Gowns are most often worn to Chapel and to “Formal Hall,” a formal dinner held nightly in some colleges, or once a term in others. Those enrolled at the more traditional colleges most often choose to purchase a gown as the number of occasions on which it is worn quickly repays the investment. In their first week at Cambridge, many undergraduates will seek to buy or borrow a formal gown when officially enrolling, or matriculating, at the university. The Cambridge Union serves as a forum for debate while university drama societies, which include the Amateur Dramatic Club and the comedy club, “Footlights,” are renowned for producing accredited show business personalities. Successful applicants were expected to achieve at least three top grade (A-grade) qualifications relevant to their chosen undergraduate course, or equivalent overseas qualifications. When founded, undergraduate admission to the University of Cambridge relied on a knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek.

• Although the University Council is the university’s principal executive and policy-making body, the Council reports to, and is held accountable by, Regent House through a variety of checks and balances.
• In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university group, excluding colleges, reported a total endowment of £3.736 billion.
• By 2016, athletes who are university graduates or attendees had won 194 Olympic medals, including 88 gold medals.
• Our students come from 142 different countries.
• Over the next three centuries another 15 colleges were founded, and in 1318 Cambridge received formal recognition as a studium generale (a medieval school for advanced study) from Pope John XXII.

As of 2025,update the University of Cambridge has been ranked as the top public university in the world for twelve years straight by the Center for World University Rankings. Some of these awards and prizes rank among the world’s most estimable academic and intellectual accomplishments. It also issues some awards to those of varying global academic accomplishment regardless of whether their recipient is affiliated with the University of Cambridge. The university established its Local Examination Syndicate in 1858, now known as Cambridge University Press & Assessment after its merger with Cambridge University Press.

These have a supervisory body, a group of people who check that the departments are doing ok. This is often considered one of the best things about studying at Cambridge. They are only for theology, the study of religion. The University of Cambridge is a “collegiate” university. Many people watch it on Christmas Eve in Great Britain. Some people then took it down to see how it was made.

Selected Notable Members

The University of Cambridge is divided into thirty-one colleges, three of which, New Hall, Newnham College and Lucy Cavendish College, admit only women. In the 2004 academic year, Cambridge University’s student gender ratio, which included post-graduates, was recorded at 52 percent male and 48 percent female. In the twentieth century, women could be awarded a partial degree, known as a titular degree, but were excluded from the governing of the university.

Academic Dress

• When founded, undergraduate admission to the University of Cambridge relied on a knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek.
• And Water Babies, and Samuel Butler, remembered for The Way of All Flesh and Erewhon, are all University of Cambridge alumni.
• James Clerk Maxwell (second wrangler in 1854) was the first professor, beginning a leadership in physics at the university that would be continued by J.J.
• Furthermore, students are not permitted to hold car park permits except under special circumstances.
• When the plague arrived in Cambridge in 1630, many colleges closed up.
• The Stormzy Scholarship for Black UK Students covers tuition costs for two students and maintenance grants for up to four years.

Other alumni of the university include Francis Bacon, who developed the scientific method of inquiry, mathematicians John Dee and Brook Taylor, pure mathematicians G. Although the university in music predominantly for its contributions to choral music, university alumni in popular music include members of contemporary bands such as Radiohead, Hot Chip, Procol Harum, Clean Bandit, Sports Team songwriter and entertainer Jonathan King, Henry Cow, and the singer-songwriter Nick Drake. All students at the University of Cambridge are represented by Cambridge Students’ Union, which was founded in 2020 as a merger of two student unions, Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) and the Graduate Union (GU).

Postgraduate study

Addenbrooke’s Hospital is where the medicine students go to learn how to cure patients. Between 2005 and 2012, a campaign was made to get £1 billion from old students. Any Cambridge student who has an MA degree is a member of the Senate.

Cambridge’s 116 libraries hold a total of approximately 16 million books, around 9 million of which are in Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library and one of the world’s largest academic libraries. The largest department is Cambridge University Press and Assessment, which contains the oldest university press in the world, with £1 billion of annual revenue and with 100 million learners. In 1231, 22 years after its founding, the university was recognised with a royal charter, granted by King Henry III. The two ancient English universities, although sometimes described as rivals, share many common features and are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the world’s third-oldest university in continuous operation. The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England.

Supervisions are typically weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students, usually between one and three students, who meet with a member of the teaching staff or with a doctoral student. The University of Cambridge academic year is divided into three academic terms determined by the statutes of the university. The University of Cambridge has been criticised for admitting a lower percentage of Black students, though many apply. The university informs applicants that all necessary information regarding the application process is publicly available through the university and none of these services is providing any insight not already publicly available to applicants.

In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the central university, excluding colleges, reported total consolidated income of £2.518 billion, of which £569.5 million was from research grants and contracts. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university group, excluding colleges, reported a total endowment of £3.736 billion. Regent House is the university’s governing body, comprising all resident senior members of the university and the colleges, the Chancellor, the High Steward, the Deputy High Steward, and the Commissary. Its award-bearing programmes include both undergraduate certificates and part-time master’s degrees. Other colleges have more informal academic focus and even demonstrate ideological focus, such as King’s, which is known for its left-wing political orientation, and Robinson and Churchill, both of which have a reputation for academic focus on sustainability and environmentalism. Churchill, for example, has a reputation for its expertise and focus on the sciences and engineering, in part due to the requirement imposed by Winston Churchill upon the college’s founding that 70% of its students studied mathematics, engineering, and the sciences.

