Admissions Process New Court of
Trinity College, dating back to the 16th Century Admission to the University of Cambridge is extremely competitive. In 2022, for instance, around 15% of applicants were admitted. In 2021, Cambridge introduced an over-subscription clause to its offers of admission, which also permits the university to withdraw acceptances if too many students meet its selective entrance criteria. The clause can be invoked in the event of circumstances outside the reasonable control of the university. The clause was introduced following a record number of
A-level pupils who obtained the highest grades from teacher assessment, which was introduced due to the cancellation of A-level examinations during the
COVID-19 pandemic. The university's standard offer for most courses is set at A*AA, with A*A*A for science courses, or equivalent in other examination systems, e.g. 7,6,6 or 7,7,6 in IB. The university is consistently designated as a 'high-tariff' institution by the
Department for Education, with the average undergraduate entrant to the university in recent years amassing between 165–166
UCAS Tariff points (out of a maximum of 168) in their top three pre-university qualifications – the equivalent of A*A*A* at
A-Level. Prior to 2020 these interviews were normally held in person but moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic and have, at most colleges, remained online since. For exceptional candidates, a matriculation offer is sometimes offered, requiring only two A-levels at grade E or above.
Sutton Trust maintains that the
University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge recruit disproportionately from eight schools, which account for 1,310
Oxbridge places over three years contrasted with 1,220 from 2,900 other schools. Strong applicants who are not successful in being admitted to their chosen college at the university may be placed in the
Winter Pool, where they can be considered for admission to other university colleges, which maintains consistency throughout the colleges, some of which receive more applicants than others. Undergraduate applications are processed through
UCAS, and the deadline for their submission currently is mid-October in the year before prior to beginning. Until the 1980s, candidates for all subjects were required to take special entrance examinations, which have since been replaced by additional tests for some subjects, such as the Thinking Skills Assessment and Cambridge Law Test. The university has at times considered reintroducing an admissions exam for all subjects. Graduate admission is first decided by the faculty or department responsible for the applicant's respective academic subject. An offer of acceptance effectively guarantees admission to the university, though not necessarily the applicant's preferred choice of college.
Winter pool The
Winter Pool or
inter-College Pool is part of the undergraduate application process intended to ensure that the best applicants are offered admission. Approximately 20–25% of undergraduate admissions are awarded through the Pool. Each college can place applicants in the Winter Pool. These applicants' applications are then considered by Admissions Tutors or Directors of Studies during the pool, which takes place over three days in January prior to the release of the university's admissions decisions. For each subject, colleges create an ordered list of the pooled applicants they seek to admit, and take turns choosing applicants. Colleges with specific student requirements, such as mature colleges and women-only colleges, are given priority over applicants eligible for their colleges. Some applicants are selected from the pool by the college that originally pooled them. There were, as of the 2020–21 admissions cycle, only two grounds for compulsory pooling. For post-qualified applicants, their achieved grades at A level or equivalent and, for applicants with overseas interviews, an interview score of at least eight is achieved in all interviews. The second criterion does not apply to medicine applicants. Previously,
AS-Level UMS have been used as pooling criteria, but after
A-levels became linear this was discontinued.
Access Public debate in the United Kingdom exists over whether admissions processes used at the
University of Oxford and Cambridge are entirely merit-based and fair, whether enough students from
state schools are encouraged to apply, and whether these students are offered sufficient admission. In 2020–21, 71% of all successful applicants were from
state schools compared to approximately 93% of all students in the UK who attended state schools and 82% of post-16 students. Critics have argued that the relative lower percent of state school applicants with the required grades for admission to Cambridge and Oxford has had a negative impact on Oxford and Cambridge's collective reputation, though both universities have encouraged pupils from state schools to apply to help redress the perceived imbalance. Others counter that government pressure to increase state school admissions constitutes inappropriate
social engineering. The proportion of undergraduates drawn from independent schools has dropped over the years, constituting, as of 2020, 26% of total admissions among the university's 3,436 applicants from independent schools compared to 23% of the 9,237 applications from state schools. Cambridge, together with Oxford and
Durham, was among those universities that adopted formulae in 2009 to rate the
GCSE performance of schools, using data from the
Department for Children, Schools and Families, and took this into account when assessing university applicants. With the release of admissions figures,
The Guardian reported in 2013 that ethnic minority candidates had lower success rates in individual subjects even when they had the same grades as white applicants. The university was criticised for what was seen as institutional discrimination against ethnic minority applicants in favour of white applicants. The university denied the claims of institutional discrimination, stating the figures did not take into account other variables. A subsequent article reported that, in the years 2010 to 2012, ethnic minority applicants to medicine with 3 A* grades or higher were 20% less likely to gain admission than white applicants with similar grades. The university refused to provide figures for a wider range of subjects, claiming that assembling and releasing such information was excessively costly. Given the competitive nature of gaining admission to the University of Cambridge, a number of educational consultancies have emerged to offer support with the application process. Some claim they can improve chances for admission, though these claims have never been independently verified. None of these companies are affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Cambridge. The university informs applicants that all necessary information regarding the application process is publicly available through the university and none of these services is providing any insight not already publicly available to applicants. The University of Cambridge has been criticised for admitting a lower percentage of black students, though many apply. Of the 31 colleges at Cambridge, six of them admitted fewer than 10 Black or mixed race students between 2012 and 2016. Similar criticism exists over a relatively lower admission rate for white working class applicants; in 2019, only 2% of admitted students were white working class. In January 2021, Cambridge created foundation courses for disadvantaged students. While the usual entry requirements are A*AA in
A-Levels, the one-year foundation course has 50 places for students who achieve BBB. If successful on the course, students receive a recognised
CertHE qualification and can progress to degrees in the arts, humanities, and social sciences at the university.
