St Cross

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St Cross is a relatively small egalitarian college, established in 1965 and provides places for 500 postgraduates from over 50 countries giving it an agreeable international flavour – some 70% of students are from overseas. The St Cross motto reflects the student mix and the ambition of the establishment – ‘Ad quattour cardines mundi’, ‘To the four corners of the earth’. A broad spectrum of academic subjects is pursued in both the sciences and the arts with the college encouraging its members to forge links across subjects to create thoughtful and productive relationships. The fellows and students blend into a community that has an equal share to all the social facilities, with no separate high table and no senior common room. The governing body is made up of both fellows and student representatives. The site is situated at St Giles, just off the city centre to the north, but well within easy walking distance of the Bodleian Library. It is a modern progressive establishment housed in a beautiful traditional setting. In addition to this central location the college has an annex at St Cross Road and three college houses, all offering comfortable accommodation to both men and women. Created for postgraduates Both St Cross College and Iffley College (now Wolfson) were created by the university to cater for the needs of an increasing number of graduate students, who in the 1960’s needed a college in which to continue their work. The original location was on St Cross Road just south of the church of the same name. At first just five graduate students were admitted who would have enjoyed the delights of a common room, dining hall and kitchen all housed in a temporary wooden hut, along with the college office. Reloc... ... middle of paper ... ...resents migration from St Cross to St Giles and acknowledges that both sites contained mulberry trees. The original St Cross site was not neglected and went on house the Islamic Study Centre for a while. In 1996 the site, now shared with Brasenose, had two accommodation blocks built on it, one for each college. Mentor Scheme St Cross provides an ‘in-house’ senior member as mentor to members. Graduates who hail from other universities are offered a junior mentor in addition, to add a little local knowledge – where the best library is, which pub does the best beer, and how to take up rowing despite St Cross having no team of its own (Wolfson invites St Cross rowers to become part of their teams). Don’t imagine for one moment the foundation has no interest in sport, St Cross recently provided three rugby players for the university team that travelled to Canada.

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