Principal’s Welcome
As we prepare to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our College’s foundation in 2029, we are thrilled to share with you RISE, the most ambitious campaign Somerville has ever undertaken. Standing for Resilience, Inclusivity, Sustainability, and Excellence, RISE offers a bold, new articulation of the values that have defined Somerville College since our foundation in 1879.
Somerville has always embraced change during its almost 150-year history. And yet our values have remained constant: we are here to provide the brightest minds, regardless of their background, with an Oxford education that will equip them to go out into the world and make their mark. RISE, with its four thematic pillars, provides a dynamic framework to ensure that our college can fulfil this special promise for generations to come.
At the heart of RISE is the ability to pinpoint and address the areas of greatest need for our community to flourish. It focuses on securing the unique tutorial system which is at the heart of our academic excellence, but also preserves the distinctive ethos that makes Somerville a place of welcome and opportunity for all, where people can grow and find themselves. It also foregrounds securing the means by which we preserve our standing as an academic community through the modernisation of the Somerville estate, including our latest capital project, the Ratan Taba Building, which will give Somerville a thrilling connection to the University’s new academic hub in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.
The Somerville community has always been our greatest ally and friend in bringing our College’s plans to life. Now we are asking for your help once more. We have ambitious projects to help us lead the way in research, academics, access work and in the research and practice of sustainability. Together, we will use RISE to take the power of Somerville’s past and present and amplify it for an even greater future.
– Catherine Royle, Principal
