The College

Somerville is a College for all. It was founded in 1879 to provide an opportunity for women, who at that time were still excluded from membership of the University, to benefit from higher education in Oxford. The founders’ insistence that students should be subjected to no religious tests or obligations set the ethos of cultural diversity and accessibility which has characterised the College to this day.

Our Aims

The College has been gender inclusive since 1994, but its aims are still largely in keeping with those of the founders:

• To provide opportunities to pursue learning at the highest level to all those capable of making good use of them, recruited through an equitable process based on achievement and potential;
• To encourage the intellectual maturation of individual students by allowing them to engage their critical faculties and intellectual curiosity, develop their analytical skills, and articulate their views;
• To support the research of its Fellows and to foster disciplinary and inter-disciplinary diversity;
• To safeguard the security of the College’s academic provision through increased endowment funds;
• To work wholeheartedly within the collegiate University;
• To be a good employer for all staff.

The People

The College community is made up of 43 Governing Body Fellows (of whom 38 are academic fellows engaged in research and teaching). In addition there are 21 senior and 30 junior research fellows, 400 undergraduate and 180 postgraduate students, supported by numerous lecturers, administrators and support staff.

Our Growth

For the year ended 2023 the College’s operational income was approximately £12.3 million.

Income is derived from academic and college fees, residential, catering and conferencing operations (just over £1m revenue), endowment income (£3.8 million) and donations and legacies. The College aims to at least break even each year on unrestricted funds.

College finances are sound and the endowment, which now stands at over £91m, has grown very substantially in recent years. Careful financial management has enabled the College to continue to fulfil its core academic mission of teaching and research, as well as allocating money to areas of urgent need. Somerville has committed to keeping student rents and living costs as low as possible, to ensure students’ time at Somerville remains as worry free as possible.

Somerville is one of very few Oxford colleges able to house all of its undergraduates in-college for every single year of their degrees. That means the College is a true academic community, with students living here 24-7 and deriving exceptional benefits in terms of safety, value for money and student experience.

Our postgraduates fare similarly well, with the choice of four very different types of Graduate Accommodation available. Indeed, Somerville was one of the first colleges to offer postgraduate students accommodation in their own dedicated lodgings in Margery Fry House.

The College’s estate is well maintained and in a sound condition, and there is a clear five year capital expenditure plan. During Baroness Royall’s principalship the College raised £20m through a private bond issue in order to develop additional accommodation on its site and the adjacent Little Clarendon Street. The 140 additional rooms have allowed it to accommodate all undergraduate students onsite, which in turn has provided much needed additional accommodation for graduates.

Sustainability

With the climate crisis worsening, we are working hard to secure our ambition of achieving net-zero emissions as soon as possible.

Environmental Sustainability is embedded in our processes as a College, supported in our teaching and research, and integral to our community’s commitment to social responsibility, and we are already making progress on multiple fronts.

The College has committed to achieving net-zero emissions as soon as possible across the Somerville’s infrastructure, processes, supported by its teaching and research. To that end, it has produced a road map to net zero on a building by building basis, demonstrating its resolve to become a sustainable College on behalf of the entire Somerville community. It is also doing important work across infrastructure adaptation, energy saving, travel and food.

Scholarships

Somerville has an engaged and generous alumni base, rooted in deep trust in the College to do the right thing for Somervillians. Somerville is proud to be among the top Oxford Colleges for the financial support it gives its students. The College’s careful financial management has also enabled Somerville to fulfil its core academic mission of teaching and research. It has secured crucial funding to support the tutorial system and provided scholarships for the College’s brightest students and future change-makers.

Three new scholarships have been added to the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development supporting talented Indian scholars using cross-cutting interdisciplinary perspectives to transform sustainable development in India.

Somerville has also continued to expand its Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust scholarships, originally founded in 2013. The Trust creates scholarships which support some of the most promising students, who benefit from the unique education and intellectual environment that is offered by Somerville and Oxford. As of March 2024, there are 28 Thatcher Scholars on course (comprising both undergraduate and graduate students), while the program’s body of alumni already stands at 19.

150 years

In 2029, within the term of office of our next Principal, Somerville will celebrate its 150^th anniversary. In anticipation of this milestone, the College is launching RISE, the largest campaign in the college’s history and a project tailor-made to secure Somerville’s strategic objectives for the future.