Welcome from the Principal

This is a pivotal moment in the life of St Hilda's College. This academic year marks the transition to being a co-educational college. We are preparing to welcome both women and men as students for the first time. The Governing Body decided in June 2006 to change the Charter and Statutes to open the College to men, and the first three male Official Fellows joined the Governing Body in February 2008. Of our first year undergraduates, 55% are women and 45% are men, and there is a similarly even balance at the postgraduate level.

St Hilda's was founded in 1893 as part of the movement to promote the education of women within Oxford University and we are proud of that achievement and the tradition of excellence in women's education which it pioneered. We are equally proud that St Hilda's has attracted a diverse student body and that this has now increased with the admission of men. Currently, about a quarter of our  411 undergraduates join us from outside the UK, from 30 different countries including the EU countries, India, China, USA, Russia and Malaysia. Our UK based students are themselves diverse in terms of background and experience, disciplines, interests and approaches to life. This makes the College a rich and stimulating place to live and work, and we are committed to maintaining and extending this diversity as we become co-educational.

We began as an undergraduate college, to enable women to take first degrees. As postgraduate work at Oxford has grown, St Hilda's has taken part in that expansion. In 2008 we are admitting 95 new graduates to study for research and taught postgraduate degrees. Our overall postgraduate group of 146 students includes those studying  English, History, Classics, Education, Social Policy and Social Work, Law, Geography, Environmental Policy and Management, and Medical Sciences. Graduates are an increasingly important and vocal part of our community, they enrich the academic life bringing new perspectives from their previous studies or work, they organise a lively social programme, and they contribute in many important ways to the life of the College.

In becoming Principal, I have returned to the College where I was myself a student. I came because I felt St Hilda's combined high academic standards with a real willingness to help students realise their potential. I found it welcoming, lively, friendly and unpretentious as a place to live and work, a base from which I had access to the world class traditions of Oxford University. If that combination appeals to you, then get in touch with us, come on a visit, attend an Open Day, talk to our students and ask yourself whether you, too, would enjoy the opportunities at St Hilda's.

Created by Julia Bradley on Wednesday, 05 December 2007