Dr Mark King recently joined the Churchill Admissions team as the College’s new Lead Admissions Tutor. We caught up with him to find out more!
Can you provide a potted history of your educational journey?
I first came to Cambridge in 2005 from my local sixth form college and quickly fell in love with (the very un-trendy) medieval history thanks to some superb lecturers and supervisors. I went on to do a Masters and a PhD, specialising in the political history of the fourteenth century, and was lucky enough to study under Professor Christine Carpenter, the greatest living historian of the period. Following in Christine’s footsteps, I am particularly fascinated by the interrelationship between local and national politics during this period, how one influences the other and how high-political feuds play out at local level and vice-versa, all within the context of the gradual evolution of the English ‘state’ and its political culture. My doctoral dissertation looked at the reign of Richard II – a very dangerous monarch who ends up getting deposed – from the perspective of local politics in the Welsh marches.
What career positions have you held since your studies?
By the end of my PhD, I knew I was also really interested in education and working with students, so I trained to be a teacher and spent two years teaching history in a large, urban comprehensive in Peterborough. This experience was… let’s say ‘character-building’… and, whilst I left the profession in 2017, I did so with a commitment to working to support talented students from underrepresented backgrounds to study at Cambridge and other top universities; students like those I’d tried to teach. This brought me back to Cambridge and to Christ’s College, where I worked in admissions and outreach until 2020, when I was recruited by Lucy Cavendish College to oversee their admissions transformation. At Lucy I worked to build a uniquely diverse community of students and then, as Assistant Senior Tutor, to ensure they were appropriately supported academically, and I’m very proud of what we built there.
What attracted you to the role of Lead Admissions Officer at the College?
While at Lucy Cavendish, I watched with some envy the success of our neighbouring college and came to admire their rigorous approach to admissions, education and student wellbeing. Different colleges take different approaches to student support, but I believe that Churchill’s approach is vindicated by the success of its students, academically, personally and professionally. As an Admissions Tutor, my foremost goal is to ensure that we do not admit a student who will struggle here: to do so is never in that student’s interests. Therefore, if we are to ensure that the only barrier to admission at Cambridge is academic ability – a goal of mine that Churchill shares – it must be that the College is sufficiently equipped and has the appropriate structures in place to ensure that students do succeed, regardless of their background. Accordingly, I feel that Churchill is something of a natural home for me within Cambridge and I jumped at the chance to apply for the job when the opportunity arose. Visiting the College, I was also struck by how much there is here and what an incredible all-round experience we have to offer our students. Another part of my job is to recruit students to Churchill and that should not be hard – the best of Cambridge’s historic traditions and a world-class education, but within a modern, informal college with exceptional facilities. What more could you ask for?!
What drives your interest in this particular role?
Above all, I want to make a difference, to seek out and recruit talented students from all corners of the UK and the world and all backgrounds and to create a truly dynamic collegiate community – the thing Cambridge Colleges are meant to be about. I’m eager to ensure that these talented young people come in with the most secure foundation possible for their studies here and then to ensure that what we do in admissions dovetails perfectly with everything else the College provides once the students matriculate. I want to ensure a flawless process and one which is a positive experience for the applicants, regardless of the outcome of their application. Finally, I want to work with the University to devise solutions to the challenges it faces in admissions, hence why I’m delighted to be chairing the new Strategic Planning Sub-Committee of the University’s Admissions Committee.
What are you most looking forward to?
Being part of Churchill’s incredible academic and staff community and working with exceptional, talented and devoted colleagues to achieve the College’s aims. On the student side, working with Churchill’s students as a DoS, Tutor and supervisor, all the while continuing to teach in the Faculty and maybe even finding time for a little research!
What do you like most about the College so far?
The people, who have all been so welcoming and so supportive. And the food! Especially the fresh pasta bar! I may have sent photos to my friends in my former college…
What’s your career highlight to date?
Becoming the first (and only) Admissions Tutor to admit more than 90% of UK students from the maintained sector at Lucy was a pretty special achievement, as were the other milestones we crossed through the community we built there. But really, it’s the students. From those I taught in Peterborough who got me through my time there, several of whom I stayed in touch with and helped apply to university, to those I’ve admitted, supported, taught and watched flourish at Cambridge. They are the people who get me out of bed in the morning (at least motivationally speaking; in practice the people who actually get me out of bed are my children!). I’ve met so many incredible young people in my career and they’re why we do what we do. First and foremost, these places are educational institutions, and we should all take great pride in what our students achieve, particularly when they do so having overcome tremendous barriers.
Anything else we should know about you?
Becoming the first (and only) Admissions Tutor to One of my new Tutees at Churchill asked me this the other day, ingeniously turning my question back at me when I’d asked what they do in their spare time. They then looked at me with pity when I said that I used to have a social life and now I have kids… But, yes, my family is a really important part of my life and my wife and I spend most of our time looking after and playing with our two little ones (7 and 5 at time of writing). Beyond that, I enjoy cooking, food and drink and travel and try to make it down to East London as often as I can to watch my beloved family team, West Ham Utd (totally awful at time of writing, and probably at any other time, too!
