Common rooms are found at almost all collegiate universities and in halls at a few non-collegiate universities. Student common rooms may be classified as
students' unions under the
Education Act 1994. Until the
Charities Act 2006, common rooms (and other students' unions) were exempt charities, but under that act and the successor
Charities Act 2011 they are now required to register with the
Charity Commission if they have an income of £100,000 per annum or higher. Like other students' unions, student common rooms may appoint
sabbatical officers; this is common at Durham but rare at other universities. As colleges vary in size between universities – the median Durham college had 1385 students in 2024/25, while the median Oxford college had 665 students (and the largest 1345) – so do the sizes of their common rooms. Common rooms at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are independent of their central students' unions, but the students' unions at these and the other collegiate universities have mechanisms for communication with the common rooms (or similar college representative body), either through membership of the executive (Roehampton), formal representation in the students' union assembly (Cambridge, Durham, Lancaster) or regular meetings (Oxford, York). The term
senior man has been used to refer to this position at some colleges. The term reflects the history of these colleges, which were founded as single-sex, male-only institutions, and remains the only title used for the head of the JCR at
Hatfield College, Durham.
University College, Durham, also used the title of senior man exclusively until 2015, since when office-holders have been able to choose between senior student, senior man and senior woman.
St Chad's College, Durham, used senior man or senior woman for the head of its JCR until 2018, when this was changed to JCR president.
Van Mildert College, Durham, also previously used the term senior man (now JCR president) until at least 1998.
Collegiate universities Oxford The earliest junior common rooms at the
University of Oxford, dating back to the 17th century, were private student clubs, limited to richer students who could afford their membership fees, and known for drinking and debauchery. With the reforms of Oxford in the mid-19th century, there was a crackdown on JCR activities, with
Corpus Christi going as far as to disband its JCR in 1852. In 1868,
New College moved to dissolve its JCR after a particularly egregious incident. An alternative solution was put forward by Alfred Robinson, a tutor at the college, which saw the JCR come under college oversight and, by including membership in the college
battels, making it an inclusive society of all undergraduates in the college. Rather than a rich students' drinking club, the JCR became the centre of undergraduate life and the main point of contact between the college and the undergraduates. By the end of the 19th century, similar arrangements were put in place at almost all Oxford colleges. When post-graduate numbers increased dramatically in the 1960s, similar arrangements, modelled on the JCRs, were put in place for them in the shape of middle common rooms.
St Catherine's JCR "declared independence" from the college authorities in 2015 in protest against financial controls imposed by the college. There exist several exceptions to the standard common room system. Instead of maintaining a separate JCR and MCR,
St Benet's Hall maintained a Joint Common Room (JCR) which jointly represented both undergraduate and graduate students, until the hall's closure in 2022. At
Nuffield College, an all-graduate college founded in 1937 before the conception of MCRs, students are members of a JCR. Additionally, although
Wadham College maintains a separate JCR and MCR, its entire student population is represented by a combined students' union (SU). Alternative names are sometimes used for college MCRs.
Brasenose College has the "Hulme Common Room" (HCR), and
University College has the "Weir Common Room", named in honour of college
alumni. At
Christ Church,
St Antony's and
Green Templeton colleges, the representative bodies for postgraduate students are called "graduate common rooms" or "GCRs". At some graduate colleges such as
Wolfson,
St Cross and
Linacre College, students and fellows share a single common room. The JCR and MCR presidents of all affiliated Oxford common rooms, in addition to their OUSU reps, are automatically voting members of OUSU's governing council, which meets fortnightly during term to decide on virtually all aspects of OUSU's policy. the OUSU council meetings take place in odd-numbered weeks of the university term. JCR presidents also get together in even-numbered weeks for meetings of the presidents' committee (popularly known as
prescom). MCR presidents also get together up to three times a term for meetings of the MCR presidents' committee (popularly known as
MCR-prescom). Colleges sometimes have additional common rooms, such as the "Summer Common Room" at
Magdalen College, or the "Alumni Common Room" at
St John's College. These are sometimes, but not always, associated with a particular section of the student or academic body. A pilot scheme started in 2025 sees the JCR and MCR presidents meet with the officers of
Oxford University Student Union twice a term in the Conference of Common Rooms.
