive by a date which shall be determined by the Degree Committee, and which shall be not later than the last day of the student’s period of registration unless the General Board, on the recommendation of the Degree Committee, have allowed an extension of time under Regulation 2. Each candidate shall state generally in a preface to the dissertation and specifically in notes the sources from which information has been derived.

(f) Inserting a new Regulation 11 after Regulation 11 (now Regulation 10) and renumbering all subsequent regulations, to read as follows:

11. A Degree Committee may award a Certificate to a student as an outcome of a probationary assessment for a doctoral degree. Where a Degree Committee makes such an award:

(a)the materials submitted for the probationary assessment shall fulfil the requirement of Regulations 5 and 6;

(b)the probationary assessment oral examination shall fulfil the requirement of Regulation 9; and

(c)the Assessors of the probationary assessment shall be appointed as Examiners for the purposes of Regulations 8 and 9.

(g) Revising Regulation 12 to read as follows:

12. No postgraduate student shall be entitled to receive the Certificate so long as they remain a registered student, nor subsequently if they should submit a thesis for the degree of Ph.D., Eng.D., M.Sc., or M.Litt. Nothing in this regulation shall prevent a person who has been awarded the Certificate, and whose registration has been withdrawn, from being reinstated as a candidate for the degree of Ph.D., Eng.D., M.Sc., or M.Litt., and, if the General Board think fit, from being granted leave to count the whole or some part of the period of candidature for the Certificate towards a course of research for one of the aforementioned degrees. No candidate shall be entitled to receive the Certificate unless they have attended the prescribed course of instruction.

Honorary Professors

The following lists of individuals holding the titles of Honorary Professor and Emeritus Honorary Professor are published for the information of the University.

Honorary Professors

African Evolutionary Ecology: Claire Spottiswoode, M, 30 September 2030

Applied Pharmacology: Sir Menelaos Pangalos, CLH, 30 September 2027

Biochemistry: Ben Lehner, 30 September 2028

Bioinformatics: Ewan Birney, 30 September 2029

Cancer Genomics: Peter Campbell, 30 September 2029

Communications: Ian White, JE, 30 September 2027

Early Modern History: Clare Jackson, TH, 30 September 2028

Early Modern Italian Literature and Culture: Virginia Cox, T, 30 September 2026

Evolutionary Malacology: Elizabeth Harper, CAI, 30 September 2029

Experimental Cardiology: Andrew Grace, 30 September 2027

Experimental Medicine: John Bradley, TH, 30 September 2027

Genomics and Computational Biology: Paul Flicek, 30 September 2027

Historical Geography and Intellectual History: Robert Mayhew, PEM, 30 September 2029

History of Science: Sachiko Kusukawa, T, 30 September 2030

Human Genetics and Genomics: Matthew Hurles, 30 September 2028

Microbial Genomics: Stephen Bentley, 30 September 2027

Molecular Neuroscience: Giovanna Mallucci, CHU, 30 September 2029

Politics: David Runciman, 30 September 2029

Russian and Soviet Culture: Catriona Kelly, T, 30 September 2026

Silk Roads Studies: Peter Frankopan, K, 30 September 2027

Stem Cell Biology: Robin Franklin, PEM, 30 September 2028

Structural and Molecular Biology: Lori Passmore, CLH, 30 September 2030

Structural and Molecular Microbiology: Jan Löwe, DAR, 30 September 2028

Translational Gastroenterology: Miles Parkes, 30 September 2030

Emeritus Honorary Professors

Agricultural Botany: Tina Barsby, ED

Biomolecular Sciences and Informatics: Dame Janet Thornton, CHU

Circadian Neurobiology: Michael Hastings

Clinical Genomics: Helen Firth

Conservation Science: Rhys Green

Epigenetics: Wolf Reik

Ethical and Political Philosophy: Onora O’Neill, N

Experimental Molecular Neurology: Michel Goedert

French Literature: Alison Finch, CHU

Genomic Sciences: Sir Michael Stratton

Historical Bibliography: David McKitterick, T

History and Economics: Emma Rothschild, M

History of Art: Nigel Morgan

History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine: Christopher Cullen, DAR

International Management: Peter Williamson, JE

Language and Cognition: William Marslen-Wilson, W

Latin Literature: Philip Hardie, T

Machine Intelligence: Andrew Blake, CLH

Medieval European History: Elisabeth van Houts, EM

Medieval Philosophy: John Marenbon, T

Molecular Bioenergetics: Sir John Walker, SID

Molecular Biology: Sir Hugh Pelham, CHR

Music: Susan Rutherford, JE

Nineteenth-Century French Literature: Robert Lethbridge, F

Penal Theory and Penal Law: Andreas Von Hirsch, W

Poetry: Angela Leighton, T

Pure Mathematics: Béla Bollobás, T

Social and Economic Geography: Susan Smith, G

Structural Biology: Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, T

Theoretical Physics: David Khmelnitskii, T

Theoretical Physics: Christopher Pope

Theoretical Seismology: Christopher Chapman