Varsity (Cambridge)

Varsity is one of Britain's oldest student newspapers.{{Cite web |title=About Varsity {{!}} Varsity |url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/about-varsity |access-date=2023-11-16 |website=Varsity Online |language=en}} Its first edition was published on 17 January 1931, as Varsity: the Cambridge University Illustrated{{cite web | author = Hooke Library Staff | date = 2010 | url=http://hooke.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/bib_seek.cgi?cat=ul&bib=2929951|title=Bibliographic record for Varsity|publisher=Cambridge University Library}} (later The Varsity Weekly, and then the Cambridge Varsity Post.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} However, the first few years saw Varsity get off to a shaky start. In 1932, a controversy about some of its stories resulted in the editor being challenged to a duel,{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} and the following year the paper went bankrupt (having lost £100).{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

A variety of attempts to revive Varsity led to the paper resurfacing periodically over the following decade,{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} but it was not until 1947 that the paper was re-established permanently in its current form. Harry Newman Jr (1921–2001), a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School, then studying for a postgraduate degree at St John's College, Cambridge, decided that Cambridge needed a proper American-style campus newspaper modelled on The Harvard Crimson.{{cite journal | last = Starr | first = Kevin | year = 1995 | title = Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.: A Brief Biography | journal = Journal of Law and Religion | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 151–176 | doi = 10.2307/1051628 | jstor = 1051628 | s2cid = 159824444 }} With the post-war rationing of newsprint, only publications that had existed before the War could be allocated paper, and so the obsolete publication name Varsity was used.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In a letter published in Varsity at the end of the year 1971–1972, Harry Newman wrote,{{cite journal | author = Newman, Harry | date = 1972 | title = [Title unknown] | journal = Varsity | issue = Spring }}{{blockquote|Varsity began over a bottle of sherry in John's, matured over a bottle of port in Caius and blossomed with a firkin of ale over the Victoria Cinema, where we pecked out the first issue on trestle tables (without chairs). / Several of us—Bill Watson (Professor of Social Anthropology), David Widdicombe (distinguished Q.C.), John Noonan (American Professor of Canon Law), Dave Reece (Canadian Diplomat), Bill Howell (prominent architect), and Geoffrey Neame, among others—felt that what the University needed, in addition to its latest organisation, Y.A.S. (Yet Another Society), was an American-style college newspaper. ... It was truly an international effort, British (all three), Canadian, American, Hungarian, and Indian.{{quote without source|date=March 2017}}}}

Varsity{{'}}s headquarters in 1947 was above the Scotch Hoose, "a restaurant at the corner of the Market and Market Street".{{quote without source|date=March 2017}} Newman goes on to note that Geoffrey Neame, "a leading light among the Nightclimbers of Cambridge and the Gentlemen of Caius",{{quote without source|date=March 2017}} was the first post-1947 layout editor. The first managing editor was the Scotsman "Wee Willie Watson", a former fighter pilot. On 19 April 1947, Varsity reappeared, its first issue headlining the coming visit of the then Princess Elizabeth to the university (a visit that ultimately would be cancelled). Its first print run was of 5,000 copies.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

In the 1950s, Varsity{{'}}s offices were in a former shop in St Edward's Passage, next door to the Arts Theatre. The second editor (after Newman) was David Widdicombe, a Queens' College student who was also chairman of the Labour Club. In 1955, a one-off Oxford edition of the paper was produced by the then editor Michael Winner. Since then the paper has concentrated on the Cambridge audience.

In 1956, the staff, worried about debts, questioned Varsity{{'}}s legal status. Solicitors were consulted, who advised that any debts arising from its considerable turnover (advertising income, printing costs etc.) or damages awarded for libel etc. would be the personal responsibility of the current editor. Varsity was promptly converted into a limited liability company – "Varsity Publications Ltd", with a share capital of £100. 50% of the shares were taken by the printers, 20% by the Don who was the senior treasurer and the rest, at £1 per head, by the staff at that time.

In the mid-1970s, Varsity merged with the radical campaigning student paper Stop Press. Thereafter, it was known as Stop Press with Varsity for several years, before reverting to its original title in the late 1980s.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Varsity moved back to being a weekly publication in Michaelmas 2015, after having been a fortnightly publication since Michaelmas 2012.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Varsity is published every Friday during the University of Cambridge's term time, so there are 21 issues a year.

