News Articles

After two years of extensive refurbishment and expansion work, the College took possession of a renewed Cripps Court at the beginning of September. The finishing touches are now being put to the building and its gardens, and it will be fully operational for the new academic year beginning in October. The total cost of the project was £13m, and the College is grateful for the generous support it received from the Cripps Foundation.

The new building has 203 rooms, including 54 new rooms on the newly-created fourth storey, substantially all of which have en-suite facilities. The building will house all first year undergraduates, and two of the seven staircases will be reserved for postgraduates. The work also included major refurbishment of the MCR and the Diamond Room, as well as a new College gym.

Our photos show the Diamond as it was:

And as it now is:



 

The room is used for conferences and meetings, but has also been well used by generations of students for a wide range of social activity. It has improved external signage too:

Selwyn has some of the best accommodation in Cambridge now that the refurbished Cripps Court joins Ann’s Court and the historic Old Court. All undergraduates and most graduates are able to live in the College. You can read more about our accommodation at http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/study-selwyn/college-accommodation/

The Selwyn choir has a growing reputation for its musical excellence; and this autumn it will be commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War with a number of special events. A highlight will be bringing together the poetry of Wilfred Owen with music in the College Chapel on Sunday November 2^nd, in a performance supported by the Wilfred Owen Association. It starts at 8.30pm, and admission is free.

There will be a Great War display in Chapel for the following week, ahead of the singing of the Duruflé Requiem on Remembrance Sunday at 6pm. This is the occasion when all the names from the war memorials are read out, in what will this year be a particularly poignant moment.

Other choir events in early November include:

All Saints' Day: Saturday November 1^st at 3.30pm, Choral Evensong in Norwich Cathedral (free)

Armistice Day: Tuesday November 11^th at 6.30pm, Choral Evensong in chapel

You can read more about the Selwyn Choir at http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/selwyn-college/chapel-choir/choir-organ/choir/

The Master, Roger Mosey, has written about the College ‘cat’ in this week’s edition of the New Statesman:

 

An addition to my life in Cambridge in the past few months has been a basset hound called YoYo. She has proven how good an ice-breaker dogs can be: she was an instant hit with most of the students, and has the placid temperament and soulful eyes that win affection. I say ‘dog’ but that’s not how she’s officially categorised since college rules allow no animals save for the Master being allowed to keep a cat. I therefore received permission from the Selwyn College Council to acquire “a very large cat”. A visiting conference of American judges thought this was a glorious manifestation of Cambridge traditions, and for a while every time I left the house with the dog in tow I was greeted by a shout of “hey, I love your cat!” Happily, YoYo is not alone as a college dog: I believe there are two more in residence in Master’s Lodges elsewhere, with at least one more expected this October. Cats should look out: dogs are on the march in academia, even if they have to gain entry under false pretences.

The story has been picked up by The Times newspaper:

It is also featured on the BBC News website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-28966001

You can read the diary in full on the New Statesman website:

http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/08/prince-harry-speaks-human-newsnight-conundrum-and-lessons-london-2012

As another Admissions process draws to a close, Admissions Tutor (Humanities) Dr Mike Sewell writes about what happened at Selwyn in 2013-14:

On the October 15th 2013 deadline we had 485 new applicants. To these were added 80 further applicants from the group who had made Open Applications to the University in general rather than to a specific College. 442 of our 565 applicants were interviewed either in Cambridge, via Skype or by one of the groups of interviewers the Colleges send overseas.

By the end of last winter’s application process we had made 138 offers – of which 31 were to students who hadn't been accepted by their first-choice College and had been placed in the University-wide 'pool'. 20 students who'd made Selwyn their first choice but lost out in competitive fields were able to secure other Cambridge places by the same route. Amongst students taking A Levels, the gathered field averaged just over 90% UMS across their best three subjects. Those to whom we made offers averaged 94%. Those whom we had not interviewed averaged 84%. Those taken through the pool averaged almost exactly the same as those first-preference applicants receiving offers. It is, of course, important to note that these averages are just that, and that there is no benchmark score that determines an outcome.

