Dear Fresher,

I welcome you to St Edmund’s College and congratulate you on your admission to the University of Cambridge.

Cambridge boasts of a unique collegiate system, which entails your membership to a college as vital and significant, and therefore your college experience is central to the overall Cambridge experience. St Edmund’s, popularly known as Eddies, is one of the most vibrant and international colleges of Cambridge and we will ensure that you count this as one of your best experiences of your life. We have students from over 70 nationalities and this makes the social life at Eddies truly International. We are also a mature college which means that all students are 21 years of age and older and some have returned to student life after fascinating life experiences. We are an extremely friendly college and one of the few where the Master, the tutors, Directors of Studies and others sit and dine with the students rather than on their separate high table. All of this translates into a busy and varied social life here at Eddies. You are sure to make friends from all over the world and never be short of stimulating conversation.

As an Undergraduate at Cambridge, you will receive standard lectures that are organised by the multiple departments. You will also receive supervisions that are usually organised by your college. The supervision system makes Cambridge unique from many other Universities. These involve small group teaching and discussion where leaning occurs on
a more one-to-one level.

As a one year Postgraduate student at Cambridge, you will work with a course organiser or supervisor who is responsible for overseeing your degree plan. One year students are also often required to attend lectures and seminars as part of their course work.

PhD Students are assigned a supervisor whose area of expertise is similar to their proposed thesis topic. Postgrads work very closely with their supervisor, so it is important to develop a good relationship with them. You may also be assigned an advisor and will be assigned a college tutor from St Edmunds. All of these individuals will help you with your scholarly and personal achievements while you are at Cambridge.

One of the other strong communities present at Eddies is that of students with families. Eddies provides many privileges and opportunities to students and their families in the form of a community for their children (called the St. Teddy’s Club), and special privileges for the spouses as well as family accommodation in the vicinity of college. We welcome students with families and will try our best to ensure that they have a familial experience at Eddies!

Apart from pursuing your studies, we encourage you to take part in our many groups and societies as well as our active Combination Room (CR) (The College Student Union). Our college is well known for its exceptional sporting achievements. We have an active and extremely successful Boat Club in which students participate in rowing against other colleges, with many of our rowers and other athletes making it to the University teams (“Blues”). We also have an extremely active and famous music society that hosts its popular “open mic” nights and an annual music performance. Eddies also has pool,

politics, photography, LGBT, football, badminton, basketball and film societies! Check out the CR website for more information about these (www.st-edmunds-cr.co.uk.) At the University level there are a range of sports, social and entertainment activities with which you will become familiar during your first few weeks here. Members of eddies
have always been pro-active by being a part of these University level societies and sports events (Rowing, Rugby, Football and so on) and by being elected to the Executive Committees of the Graduate Student’s Union (known as the Graduate Union, GU). You will certainly enjoy being a part of such a rich and lively environment of the students.

The Common Room (CR) is the student’s representative body in College (similar to a student union) and plays a central part in the welfare and entertainment needs of its members. We are composed of a group of elected representatives responsible for different aspects of college life and are always there for each one of you. We have planned an exciting series of events for Fresher’s week starting from the 29th September to help you familiarise with both St Edmund’s and Cambridge. Do take a look at our website (www.st-edmunds-cr.co.uk) that provides important information about your arrival and life at Cambridge, as well as the schedule to activities planned for the Fresher’s week (that extends to about two weeks!).

Things can seem overwhelming at first with information being thrown your way, from all directions, but hang in there. Things will become clear soon enough. If you do have any further questions about the upcoming year, don’t hesitate to contact any member of the CR committee. On behalf of the CR, I welcome you to the Eddies family and look forward to meeting you very soon.

Yours sincerely,

Parul Bhandari
President, St Edmund’s College Combination Room
president@st-edmunds-cr.co.uk