Dame Mary Beard has claimed that Cambridge University is better off without 'thicko' rugby players from her day.   

The revered classicist and art historian believes that Cambridge has been 'transformed for the better' since her time there because 'there aren't any of those thick white rugger buggers'. 

The 70-year-old graduated from the prestigious university in 1977 and completed her PhD in 1988 before returning as a professor in the early 2000s. 

Speaking on a panel titled 'Universities Under Fire' at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, she said: 'The improvement I saw in higher education in my lifetime of teaching is something that I feel that I can celebrate.

'I went to Cambridge as an undergraduate in the early 1970s and it was [a] white, posh, male enclave.

'Ten per cent of students were women and there was very little diversity of any sort. I left and the place has been transformed for the better.'

The former professor went to say that the 'excluded' so-called 'rugger buggers' - defined as male rugby players 'who behave in a loud and unpleasant way' by the Cambridge Dictionary - have improved the university's results.

During the panel, Prof Beard denied being 'terribly woke' and says she has 'haven't lived in fear that I was going to be cancelled'.

Despite saying 'some things that maybe I would regret later', she admits she hasn't been 'been going around looking over my shoulder'.

Often described as 'Britain's best-known classicist' Prfo Beard has become accustomed to social media abuse, which she consistently reports to the police to be proactive in avoiding tragedies for herself and her family.      

The television historian, who has written 18 books, has previously claimed her often controversial beliefs were not the reasoning behind the social media abuse but simply the fact that she is outspoken. 

In a conversation with Radio Time last April, she said: 'When I first got abuse on Twitter/X, I thought it was because I'd said something to annoy them. So I engaged and said, "You misunderstood me."

'But I soon realised it wasn't the content that was the problem – it was simply that I was speaking.

'I have reported death threats because you can't ignore it. If something happens to you or your kids, it's no good saying to the police afterwards, "Oh, I thought it wasn't serious."'

In 2023, the broadcaster claimed that reporting tittle-tattle about the state of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's marriage is important because it will serve as a historical record of what people are talking about.

Promoting her then-new book, Emperor Of Rome, she said: 'Before anyone thinks I'm trivialising it, gossip is very important... from a historical point of view.'   

Years before, Prof Beard made headlines after she claimed that the Princess of Wales had become a 'maternal, doll-like, precious vessel' but in 2018 accepted Damehood from her husband, Prince William.

She seemed to put her 2014 words behind her as she offered to become the personal Latin tutor to the Prince and Princess of Wales' three children as she collected her award from Buckingham Palace.

The broadcaster, well-known for her documentaries and appearances on the BBC, said she would do 'anything' to ensure princes George and Louis, and Princess Charlotte, grew up with an understanding of the ancient Roman language.

Speaking moments after she received the honour for services to the study of classical civilisation from William at Buckingham Palace, Dame Mary told the Press Association: 'Well, I hope he was listening. Of course he was very polite and said: "I'll have to get you to teach them", and I said: "Anything!"

She joked: 'I didn't quite say: "You get the little squits to learn Latin..." but I did say you get them to learn because it is very important.

The Cambridge University professor has also previously said she herself had 'a 'touch of republican' about her, but felt much more comfortable accepting the honour now she was 'older and wiser'.

She said at the time: 'Had somebody said to me at 23 that I would accept a Damehood of the British empire, I would have said: "Sorry, sunshine, that's not what my politics is all about".

'But I've grown older and wiser, and I think that it does seem an odd title - a mixture of pantomime, because dames cart around the stage, don't they? - and we don't have an empire any longer.'