Khamenei allies trounce Ahmadinejad in Iran election

Khamenei tightened his grip on Iran`s faction-ridden politics after loyalists won over 75 % seats in elections.

London: Cambridge has emerged as the richest
UK university with 4 billion pounds worth of assets, even
eclipsing Monaco, the wealthiest country in the world.

Cambridge University was yesterday revealed as one of the
richest places in the world, claiming total assets of 4
billion pounds, more than double the combined value of every
other university in the country, excluding Oxford.

The staggering wealth values the university, with a staff
and student population population of 30,000, at more than
130,000 pounds per head, the Daily Mail reported citing the
University`s annual report.

It also surpasses Monaco, the richest country in the
world, which was most recently calculated to have a GDP per
capita of 108,409 pounds.

The figure dwarfs second-placed Oxford, which has a value
of 3.3 billion pounds. Only super-rich US universities, such
as Harvard, claim of deeper pockets than Cambridge.

The wealth gap figures attracted fresh criticisms of
elitism at the university. There were also claims that little
had been done to combat an ethnic imbalance among its
population.

The enormous wealth is attributed to building assets and
land ownership accumulated over the university`s 800-year
history. This has been generously topped up by its
high-achieving alumni, who have gone on to make huge personal
fortunes.
In 2000 the university received a 132 million pound
donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the
single largest donation to a UK university ever made.

The Cambridge University annual report also highlighted
the discrepancies over ethnicity, with 65.8 per cent of staff
being white British. A further 24.6 per cent referred to
themselves as white `other`. Out of the massive 9,147 staff
just 45 are listed as black African or black Caribbean.

The largest represented ethnic minority was Chinese with
three per cent, followed by Indian, which made up two per
cent.

There is also a whopping gender divide with 75 per cent of
all academic staff male and 60 per cent of assistants female.

Professor Malcolm Longair, director of research at the
university`s Cavendish Laboratory said that it was a problem
"everybody recognises" and the University was doing its utmost
to promote female academics.

PTI

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