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THE WILBERFORCE SOCIETY

The oldest student think tank in the UK, based at the University of Cambridge

Home: Welcome
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ABOUT US

The Wilberforce Society was founded in 2009 as an independent student think-tank with the mission of promoting constructive and intelligent debate in Cambridge. 

 

TWS prides itself on producing rigorously researched, non-partisan policy papers on pertinent issues, which have included ‘The Brexit Report’, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Brexit on Cambridge, which was presented at the European Parliament.

 

TWS also holds regular events with leading academics and experts on policy issues and current affairs. The highlight of our speaker events is The Wilberforce Society’s Annual Conference, held in Lent Term.

About us
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HISTORY

It is from William Wilberforce, MP and abolitionist, that we take our name. While a student at St John’s College, Cambridge from 1776 to 1781, he became close friend to future Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger. With other great men including William Grenville, they formed a circle of friends that proved to be a powerful force in British politics between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

 

Though he never became Prime Minister, as the two aforementioned men did, Wilberforce established a formidable reputation in his early parliamentary career as a great independent member and a leading orator of his day. The first of these qualities is our foremost reason for adopting his name. But we take it also to honour his extraordinary achievement in leading the work towards the abolition of Britain’s slave trade, the first of any major slave-trading nation to make such a reform.

 

While we are not constrained by the often very conservative positions that Wilberforce was to adopt in his later career, we strive to devise proposals that encompass compassion and understanding akin to that which he espoused.

History

PROJECTS

Research

Asylum Inequalities: An examination of differential treatment and its consequences in UK policy and society

Populism and Democratic Backsliding: Protecting the European Human Rights System

Digital Journal

The Month's Events

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Democratic Backsliding in Europe Policy Paper Launch
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Housing Crisis in Europe Panel Discussion
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