University of Cambridge Degree: Eight Centuries of Learning Beyond the Lecture Hall
The University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, England, with origins in 1209. Its buildings are part of the city itself, with college courts, libraries and teaching rooms interspersed with streets and public spaces. This close relationship between town and university goes some way to explaining its unique character. Cambridge developed slowly around a community of scholars, not in a single enclosed campus.
Cambridge was established by scholars who left Oxford in 1209 after a dispute with the townspeople, and settled in Cambridge. Teaching was around before the colleges that now make up a large part of the university’s identity. Peterhouse, the oldest Cambridge college still in existence, was founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely.
The establishment of more colleges gave permanent homes to scholarly communities. It also purchased buildings for its own use, including the medieval Schools near Senate House Hill. These developments created a situation in which the individual colleges and the university as a whole grew together.
There are 31 colleges in Cambridge. Students are members of a college and of the university. This system links daily life in the college with subject-based study across the university. Colleges provide accommodation, pastoral support and academic communities and university faculties and departments organize lectures, seminars and practical teaching.
A very typical feature for undergraduate education is the supervision. These short tutorials include students discussing work they prepared beforehand, looking at challenging questions and getting detailed feedback. Supervisions complement large classes and independent study by offering students regular opportunities to articulate their thinking and to re-think an argument. Thus the experience combines structured teaching with a large measure of responsibility for preparation. A University of Cambridge Degree reflects study within this collegiate system, combining university teaching, college support and independent academic work.
A Changing Definition of Membership
Cambridge has a long history of significant constraints on participation. Girton and Newnham were established in 1869 and 1871 respectively to promote higher education for women, but their students initially did not enjoy the status of male students. Women could do demanding academic work and sit examinations without being given full university degrees.
Women were awarded full membership and degrees in 1948. This long struggle is an important part of the institutional history of Cambridge, showing the different speeds at which recognition and access to education were changing.
Cambridge is now more than just its historic buildings. Its museums, collections and libraries protect evidence of centuries of scholarship, while supporting ongoing teaching and research. The colleges, together with these resources, form a bridge between the medieval origins of the university and its current status as an international academic institution.