Michaelmas term lasts from October to December; the
Lent term last from January to March; and the
Easter term last from April to June. Within these terms, undergraduate teaching takes place during eight-week periods called full terms. According to university statutes, it is a requirement during these periods that all students live within three miles of the
Church of St Mary the Great, which is known as keeping term. Students eligible for graduation must fulfil this condition for nine terms (three years) while pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or twelve terms (four years) when pursuing a Master of Science, engineering, or mathematics degree. These terms are shorter than those of many other British universities. Undergraduates are also expected to prepare heavily in the three holidays known as the Christmas, Easter, and Long Vacation holiday periods, which are referred to by the university as vacations rather than holidays; students vacate the premises during these periods but are still expected to be pursuing studies and assignments. The
Tripos exam involves a mixture of lectures organised by the university department) and
supervised and organised by the colleges. Science subjects involve laboratory sessions organised by the departments. The relative importance of these methods of teaching varies according to the needs of the subject. Supervisions are typically weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students, usually between one and three students, who meet with a member of the teaching staff or with a doctoral student. Students are normally required to complete an assignment in advance of this supervision, which they then discuss with the supervisor during the session. The assignment is often an essay on a subject assigned by the supervisor, or a problem sheet set by the lecturer. Depending on the subject and college, students sometimes receive between one and four supervisory sessions each week. This
pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to Oxford, where supervisions are known as
tutorials, and Cambridge and is sometimes credited with the exceptional nature generally associated with the education at these two world-renowned universities. A tutor named
William Farish developed the concept of grading students' work quantitatively at the University of Cambridge in 1792.
Research The University of Cambridge has research departments and teaching faculties in nearly every academic discipline, with research and lectures conducted by university departments. The colleges are charged with giving or arranging most supervisions, student accommodation, and funding most extracurricular activities. During the 1990s, the University of Cambridge added a substantial number of new specialist research laboratories on several sites around the city, and major expansion continues. From 2000 to 2006, the University of Cambridge maintained a research partnership with
MIT in the United States, known as the
Cambridge–MIT Institute, which was discontinued after evolving into what is now called the CMI Partnership Programme.
Graduation tradition and ceremony at a graduation ceremony. in academic dress, after conferring degrees at the Senate House in July 2014 The university's governing body,
Regent House, manages and votes on graduations. A formal meeting of Regent House, known as a
congregation, is held for this purpose, which is typically the final act during which all university procedures for undergraduate and graduate students and other degrees are finalised. After degrees are approved, candidates for graduation are required to request their respective college presents them during commencement congregation. Graduates receiving an undergraduate degree wear the
academic dress to which they are entitled prior to graduating; for example, most students becoming Bachelor of Arts graduates wear undergraduate gowns and not BA gowns. Graduates receiving a post-graduate degree wear the academic dress that they were entitled to before graduating if their first degree was also from the University of Cambridge; if their first degree was from another university, they wear the academic dress of the degree that they are about to receive. The BA gown without the strings is worn if the graduate is 24 years old or younger, and the MA gown without strings is worn if the graduate is 24 years old or older. Graduates are presented their degrees in
Senate House by each respective college in order of foundation or recognition by the university, except for the university's royal colleges. During the University of Cambridge's congregation ceremony, graduands are brought forth by the
Praelector of their respective college, who takes them by the right hand and presents them to the vice-chancellor to receive the degree they have earned. The Praelector presents graduands with the following
Latin statement, substituting "____" with the name of the degree and substituting "woman" for "man" if the graduate is female: The Latin statement translates in English as, "Most worthy Vice-Chancellor and the whole University, I present to you this man whom I know to be suitable as much by character as by learning to proceed to the degree of ____; for which I pledge my faith to you and to the whole University." After presentation, the graduate is called by name and kneels before the vice-chancellor and proffers their hands to the vice-chancellor, who clasps them and then confers the degree through the following Latin statement, known as the
Trinitarian formula (), which may be omitted at the request of the graduand: ", which translates in English as: "By the authority committed to me, I admit you to the degree of ____, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The new graduate then rises, bows, and leaves the Senate House through the Doctor's door in
Senate House Passage, where they receive their degree certificate.
