Churchill College

At its creation, the College was dedicated to three special purposes, to which it remains committed:
 

• A focus on science and technology, having a statutory requirement that 70 per cent of its students and academic staff are in the fields of natural or medical sciences, engineering, or mathematics, and which is richly complemented by the 30 per cent dedicated to the arts and humanities.

• An emphasis on postgraduate education, having a statutory requirement that approximately one-third of its students study for master’s or doctoral degrees.

• An emphasis on visiting fellowships, having a scheme of Overseas Fellowships and By-Fellowships which has brought hundreds of distinguished scholars to Cambridge from around the world.

Within the first 30 years of existence, the College acquired four further defining characteristics:
 

• It was the first men’s College to decide to admit women.

• It pursued a meritocratic policy in undergraduate admissions, such that about three-quarters of its intake comes from schools in the state sector.

• It became the home of the Churchill Archives Centre, housing the Founder’s papers, and 600 further collections from the Churchill era and after.

• It established the Møller Centre for Continuing Education, committed to continuing professional development, and building bridges between academe, business, and the professions.

Today, the College has some 500 undergraduates, 300 postgraduates, 150 Fellows, 50 By-Fellows, and 150 support staff with a community that extends to 9800 alumni worldwide.

Thirty-two of its Members have won the Nobel Prize, including one former student. Situated in north-west Cambridge, in the University’s expansion zone, the College occupies a campus of 42 acres (17 hectares), the most extensive consolidated site of any Cambridge college.

Credit: Written by Mark Goldie. October 2014.
Image-top: Jim Tang