Pembroke

Pembroke is a warm, inclusive and welcoming community. While maintaining its strengths in traditional undergraduate academic courses, the college has also been at the forefront in promoting certain joint schools and specialised subjects within the University. A dramatic extension to the main college site has recently been completed, complementing and enhancing the facilities it offers to all students and staff. With a state-of-the-art lecture theatre, seminar rooms, café, art gallery and glasswalled bridge linking the Chapel quad to the new quad, Pembroke’s interlinked new and old spaces have been opened up to encourage and strengthen interaction between its undergraduate, postgraduate and teaching communities. In recent years Pembroke has also taken a pioneering approach to access work with state schools, appointing Oxford’s first full-time Access Fellow and rolling out an ongoing collaboration with schools in Hackney and the North West.

Pembroke is conveniently located for the city centre, off St Aldate’s, in Pembroke Square.

Undergraduates are offered college accommodation for all three years of a standard course. All first-year students have accommodation on the college’s historic main site, with a choice of rooms to suit all budgets, many with ensuite facilities. Second and final year students are offered rooms in the brand new quad linked by the bridge to the main site or in the Geoffrey Arthur Building (the GAB), a ten minute walk away beside the river. There are facilities for students with disabilities.

Breakfast and lunch are available Monday to Friday, and brunch at weekends on a pay-as-you-go basis. Dinner is served in the hall Sunday to Friday on a pre-paid basis for first-year students, and others living on the main site (including the new quad). There are also shared kitchens throughout the college for limited self-catering (primarily breakfast and lunch). Rooms at the GAB are self-catered but students living there are welcome to use the facilities on the main site on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Our library is well stocked, covering predominantly first year material for all the undergraduate courses represented in the college, and there are multiple copies of core texts for loan. Very generous loan privileges are available and access is 24 hours during term. Dedicated computer terminals give access to the college and University network, as well as the internet. The college has extensive computer facilities and all first-year student rooms have ethernet points for internet access. There is wireless access throughout the college. The GAB has a concert room and computer room.

We offer a wide range of college-run societies catering to all tastes. Pembroke was the first college to have a JCR art collection which has made some notable acquisitions over the years. The collection is linked to a substantial charitable fund supporting student travel and hardship grants as well as enabling further art purchases. There is a lively music society, an enthusiastic chapel choir and a good following for drama. The college has its own boathouse and sports ground including facilities for cricket, football, rugby and tennis, and has a particularly strong reputation for rowing . All clubs and societies provide opportunities for members to participate at a level appropriate to their abilities. Our undergraduate student body is also active in volunteering for access and schools liaison schemes at college and university level.