Daily life in the Admissions Office becomes less busy from January to July but does not completely stop. We lost 7 offer-holders who, for varying reasons, decided not to take up their Cambridge offer. Of these, three were UK students and four from overseas. Other correspondence included early warning of students experiencing disruption to their studies around exam time (usually not to the detriment of their final grades as it turned out), and also our annual request that anyone who just missed an offer should send us their detailed results as quickly as possible on the Thursday when A Level results are published.

The Selwyn admissions team pictured this month. From left to right – Dr James Keeler, Stephanie Pym and Dr Mike Sewell

Results Day is one of the most hectic of our year. Phone and fax lines are busy with communication with the small number of applicants who have missed offers. The majority of those missing offers are for Maths, a subject where, like all Colleges, we use STEP to help us differentiate amongst students all of whom achieve very highly in their mainstream examinations. One of our key messages is that extensive research shows us that numerous A* grades are nowhere near as good a predictor of likelihood of success or struggle in the Maths Tripos as the separate STEP examinations.

Of our 121 incoming students, 70% of those from the UK hail from state schools with the remaining 30% from independent schools. That is very close indeed to the 69:31 balance of the applications. Of those taking A Levels the average number of A* grades per head was around 2.75, confirming, if proof were needed, what a talented group the incoming first years are.

As one round draws to an end, so we are already in the middle of the pre-application phase of the next admissions round. Even before we completed the very last stages of confirming the few remaining places for 2014, we were responding to enquiries based on students wondering whether or not their AS results will make them competitive applicants. And we will look forward to the first applications arriving in September.

Selwyn will be holding another Open Day on Saturday September 20th and anyone interested in applying to the College in future will be warmly welcomed. You can find more details at http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/open-days/

Selwyn invited Year 12 students to our first Sciences Summer School which took place between Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th August. Almost 40 students attended the residential course, and represented 26 state-maintained schools mostly from the College’s link areas in Scotland, West Yorkshire and East Berkshire.

The residential gave the students the opportunity to experience life as an undergraduate at Selwyn, by taking part in sessions with leading academics, exploring the city, speaking with the College’s student ambassadors and attending a formal-style dinner in Hall.

Students were given a choice of sessions to attend covering the Biological and Physical Natural Sciences, as well as Engineering. Those involved in the Engineering activities were given the chance to build Lego robots at the Department of Engineering with Outreach Officer, Maria Kettle.

Our Physicists met Dr Rosie Bolton at the Cavendish Laboratory to take part in an experiment. They were also lucky to be taken over to Lord’s Bridge, on the outskirts of Cambridge, for a tour of the telescopes. The Biologists met Dr Matt Mason at the Physiology department and enjoyed testing the conduction velocity of their Ulnar nerves, while the Chemists spent time with Dr James Keeler learning about NMR spectroscopy.

The students also took part in a ‘Murder Mystery’ activity organised by Dr Paul Elliott. The students had to work together in teams to solve a series of puzzles which would then open safes and provide them with clues. Students analysed fingerprint patterns, studied DNA samples and looked into the motivations of each of the suspects to decide who they thought was responsible for the murder.

On the final day the students attended lectures in Materials Science with Professor Sir Colin Humphreys on the usefulness of Gallium Nitride, and in Biological Sciences with Dr Amer Rana on developments in stem cell research. The Summer School ended with final session with Dr Keeler on how to make a competitive application.

All involved in the Summer Schools – the Selwyn academics, student ambassadors and Schools Liaison Officer Ellen Slack – thoroughly enjoyed working with the students, and look forward to welcoming more students to the College in the next academic year. In particular, we wish to thank Jim Dickinson for his generous support which has made this Summer School possible.

If you’re 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! A letter is in the post to you.

If you haven’t quite met the offer, please be patient for a little while: we will be in touch with you as soon as we can. If you’ve missed an A* offer, please ensure that you (or your school) provide us with details of your UMS results as quickly as possible to our email address or fax number (as in the letter sent in April).

