Dr Mike Gross
MA, PhD
Official Fellow; Member of the College Council; Bursar
As Bursar my main responsibilities are for College finances, buildings and staff. I also have a more general role in College governance, being the executive officer for the Governing Body, College Council and various College committees.
Before becoming Bursar I was a Fellow in Economics. My PhD research was concerned with the segmentation of labour markets – the idea that competition within labour markets is imperfect and that employment opportunities are restricted on the basis of gender, race and various socio-economic characteristics. This reflects a more general interest in low pay and wage inequality since theories of labour market segmentation necessarily challenge the notions of justice and fairness that are often claimed to be associated with free market competition.
I was an undergraduate student at Emmanuel. Before that I attended a comprehensive school having failed the 11 plus (such is the way of things in Essex), my school having been branded a secondary modern two years before I went to it. I applied to Emmanuel because, in an enlightened access initiative, it was the first Cambridge college to abandon admissions examinations and rely instead upon conditional offers. It was a simpler time and I applied knowing nothing else at all about the College, not even the presence of the ducks, but it isn’t a decision I have ever regretted.