St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. The college developed from the St Catherine's Society; it was granted full status as a college in 1962, after a campaign by the historian Alan Bullock, who became the first master of the college, and later vice-chancellor of the university. In 1974, it was one of the first men's colleges to admit women. As of November 2024, it has 494 undergraduate students and 337 graduate students, making it one of the largest colleges in Oxbridge.
Designed by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, the college was built in an egalitarian architectural style that maximises the number of rooms for academically qualified students who lack the financial resources to study at Oxford. In September 2023, access to areas of the college was restricted due to safety concerns around the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Its current Master is Jude Kelly, a British theatre director and former Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre in London.
History
St Catherine's College, Oxford traces its origins to 1868. In its first iteration, it was established as a delegacy for ('Scholars enrolled in no college or hall'), by university statute on 11 June 1868. This delegacy, informally known as the "Delegacy for Unattached Students", was created in response to the recommendation of a Royal Commission in 1850, that the university be open to a "larger and poorer" sector of the population. The delegacy, by allowing students to enrol without belonging to a college, would enable less affluent men to gain an Oxford education without the costs of college membership.
The delegacy appointed two of its stipendiaries, George Kitchin and George S. Ward, to be known as "Censors", to oversee the education and welfare of the students.Trotman, R.R. & Garrett, E.J.K. The Non-Collegiate Students and St Catherine's Society 1868–1962 (Oxford University Press, 1962) Nineteen students matriculated in October 1868 as and were joined throughout the year by another forty, bringing the total number in the first year to 59.Report of the , (Oxford, June 1869) pp. 6−7 Growing quickly, by 1872 the delegacy had admitted 330 students. By 1914, more than 4,000 men had matriculated as non-collegiate students. In 1884, the delegacy was renamed the "Delegacy for Non-Collegiate Students".
In its first days, a room in the university's Old Clarendon Building was allocated for the operations of the delegacy, and with gifts of books from several donors, a library for the unattached students was installed there. These accommodations soon proved inadequate and in 1888, the delegacy was moved to a building in High Street next to the Examination Schools. Here the non-collegiate students, as they were known after 1884, had a library in its own dedicated space and two lecture halls. There was an administration office and rooms for the Censors and tutors. Designed by T. G. Jackson, this building is now the Ruskin School of Art. In 1936, the delegacy moved again, from its outgrown High Street premises to the limestone buildings on St Aldates, south of Christ Church, Oxford which are now part of the Oxford University's Faculty of Music.
By 1956, the society had developed many of the characteristics of an Oxford college and the delegates decided to formalise this change in status by obtaining approval to turn it into a fully residential college within the University of Oxford. After acquiring from Merton College, Oxford on part of Holywell Great Meadow for £57,690, monies were sought from the University Grants Committee who also agreed to supply £250,000 towards the building, and additional funds up to £400,000 for all facilities. By 1960, Alan Bullock raised a further £1,000,000 with assistance from two industrialists, Alan Wilson (whom he met by chance on the ) and Sir Hugh Beaver. After a total expenditure of £2.5 million, the college opened in 1962. In 1974, St Catherine's was one of the first men's colleges to admit women as full members, the others being Brasenose, Jesus College, Hertford and Wadham.
In keeping with its complete history, including its earliest incarnation, the college celebrated its 150th anniversary in the academic year 2018–2019, coinciding with the 2018 Ball 'Continuum'. The 50th anniversary of the establishment of the College itself, as a college, was celebrated in 2012.
College name In 1931, the delegacy officially acquired the name, "St Catherine's Society", with the current spelling. Variations of St Catharine having been used by the students for their sporting teams and various clubs since the 1870s, the name was already strongly associated with the delegacy. First forming a social club in April 1869, the students called it the "Clarendon University Club", taking that name from the Old Clarendon Building where the delegacy had been allocated a room. The students soon expanded their organised activities. By 1874 they began a more comprehensive association, which they called the St Club, after its headquarters, the hall where they dined and held meetings. St Catharine's Hall had long been associated with the saint, having been built as a chapel, popularly called St Catherine's Chapel, (though officially "Chapel of Our Lady at Smith Gate").; Although deconsecrated, the 16th-century appellation of "St Catharine's" remained attached to the site throughout its later history. The building's address at the time of the Club's tenancy was 29 Broad Street; it fronted, though, onto Catte Street, also known as Catherine Street from some point in the late 19th century until 1930—and first recorded as Kattestreete , Catte in 1402, Cate or Kate in the 17th century, and Cat or Catte again in the 1800s, the street's name enhancing the association with Catherine.
