GIRTON COLLEGE

Founded in 1869, Girton College was the first residential college in England to offer university-level education for women, with a pioneering history of gender and educational equality. Girton maintains its friendly, open atmosphere, with no ‘keep off the grass’ sign in sight! We are now open to all, with a balanced gender ratio, and remain dedicated to fair access and widening participation.

Our large student body (around 500 undergraduates and 300 postgraduates) creates a friendly environment. Girton is a 10-minute bus/15-minute cycle from Cambridge’s centre. The relaxed atmosphere, tight-knit community, and distance gives students the unique feeling of ‘coming home’?after busy days of work and play.

ACCOMMODATION AND FACILITIES AT GIRTON

Students at Girton are guaranteed accommodation for the full duration of their undergraduate and postgraduate course, either in College or on our accommodation site, Swirles Court.

In College, Girton provides accommodation in single study bedrooms. First-year undergraduates are housed in the main building, while those in the subsequent years can choose from rooms in the main site, Swirles Court or the College-owned house. Students are integrated with each other across College regardless of their year of study, which strengthens the sense of College community. And living on-site means all your friends are no further than a 5-minute walk down the corridor!

The main building rooms are found in the older parts of Girton, with some having unique features dating from the 1800s onwards. These rooms are unique and spread across the college buildings. The College’s en-suite rooms can be found in Ash Court, a modern residential wing built in 2013. Girton set ambitious environmental targets to ensure the Ash Court building yields extremely low levels of energy consumption, and subsequently won the Schueco Excellence Awards 2014 for Sustainability.

In Girton, we provide three gyms, a wide range of onsite sports facilities, and an indoor heated swimming pool. Students of any faith or none are welcome to use our Chapel as a quite space for reflection. As well as this, Girton has various study spaces, including the library, Social Hub and study rooms. The Old Hall and Stanley Library are part of the original building from the 1890s and keep with the Victorian aesthetic. They are used today as spaces for our many school visits that introduce students from Year 10 and upwards to life at the University of Cambridge. Students can also book out these rooms for their society events and as rehearsal spaces.

Swirles Court, built in 2017, is situated in the new North-West Cambridge development, Eddington, just a stone’s throw away from the main College site. It is close to the science departments in West Cambridge and there are easy bus and cycle routes into the city centre. All of the Swirles Court rooms are en-suite, and available to our postgraduate and some undergraduate students.

Swirles provides a central hub for postgraduates, offering state of the art en-suite accommodation, full self-catering facilities and a mix of social and study spaces designed with postgraduates in mind. As well as this, Swirles has some family accommodation available and access to a shared nursery.?The Porters’ Lodge provides support for students and controls access for non-residents. Next to the Porters’ Lodge there are laundry facilities, a secure post box for each resident, and a study room with network points. The site has Wi-Fi and there is a network point in each bedroom.

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES AT GIRTON?

From music, sport, origami and student politics, Girton has a whole range of clubs and societies to get involved with!

Here are just some that are active in Girton right now:

• Architecture Society

• Astronomy?Society

• Athletics

• Badminton

• Baking?society

• Basketball

• Board?Games?Club

• Cartwright?Mathematics?Society

• Catan-Soc

• Christian?Union

• Cricket

• Cross Country

• Cycling

• Engineering

• FemSoc

• Football

• French?Society

• Girton Amateur Dramatics Society (GADS)

• History and Politics Society

• Hockey

• Islamic?Society

• Joan?Robinson?Economics?Society

• Lacrosse

• Law Society

• Marble?Magazine

• Medical?and?Veterinary?Society

• Music?Society?(GCMS)

• Natural?Sciences?Society

• Netball

• Origami?and?Puzzle?Society

• Poetry Group

• Quizzing?Society

• Reword?Zine

• Rowing

• Rugby

• Squash

• Swimming

• Table tennis

• Tea?Society

• Tennis

• Ultimate Frisbee

• Volleyball

As you can see, we have loads! Cambridge gives its students the unique opportunity to get involved in clubs and societies on both a college and university-wide level. Getting involved with your college club or society is a great way to make friends across different years of study and get involved with events and activities closer to home. Joining a college team is also a great way to play sport on a less competitive level and play against other colleges. And Girton has the outdoor space to host almost any sports team!

If you’re interested in getting involved with student politics and representing the wants and interests of students in Girton, you could run to be a member of the?Junior Combination Room (JCR)?and?Middle Combination Room (MCR)?committees. Any student can stand for election and everyone can vote.? Made up of 15-20 members, the JCR and MCR work hard to ensure that students feel heard, welcomed and supported in their time at Girton, and hold events and social activities for undergraduate and postgraduate students. You can find out more about the JCR and MCR by visiting their websites.

Some of the cool (and free!) things the JCR and MCR get up to during term time include weekly breakfasts, movie nights, barbecues, dinners, parties, de-stress events, film nights, welfare support, and the parent scheme, where new students are linked with returning students who show them around and act as a friendly face.

Can’t find your niche interest or hobby on that list? Maybe you’re into tiddlywinks or zorbing? The Girton JCR and MCRs can also provide students with funding to start up their own societies!

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GIRTON COLLEGE

Written by Riva Kapoor, JCR President

We’re a little bit further from the city centre… and we love it!?
You may have heard that Girton is slightly further out of Central Cambridge than some other colleges. For starters, we’re not actually THAT far away. It takes me about 16 minutes to cycle all the way to my lectures, and trust me, I’m slow. It would take someone from a central college like Jesus the same amount of time to walk!? The distance brings its own perks. It gives us the chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the tourist hotspot and fast-paced schedules that occupy Cambridge. Riding into town with your friends for a lecture is a refreshing way to start your morning and means you get your daily exercise without even trying.? If all fails, if you share a taxi between 8 of you it’s less than ￡2 each. Coming back to Girton after a long day in town feels like coming home to an oasis of tranquility, tucked away in the trees. Also, there’s a reason behind Girton’s distance…

We’re pioneers for equality and diversity?
Girton College was the first higher education residential institution to admit women in the UK. When Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley founded Girton in 1869, female excellence was unheard of at Cambridge. Not only were Girtonians kept far from the city centre – out of sight, out of mind – but they were banned from libraries and denied the right to take part in exams. After years of activism, Girton became the first college to officially admit women to the university. Girton went on to be the first Cambridge women’s college to become coeducational. This pioneering legacy fuels Girton’s future. Against all odds, Girton has produced an exceptional stream of successful women for 150 years, including Baroness Hale, Sandi Toksvig and Arianna Huffington. Girton is committed to extending its diversity to a range of gender, ethnic and social backgrounds.

We have the best community in the whole of Cambridge?
Being slightly out of town makes Girton feel like one big family. I can name almost every one of the 150 students in my year, as well as probably most of the year above and below. Our porters are also among the friendliest in Cambridge. No top-hats and waistcoats here, just a smiley, non-judgemental team who will let you back into your room no matter how many times you lock yourself out (I’m on eight). Walking through the Social Hub is a risk because I know I’ll end up bumping into someone and chatting for much longer than planned! We’ve also got a great community of recreational and competitive sports teams who enjoy our acres of sports pitches – you know, with all the space we have out here – along with a gyms, tennis and basketball courts, and a croquet pitch, just to remind us all that we’re in Cambridge.?Even the library is a fun place to be – one of the most extensively stocked of all the College libraries, with over 95,000 books and plenty of computers. And our dining hall is just as Hogwartsy as anywhere else, with everyone queuing up to try and get the some of our world-class curly fries, and one of the best brunches in Cambridge!