The Lent term editor also edits a single edition at the start of Easter term, and a separate editor controls a special edition May Week issue (or, in some years, daily May Week issues) at the end of the academic year.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Many of those who wrote for the paper during their student days have since gone on to achieve distinction in later life. Famous ex-editors include the former BBC news presenters Jeremy Paxman and David Frost, film director Michael Winner, the television presenter Richard Whiteley, former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers, Independent editor Amol Rajan, i editor Oliver Duff, novelist Robert Harris, novelist and biographer Graham Lord, historian Jonathan Spence, Factory Records founder Tony Wilson and BBC1's EastEnders executive producer Matthew Robinson. International Herald Tribune fashion writer and author Suzy Menkes was the newspaper's first female editor. Some of Sylvia Plath's earliest poems and J. G. Ballard's first published story were written for the paper. Plath also posed in a bathing suit for an article she wrote about summer fashion-wear for the ladies. Meanwhile, comic Peter Cook met his first wife while posing for a Varsity May Ball photo shoot.

The paper has also launched the careers of many news journalists, including in recent times former Observer Political Editor Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian New York correspondent Oliver Burkeman, Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis, author and columnist Iain Hollingshead, Guardian columnist Archie Bland, Sunday Times columnist Charlotte Ivers,{{Cite web|url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/7092|title=Somebody Else's Cambridge|website=Varsity |first1=Charlotte |last1=Ivers |date=April 25, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420103354/https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/7092 |archive-date= 2023-04-20}} the Independent's New York business correspondent Stephen Foley, The Sunday Times News Review Editor Martin Hemming, as well as former Independent columnist Johann Hari. The BBC and Evening Standard reporter Andrew Gilligan was once a news editor. Other notable contributors who have had later success in other fields include Michael Frayn, Germaine Greer, Clive James, Gavin Lyall, Robert Jenrick{{Cite newspaper |issue=540 |url=https://archive.varsity.co.uk/540.pdf|title=Varsity |date=27 April 2001 |work=archive.varsity.co.uk |access-date=9 January 2018}} and Charles III.

Some notable editors of the Varsity include Andrew Rawnsley (1983–4), Archie Bland (Michaelmas 2004), Amol Rajan (Lent 2005), Laura-Jane Foley (Lent 2004), and James Dacre (Michaelmas 2005).

Recent editors

{| class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Term

!Editor(s)

