Cambridge Colleges, Colleges of the Cambridge

Cambridge Colleges

Universities are autonomous institutions with their own gifts and property, founded as integral parts of the university. All students and most academics are attached to a university. Its importance lies in the housing, welfare, social functions, and undergraduate teaching they provide. All faculties, departments, research centers and laboratories belong to the university, which arranges lectures and awards degrees, but students receive their teaching sessions supervisions-small group, often with just one student, within schools. Each college appoints its own teaching staff and peers, who are also members of a university department. The colleges also decide which students to admit to the university, according to university regulations.
Cambridge has 31 colleges, of which three, Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish, admit women only. The other colleges are mixed, though most were originally all-male. Darwin was the first college to admit both men and women, while Churchill, Clare, and King of the first colleges were previously male university to admit students in 1972. In 1988 Magdalena was the last male college to accept women. Clare Hall and Darwin admit only postgraduates, and Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish, St Edmund's and Wolfson admit only mature students (ie, 21 years or older on the day of enrollment), including both undergraduate and graduate students. All other colleges admit students and graduate with no age restrictions.

Universities are not required to admit students in all subjects, with some colleges choosing not to offer subjects such as architecture, history of art or theology, but most offer close to the complete range. Some colleges maintain a bias towards certain subjects, for example with Churchill leaning towards the sciences and engineering, while others such as St Catharine's aim for a balanced intake. Others maintain much more informal reputations, such as for students of King's College to hold political views left, or Robinson College and Churchill College's attempts to minimize its environmental impact.

Costs to students (accommodation and food) vary considerably from college to college. Similarly, the costs of the training college students also varies widely among individual schools.

There are also several theological colleges in Cambridge, separate from Cambridge University, including Westcott House, Westminster College and Ridley Hall Theological College, that are, to a lesser degree, affiliated to the university and are members of the Cambridge Theological Federation.