Somervillian Newsletter Michaelmas 2025

For all its mists and mellow fruitfulness, October has always been a time of new beginnings at Oxford.

This year, to the customary pleasures of welcoming new students and a new academic year, Somerville has added several more, highly significant new beginnings. In September, the college broke ground on the Ratan Tata Building, the flagship of our RISE Campaign, which will provide much-needed contemporary teaching and learning space to generations of future Somervillians.

In another new departure, the ground-breaking for the Ratan Tata Building was officiated by our new Principal, Catherine Royle (1982, PPE). Catherine barely had time to unpack before she was presiding over the ceremony with all the aplomb of a seasoned diplomat (and all the energy of a former JCR President!). If you haven’t met Catherine yet, there will be many opportunities to do so at our forthcoming events (see below). Alternatively, you can read a Somervillian student journalist’s interview with Catherine, or watch the following short introduction.

Another exciting development for the Somerville community came this month as the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities opened its doors directly opposite Somerville. The significance of a world-class centre for the Arts and Humanities opening so close to college can hardly be overstated. As Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey said at our ground-breaking, the new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter is creating a compact version of the entire University in North Oxford, with every major school represented – and one college. It is only fitting, Professor Tracey added, given our trailblazing history, that the college in question should be Somerville.

L-R: Breaking ground on the Ratan Tata Building; Catherine Royle admitted as Principal by Chancellor of the University, Lord Hague; the newly opened Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

Alongside literal ground-breaking, Somerville has also maintained its commitment to breaking new ground metaphorically. Last term, our academics and students won major prizes for their research in AI, sustainability and investigative journalism. The Somerville Boat Club even scored an unprecedented triple as all three women’s crews took Blades at Summer VIIIs. You are warmly invited to read these stories and more in the latest issue of the Somerville College Magazine.

With innovation, there also came change. In the SCR, we marked with sadness the passing of Lady Hazel Fox, Somerville’s first Law fellow and a giant of State Immunity law, and our long-standing fellow and eminent historian, Barbara Harvey. You can catch a glimpse of Barbara’s genius as a medieval historian in this recent profile for BBC Radio 4’s Last Word, including her famous revelations about the phenomenal calorie-intake of monks at Westminster Abbey (7,735 per day!).