British Indian student Anoushka Kale is looking forward to delivering on her manifesto pledges after being elected president of the University of Cambridge’s historic Cambridge Union Society.
In her role, she will lead one of the world’s oldest debating societies after winning 126 votes to be elected uncontested for the Easter 2025 term in last month’s election. As the serving Debates Officer of the society, Anoushka ran on a platform of strengthening ties with cultural societies of the university such as the India Society.
She said: “I am absolutely delighted and honoured to have been elected as President of the Cambridge Union Society for Easter 2025 and grateful for the membership’s support.
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“For my term, I will seek to expand diversity and access at the Union through greater collaboration with cultural groups, like the university’s India Society. I am also especially passionate about continuing to host international speakers and global debate motions, as I did as Debates Officer of the society.”
Former presidents and officers of the Cambridge Union Society have included celebrated English economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes, novelist Robert Harris and, in recent years, British Indian peer Lord Karan Bilimoria.
The Cambridge Union has a long tradition of hosting prominent figures from all areas of public life in its chamber, from US presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, to Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and the Dalai Lama.
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Twenty-year-old Anoushka, who is reading English Literature at Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge University, is among the few female members of Indian heritage to take on the coveted role.
