The Right Honourable Lord Smith of Finsbury is installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Chris Smith, Lord Smith of Finsbury, has been formally installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, following his election in July 2025. The formal and ceremonial head of the University, in addition to presiding at major ceremonial occasions the Chancellor advises senior figures, supports fundraising and is an ambassador and advocate for the University and its mission.

Today’s Congregation in the Senate-House was attended by the principal University officers, Heads and staff of the thirty-one Colleges, students, alumni, Civic representatives and other invited guests. Lord Smith shared what Cambridge means to him.

He said: “Cambridge is in my blood. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student here, reading English and then completing a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge. I returned ten and a half years ago as Master of Pembroke, my own old College. And I never would have dreamed, as a young eighteen-year-old arriving in Cambridge for the first time, that I would now be standing here as Chancellor.”

Lord Smith also expressed a desire to uphold academic freedom and freedom of speech. He said: “We live in an age dominated by misinformation and “fake news”…It is precisely why academic freedom and freedom of speech are so fundamentally important to universities.”

Today’s installation follows an election by the Senate – a very large body made up of all those holding the Cambridge MA or any other master’s degree or doctorate, along with the members of the Regent House. This election was the first at which votes could be taken online as well as in person and more than 25,000 were registered.

The post of Chancellor dates back more than 800 years to the beginning of the University. The last installation ceremony to be held in 2012 was for Lord Sainsbury of Turville.

At today’s ceremony the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, confirmed Lord Smith’s election and administered the oath of office. Music was performed by student brass-players and by the Chapel Choir of Pembroke College.

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Chris Smith arrived as an undergraduate student at Pembroke College in 1969, earning a first in English, and was elected President of the Cambridge Union Society in Michaelmas Term 1972.

Elected MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983, following the Labour victory of 1997 he served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001. The first openly gay MP and Cabinet minister, he left the Commons in 2005 and was made a life peer.

Among his other accomplishments outside parliament have been periods as Chair of the Advertising Standards Authority, of the Environment Agency and of the Wordsworth Trust. A founding director of the Clore Leadership Programme, Lord Smith is a keen hill-walker and former President of the Ramblers’ Association.

Published 16 March 2026

Photos: Lloyd Mann

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source: cam.ac.uk