|-

|2025

|Lent

|Sophie Denny and Wilf Vall

|-

|2024

|Michaelmas

|Alice Mainwood and Grace Cobb

|-

|2024

|Easter

|Alice Mainwood and Felix Armstrong

|-

|2024

|Lent

|Daniel Hilton and Michael Hennessey

|-

|2023

|Michaelmas

|Isabel Dempsey and Taneesha Datta

|-

|2023

|Easter

|Hannah Gillott and Erik Olsson

|-

|2023

|Lent

|Megan Byrom and Famke Veenstra-Ashmore

|-

|2022

|Michaelmas

|Fergal Jeffreys and Jacob Freedland

|-

|2022

|Easter

|Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle and Lotte Brundle

|-

|2022

|Lent

|Emaan Ullah and Bethan Moss

|-

|2021

|Michaelmas

|Nick Bartlett and Isabel Sebode

|-

|2021

|Easter

|Meike Leonard and Elizabeth Hagh

|-

|2021

|Lent

|Gaby Vides and Georgina Buckle

|-

|2020

|Michaelmas

|Rich Bartlett

|-

|2020

|Easter

|Caterina Bragoli and Gabriel Humphreys

|-

|2020

|Lent

|Lottie Reeder and Jess Ma

|-

|2019

|Michaelmas

|Maia Wyn Davies and Stephanie Stacey

|-

|2019

|Easter

|Isobel Bickersteth

|-

|2019

|Lent

|Vivienne Hopley-Jones and Catherine Lally

|-

|2018

|Michaelmas

|Noella Chye

|-

|2018

|Easter

|Anna Jennings

|-

|2018

|Lent

|Daniel Gayne

|-

|2017

|Michaelmas

|Elizabeth Howcroft and Patrick Wernham

|-

|2017

|Easter

|Patrick Wernham

|-

|2017

|Lent

|Millie Brierley

|-

|2016

|Michaelmas

|Louis Ashworth and Callum Hale-Thomson

|-

|2016

|Easter

|Eleanor Deeley

|-

|2016

|Lent

|James Sutton

|-

|2015

|Michaelmas

|Tom Freeman

|-

|2015

|Lent

|Talia Zybutz

|-

|2014

|Michaelmas

|Amy Hawkins

|-

|2014

|Lent

|Emily Chan

|-

|2013

|Michaelmas

|Alice Udale-Smith

|-

|2013

|Lent

|Salome Wagaine and Aliya Ram

|-

|2012

|Michaelmas

|Charlotte Keith

|-

|2012

|Lent

|Louise Benson and Madeleine Morley

|-

|2011

|Michaelmas

|Rhys Treharne and Laurie Martin

|-

|2011

|Lent

|Alice Hancock and Lara Prendergast

|-

|2010

|Michaelmas

|Joe Pitt-Rashid

|-

|2010

|Lent

|Emma Mustich and Laurie Tuffrey

|-

|2009

|Michaelmas

|Robert Peal and Anna Trench

|-

|2009

|Lent

|Hugo Gye and Michael Stothard

|-

|2008

|Michaelmas

|Patrick Kingsley

|-

|2008

|Lent

|Tom Bird and George Grist

|-

|2007

|Michaelmas

|Lizzie Mitchell and Elliot Ross

|-

|2007

|Lent

|Joseph Gosden and Hermione Buckland-Hoby (Issue 1), Joseph Gosden and Natalie Woolman (Issue 2–9)

|-

|2006

|Michaelmas

|Emily Stokes (Issues 1–2), Mary Bowers and Jonny Ensall (Issue 3–9)

|-

|2006

|Lent

|Jon Swaine and Amy Goodwin

|-

|2005

|Michaelmas

|James Dacre

|-

|2005

|Lent

|Amol Rajan

|-

|2004

|Michaelmas

|Archie Bland

|-

|2004

|Lent

|Reji Vettasseri and Laura-Jane Foley

|-

|2003

|Michaelmas

|Tom Ebbutt

|-

|2003

|Lent

|Oliver Duff and Luke Layfield

|-

|2002

|Michaelmas

|Katy Long

|-

|2002

|Lent

|Rob Sharp

|-

|2001

|Michaelmas

|Adam Joseph and Julian Blake

|-

|2001

|Lent

|Tom Royston and Sarah Brealey

|-

|2000

|Michaelmas

|Ed Hall

|-

|2000

|Lent

|Jonti Small

|-

|1999

|Michaelmas

|David Peter

|}

Stories first revealed in Varsity have often gone on to receive coverage in the UK's national press. In May 1953, Varsity was only the third newspaper in the world to carry a report on James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA, after the News Chronicle and The New York Times. The discovery was made in Cambridge on 28 February 1953; the first Watson/Crick paper appeared in Nature on 25 April 1953. Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, where Watson and Crick worked, gave a talk at Guy's Hospital Medical School in London on 14 May 1953 which resulted in an article by Ritchie Calder in the News Chronicle of London, on 15 May 1953, entitled "Why You Are You. Nearer Secret of Life." The news reached readers of The New York Times the next day; Victor K. McElheny, in researching his biography, "Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution", found a clipping of a six-paragraph New York Times article written from London and dated 16 May 1953 with the headline "Form of 'Life Unit' in Cell Is Scanned." The article only ran in an early edition and was then pulled to make space for news deemed more important. Varsity ran its own 130-word front-page article on the discovery on 30 May 1953 under the headline "X-Ray Discovery".

