Welcoming our new arrivals

St Catharine’s is delighted to welcome the newest members of the College community ahead of teaching resuming on 10 October: approximately 286 students, 16 Bye-Fellows and an Official Fellow. 

Sir John Benger (1979, English), Master of St Catharine’s, said:

“St Catharine’s is known for its close-knit community so I have every faith that our new members will be able to lean on everyone around them for support as they find their feet here. I also want to extend a warm ‘welcome back’ to our returning students, staff and Fellows, who I’m sure share my excitement as we all embark on another year together.”

Undergraduate admissions

St Catharine’s is looking forward to the arrival of 131 new undergraduate students, the vast majority of whom will be moving to Cambridge over the coming weekend. Students from state schools make up 74.3% of UK undergraduates admitted this year. There continues to be parity across applicants from UK state and independent schools: success rates for applications from both cohorts remain similar.

Approved by the UK Government's Office for Students, the University of Cambridge set a target for students from state schools to make up 69.1% of UK undergraduate admissions by this year (2024–25). St Catharine’s has exceeded this target every year since it was first set by the University in 2020. 

Postgraduate admissions

St Catharine's received applications from 327 candidates for postgraduate courses starting this year Approximately 155 postgraduate students are joining us this term (against our usual annual target of 105 plus approximately 40 Executive MBA/Global Executive MBA students), the majority of whom are international students. The College is proud of the varied interests, high academic quality and sense of community among our postgraduates, and we look forward to our new arrivals settling into life at St Catharine’s.

Meet some of our new postgraduates

	A sustainability advocate from Nigeria, Hauwa Busari is pursuing an MPhil in Architectural and Urban Studies and is the first St Catharine’s student supported by the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme. Find out more.
	Kyle Nickel is the newest Gates Cambridge Scholar to join St Catharine’s. Originally from Canada, he will be based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology for his PhD in Biological Science. Find out more.
	From India and the recipient of the Military Personnel scholarship award, Joanna Philip is joining St Catharine’s as part of our latest cohort of MBA students after spending 10 years with the Indian Air Force. Find out more.

Admission of a new Official Fellow

Dr Simon Richardson will be officially admitted as an Official Fellow at a ceremony on 4 October. Dr Richardson is a Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded Clinician Scientist at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, where he studies B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (B-ALL), the commonest cancer in children. He read Medical Sciences and Pharmacology at Downing College, Cambridge before completing his clinical training at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded the George Pickering Prize for best performance in medical finals. As part of his PhD at University College London, he discovered and characterised the unique precursors to human immune cells that are a likely origin of childhood B-ALL.

Dr Richardson said, “I am delighted to be starting as a Fellow in Medical Sciences at Catz, which has a reputation for both academic excellence and as a particularly friendly college. I have a longstanding interest in teaching and mentoring medical students, resident doctors and postgraduates, and am very much looking forward identifying and training the next generation of medial leaders through outreach and admissions, and by supervising the first years in Biochemistry/Molecules in Medical Science.”

Induction of Bye-Fellows

The Governing Body of St Catharine’s recently approved the appointment of nine new Bye-Fellows to enhance the world-class teaching and academic opportunities available to our students. In addition to this group are seven colleagues who previously supported St Catharine’s as College Teaching Associates, which means 16 Bye-Fellows will be supporting students from October 2024: 

• Dr Deepshikha Acharya, Research Associate, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
• Dr Eric Brewster, Lecturer, J Kepler University in Linz, Austria
• Dr Wayne Boucher, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge
• Dr Richard Chapling, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge
• Dr George Fortune, Research Associate, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge
• Dr Joanna Krupka, Research Associate (Hodson Group), Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge
• Dr Yin-Wei (Kris) Kuo, Postdoctoral Researcher, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge
• Dr Denis Lacabanne, Postdoctoral Researcher, MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge
• Dr James Lello (2011, English), Faculty of English, University of Cambridge
• Dr Francesca Moore, Associate Professor in Geography, Homerton College, Cambridge
• Dr Samuel Niblett (2010, Natural Sciences), Research Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge
• Dr Catherine O’Brien, College Lecturer, Magdalene College, Cambridge
• Dr James Olsen, Affiliated Lecturer, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
• Dr James Richardson, Research Associate, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
• Dr João Rodrigues, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge
• Dr Felix Waldmann, Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Dr Holly Canuto (2020), Senior Tutor at St Catharine’s, added:

“I am thrilled to celebrate the start of this new venture for St Catharine’s and to welcome our 16 new Bye-Fellows. I look forward to the participation of our new colleagues in the academic life of the College; for example, by taking part in subject societies, events, celebrations, or interviewing candidates for admission to undergraduate courses.”

Further calls for Bye-Fellow applications are expected in future years, with this first cohort including subjects for which additional teaching support.