Imperial will ’define excellence’ says President Gast in annual address

The meaning of "excellence" in higher education was the topic of Professor Alice Gast's second annual address to the Imperial community. In the speech, she explored excellence in the context of peer review, metrics, the student experience and the changing higher education landscape. Professor Gast took the chance to congratulate more than 150 members of the Imperial community who received external honours and prizes, including Lord Darzi's Order of Merit and others receiving Queen's birthday and new year honours. She also remarked upon the excellence to be found in unexpected places at Imperial, from talented ballroom dancers to the accomplished musicians in the College's symphony orchestra: "This is what we do at Imperial, we define excellence in new and unexpected ways." - Challenging the status quo. Questioning what we "really mean" by excellence, Professor Gast said: "We each have our own personal measures of achievement. We push ourselves to do the very best we can. We know in our hearts when we measure up and we know when we don't." She asked whether the current peer review system promotes the status quo: "Can it reward the new, the outlier, and the risk-taker? We need to ensure that the peer-review process will support the non-traditional, the avant-garde, the blue skies ideas that have not been tested.