In recent years, reports to capture wider attention have included the leak of the name of Cambridge's latest vice-Chancellor, news about student protests concerning higher education funding, and a host of lighter reports about undergraduate excesses. In 2014 Varsity collaborated with Cambridge's Students' Union to survey the rate of sexual assault at the university; the findings of the survey,{{cite web|url=http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/7123|title=88% of sexual assaults unreported |last1=Elwell |first1=Martha |last2=Wilkinson |first2=Hannah |date= 25 April 2014|work=Varsity |access-date=24 March 2017}} attracted widespread attention from the national press.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10793133/One-in-six-Cambridge-University-students-groped-but-theyre-too-ashamed-to-report-it-study-finds.html |url-access=registration |title=One in six Cambridge University students groped, but they're too 'ashamed' to report it, study finds|author=Sanghani, Radhika |date= 28 April 2014 |work=Telegraph |access-date=24 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325112919/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10793133/One-in-six-Cambridge-University-students-groped-but-theyre-too-ashamed-to-report-it-study-finds.html |archive-date= 2017-03-25}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/half-cambridges-female-students-sexually-harassed-rsszvzh352c|title=Half Cambridge's female students sexually harassed|author=Hurst, Greg|date=17 May 2014|work=The Times|access-date=24 March 2017}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/abby-and-libby-blog/2014/may/02/sexual-harassment-campus-issue-wont-go-away|title=Sexual harassment: the campus issue that won't go away|first1=Libby|last1=Page|first2=Abby|last2=Young-Powell|date=2 May 2014|access-date=24 March 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}}

In July 2021, Varsity broke a national story regarding the university's proposed £400m deal with the United Arab Emirates.{{Cite web|url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/21740|title=Documents reveal proposed £400 million collaboration between University of Cambridge and United Arab Emirates|first=Elizabeth|last=Haigh|author2=Georgia Goble|website=Varsity|date=7 July 2021}} Varsity journalists were then credited when the story was covered by The Times.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/university-of-cambridge-in-talks-over-uae-tie-up-d3cllhfj9|title=University of Cambridge in talks over UAE tie-up|newspaper=The Sunday Times|first=Elizabeth|last=Yeomans|author2=Georgia Goble|author3=Elizabeth Haigh|date=8 July 2021}} The news was later broken that the deal had been called off following revelations around the UAE's links to Pegasus spyware through an interview with Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope.{{Cite web|url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/interviews/22201|title='It's a privilege to be at the helm of an institution so important': An exclusive interview with Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope|website=Varsity|first=Georgia |last=Goble|author2=Nick Bartlett|date=15 October 2021}} The story appeared on the front cover of The Guardian,{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/oct/14/cambridge-university-halts-400m-deal-with-uae-over-pegasus-spyware-claims|title=Cambridge University halts £400m deal with UAE over Pegasus spyware claims|website=TheGuardian.com|first=Richard|last=Adams|author2= Georgia Goble|author3=Nick Bartlett|date=14 October 2021}} with Varsity journalists receiving writing credits.

Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd, a not-for-profit company which directly funds The Varsity Trust,{{cite web| author = Varsity Trust Staff | date = 24 March 2017 | url=http://www.varsitytrust.org.uk|title=The Varsity Trust|work=VarsityTrust.org.uk|access-date=13 March 2022}} a UK registered charity with the principal object of furthering the education of students in journalism.{{cite web|url=http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?chyno=1012847|title=About Charities|first=The Charity Commission for England and|last=Wales|work=charity-commission.gov.uk|access-date=24 March 2017}} The company also produces a number of other student publications such as The Mays—a collection of short stories and poems by Cambridge and Oxford students.{{Cite web|url=https://theoxfordculturereview.com/2016/07/17/review-the-mays-24/|title=Review: 'The Mays 24'|date=July 17, 2016|first=William |last=Shaw|work=The Oxford Culture Review|access-date=27 October 2024}} The Mays have been published annually since 1992, and are most famous for launching the career of novelist Zadie Smith.{{cite news|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1560999,00.html |title=Learning Curve|first=Aida |last=Edemariam|author-link=Aida Edemariam |newspaper=The Guardian|date=3 September 2005}} Her work appears in the 1996 and 1997 short-story editions. These attracted the attention of a publisher, who offered her a contract for her first novel. Smith decided to contact a literary agent and was taken on by A. P. Watt.{{cite web | url = http://www.apwatt.co.uk/ | title = AP Watt | access-date = 7 March 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110519225613/http://www.apwatt.co.uk/ | archive-date = 19 May 2011 }} Smith returned to guest-edit the anthology in 2001.{{cite web|title=The Mays XIX: Guest Editors|url=http://themaysxix.tumblr.com/guesteditors|access-date=7 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830224650/http://themaysxix.tumblr.com/guesteditors|archive-date=30 August 2011}}

