By the early 20th century, however, pure mathematical research at Cambridge reached the highest international standard, thanks largely to G. H. Hardy and his collaborators, J. E. Littlewood and Srinivasa Ramanujan.

[35] Following World War II, the university experienced a rapid expansion in applications and enrollment, partly due to the success and popularity gained by many Cambridge scientists.

One such discontinued tradition is that of the wooden spoon, the prize awarded to the student with the lowest passing honours grade in the final examinations of the university's Mathematical Tripos.

Since 1908, examination results have been published alphabetically within class rather than in strict order of merit, which made it difficult to ascertain the student with the lowest passing grade deserving of the spoon, leading to discontinuation of the tradition.

[67] The college faculties are responsible for giving lectures, arranging seminars, performing research, and determining the syllabi for teaching, all of which is overseen by the university's general board.

When reported strictly using Statements of Recommended Practice (SORPs) guidelines, which accounted for only donations that meet certain criteria among non-profit organizations in the UK, endowment reserve stood at £2.469 billion.

In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the central university, excluding colleges, reported total consolidated income of £2.518 billion, of which £569.5 million was from research grants and contracts.

[113][114] In 2021, Cambridge introduced an over-subscription clause to its offers of admission, which also permits the university to withdraw acceptances if too many students meet its selective entrance criteria.

[139] With the release of admissions figures, The Guardian reported in 2013 that ethnic minority candidates had lower success rates in individual subjects even when they had the same grades as white applicants.

[145] Candidates include those who have been in care, who are estranged from their families, who have missed significant periods of learning because of health issues, those from low-income backgrounds, and those from schools with few students attending universities.

[150] This pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to Oxford, where supervisions are known as tutorials,[151] and Cambridge and is sometimes credited with the exceptional nature generally associated with the education at these two world-renowned universities.

A formal meeting of Regent House, known as a congregation, is held for this purpose,[154] which is typically the final act during which all university procedures for undergraduate and graduate students and other degrees are finalised.

During the University of Cambridge's congregation ceremony, graduands are brought forth by the Praelector of their respective college, who takes them by the right hand and presents them to the vice-chancellor to receive the degree they have earned.

The Praelector presents graduands with the following Latin statement, substituting "____" with the name of the degree and substituting "woman" for "man" if the graduate is female: "Dignissima domina, Domina Procancellaria et tota Academia praesento vobis hunc virum quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum _____; idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae.The Latin statement translates in English as, "Most worthy Vice-Chancellor and the whole University, I present to you this man whom I know to be suitable as much by character as by learning to proceed to the degree of ____; for which I pledge my faith to you and to the whole University."

After presentation, the graduate is called by name and kneels before the vice-chancellor and proffers their hands to the vice-chancellor, who clasps them and then confers the degree through the following Latin statement, known as the Trinitarian formula (in nomine Patris), which may be omitted at the request of the graduand: "Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum ____, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, which translates in English as: "By the authority committed to me, I admit you to the degree of ____, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The student newspaper also has featured the early writings of Zadie Smith, who appeared in Varsity's literary anthology offshoot The Mays, Robert Webb, Tristram Hunt, and Tony Wilson.

Citing UAE's history of violating international human rights laws, it warned that university staff were vulnerable under the partnership to repression by gender, sexuality, or freedom of expression.

[196] In 2023, 72% of the Students' Union voted in favour of hosting talks regarding the removal of all animal products from cafes and canteens operated by the university's catering services.

University of Cambridge academics include economists such as John Maynard Keynes, Thomas Malthus, Alfred Marshall, Milton Friedman, Joan Robinson, Piero Sraffa, Ha-Joon Chang, and Amartya Sen.

Notable philosophers include Francis Bacon, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Leo Strauss, George Santayana, G. E. M. Anscombe, Karl Popper, Bernard Williams, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, and G. E. Moore.

Notable alumni historians include Thomas Babington Macaulay, Frederic William Maitland, Lord Acton, Joseph Needham, E. H. Carr, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Rhoda Dorsey, E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, Quentin Skinner, Niall Ferguson, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Karl Schweizer.

A. Richards, C. K. Ogden, and William Empson, often collectively known as the Cambridge Critics, the Marxists Raymond Williams, sometimes regarded as the founding father of cultural studies, and Terry Eagleton, author of Literary Theory: An Introduction, the most successful academic book ever published, the aesthetician Harold Bloom, new historicist Stephen Greenblatt, and biographical writers including Lytton Strachey, a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, Peter Ackroyd, and Claire Tomalin.

Actors and directors who attended the University of Cambridge include Ian McKellen, Eleanor Bron, Miriam Margolyes, Derek Jacobi, Michael Redgrave, James Mason, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, John Oliver, Freddie Highmore, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Simon Russell Beale, Tilda Swinton, Thandie Newton, Georgie Henley, Rachel Weisz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Tom Hiddleston, Sara Mohr-Pietsch, Eddie Redmayne, Dan Stevens, Jamie Bamber, Lily Cole, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Richard Ayoade, Mel Giedroyc, and Sue Perkins.

Directors Mike Newell, Robert Icke, Sam Mendes, Simon McBurney, Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn, Stephen Frears, Paul Greengrass, Chris Weitz, and John Madden each are alumni of the university.

Other alumni of the university include Francis Bacon, who developed the scientific method of inquiry, mathematicians John Dee and Brook Taylor, pure mathematicians G. H. Hardy, John Edensor Littlewood, Mary Cartwright, and Augustus De Morgan; Michael Atiyah, a geometry specialist; William Oughtred, inventor of the logarithmic scale; John Wallis, first to explain the law of acceleration; Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius who made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions; and James Clerk Maxwell, who brought about the second great unification of physics (the first being accredited to Newton) with his classical theory of electromagnetic radiation.

In biology, University of Cambridge alumni include Charles Darwin, famous for developing the theory of natural selection and explaining evolution, is an alumnus of Christ's College.

Notable female scientists include biochemist Marjory Stephenson, plant physiologist Gabrielle Howard, social anthropologist Audrey Richards, psychoanalyst Alix Strachey, who with her husband translated the works of Sigmund Freud, Kavli Prize-winner Brenda Milner, responsible for co-discovering specialised brain networks for memory and cognition.

Other significant university alumni in science include Henry Cavendish, who discovered hydrogen; Frank Whittle, co-inventor of the jet engine; William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), who formulated the original Laws of Thermodynamics; William Fox Talbot, who invented the camera, Alfred North Whitehead, Einstein's major opponent; Jagadish Chandra Bose, one of the fathers of radio science; Lord Rayleigh, who made extensive contributions to both theoretical and experimental physics in the 20th century; and Georges Lemaître, who first proposed the Big Bang theory.

[17] Alumni of the university include Chinese six-time world table tennis champion Deng Yaping; sprinter and athletics hero Harold Abrahams; inventors of the modern game of football, H. de Winton and J. C. Thring; Indian cricketer Colonel H. H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II; and George Mallory, the mountaineer.

[209] The university has been the setting for all or parts of numerous novels, including Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Rose Macaulay's They Were Defeated,[210] and Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue.