From John Milton to Charles Darwin: Christ’s has long nurtured outstanding scholars, from all kinds of backgrounds, supporting them to “think differently” and break new ground across the arts and the sciences.
Christ’s is located in the busy city centre of Cambridge, with shops and cafes just across the street, but step inside the Great Gate and you would hardly know as our extensive grounds offer an oasis of calm amidst the city hubbub.
Like all colleges, our community is made up of Fellows (academics), undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff. Our postgraduate community is around 240: small enough to be friendly and cohesive but large enough to make a vibrant community. We admit around 100 postgraduates each year for all the University’s postgraduate courses. Most of our postgraduates study full-time, and we have a small number studying part-time. We are especially keen to admit research students taking the PhD or a Master’s course that leads to the PhD. Most of our places are filled by late May; our Master’s places are usually filled earlier.
The College was founded on its current site in 1505 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, but our on-site facilities are both medieval and very modern; they include a library, formal dining hall, cafeteria, bar/ coffee shop, postgraduate common room, gym, squash court and chapel. Our beautiful gardens conceal a restored 17th-century swimming pool, and the sports grounds and boathouse are a short cycle-ride away.
We are conveniently placed for many of the University’s departments based in the centre of Cambridge, including: the Biological sciences, Archaeology and Anthropology, Geography, Engineering (at the Trumpington Street site) and the Judge Business School, while the Sidgwick site, where many of the Arts and Humanities departments are located, and the Physical sciences, Maths and Engineering buildings on the West Cambridge site, are only a short cycle ride away. Departments on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus can easily be reached by bike or bus.
Christ's has a generous range of studentships and bursaries for new postgraduate students, more details and how to apply are given on the Postgraduate Funding Opportunities page. Current postgraduates at Christ's can apply for small grants to help towards research expenses, including travel to conferences and for academic purposes, topping up whatever their University Department can provide. Grants are also available to all current Christ's students for non-academic activity such as sports, leisure travel, music and language courses run by the University’s Language Centre.
We aim to provide College housing for all postgraduate students who request it, including the first 3 years for those on PhD courses. From October 2022 we will have new postgraduate accommodation on the main College site with en-suite rooms. Other postgraduate accommodation is in shared houses and flats that range from 3 to 9 bedrooms – everyone gets their own study bedroom and share kitchen and bathroom facilities. Some of these are located in nearby streets within a five minute walk of the main College site, others are near to the West Cambridge and Sidgwick Sites and the train station. We have a small number of single-occupancy flats and one-bedroom flats suitable for couples.
Our community is large enough to sustain a range of clubs, teams and societies, and small enough to ensure that it remains close-knit; there are regular talks, seminars and dinners bringing together postgraduate students and academic staff. The postgraduate student body, the Christ's MCR, arrange social and academic events throughout the year, including a traditional formal meal in our ancient Hall every Tuesday evening during term-time. The MCR has its own postgraduate common room ('Middle Combination Room') to relax and meet with other postgraduates; they run their own website.
Prospective students apply to the University of Cambridge for most postgraduate courses. You can nominate Christ’s as your preference college on your application. If you receive a conditional offer of admission from the University's Postgraduate Admissions Office and have put us as your first-choice college, then we will automatically be sent your application to consider for membership, provided we still have places available. (The exceptions are for some courses run by the Judge Business School and the PGCE course at the Faculty of Education, where you apply directly to them.)