Alumni

This means it is divided into colleges, and every student and teacher joins one college only. However, there are still some colleges for women only. Over the years, more women-only colleges were built, until in 1972 Churchill was the first one to become mixed. Every student had to study maths to obtain a degree. The official creation of the University was in 1231 when King Henry III of England gave people the right to teach students and lower taxes. The gardens and grounds of the colleges along the River Cam are known as the “Backs,” and together they form a unique combination of large-scale architecture, natural and formal gardens, and river scenery with student boaters.

Mathematics

In 1290, Cambridge’s status was recognized by papal bull under Pope Nicholas IV, and the visitation of esteemed lecturers and researchers to the university had begun. The transferring scholars from the University of Oxford established Cambridge as a university in 1209. This list includes Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, William Harvey, Paul Dirac, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, James Clerk Maxwell, Francis Crick, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, and Frederick Sanger. Affiliates of Cambridge University have been awarded a total of eighty-one Nobel Prizes , the most of any university in the world . International rankings produced in 2005 by the Times Higher Education Supplement and Shanghai Jiao Tong University listed Cambridge among the top three universities world wide. In 2006, a Thomson Scientific study revealed Cambridge to have the highest research paper output of any British University.

Peterhouse was the first official college to be created in 1284. From that point, many researchers and teachers from other European universities started to come to Cambridge to work or give lessons. In 1290, Pope Nicholas IV called Cambridge a studium generale (name for a university in Medieval times). Cambridge is usually ranked in the world’s top five universities. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often called Oxbridge.

A change in the colleges’ focus would occur in 1536, with the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1284, Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, which would become the University of Cambridge’s first college. Seventy of these awardees attended Cambridge as either a graduate or undergraduate student. In 2005, a British study showed Cambridge to graduate substantially more Ph.D. recipients per year than any other British university. The university senate, Cambridge’s primary governing body until 1926, is responsible for appointing the university chancellor. Ultimate authority lies with the Regent House, the university’s principle governing body of which all current Cambridge academic staff are members.

The proportion of undergraduates drawn from independent schools has dropped over the years, constituting, as of 2020, 26% of total admissions among the university’s 3,436 applicants from independent schools compared to 23% of the 9,237 applications from state schools. In 2020–21, 71% of all successful applicants were from state schools compared to approximately 93% of all students in the UK who attended state schools and 82% of post-16 students. Other colleges regularly draw a greater proportion of their undergraduate intake from the pool. Some applicants are then interviewed a second time by the colleges before final admissions decisions are made. Once all the colleges have selected as many applicants as they need, the pool ends.

In 2001, according to England’s Research Assessment Exercise, Cambridge was named the top university in Great Britain. Each year, Cambridge consistently tops the League Tables of British Universities, a system which ranks the top universities within Great Britain. The University of Cambridge is considered one of the most academically selective institutions within the United Kingdom. About half the student body come from independent schools and half from state schools. Both provide an intensity, depth and breadth of education suitable for people who go on to reach the top of their professions. The University of Cambridge (or Cambridge University), is located in Cambridge, England, and is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The colleges within the university were initially endowed fellowships of scholars. The 31 colleges of the present-day University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the university; no college within the University of Cambridge is as old as the university itself. Undergraduate teaching at Cambridge is centred on weekly small-group supervisions in the colleges with lectures, seminars, laboratory work, and occasionally further supervision provided by the central university faculties and departments. Care leavers and estranged students

As of 2019, Cambridge alumni, faculty members, and researchers have won 11 Fields Medals and seven Turing Awards. The University of Cambridge has produced many distinguished alumni in various fields. In 2023, 72% of the Students’ Union voted in favour of hosting talks regarding pin up casino app the removal of all animal products from cafes and canteens operated by the university’s catering services.

They may later have to change it if the college thinks they are good but does not have enough places for them. Students need to choose a college before doing the application. Usually about 25% of the applicants get a place. For undergraduates, the application is done through UCAS. This is because the university has a lot of money and resources like laboratories and books. Many important people have done research in Cambridge.

During the University of Cambridge’s congregation ceremony, graduands are brought forth by the Praelector of their respective college, who takes them by the right hand and presents them to the vice-chancellor to receive the degree they have earned. Graduates receiving a post-graduate degree wear the academic dress that they were entitled to before graduating if their first degree was also from the University of Cambridge; if their first degree was from another university, they wear the academic dress of the degree that they are about to receive. The colleges are charged with giving or arranging most supervisions, student accommodation, and funding most extracurricular activities. Depending on the subject and college, students sometimes receive between one and four supervisory sessions each week. The Tripos exam involves a mixture of lectures organised by the university department) and supervised and organised by the colleges.

Almost half of all admitted applicants come from private institutions that charge tuition fees. In addition to assessing the grades of a potential scholar, admission tutors in some mathematical fields require applicants to pass a series of challenging examinations, or STEP papers. This often resulted in a student body that was predominantly drawn from members of the British social elite. Expansion of Cambridge University academic and extracurricular facilities is ongoing.

During the 1990s, Cambridge constructed a substantial number of new specialized research laboratories on several university sites around the city. Though the University’s academic strength is often considered to lie within its sciences, Cambridge is also renowned for a number of humanities and social science faculties. Gonville Hall, originally founded in 1348, was again re-founded in 1557 and renamed to Cambridge’s Gonville and Caius College.