St Hilda's College
About Us

Principal's welcome

Welcome to all new cohorts of students to St Hilda's, and I applaud those who join our diverse community after suffering the collected interruptions to studies that COVID brought, wherever they have been studying in the world! And welcome back to our returning students too!

We look forward to seeing all of you through the course of this Michaelmas term. I sincerely hope that this welcome opens the door to our College for potential students, too.

Having joined St Hilda's in February 2022, my first full academic year as Principal was peppered with moments where the potential of this College, its students, and staff really shone through. We are an aspirational academic institution and 91% of St Hilda's students graduated with a 1st or 2:1 last year.

We are an aspirational academic institution and 91% of St Hilda's students graduated with a 1st or 2:1 last year.

We also celebrated four undergraduate University Prizes, including the Gibbs Prizes for Classics, Modern Languages, and Psychology, Philosophy, & Linguistics. And it goes on: one of our number was honoured with the inaugural awarding of the Clément Olympe Lavanne Prize for best performance in Francophone Literature and two St Hilda's professors were named as British Academy Fellows, which gives us remarkable representation in the Academy considering the size of the fellowship. As you can tell, we celebrate excellence here at St Hilda's College.

We also champion equality. St Hilda's College has a reputation for providing a welcoming and supportive environment for all of its students. We have worked hard to create an environment so that our students have a strong sense of belonging. All our undergraduates can, should they wish, be housed in College-owned accommodation across all years. This offers excellent value, and additional opportunities to build community. Helping the 'whole person' to develop and grow in confidence and competence is extremely important to us as well. We offer outstanding opportunities for personal tuition from our world-class academics and researchers. The College has an extensive range of scholarships, bursaries, and grants for those of our students who are in need of them. There are many opportunities to take part in extra-curricular activities at St Hilda's. We encourage our students to pursue their interests in the arts, music, literature, sport, politics, humanitarian ventures, and community support amongst others. We are as proud of their achievements in these areas, as we are of their talent for research and learning.

We take welfare seriously. Our health and welfare personnel are available for help or advice at any time and the gardens provide a sanctuary for College members. The beautiful, spacious, and biodiverse campus on the banks of the river Cherwell in Oxford is set in glorious grounds. Following the completion of the Anniversary Building and Pavilion in 2021, we are continuing to transform our site and embed the buildings in the distinctive green space of our riverside setting. You will no doubt bump into members of our talented gardening team whilst on college grounds. And we have more accommodation to the northwest and the southeast of College, including 55 hectares of ancient woodland, carpeted by beautiful bluebells in spring, within bike-riding distance and a stone’s throw from the River Thames.

I invite you to explore our website and social media accounts to get to know St Hilda's better. In addition, we encourage you to browse the event listing for the JdP Music Building, which plays host to an incredible array of events spanning the disciplines.

Professor Dame Sarah Springman,
Principal, St Hilda's College