Advertising in Varsity has traditionally been seen as highly useful by graduate recruiters hoping to attract Cambridge students. As a result, the newspaper is able to distribute free copies to members of the university (without relying on student union funding),{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} and was the first student newspaper in the UK to produce a colour section.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Hence, Varsity{{'s}} management and funding structure means that it is independent from both the university and Cambridge University Students' Union. In this respect it is unlike the vast majority of similar publications in other UK universities; the only other student newspapers to operate similarly are Oxford's Cherwell and The Oxford Blue, as well as The Saint of the University of St Andrews.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Unlike most student newspapers, the design of the newspaper is allowed to change radically with the arrival of new student editors.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

For several consecutive years in the 1950s and 1960s the paper won the award for Britain's best student newspaper. (In the mid-1950s it was temporarily banned from entering for the award on grounds that it was "too professional" and other publications should be given a chance to win.)

In the 2001 Guardian Student Media Awards it was shortlisted in [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/sep/24/studentmediaawards.students two categories] for best feature writer (Rend Shakir) and best student critic (Alex Marshall)

It was successful in the 2004 Guardian Student Media Awards where it won the prize for best columnist (Archie Bland) and came runner-up in best sports writer category (Sam Richardson).{{cite journal | author = Harris, Rob | date = 15 November 2004 | title=Student Media Awards 2004 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/nov/15/mondaymediasection.students |journal= The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2017 | location=London }} In 2005 Varsity writer Sam Richardson won the Guardian's Student Diversity Writer of the Year award.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/02/pressandpublishing.studentmediaawards |title=Student Media Awards 2005 |newspaper= The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2017 | location=London | author = Guardian Staff | date=2 November 2005}}

In 2006, Sophie Pickford was the runner-up for best sports writer of the year.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/09/pressandpublishing1 |author = Guardian Staff | title=Student Media Awards 2006 |newspaper= The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2017 | location=London | date=9 November 2006}}

In 2007, Varsity won the Guardian Student Media Awards' Student Publication Design of the Year.{{cite news | author = Guardian Staff | date = 26 November 2007 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/nov/26/mondaymediasection.studentmediaawards |title=Student Media Awards 2007 |newspaper= The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2017 | location=London}}

Varsity won six prizes at the Guardian Student Media Awards in November 2009, over a third of the prizes in session, was nominated for a further two, and former editor Patrick Kingsley was named Student Journalist of the Year. Michael Stothard won in the Best Reporter category; Zing Tsjeng was the Best Feature Writer; Ben Riley-Smith was Best Sports Reporter; while Charlotte Runcie was awarded Best Columnist, with Rob Peal runner-up.{{cite news| author = Guardian Staff | date = 26 November 2009 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2009/nov/26/guardian-student-media-awards-winners | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Guardian Student Media Awards, 2009: Winners | access-date=May 27, 2010}}{{update inline|date=March 2017}}

Varsity has a board of directors made up of university academics, long-term associates of the newspaper, and student members.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} As of March 2022, the chairman is Mike Franklin.

Varsity{{'}}s editors are not paid, but their work is supported by a full-time business manager and company secretary (responsible for sourcing advertising to fund the publications, running the office on a day-to-day basis, finance, accounts, tax and administration). The current business manager and company secretary is Mark Curtis.

Varsity is now based at the Old Examination Hall on the New Museums Site in the former Godwin Laboratory. Previously, Varsity was based at 11–12 Trumpington Street. The newspaper's move from this "temporary" home, to the new offices, occurred in August 2007, after a 16-year tenancy.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.varsity.co.uk/ Varsity website]
• [http://www.varsitytrust.org.uk/ The Varsity Trust]

{{University of Cambridge}}

{{Student newspapers in the United Kingdom}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1931 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:Newspapers established in 1931

Category:Publications associated with the University of Cambridge

Category:Student magazines published in the United Kingdom

Category:Student newspapers published in the United Kingdom