Thanks to the efforts of many people, not least the Steering Group led initially by Professor Martin Partington and subsequently by Professor Richard Hodder-Williams, the anniversary will receive proper recognition both inside the University and in the wider community.

The theme of Celebration 2001 - opportunity and diversity - reflects a number of important truths about the University. It has, after all, created opportunities for hundreds of thousands of talented people of all social and economic backgrounds and from all over the world. Such has always been a key part of its mission.

As well as marking the University's achievements, Celebration 2001 will encourage the University to reflect on what more it can do - especially to attract students with outstanding academic potential from disadvantaged backgrounds; to strengthen the University's links with the city and the region; and to fulfil its international potential.

By the time Celebration 2001 takes place, I shall have moved on. I should like to take this opportunity to wish the initiative well, and to express the confident hope that this great University will have many other reasons to celebrate in the years to come.

Such a national position gives the University a responsibility not only for academic but also for social and cultural leadership. I am, therefore, particularly grateful to Sir John for handing Celebration 2001 on to me. Equal opportunity for all and diversity in the workplace and society are values that I hold dear. Celebration 2001 confirms to me that I have joined an institution in which those important values are embedded, and it gives me an early chance to reinforce them.

The University is about excellence - in teaching, in research, in the quality of the experience it offers and in the contribution it makes to the wider world. The pursuit of excellence requires an openness of mind that recognises talent wherever it exists, that is receptive to new ways of thinking and that values the diversity of people.

It is clear to me that Celebration 2001 is a marvellous opportunity for the University to explore such themes, both locally and globally, and by reference to others' experience and aspirations as well as its own. It is also a chance for the University to play host to a wide variety of people.

All those who join us at these events are most welcome. I hope that in helping us to celebrate the University's achievements and to consider the challenges ahead, they get plenty of intellectual stimulation - as well as some fun!