Tucked away down Merton Street and overlooking Dead Man’s Walk, Corpus is one of Oxford’s diddiest colleges. It’s an unstuffy sort of place (despite a strong academic rep and a recent-ish 2005 University Challenge triumph), thanks to strong bonds between students and their tutors, who take on more of a mentor mantle than purely academic staff. An elegant Tudor building borders the main quad and it's famous Pelican sundial still tells the time without the need of any lithium batteries or whirring cogs (though limited sunshine stops time so to speak) at the front of the College. Originally intended for training monks, the Corpus Christi got sidetracked into churning out well-rounded Renaissance men and still does five centuries on: nowadays producing Renaissance ladies in equal quantities.
| Sex ratio (M:F): 54:46 |
Founded: 1517 |
| Full-time u’grads: 115 |
Part-time: 0 |
| Postgrads: 231 |
Mature: 0 |
| State:private school: 50:50 |
International: 11% |
| Academic ranking: 11 |
Disabled: 6% |
Ents: The Beer Cellar Bar (cap. 120) holds fortnightly bops, theme nights, quizzes and gigs. Bigger concert fare happens in the New Music room. Standout events are the biennial College Ball and Burns night with haggis and pipes.
‘Owlets’ drama society te whit te whoos well and there is an annual Arts Week and panto too.
Library: Putting the old into ...'very old library' Corpus Christi's is 16th-century and stores 80,000 books. Reading rooms, 12 computers in private ‘pods’and 24 hour access keep student minds whirring as long as needed.
JCR: Two TV rooms, Playstation 2, DVD/video and snack machines. ‘Smallprint’ mag and weekly newsletter. Annual tortoise race and fair for sweet char-i-dee.
Sports:
Playing fields (five acres) 15 mins walk away. The college shares a boathouse. The emphasis at Corpus Christi is on participation and fun rather than training schedules and must-win mentalities. But rugby, basketball and, um, tiddlywinks are on top form. Annual sports tournament with Cambridge namesakes Corpus Christi, Cambridge, who equally don't bother with schedules and training and usually lose as a result.
Accommodation: Everyone can live in College in pretty good rooms (£600-£750 a term,) either onsite or in one of many College-owned houses dotted around Oxford. The new Liddell building is 15 minutes walk from the College and groups rooms around a communal kitchen and living area and all residents have en suite facilities here. Phone/internet points in all rooms and some accommodation for couples. Veggie options available, weekly formal dinners and excellent food – though nearby Ahmed’s Kebab Van proves irresistible to many. Female ‘Corpuscles’ can enjoy Women’s Tea every Sunday.
Excellent welfare and comprehensive alternative prospectus online.
- Male Welfare
- Female Welfare
- LGBT
- Cultural Relations and Equal Opps Officers (also Tortoise Keeper and Poet Laureate posts).
- Doctors and nurse
- Dentist
- Wheelchair access ramps.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Dr Arnold (of Rugby fame); Al Alvarez (writer and poker buff); Sir Isaiah Berlin (writer and philosopher); Robert Bridges (Poet Laureate); Erasmus (humanist, declared Corpus library to be ‘the eighth wonder of the world’); Lord Fisher (Archbishop of Canterbury, 1906); Richard Hooker (theologian); General Oglethorpe (founded Georgia); David & Ed Miliband (MPs, Lab); Brough Scott (racing commentator); Vikram Seth (novelist); David Normington (Permanent secretary at the home office).