In a lecture to Civil Engineering students Imperial College's Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, gave some indications of hints of plans for Imperial College's student accommodation, the Wye campus and the College as a whole.

Monday morning engineering lectures are rarely anything to write home about, so sleepy second year civil engineers were more than surprised to discover that their special guest speaker for today's leadership class was none other than our esteemed Rector, Sir Richard Sykes. After a treating the students to a charismatic resume of his impressive CV and some comments on leadership, mentioning the usual buzz words such a "Vision", "Drive", and "Communication", Sir Richard took questions from the floor, where a few predictable and controversial topics surfaced.

Particularly interesting were his comments about the confusing status of Wye College, which he described as "...a bit of an oddity" and that it "has failed to efficiently merge with the rest of [Imperial] College". Referring back to one of the leadership buzz words from earlier on, he revealed that Wye does not fit in well with his "Vision" for the whole of Imperial College. Reading between the lines, it might be inferred that Wye may not be part of Imperial College for much longer although reassurance has been received from College officials that they are committed to continuing the process of integrating the academic activities of the Wye campus.

Sir Richard also outlined his plans for Princes Gardens, where he proposes to sell most of Imperial's isolated halls in order to invest in a brand new accommodation complex where the doomed Southside and Linstead Halls currently stand. This follows a recent notification to the College from English Heritage that they will not object to the demolition of Southside, despite it being a listed building. Most of the college's properties on the north and west sides will probably be sold for this massive and well received proposed redevelopment.

Finally, in the wake of this week's announcement from Oxford that it is considering privatisation, Sir Richard ruled out the possibility of 'privatising' Imperial in a similar way to that proposed by Oxford earlier this week, arguing that without the £200 million government grant the college would die. He did nonetheless reiterate his case for Tuition Fees, the only feasible way, in his eyes, of maintaining Imperial's status as a world leading academic institution.