The university should keep in touch with its alumni

Dear Editor,

I hope against hope that the Vice-Chancellor gets his request for much increased funding agreed by government. There is nothing more important than improving education and as part of this, raising standards at UG considerably.

It is 61 years since I left Cambridge University where I was in residence at Clare College. To this day I regularly get their Newsletters and Alumni Magazines and every now and then personal letters from the University Vice-Chancellor or Master of Clare College; they still after all these years engage my interest and seek my views. They keep in touch. In a very real way I am still a member of the University and of the College. I am made proud of what continues to be achieved. And, yes, every now and then they explain a special need or describe a project and ask for a contribution to assist in funding ‒ and to the extent I am able, I make a donation to my old University or my old College. Any such donation, however small, is scrupulously acknowledged and publicly recorded, and gratitude expressed. Some alumni have become very wealthy and make magnificent contributions which are specially publicized, but the mass of smaller donations over the years and decades mount up also to millions of pounds and are an important part of University and College funding.

It may be that UG keeps in touch with its alumni and in this way raises considerable sums. I hope so  But if not I urge the new Vice-Chancellor, whose energy impresses me, and his team to set about organising the very important role a University has in keeping in touch with its alumni, making them feel they are members for life, and therefore able to ask them for contributions from time to time.. This will not only build the status of the University but gradually and cumulatively become a significant source of extra funding.

Yours faithfully,

Ian McDonald