Chief Executive’s overview

Peter Phillips

Over the course of the last year, Cambridge has shown its ability to adapt in a fast-changing world. 2024–25 has been a year of growth in our reach and impact, underpinned by strong revenues of £1.038 billion and a profit of £205.2 million. We achieved this amid geopolitical, regulatory, competitive and technological changes.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is central to many of these changes, and it has been a focal point for many of the students, teachers and researchers with whom we work.

Responding to those opportunities – and challenges – means refocusing on our strengths and where we can have the biggest impact, through the way we serve millions of educators, scholars and learners in an age of accelerating technological disruption.

“As we innovate and experiment in digital assessment and AI automarking, we are retaining, and in many cases strengthening, human involvement.”

In our Academic publishing, we want our authors and their work to be treated fairly in a world of AI. We sought and gained thousands of Cambridge University Press book authors’ consent, to give them agency in whether their works are included in any generative AI licensing deals. In doing that, we are making high-quality information available to generative AI tools so that it can help improve accuracy and support users more effectively.

That commitment to quality and fairness – for authors, readers and education more broadly – has driven our work to counter piracy and the theft of our authors’ work, including by some big technology companies seeking unethical shortcuts as they develop AI products. We spoke out on this and worked with trade bodies, such as the UK Publishers Association – where Mandy Hill, Managing Director of our Academic group, currently serves as President – to engage with governments and policymakers at this key moment, while our anti-piracy team succeeds in removing thousands of online pirated works.

At this time of change across our sectors, our values are even more important. We want to innovate responsibly. When the stakes are high – as they often are for our test-takers and partner organisations – we have not followed an automatic route of ‘AI first’, but instead have chosen technology according to the needs of the people we exist to serve. As just one example of that, academic research this year has demonstrated the value in assessing international student outcomes through sophisticated English proficiency tests under controlled conditions, relative to less educationally advanced tests that can only be taken on a student’s own computer.

Our AI innovations in English have included the launch of the Teacher’s Hub, featuring generative AI technology to support educators. We also progressed our collaborations with University of Cambridge researchers in the use of artificial intelligence, language and assessment.

In many aspects of assessment, well-supervised exams are proving resilient, and governments and regulators are recognising this. In an exam hall, students need to demonstrate what they – rather than their AI tool – are capable of. As Cambridge innovates and experiments in digital assessment and AI automarking, we are retaining, and in many cases strengthening, human involvement as a key part of the digital age. In high-stakes exams, expert examiners, markers and question-setters remain crucial in understanding students’ abilities and attainment, even if their work is supported by the use of AI tools. That is important in protecting and enhancing quality in everything that we do.

Cambridge in numbers

Over

£1 billion revenue in 2024–25

Operating in

170 countries

7,000 Colleagues in 90 offices around the world

In International Education, we engaged thousands of teachers and students to help us rethink the future of education. This dialogue builds on a growing sense of community among more than 10,000 Cambridge schools worldwide, who contribute to, and gain from initiatives like our Guide to AI in Education for teachers, as they navigate technological change and seek through innovation to achieve the best outcomes for students.

Schools, groups, ministries and associations in 113 countries are already using Cambridge Insight to assess 480,000 students annually – drawing on our range of digital, adaptive and formative assessments of student ability and potential, covering all stages.

During the year, Cambridge OCR was a leading advocate for improving UK education as the government explored curriculum and assessment reform. We worked with thousands of students, teachers and education experts as Cambridge OCR set out evidence and analysis to underpin improvements, including proposals for how to protect academic rigour, while reducing the volume and intensity of exams at GCSE. These views have informed and engaged government officials, parliamentarians, the media and other stakeholders as we make the case for reforms that put students and teachers first.

In climate education, we are engaging with world-leaders – for example at the annual COP meetings attended by governments and NGOs from almost every country across the globe. But it’s in delivering products and services that we are making the biggest difference. Our free Climate Quest programme was first trialled in India this year and is next expanding across Pakistan and Latin America, reaching large numbers of learners.

In a similar vein, two-thirds of this year’s research articles published by Cambridge were open access, and thus free for anyone to read.

I was hugely proud to see seven Cambridge authors win Nobel prizes this year, our highest number in a single year. That takes the total of Nobel laureates who we have published to nearly 200.

It’s the strength and quality of our content, expertise, publications and qualifications that helps us play our part in a changing world. Through them, we support 100 million people every year as they prepare for and navigate an uncertain future. That impact reinforces our commitment and positivity as we seek to build even further on this year’s many achievements – all made possible by the talent and dedication of everyone who works here. I am very grateful to them all.

Peter Phillips

Chief Executive