If you’re not holding an offer from us, we regret that all of our places for 2014 have now been filled. Please do not contact the College.

Selwyn College, like all the Colleges of Cambridge University, does not participate in the consideration of adjustment applications or clearing. If your examination results are much better than expected 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 2015.

There is more information from the University at http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/whatnext.html.

There’s a particularly good display this year in the Selwyn gardens, with the Victorian-style border a great showpiece in the lower College garden. This is accessible to everyone in the College and to visitors. Our photographs show some of the highlights, with guidance on the plants from our head gardener Paul Gallant – who, with his team, is responsible for one of the most attractive gardens in Cambridge.

The first picture shows the Victorian border looking back towards the College and F Staircase – with 2 banana trees (Musa basjoo) that survived the winter, and the Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) behind on the left.

Next, a fine seasonal display of dahlias – mostly of the Collarette variety, with begonias in front and miscanthus sinensis at the back.

Our homepage picture, also below, shows the serpentine path in the border looking South. It’s edged with Ophiopogon, with Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) on the left and a green canopy of banana on the right. This border is planted with unusual annuals and tender perennials.

Then we can see the path again, this time looking North. Japanese sweetcorn (Zea mays japonica) and 80 Canna lilies give this border height and structure. It is interspersed with abutilons, castor oil plants, rudbeckia and salvia.

Our final photo is a view of the Victorian-style border from Old Court – showing the Trachycarpus, self-set sunflowers, dahlias and bananas at either end.

To visit the gardens, please see our College Plan: http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/selwyn-college/college-plan/, or ask for directions at the Porters’ Lodge.

Photographs by Howard Beaumont, summer 2014.

There’s been a major step towards a new boathouse for Selwyn. Cambridge City Council granted planning permission on Wednesday August 6^th for the building illustrated in our computer-generated image (courtesy of rh partnership). The boathouse will be shared, as is currently the case, with Churchill, King’s and the Leys School; and design work will now be finalised, with construction beginning as soon as is practically possible. It’s hoped to complete construction in under a year, but some disruption to the 2015 rowing season may be unavoidable. However, future generations of Selwyn rowers will benefit from the new facilities.

Below is a photograph of Selwyn’s Freshmen of 1913: the young men who arrived at the College 101 years ago. They would have been just as excited about starting their University life as generations of students before and since, and with the same ambitions and hopes for the future. In that autumn nobody could have imagined the scale of the horror that lay ahead.

 

Of the 32 undergraduates who started at Selwyn in 1913, eight were to die in the Great War which started on the 4th of August 1914. There were 29 new students in Michaelmas Term 1914, and five of those would lose their lives in the conflict. Every year at the College’s Remembrance Day service, the shockingly long list of all Selwyn’s fallen in the First World War is read out.

 

On Monday August 4th at 10pm, a single candle was lit in front of the war memorial. It illuminated the names of those remembered there – and was a sign of our commitment that, even as the centuries pass, they will never be forgotten.

Selwyn features prominently in two new videos made about admission interviews for Cambridge University. Two Selwyn Fellows – Mike Sewell and Amer Rana – are quoted in The Times about the launch of the videos, which are an attempt to demystify the admissions system and particularly the role of the interview.

Dr Sewell tells the newspaper: “We are not looking for the perfect performance but a thoughtful academic response to technical subject-related questions. If stumbles occur, this isn’t failure, it is an indication of a student who is willing and capable to learn and to persevere when it isn’t easy… The films will, we hope, take the mystery out of this aspect of our admissions process and reassure students about what interviews involve.”

You can read the full Times article (subscription required) at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4158447.ece

There is also a report in the Cambridge News: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Cambridge-University-to-release-videos-of-their-renowned-fearsome-interview-process-for-the-first-time-20140727134855.htm and an item on the University website: http://www.cam.ac.uk/news/new-films-offer-a-glimpse-inside-the-interview-room

The videos include other Selwyn faces: Senior Tutor James Keeler and Porter Rosie Hellon. They can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S4rTLibYQw&feature=youtu.be and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUwN6GI-0EQ&feature=youtu.be