Cambridge
University is the second oldest - after Oxford - in Britain. The
university has 31 colleges
(see the list of colleges).
In 2009 the university celebrated its 800 year anniversary.
The colleges
The origins of Cambridge University date back to the arrival of former
students of Oxford University in 1209 but it wasn't until 1284 that
the first college - Peterhouse
- was founded. By the end of the 16th century another fifteen colleges
had been established and then - in the 19th and 20th centuries - fifteen
more.
As with Oxford, Cambridge University - especially its older established
colleges - has seen many of its students go on to achieve notable
things.
No degree
But a successful completion of their studies was not always necessary
for former students to achieve success in life. The Poet Laureates
Thomas Shadwell
and Alfred
Tennyson, the poets Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
and Siegfried
Sassoon and the writers William Makepeace
Thackeray and Christopher Isherwood
all left Cambridge without a degree. A degree also eluded Edward
VII,
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,
Britain's first Prime Minister
Robert Walpole and the chemist Henry Cavendish
(whose descendants endowed the university's world-famous Cavendish
Laboratory).
Women
It wasn't until Girton
College
(1869) and Newnham
College
(1871) opened that women were finally admitted to Cambridge. Since
then graduates have included the first British woman to win a Nobel
Prize, Dorothy
Hodgkin; the poet Sylvia
Plath, the ethologist Jane
Goodall and the writer Iris Murdoch.
The following list shows the thirty-one colleges, grouped by the century
in which they were founded.
The colleges founded before the 18th century include information on
a selection of famous people who have been connected to the college
and links to the college website and its history webpage.
The colleges founded since 1800 have links to their websites.
The 31 Cambridge Colleges
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13th century
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Peterhouse
Founded: 1284 |
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| 14th
century |
| Clare
College |
A
selection of famous people who have been connected with the college. |
Second only in age to Peterhouse, Clare
College was founded as the House of the University of Cambridge
in 1326. It took its present name a few years later after receiving
an endowment from Lady Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward
I.
History
|
Hugh
Latimer
Bishop
of Worcester. Oxford Martyr
Fellow,
1510-55
R.
Timothy Hunt
Nobel
Prize
for Physiology or Medicine, 2001
Undergraduate,
1961-64
Duke
of Newcastle
Prime
Minister of Britain, 1754-56 and 1757-62
Undergraduate,
1710-
No degree
William
Whitehead
Poet
laureate, 1757-85
Undergraduate
Fellow,
1740-
Siegfried
Sassoon
Poet
Undergraduate,
1905-07
No degree
|
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Pembroke College |
A
selection of famous people who have been connected with the college.
|
Pembroke
College was founded in 1347 by Mary de St Pol, the wife of the
Earl of Pembroke.
History
|
William
Pitt, the Younger
Prime
Minister of Britain, 1783-1801 and 1804-06
Undergraduate,
1773-76
MA
Pitt continued to live at his rooms in the college until 1780
Edmund
Spenser
Writer
Undergraduate,
1569-72
MA, 1576
Thomas
Gray
Poet
Fellow,
1756-71
Regius Professor of Modern History, 1768-71
Gray lived at the college from 1756. He died in his rooms there in
1771
Ted
Hughes
Poet
laureate, 1984-98
Undergraduate,
1951-54
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Gonville & Caius College |
A
selection of famous people who have been connected with the college.
|
Gonville
& Caius College was founded as Gonville Hall in 1348 by a
Norfolk clergyman, Edward Gonville.
The college was given its present name after it was refounded and
expanded in 1557 by a former student John Caius.
History
|
William
Harvey
Physician. Discoverer of the circulation of blood
Undergraduate,
1593-1597
See Merton College,
Oxford
Stephen
Hawking
Theoretical physicist
Fellow, 1965-69
Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics, 1979-2009
Charles Sherrington
Nobel
Prize
for Physiology or Medicine, 1932
Undergraduate,
1880-83
Fellow, 1887-93
See Magdalen College,
Oxford
James Chadwick
Nobel
Prize
for Physics, 1935
Fellow, 1921-35, 1959-74
Master, 1948-58
Howard Florey
Nobel
Prize
for Physiology or Medicine, 1945
Fellow 1926-
See Lincoln College,
Oxford
Francis
H.C. Crick
Nobel
Prize
for Physiology or Medicine, 1962
Antony
Hewish
Nobel
Prize
for Physics, 1974
Undergraduate,
1942-43, 1946-48
Nevill F. Mott
Nobel
Prize
for Physics, 1977
Fellow, 1930-33
Master, 1959-66
Cavendish Professor of Physics, 1954-71
Richard Stone
Nobel
Prize
for Economics, 1984
Undergraduate,
1931-35
See King's College
John R. Hicks
Nobel
Prize
for Economics, 1972
Fellow,
1935-38
See
All Souls
College, Oxford
Josef
E. Stiglitz
Nobel Prize for Economics, 2001
Fellow, 1966-70
See
All Souls
College, Oxford
Michael
Levitt
Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2013
Fellow, 1970-74
Roger
Tsien
Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2008
Fellow, 1977-81
Thomas
Shadwell
Poet
laureate, 1689-92
Undergraduate,
1656-58
No degree
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Trinity Hall |
A
selection of famous people who have been connected with the college.
|
Trinity
Hall was founded in 1350 by William Bateman, the Bishop of Norwich.
From its beginnings the college concentrated on educating clergymen
and lawyers, reacting to a shortage in these professions caused by
the Black Death which
had ravaged the country in 1349.
To this day the college has kept this tradition in the study of law.
History
|
Donald
Maclean
Cambridge
spy
Undergraduate,
1931-34
Marshall
McLuhan
Social/Communication theorist
Undergraduate,
1934-36
Rachel
Weisz
Actor
Undergraduate, 1988-91
Stephen
Hawking
Theoretical physicist
Graduate, 1962-66
See
Gonville &
Caius
Samuel
Pepys
Writer
Undergraduate,
1650
In
1650, shortly after starting his studies, Pepys transferred to Magdalene
College
J.B.
Priestley
Writer
Undergraduate,
1919-21
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