Cambridge At the
University of Cambridge, common rooms as rooms have existed for a long time. However, it was only in the mid 20th century that the idea of the JCR committee as a representative body of the students arose. Prior to this, the room had generally been administered by the 'amalgamated clubs' – the college's sport societies – sometimes through a JCR committee formed by these societies, sometimes simply through a JCR secretary. At
Magdalene, the JCR committee was appointed by the tutors rather than by students until the late 1950s, while at
Caius the previous year's committee ('the Gargoyles') appointed their successors until 1963. The last college to move from a single officer to an elected committee was
Fitzwilliam in 1969. The same abbreviations, JCR, MCR, and SCR are used for combination rooms and common rooms. The JCR represents
undergraduates, with
postgraduate students being members of the middle combination room. In some colleges, postgraduates are members of both the MCR and JCR: for example, at
St John's, where the MCR is known as the
Samuel Butler Room. Most colleges also have an SCR. At
Pembroke the common rooms are called "parlours", such as the Junior Parlour and Graduate Parlour. At
Jesus College, Cambridge, the JCR is known as "The Jesus College Students' Union", with its physical space being the Marshall Room. A similar arrangement is found at
Trinity College, where the JCR is known as the 'Trinity College Students' Union' and occupies the physical JCR, and the MCR is known as the BA Society, occupying the BA Rooms.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, has both a JCR, MCR, and SCR along with a Sidney Sussex College Students' Union of which all students are members. At
Homerton College the JCR is known as the Homerton Union of Students. The president is the only sabbatical JCR or equivalent officer at a Cambridge college. JCRs and MCRs have elected committees to represent their interests within their colleges and in the central students' union. The committees are almost universally led by a president and a range of other elected positions to cover specific areas or interest or functions (e.g. secretary, treasurer, entertainment). There is a great deal of variety between the colleges in terms of the roles that the JCRs and MCRs undertake, how much influence they have in college affairs and how many functions they provide. Nearly all are responsible for organising Freshers Week and frequent entertainments.
Cambridge Students' Union's student council has two members per college, corresponding to one for each JCR and MCR except where a college has only a single student common room.
Durham At
Durham University, the existence of a "Student Common Room or equivalent body or bodies" in every college is mandated by the university statutes. The standard division and nomenclature followed at most colleges is: • A JCR for undergraduate students • An MCR for postgraduate students • An SCR for academics who are members of the college Some colleges have slight differences from the standard arrangement: • The
College of St Hild and St Bede has a
Students' Representative Council (SRC), which includes both undergraduates and postgraduates at the college. •
Ustinov College, which does not take undergraduates, has a graduate common room (GCR) for its students. Membership of the college JCR or MCR is not obligatory, and costs an additional fee, but the vast majority of students choose to join. Common rooms can vote to leave the DSO framework and become registered charities, or vice-versa. As of 2022, seven of the fifteen maintained colleges have independent JCRs (or equivalent) and eight are DSOs. Among the independent colleges, St John's Common Room is an independent charity (taking in the MCR and Cranmer Common Room). Similar to many university-level
students' unions, all but two of the seventeen colleges at Durham have at least one paid
sabbatical officer for their JCR (or equivalent), and some have more. A framework for senior common rooms is under development .
Durham Students' Union's Assembly includes a representative from each college as well as the chairs of the JCR and MCR presidents' committees.
York Colleges have an elected 'college committee' representing students, called either a JCR committee or a college student association (CSA) committee. As of 2023, most colleges have a student association, but
Derwent and
James still have JCRs and
Wentworth, a graduate-only college, has a Graduate Student Association. The York University Students' Union has a chairs and presidents committee, which includes the chairs or presidents of each colleges' common room committee or students association. It has "primary responsibility for setting Union direction on issues of importance relating to the University’s Colleges and collegiate system".
Lancaster At
Lancaster, undergraduates are members of one of eight colleges (with a ninth college for postgraduate students). Each undergraduate college has a JCR while Graduate College has a postgraduate board, all of these groups being part of
Lancaster University Students' Union. The presidents of the JCRs and the graduate board are voting members of the students' union's
assembly, which meets twice a term.
Roehampton At
Roehampton, each college has an elected president and deputy president as part of Roehampton Students' Union. The college presidents, together with the central students' union president and vice-presidents, form the presidents' committee, the main executive body of the union.
Non-collegiate universities While a number of non-collegiate universities had hall JCRs in the past, these had mostly vanished by 2025 in favour of professional residential life teams.
Bristol Halls at the
University of Bristol had student-run junior common rooms in 2024 that organised social events and represented students in the residence. The JCR referred to the committee rather than the student body as a whole. As of 2025, the university had taken over the organisation of social events.
Leeds At
Leeds, the social committee is referred to as the JCR Exec at
Devonshire Hall, the last of the university's traditional halls. Other halls also have social committees, although not referred to as JCRs. Students may apply to the university for positions on these committees from A-level results day onwards. Devonshire Hall is also unique in having a music president and a drama president in addition to the normal positions at the other halls.
Nottingham At the
University of Nottingham there were junior common room committees in many of the halls of residence that organised social events for residents of those halls in 2023. As of 2025, social events are organised by the university's Residential Experience Team.
Reading In 2023,
University of Reading JCRs were part of the Reading University Students' Union. There was an elected JCR committee at each hall of residence, which represents the students living in that hall and organise social events. As of 2025, only the JCR in
Wantage Hall is listed by the students' union. The Staff Common Room (SCR) is the staff social club at the university. It began life in 1897 as the College Common Room, taking in both staff and students. It has at various times been termed the Staff Common Room and the Senior Common Room. Its membership includes academic, administrative and technical staff. ==Other countries==