Dinner speeches are normally signals for a yawn. But that's not the case when you invite Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father, as a guest of honour.
Mr Lee made the effort to fly in from Singapore this week to attend the grand party for the University of Cambridge, his alma mater, and opened his speech by telling his audience they might wonder why.
He spoke quite warmly of his own student days post second world war. But Cambridge supporters almost choked over their poached asparagus when instead of continuing to extol its virtues he spent the rest of his speech lambasting it for the poor experiences of a Singaporean student. The praise, instead, was reserved for American rivals MIT, Harvard and Yale.
Afterwards, mutterings could be heard criticising him for lack of tact. Others felt his speech was a clever way of making the point about what it will take a British university to achieve its ambitions of matching its American rivals in their success in tapping alumni generosity. After all, 40 per cent of American graduates give to their universities, compared with just 10 per cent of British.
What sets a university like Cambridge apart from those in Asia is the level of independence expected of its students and, in Singapore's case, its academic freedom.
It is interesting to note that at least four British universities - including Cambridge - have turned down offers to open satellite campuses in the less-than-democratic Lion City, with at least one expressing fears over freedom.