Worcester’s a beautiful college with both medieval and modern buildings and surrounded by 26 acres of stunning gardens, complete with a lake and a family of ducks for when the students get peckish (...not really). Although some of its buildings date way back to the 13th century, in Oxford college terms it’s a spring chicken at 300 years old. Worcester students are a warm, welcoming bunch and politics is forgotten in the College’s enthusiasm for sport (it’s one of the few colleges to have all its facilities on site) and dedication to music and having a good time. While working like dam-busting beavers, obviously.
| Sex ratio (M:F): 56:44 |
Founded: 1714 |
| Full-time u’grads: 406 |
Part-time: n/a |
| Postgrads: 175 |
Mature: n/a |
| State:private school: 51:49 |
International: n/a |
| Academic ranking: 27 |
Disabled: n/a |
Cellar Bar (cap. 100) for boozing and Buttery bar for a cup of tea and a bit of a sit down. For bops: hall (150); JCR (100); Morley Fletcher Room (100). Soundproof room; ball every three years; tons of live music; choir; weekly recitals; hefty thespian leanings; termly boat club cocktail party; annual Arts Week festival. Worcester Source newsletter. Three libraries (100,000 books); 22 computers. Involved JCR. Chapel. 12 acres of sports fields on site; boathouse; gym; tennis courts; renowned women’s football. All first and second years live in, plus a handful of finalists (they’re aiming to have everyone living in within a year) for £680-£820 a term; rooms range from gorgeous 15th-Century affairs to functional 60s blocks. Phone and Ethernet in all rooms; most eat in hall; optional formal dinners – mighty fine food; limited self-catering; CCTV. Nurse, dentist; LGBT and Women’s Officers; limited but improving disabled access; book allowance, travel and vacation study grants, bursaries, scholarships, hardship funds.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Richard Adams (author, ‘Watership Down’); Sir Alistair Burnett (newscaster); Toby Litt (writer); Rupert Murdoch (media mogul); John Sainsbury (founder, Sainsbury’s).