Cambridge University Library, which holds more than eight million volumes, is the central research library. It is a
legal deposit library, which entitles it to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. In addition to the University Library and its dependents, almost every faculty or department has a specialised library; for example, the History Faculty's
Seeley Historical Library houses in excess of 100,000 books. Every college also maintains a library, partly for the purpose of undergraduate teaching; older colleges often possess many early books and manuscripts in a separate library. For example,
Trinity College's Wren Library houses more than 200,000 books printed before 1800 and
Corpus Christi College's Parker Library has more than 600
medieval manuscripts, representing one of the largest such collections in the world.
Churchill Archives Centre on the campus of
Churchill College houses the official papers of former British prime ministers
Winston Churchill and
Margaret Thatcher. The university operates eight arts, cultural, and scientific museums, and a
botanical garden.
Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum;
Kettle's Yard is the university's
contemporary art gallery; the
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology houses the university's collections of local antiquities along with archaeological and
ethnographic artefacts from around the world;
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology houses a wide range of
zoological specimens from around the world and is known for its iconic
finback whale skeleton that hangs outside the museum. Cambridge University Museum of Zoology also holds specimens collected by
Charles Darwin, an 1831 University of Cambridge alumnus. Other museums include the
Museum of Classical Archaeology,
Whipple Museum of the History of Science,
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, the university's geology museum, which displays some of Darwin's geological specimens and equipment (Darwin had studied under Adam Sedgwick, and wrote "I a geologist" in a notebook in 1838), and
Polar Museum, part of the
Scott Polar Research Institute, which is dedicated to
Captain Scott and his men and focuses on the exploration of the
Polar Regions.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden, created in 1831, is the university's botanical garden.
Publishing and assessments The university's publishing arm,
Cambridge University Press & Assessment, is the oldest printer and publisher in the world and the second largest
university press in the world. It is also the largest department of the university by financial income, reporting income above £800 million. The university established its Local Examination Syndicate in 1858, now known as
Cambridge University Press & Assessment after its merger with Cambridge University Press. It is the largest assessment agency in Europe. Cambridge University Press & Assessment plays a leading role in researching, developing, and delivering assessments around the world.
Awards The University of Cambridge issues a number of prestigious awards and prizes annually to accomplished University of Cambridge faculty and students. It also issues some awards to those of varying global academic accomplishment regardless of whether their recipient is affiliated with the University of Cambridge. Some of these awards and prizes rank among the world's most estimable academic and intellectual accomplishments. Among the most prominent of them are: •
Adam Smith Prize, awarded annually to the university's top-performing student in economics •
Adams Prize, awarded annually by University of Cambridge mathematics faculty to a UK resident in recognition of distinguished research in mathematics •
Browne Medal, awarded annually to students who win the
Latin and
Greek poetry competition •
Carus Greek Testament Prizes, a prize issued to winners of an annual competition of the university's undergraduate and graduate in
Greek translation of
New Testament passeges •
Chancellor's Gold Medal, a prize issued to winners of the university's annual poetry competition •
Porson Prize, a prize for students who develop the best Greek composition •
Raymond Horton-Smith Prize, awarded annually to the
University of Cambridge Medical School student for the best medical school thesis •
Seatonian Prize, awarded annually for the best English language poem on a sacred subject •
Senior Wrangler, awarded annually to the university's top performing student on the Part II of
Mathematical Tripos and its social and academic status, the University of Cambridge is considered to be one of Britain's most prestigious or elite universities and to form, along with the
University of Oxford, a top two that stand above other UK universities in this regard. the University of Cambridge was ranked sixth in the world by
QS Rankings, the University of Cambridge has been ranked as the top public university in the world for twelve years straight by the
Center for World University Rankings. == Student life ==