Sustainable Urban Futures
Welcome to Sustainable Urban Futures!
Congratulations on being invited to the Sustainable Urban Futures residential. I would like to welcome you to Churchill College, where you will be staying from the 18th-22nd August. Please make sure that you read our emails carefully and add [email protected] to your safe senders to help ensure that our emails do not go to your spam folder. Rachel is your point of contact. If you have any questions or about your visit please email her and she will get back to you.
Timeline – What happens now
- Attend the SUF online Q&A – for participants and parents. This is a chance to ask any questions and hear a bit more about the program. We are running 2 of these, you can choose which you would like to attend. Details will be sent to everyone by email.
7/7/2025, 16:30-17:30
10/7/2025, 17:00-18:00
Video recording of Q&A session if you could not attend: https://youtu.be/T-0TcNGd5rk - Let us know your excursion choice: Excursion choice
- Book your travel and fill out the travel form by 18th July. Everyone needs to complete this, even if you’re not pre-booking travel (e.g. if you’re local, please still share your plans): Travel form
- August 18th: Aim to arrive at Churchill College 2-3pm (if you are early then you are welcome to just hang out!)
- August 22nd: Sessions finish 3pm
- Complete the pre-week assignment and bring it with you to the residential (sent via email).
- Come to the residential 18th-22nd August!
Activities during the residential
Sessions are sustainability focused and will include: Architecture, Archaeology, Design, Humanities, Engineering, STEM. There will also be trips off-campus to different Cambridge University departments, museums and points of interest
This is an outline timetable. You will get a full timetable with timings for each day in your welcome pack at the start of the week.
Current confirmed academic sessions:
All themed around sustainability and sustainable development. Here are a few we have lined up:
- Eco-Shelter Building
- Sustainable Development Design Challenge
- Architecture
- Geopolitics
- Modern and Medieval Languages (MML): Intercultural Communication
- Departmental visit (choice of Archaeology or Engineering)
- Sustainability & Psychology
- Poetry, Migration & Race
- Land Economy
- Public Perceptions of Nuclear Energy
- Museum tours (choice of one):
- Fitzwilliam Museum – Classics / Art / History
- Museum of Zoology
- Whipple Museum of the History of Science – Bias & Ethics in Medical Advances
- University Admissions Q&A
Accommodation & Meals
Whilst you are staying with us at Churchill College, you will be staying in one of our undergraduate rooms – just like a real university student! This will include a single bed, all bedding (duvets, pillows and covers), towels and other furniture including drawers, a wardrobe, a desk and chair. Your room may be an ensuite room or you may share a bathroom
All meals will be provided during your stay (breakfast, lunch and dinner). You will not have access to a kitchen, so if you wish to bring or buy any additional snacks, please bear in mind they will need to be stored in the room in which you are staying (if not consuming immediately).
On the Wednesday night, students at various groups of colleges will be joining together for a “formal hall” – this is what Cambridge call a sit down meal that is served to you. Students in Cambridge would normally dress slightly more smartly for these events but this just means no jeans and trainers usually. However, if jeans and trainers is all you have that is absolutely fine!
Kit List
This is a basic kit list – pack what you will need to be comfortable away from home for 5 days!
- towels and bedlinen are provided – don’t bring these
- 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.
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 and a chance to ask any questions will be given at the pre-week assignment online session.
Materials in the Google Drive folder.
Note: You will need to download or make your own copy of any file before editing. Please do NOT click ‘request edit access’. I will not grant it as this is the master copy shared with everyone
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 ([email protected]).
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 receipts.
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 – 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. This usually costs ~£2 for a single from the station to the stop.
- By Bus/Coach
Please see “travelling by public transport” on the college “Transport” webpage.
- By Car
Please see “travelling by car” on the college “Transport” 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!
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