Look at a map of Cambridge and try to find “the university campus”. You won’t. Instead you will find colleges scattered through the city like stones in a river, each with its own gate, its own crest and its own community.
The University of Cambridge has 31 colleges. They are independent institutions within the collegiate University. A college is a place to belong, with its own people, buildings and history; it is not the department where someone studies their subject.
College and subject are different connections
Students live, eat and socialise in their colleges, while the University’s departments and faculties organise teaching by subject. That is why people studying very different subjects can share a college, and why classmates may head back to different courts at the end of the day.
31 colleges, each with its own community, within one University and a shared city.
A city woven with colleges
Because colleges and University buildings are mixed into the city, a short walk can take you between public streets and several centuries of different histories. It is one of the things that makes Cambridge feel like nowhere else.
Sources & further reading
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