Columnist Leo McKinstry, a Cambridge graduate, argues the university has declined from a centre of academic excellence into what he calls an institution obsessed with political correctness and "gesture politics." He describes stopping his charitable donations to his alma mater over the past decade, saying money would be wasted on "social justice initiatives" rather than upholding rigorous scholarship, and contrasts the Cambridge that produced Darwin, Newton and EM Forster with what he sees as today's institution.

He points to the case of Jason Arday, appointed Cambridge's "professor of the Sociology of Education" in 2023 and celebrated as the university's youngest black professor, as symbolic of this shift. Arday, who has spoken of overcoming autism and a brain tumour and was raised on a housing estate in Clapham, received honorary degrees and Pride of Britain award nominations, but McKinstry says his reputation is now under strain amid a plagiarism controversy, with three other universities reportedly disputing positions he holds.