If you read our earlier post on Oxford University, you’ll know that the university is actually a collection of 45 individual colleges and private halls, each with its own students, dons (=faculty), library, chapel, gardens, administrators, sports teams, sports grounds, and so on. At Oxford one’s college forms the centre of one’s academic and social life. So, since John is a temporary member of St Hugh’s College, he thought he’d write a bit about what that actually means, at least in the short-term.
St Hugh’s College: History
St Hugh’s is one of the ‘newer’ colleges, founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth (great-niece of the poet). She had founded Lady Margaret Hall seven years earlier as a college for female undergraduates. When she inherited money from her father a few years later, she founded St Hugh’s, also a college for women but with the intention that it would serve poorer undergraduates. (Not that you can tell now!) Although the college opened in 1886, only in 1920 could women receive degrees. They’d been taking classes, going to lectures, and sitting for examinations the whole time. Distinguished alumnae of St Hugh’s include the novelist Mary Renault and the former British Prime Minister Theresa May. Since 1987 the college has been fully coeducational.
St Hugh’s is a twenty-minute walk from the centre of town, where many of the older colleges are located. (We find it funny when our Oxford friends talk about how far away St Hugh’s is, but Americans have a very different sense of distance.) One of the benefits of St Hugh’s location is that it feels much more open than the older colleges. And it occupies a large and spacious campus. As you can see from the pictures, the grounds are beautiful (though that’s true of pretty much every Oxford college) and the buildings are a pleasing mixture of old and new.
Being a Fellow
A visiting appointment like the one John has lasts for a fixed time and brings with it certain privileges. Perhaps the main privilege is the ability to take one’s meals in College. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served each day, and a visiting member can partake in any or all of them. One is charged only for dinner, the others being offered gratis. The fellows sit at a large table (‘high table’) while the students sit in rows perpendicular to the head table. This is true of every Oxford college we’ve visited.
Another privilege is use of the SCR, the Senior Common Room. These vary in size and shape across colleges. We find the one at St Hugh’s particularly attractive, with two window bays to sit in. There are comfortable chairs and sofas, newspapers and magazines both national and international, and the makings for coffee or tea. Years ago when we were first visiting, one of the main topics of discussion was which college was getting a new coffee machine. We were delighted to see the competitive instincts it brought out in the various colleges. (The ante has upped over the years – we know of at least four libraries under renovation at the moment.) One can use the SCR at any time for a cup of coffee or tea or just for sitting and reading. Most importantly, snacks appear mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
So a visiting fellowship or appointment can make life at Oxford much more pleasant, not least because it brings the opportunity to get to know one of the colleges and its denizens.
