The present day

Pembroke has changed considerably over the last fifty years. There were 24 Fellows in 1958, 50 in 1970, and 65 at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This number is needed in order to discharge the ever-widening variety of teaching and administrative responsibilities in a modern university, and to continue the high traditions in research which allow us to maintain an eminent academic position. Most of the Fellows are funded, wholly or partly, by the university, or, in the case of Research Fellows, by external funding of various sorts, whether historic friends such as the Drapers company or new corporate partnerships with industry, for which we are most grateful. Since the 1980s, we have also almost trebled our postgraduate numbers, from 70 to nearly 200; this reflects the increasing importance to the university of high-quality research in all fields. The admission of women to the student body and to the Fellowship, from 1983, was another major and welcome change. Among other things, it has contributed to a noticeable rise in undergraduate academic standards. From the mid-1980s, we have climbed noticeably in the Tripos league tables, and were in the top third of colleges throughout the 1990s. Our strongest subjects in recent years have been History, English, Classics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

These changes have been absorbed without destroying the distinctive nature of Pembroke as a diverse, talented and tolerant society. Since the 1950s ­ the era of Peter May, the last Pembroke man to captain the English cricket side ­ success in sport has been more domestic, including a number of Headships of the River, a feat most recently achieved by the Ladies¹ First Boat in 1997 and 1998. Pembroke Players, the college dramatic organisation founded in 1955, has bred a number of well-known actors and comedians, including Peter Cook, Clive James, Jonathan Lynn, Eric Idle, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie. In 1985 Ted Hughes became the first Pembroke man to be Poet Laureate, while the college of Sir Arthur Bliss (Master of the Queen¹s Musick in 1953) has, more recently, housed and enjoyed the musical talents of David Munrow and Honorary Fellows Emma Johnson, Robin Orr and Christopher Hogwood. Other Honorary Fellows distinguished in public life include the former cabinet minister Lord Prior and Ray Dolby. Pembroke continues to be a successful academic institution because it is a successful community: a place in which all those members currently in residence can feel at home, and so give of their best; and a place to which its members no longer resident (currently numbering over 5000) can always return in the knowledge that they will be welcome.

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