Everywhere you turn in Cambridge this Michaelmas there is a construction site. Even King’s College Chapel is sitting glum behind layers of scaffolding. As I entered the office of our new acting vice-chancellor, I realised I’d found yet another building site, albeit one without as many high vis jackets or as much machinery. As Dr Anthony Freeling spoke to me about the months ahead, it seemed as though the struggle to preserve the University’s past, and to prepare it for the future, was occurring both inside and outside his office walls.

In his office, the former president of Hughes Hall appeared as a reserved man. As our photographer’s camera snapped, he joked about his smile — conscious, perhaps, that this interview would be his first introduction to the majority of students.

Freeling is just two weeks into the role as the first acting vice-chancellor in the University’s 813 year history. In his annual address, Freeling invoked the metaphor of a relay race to refer to his current position, presenting himself as the intermediate between Toope and his successor, Professor Deborah Prentice, who is due to assume the role in July next year.

Yet Freeling does not see his role as simply a “placeholder”. He said: “I want to hand over a slightly better University than the one I took over on the 1st of October and this is where the baton change comes in, there are some programmes coming forward on mental health, on cost of living , initiatives in climate, all of those things that are happening. I want to make sure we don’t suffer a slow down that could naturally happen if there was a nine month break”.

‘You can’t tell everyone to agree with everyone else — it doesn’t make any sense’

In laying the groundwork for Prentice’s arrival, Freeling outlined some things he wouldn’t wish for her to inherit from the Toope era, including “the huge interest that The Spectator took on some initiatives, that I thought was just unfair personally”.

The dust is still to settle on Toope’s legacy. Caricatures of the former vice-chancellor are conflicting — a liberal according to some media portrayals though a more conservative figure in the eyes of some of his own students. Freeling’s answers seemed laced with a fear of falling into a similar narrative trap. The presence of Freeling’s Deputy Director of Communications during our interview implied such fears existed and were shared amongst his office.

When asked the difference between “respecting” and “tolerating” freedom of speech — a debate that sparked criticism of the university policy in 2020 — Freeling said: “you can’t tell everyone to agree with everyone else — it doesn’t make any sense. I do believe very firmly in a university that people are able to say what they believe in a very respectful way”.

He continued, explaining “I would use the word respectful but in a tolerant way, in a way that is not insulting but to not panic about giving some kind of offence if people disagree”.

The ambiguity lingering in these answers may have left Freeling looking more like a hesitant civil servant than a polished prime minister, but an emphasis on procedure, diagnostics, and finding supportive data, as well as a refreshing honesty about his flaws, enabled Freeling to also appear diligent.

Unlike Toope and Prentice, Freeling does not have a long-term background in academia. When asked what decolonisation was he answered “I don’t know”. Slowing to think, he later justified the answer by saying the term has “been misused to such an extent that I don’t think if I’m honest I can give an accurate definition of what is meant by it”.

He concluded on the topic saying “It’s not a very helpful answer but genuinely I don’t know”.

Whether intentional or not, the presumed continuity candidate seemed to position himself away from his predecessor, who publicly addressed the issue and supported Cambridge’s own work, including a recent study into links between the University and slavery. When asked about the role of governance in decolonisation at the University, “I cannot imagine frankly decolonisation discussion making such sense at governance level. I don’t see that as a governance question”.

‘I am pushing people to think about the workload and to stop that oversimplification’

Freeling did, however, praise the work of his predecessor in regards to widening participation, describing himself as “a very strong advocate of widening access and participation”. He also dismissed fears that the emphasis on access would cause a ‘brain drain’ of the ‘best’ privately educated students to US Ivy League Universities, explaining: “we do try to recruit on potential ... we have no biases against different groups of people, wherever they come from”. Reflecting on his own time at the University, Freeling added that “most of us wouldn’t get in because the quality is so much higher nowadays”.

On student mental health, Freeling agreed with his predecessor’s assessment of reading weeks as “a silver bullet” solution. However, he did concede that “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it out”.

In the past the University’s response has focused on the accessibility of mental health resources and services, such as counselling, and their new “Reach Out” campaign, and has aimed to make support more easily identifiable. However, diverging from the University’s previous rhetoric on mental health, Freeling said: “I think it is the workload in some places... At the same time as thinking about the reading week, I am pushing people to think about the workload and to stop that oversimplification”.

As further strike action looms, the UCU argues staff have faced real term pay cuts. In light of this, I asked how the University justifies Toope’s £475,000 salary. Freeling’s response: “It was a matter for council”.

He continued: “You may think it’s an unreasonable amount but it’s what the best vice-chancellors get and it’s far less than they would get in North America. That’s how it is justified. Do I like inequality, no I don’t. Do I think we should get the best vice-chancellor, yes, I do”.

As my short amount of time with Freeling came to an end, we shook hands, and I wished the new acting vice-chancellor good luck for the coming year. Whether the coming year will be as peaceful of a transition as he implied is a question none of us can answer.