In this way, the college became indirectly associated with the saint, Catherine of Alexandria. Despite the initially accidental relationship, St Catherine is celebrated as the college's patron saint "with a special Catz Night dinner... at the end of which a giant Catherine wheel is lit in the quad". Other elements of this can be seen in the college blazon, which depicts four Catherine wheels, one of St Catherine's attributes. While religious iconography can also be seen today in some of the college's symbols, the college's origins were largely secular.
Buildings Original buildings
The college is located to the east of central Oxford, on the banks of the River Cherwell. Its buildings in glass, brick, and concrete, by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, marry modern materials with a traditional Oxford college layout centred on a quadrangle. Jacobsen designed everything, including the furniture, cutlery, lampshades, and the college gardens, down to the choice of fish species for the pond.
The original St Catherine's buildings are recognised as one of the world's most distinguished examples of modernist design, described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "a perfect piece of architecture", and said to have been the architect's personal favourite among his own works. Jacobsen's designs for the college have been the subject of various art and design exhibitions. The original college buildings received a Grade I listing in 1993. In 2020, the college gardens, also designed by Jacobsen, were upgraded to the highest level of protection by Historic England for historical and design interest.
Jacobsen's plans for the college did not include a chapel, which is unusual among Oxford colleges: St Cross Church on the corner of Manor Road and Longwall Street served this purpose before its decommission in 2008. The St Catherine's Christmas carol concert is now held in Harris Manchester College's chapel. The college has a bell tower, particularly visible since no college building is more than three storeys high. An extra floor was reputedly planned for most accommodation blocks, but due to regulations concerning safe building on marshland, this was removed from the final design. The entrance to the college by the water garden was remodelled by Sir Philip Howell in 1968.
St Catherine's has a number of lecture theatres and seminar rooms, a music house, two student computer rooms, a small gym, squash courts, a punt house, a Grade I listed bike shed and among the most spacious common rooms in Oxford. There are also additional purpose-built conference facilities with lecture theatres, meeting rooms and bar, music room, and car parking available for non-students. The dining hall, which seats 350 diners, has the largest capacity of any Oxford college.
St Catherine's also has a library with over 55,000 volumes, which is used mainly by undergraduates in all the disciplines taught at the college, as well as 14 computer terminals. Law students have additional resources located in the college law library, which is in the Bernard Sunley building. Most tutorials are carried out in college, though some undergraduates may be sent to other colleges. For additional resources, the college is next to the Social Science Library, Oxford and Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, which matriculated students are free to use.; ;
The majority of St Catherine's buildings are in the form of staircases that open directly onto the quad(s) outside; these are filled with student rooms and office space. There is little indoor space in the college and St Catherine's favours a minimalist, rather austere environment, though still comfortable. Student rooms are light and spacious, notable for their curtain wall glazing. The Built Environment Trust, and its public face The Building Centre, in 2021 named the college's buildings as among the 90 most influential UK buildings or public spaces from the last 90 years.
RAAC concrete
In September 2023 following reviews of the college site for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) it was discovered a number of buildings contained RAAC. This has prompted the temporary closure of many of the communal spaces such as the JCR, Hall, kitchens, Bernard Sunley building and library. As of April 2026 the JCR, Hall, and kitchen have reopened.
Extensions The college was first expanded in 1983 by Knud Holscher, Jacobsen's assistant. It was also extended by Stephen Hodder in two phases, the first from 1994 to 1995 and the second from 2002 to 2005. The first phase included 54 student rooms and the second phase included 132 student rooms, a new porters' lodge and four seminar rooms. These new buildings form a second quad called 'New Quad' (in comparison to the Jacobsen-designed 'Old Quad'), which is largely used as second-year student accommodation.
Graduate building In 2017, Purcell Architects gained planning permission for a further extension at the college. The facilities aimed to resemble Jacobsen's original designs and was built on the college's last available development space. Purcell consulted with Stephen Hodder, who constructed the additional buildings on site during the 1994 and 2004 extensions, when designing the centre. The Ainsworth Graduate Centre is named in honor of Roger Ainsworth, the previous Master of the college. Construction started in July 2018, and was completed in 2019. The centre opened in March 2020 and includes seminar rooms and space for academic works. It also expanded graduate accommodation by creating three new staircases, which contain 78 single rooms with en-suite facilities and a new common room. This is in addition to 42 single rooms, with shared bathroom and cooking facilities, in St Catherine's House, which is off-site on Bath Street.
Student life