News Articles

The college welcomes the new undergraduate and postgraduate students who have joined Selwyn and the University of Cambridge this autumn. Traditional matriculation photographs took place in front of the Chapel for the undergraduate freshers and in front of the Hall for the postgraduates. We wish all our newcomers the greatest success in their studies, and they will have the support of everyone in the college community.

Graduate Matriculation

Undergraduate Matriculation

Photographs taken on 30 September and 2 October 2023 by Howard Beaumont.

Selwyn College’s 2024 bridging course

We are pleased to announce an inaugural bridging course, to take place in September 2024, aimed at eligible students who might benefit from additional support in the transition to life at Cambridge. These students will have met all offer requirements and will be preparing to start their studies at Selwyn in October 2024. The bridging course is a cost-free mix of a residential programme at Selwyn (1–7 September 2024) and online support in the subsequent weeks.

Among other things, participants will have the opportunity to:

• work one-to-one with a subject specialist to develop technical skills required for the Cambridge course upon which they are about to embark.
• work in groups to develop general academic skills, for example getting the most out of lectures, approaching a reading list, and working in a lab.
• meet the members of staff at Selwyn who will be key sources of support throughout their degree.

Will I be eligible?

The course is funded by the Isaac Newton Trust’s Widening Participation and Induction Fund, and aims to support students who might benefit from additional support in moving into Cambridge’s collegiate system.

In order to be eligible, you will need to have been offered a place to study at Selwyn College beginning in October 2024. Only some of those who have been offered a place at Selwyn will be invited to attend the bridging course. If you are selected, it is because the information supplied by you or your school in the UCAS application, My Cambridge application, Additional Applicant Information Form, and/or Extenuating Circumstances Form, together with our observations at interview and assessment, suggests that there has been more than average disruption to your schooling.

Being invited to attend the bridging course is not a reflection on your ability or potential – we believe that everyone who is admitted to Selwyn has the capacity to excel at Cambridge. It is simply an indication that we think you deserve extra support at the start of your course to help with the transition.

Attendance on the bridging course will not be a formal part of your offer to study at Selwyn, but we strongly encourage you to come and join us if you are invited. Financial support will be available to offset travel expenses and any lost income from summer jobs.

How will I know if I am being invited on the course?

If you are eligible to attend the course, this will be stated in your offer letter and you will also receive email correspondence from us about logistics and financial support.

If there is no mention of the bridging course in your offer letter, then no further action is necessary – you will simply join us for the start of the academic year in October. All students will then share an induction programme designed to introduce you to life at Selwyn.

Can I fail the bridging course?

No! There will be some work during the course, and you will be expected to attend academic sessions and engage, but the purpose is to give you experience of, and to help you get to grips with, the teaching style and pace of Cambridge, rather than assessing you.

If you still have questions…

…please do get in touch with us at admissions@sel.cam.ac.uk.

Selwyn is thrilled to be exhibiting an artwork reminding us of the preciousness of our environment in one of the college's most prestigious venues. Lincoln Sea by Zaria Forman has been installed in the Harrison Room, used for many college events, temporarily replacing the portrait of former master Arthur Lyttelton.

In 2016 and 2017 the artist was invited to join Nasa’s Operation IceBridge, a science mission that flew aeroplanes over both polar regions for more than ten years. Her remarkable pastel drawings capture the experience of flying over vast polar landscapes.

Forman says: “I was privileged to witness an entirely new perspective of these icy environments, and one that few people have ever seen. For most of us, the polar ice sheets are just giant white spots on a map. (And indeed, they sometimes look like that from the air!). But the IceBridge scientists and engineers know that there’s rapid change occurring beneath the surface—a complex interplay of freshwater rivers, valleys of bedrock, and warmer ocean waters eating away at glaciers from beneath.”

This artwork is presented in collaboration with Silverstrand Philanthropies, a Singapore-based grant maker focused on enhancing biodiversity through advocacy, capacity building, and research. Our thanks to alumnus Kelvin Chiu (2005) for facilitating and supporting the loan of this artwork.

https://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/joining-selwyn/undergraduates/applying-admission/interviews

Exam Results 2023

If you are holding a conditional offer of a place at Selwyn College and have met all the conditions in your offer and have the grades required, congratulations!  We will contact you via email, and you will soon see your confirmation through UCAS Hub. There is no need for you to contact us.

If you have not quite met the offer, please be patient as we will be in touch with you once our decisions are finalised.

If you are not holding an offer from us, we regret we cannot take an application at this time. Please do not contact the college.

Selwyn College, like all the colleges of Cambridge University, does not participate in clearing. 

