In early February my son and I went to Cambridge, as he will be applying to university in about 8 months and so wanted to see if he would want to be a student there.
Here are some photographs of 3 of the colleges we visited, Peterhouse, Pembroke and Corpus Christi.
Peterhouse College
Peterhouse College
Peterhouse College
Peterhouse College
Peterhouse College
Peterhouse College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Pembroke College
Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi College
Peterhouse College, Cambridge, established in 1284.
Pembroke College, Cambridge, established in 1347
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, established in 1352
Most people from outside the UK probably don’t understand what the colleges actually are. (They are of course something different from colleges in the States, where “college” is either a generic term: “go to college”—“go to university” sounds like something which someone with a fake Oxford accent would say—or a term for a smaller university offering a limited range of subjects.) In Germany, most students live in a flat somewhere, often with other students. A minority reside in some sort of dormitory provided by the university, but there is no social life associated with it. In the UK, even senior scientists can be Fellows of a College.
Are these colleges only at a few old, traditional universities?
My understanding is that Durham also has a collegiate system. But I’m no expert on this. Having never applied to Oxbridge (see numerous previous rants on this 🙂 ), I really wasn’t that conversant with Oxbridge’s collegiate system until my son has started considering applying.
In the US, you are correct that college is used as a generic alternative to the term university for a place of higher education. However, strictly speaking it’s a place of higher education where no postgraduate courses are offered. E.g. Swarthmore College.
In the DUK a college tends to refer to a place of further education, for 16-18 year olds.
With regard to your last sentence, that’s a meaning different from “university colleges”.
Apparently Lancaster does as well, and #2 in the league tables for physics. What does your son plan to study? Has he considered Lancaster?
I still find it hard to believe that there hasn’t been any successful protest against university fees in the UK.
Yes he plans to study physics. He’s been looking at many of the different league tables. Lancaster is a post-92 (new) university, and so rightly or wrongly doesn’t carry much prestige at the moment. In 20-30 years’ time it may have built up a fine reputation. I’m not sure if it’s one of the places he’s considering, but he is aware of it.
That was the point of my question: It’s number 2 in the table, but people think it has low prestige (and thus it does).
Probably the feeling that, in the UK, there are “Oxford and Cambridge, then the rest” is stronger than any similar perception of the top schools in other countries. On the other hand, the actual difference is probably smaller than in other countries.
Many people who should know assure me that a given mark from one UK university really is equivalent to the same mark from another university. However, in practice, a bad Oxbridge degree is probably worth more than a good one from a new university. What do you think?
There are several dimensions to student life in Cambridge (and Oxford), though I should add the caveat that my memories are of 1972-76 at Clare. Lectures, practicals, translation classes, lab sessions and the like are at university faculty level. Individual ‘supervisions’ or tutorials are all or most in college, bar cases where your college doesn’t have a Fellow teaching the subject (e.g. I went elsewhere for Spanish American History). Your college also provides pastoral care and a hub for social and sporting life. Then there are the many university-wide societies which cater for particular interests; e.g. I was in French, Boardgames, SF, and Mah Jong societies.
You are correct, Rhodri, that Durham also has a collegiate system. My daughter is in her final year there, at Josephine Butler College – though hardly goes there, as tutorials seem to take place more in the faculty (Geography in her case). She had a room in college for the first year, but since has lived in shared rented houses. That’s another difference from Oxbridge, where many students live in College for all three undergrad years (as I did).
[…] I’ve mentioned before, back in February I was in Cambridge for a few days with my son looking at colleges to help him […]