Sustainable Urban Futures Programme

Kit List

This is a basic kit list – pack what you will need to be comfortable away from home for 5 days!

• small backpack or bag for taking on excursions – your school bag is fine
• Comfortable shoes (we will be walking and spending lots of time outside)
• Suncream/Sunhat  – whatever you need for sun protection
• wet weather gear/coat in case of rain
• Clothes suitable for active activities – we will have games/sports available and be having an active week
• Rough clothes suitable for shelter building – bring something you don’t mind getting messy
• formal dinner outfit (optional! some students like to dress up for the formal dinner)
• All toiletries/toothpaste/toothbrush that you would need for a trip away
• Reusable water bottle
• Any chargers/adapters you need
• Pencilcase/notebook
• We will have curfew late evening, so bring a reading book or whatever you like for your bedtime routine
• any medication you need (If you get hayfever bring your allergy meds – there are lots of plants!)
• Money for bus travel from station (save your ticket for reimbursement) – card and a little bit of backup cash -the buses take card in general, just incase you need it.
• towels and bedlinen are provided – don’t bring these

Arrival & Departure Information

• You will need to arrive at Churchill College between 14:00 and 15:00 on Monday (no later than 15:00 – but don’t stress if you have travel problems, we’ll get you sorted out). Between this time we will register you as arrived, and give you a place to store your luggage. Please keep out a small(er) bag with anything you might need for the rest of the afternoon.
  • If you are travelling a distance that makes arrival by 15:00 on the Monday difficult for you please contact Rachel (SUF@chu.cam.ac.uk).
• At 15:00 all students and undergraduate student helpers will gather in a designated location in the College for the first session
• After the afternoon sessions, you will have a break when you will be able to collect your room key, get your luggage, drop that off into your room and head for dinner.
• On your final day, you will need to clear out your room and hand your room key in by 8:30am. You can store luggage in College until you need to leave for home after the Friday sessions end at 15:00 pm. 

Travelling to and from Cambridge & Churchill College, and Travel Costs

The best way to travel to Cambridge is generally public transport, though this might vary slightly depending on where you are travelling from. Your travel costs by public transport will be covered in advance or reimbursed by the Sustainable Urban Futures Programme. A travel form will be provided at the Q&A webinars – this is to tell us details of your journey and submit reciepts.

Please think carefully about your journey, taking into account the time by which you need to not only be in Cambridge, but arrive at the college (details below) as well. This includes, for example, considering trains vs coaches – as travel costs will be covered, please take the best route (i.e. quickest) over the cheapest! If you want some advice please do not hesitate to contact us and ask!

For travel home, allow yourself at least 1 hour to travel from the college to the station – it doesn’t take quite this long, but this will give you sufficient time to collect your things, say bye to your new friends and not have to rush. We recommend that you do not book trains to leave Cambridge before 16:00 on Friday.

We have a web page of detailed information here – How to find us – but we have summarised some of this below. The web page includes maps and helpful links for travel.

• By Train

There are two train stations in Cambridge – the main station (CBG), and Cambridge North (CMB). We recommend that you travel to Cambridge! The “Universal” Bus goes from stop 8 at the train station to “Storey’s Way” stop which is very close to Churchill College. If you have a student card this usually costs £1 for a single from the station to the stop.

• By Bus/Coach

Please see “travelling by public transport” on the college “How to find us” webpage.

• By Car

Please see “travelling by car” on the college “How to find us” webpage.

Travel expenses

The cost of your travel will be reimbursed by the college if you have receipts and have booked in advance.  You must keep your travel receipts and bring them with you for reimbursement

• Travel will be reimbursed on the receipt of a completed travel form. 
• Reimbursement payments will be made after the residential
• We will not reimburse Ubers or Taxis to the station – there is a good bus link!
• If you are travelling by car then we will reimburse your journey using the mileage calculator on Google maps – however, given our focus on sustainability, we will only reimburse car travel where there are no public transport options available.
• If you are unable to pay for travel in advance please contact Rachel and the college will discuss how we may be able to help with this.

We hope all the above information is helpful for your planning. Please get in touch if you have any questions about the above or otherwise!

Pre-week assignment

This will focus on Sustainable Development and is intended to help you get the most out of your experience and support university subject choice exploration and applications. We estimate that it will take 1-2 hours to complete and will be a research-based task to answer questions about Sustainable Development and informal settlements.  More detail will be given at the pre-week assignment online session.