If your examination results are much better than expected and you are not eligible for August Reconsideration and you wish to try for a place at Cambridge, the only option is to apply in the next admissions cycle for entry in October 2024.

There is more information from the University available here: http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying

The University of Cambridge has created what is believed to be the first ever visiting fellowship into the study of indentureship, the controversial system that replaced slavery in the British Empire.

Selwyn College has appointed Professor Gaiutra Bahadur as the Ramesh and Leela Narain visiting bye-fellow in Indentureship Studies. Professor Bahadur is the author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. It is a major study of the lives of Indian women who became indentured labourers to colonial plantations in the nineteenth century.

Selwyn and the Ameena Gafoor Institute - whose director is the novelist, poet, academic and alumnus Professor David Dabydeen - collaborated closely in setting up the programme which allows a scholar to spend eight weeks at the University conducting research. The programme will run for an initial five years.

The study of indentureship and its legacies was one of the recommendations made in the report of the Legacies of Enslavement at Cambridge Advisory Group, and it is hoped that enough funding will eventually be raised to establish a permanent professorship in the subject, based at the University.

Professor Bahadur, who works at Rutgers University-Newark, said: "I am honoured and delighted to be the inaugural visiting bye-fellow in indentureship studies.

"When I first began doing research in this area, the funding just wasn't there, so it was in many ways a labour of love. That's why I'm so happy to see there's now visibility and funding like this to help future researchers."

Professor Dabydeen said: "The study and documentation of indentureship is undoubtedly valuable, but it has barely been included in the history syllabi of British and European Universities - a staggering omission considering the millions of individuals, and indeed entire cultures, irrevocably shaped by indentureship and its legacies.

"That is why this fellowship, and hopefully eventually establishing a Professorship, is so important. Cambridge has created an academic subject, bringing it from the margins to the very centre. I am immensely grateful to the Gafoor family in Guyana for helping to make all this possible."

Professor Bahadur gave a public talk and Q&A on the writing of Coolie Woman on Thursday 27 July in the Quarry Whitehouse auditorium. The event is available to view on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3l6Gqddnj0

Selwyn’s General Admission 2023 took place on Friday June 30th, with all the traditional events: the gathering in Old Court for the graduands’ photograph and then the procession to the Senate House for the university ceremony. We offer our heartiest congratulations to all those who took part.

This year had some small differences due to the industrial action which has delayed some marks and results. Some degrees were awarded in absence first thing in the morning, so that all Selwyn students were then able to take part in the events on an equal basis. The words used by the vice-chancellor’s deputy were changed slightly, from awarding a degree to celebrating the end of studies. But otherwise it was a completely normal day, with the Senate House packed to the rafters with families and friends.

For more photographs and videos, please see our Facebook page www.facebook.com/Selwyn.College.Cambridge or look for @selwyn1882 on Instagram and Twitter.

The college congratulates its Boat Club crews on a highly successful few days on the river for the 2023 May Bumps. Here’s a report from the Selwyn captain:  

**

The college capped off an outstanding May Bumps with another clean sweep on the final day. Crews bumped up a total of 9 times over the week, making Selwyn the most successful club on the river and the winners of the 2023 Pegasus Cup.

On the closing Saturday, M2 set a fast pace off the start to catch Christ's II on First Post Reach and win their Oars. They've been so dominant that their total distance raced over the week amounts to less than the length of the bumps course, with all their bumps taking place at or before First Post Corner.

[+4 ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️]

Up next, W1 set out to catch Lucy Cavendish I, who on Wednesday had been within a length of being chased down by W1 for the double overbump. W1 started strongly and gained quickly on Lucy Cavendish, bumping at First Post Corner. [ +3 ➡️⬆️⬆️⬆️]

Racing in the final division of the week, M1 put in their best row of the event to bump First and Third I at First Post Corner, executing their race plan to perfection and capping off one of Selwyn's most successful Bumps campaigns in recent memory. [ +2 ➡️⬆️➡️⬆️]

Well done to everyone involved in racing, and our thanks go to our fantastic captains and coaching staff who have put in so much work this year. Particular appreciation for the Friends of the Selwyn Boat Club. Without their support successes such as these would not be possible.

Five Selwyn academics have received promotions to professorships within the University of Cambridge.

There are two new Band 12 professors:

• James Keeler, chemistry

  

• Heather Webb, modern languages

And three Band 11 professors:

• Lynn Dicks, zoology

  

   

• Janet O’Sullivan, law

  

   

• Angeles Carreres, modern languages

  

   

We also congratulate our bye-fellow Dr Tom Hopkins on becoming a Senior Teaching Associate (Band 8).