St Catharine’s Campaign reaches £30 million target

The Master and Fellows of St Catharine’s are delighted to announce that the St Catharine’s Campaign, launched in 2009, has reached its £30 million target.

The Campaign aimed to secure donations in order to provide endowed funding for College teaching posts, invest in College facilities, and increase our financial provision for students.

Over 2,500 alumni and friends have made gifts of all sizes to the Campaign, including 62 Members who have made total gifts of over £50,000 each and have joined the 1473 Foundation, and 248 Members who have told us that they have included St Catharine’s in their wills. Thanks to this extraordinary generosity, we have been able to achieve a long and varied list of improvements to our College life, including:

-  Teaching

Five College Teaching Officer (CTO) posts have been funded in perpetuity. CTOs are employed by Colleges rather than by the University, and help us to provide in-house teaching from experienced academics who are also active in research.

-  Buildings 

We have built a new centre incorporating an auditorium, Junior Common Room and College bar, named the McGrath Centre in recognition of a major gift by alumnus Sir Harvey McGrath (1971). We have also added a new Porters' Lodge to our second-year accommodation at St Chad’s for the wellbeing and security of our students, and have refurbished the Ramsden Room, one of our principal public rooms, and the student facilities beneath, along with the College boat house and hockey pitch.

-  Student Support

We have substantially increased the bursaries we offer to both undergraduates and graduates. Over 100 means-tested entrance bursaries are now awarded to undergraduates every year, and five new graduate awards have been created for MPhil and PhD students. A major single gift has also enabled us to provide a student counselling scheme to ensure that students are able to access quickly the highest quality of professional support.

We are sincerely grateful to all who have made gifts to the St Catharine’s Campaign – these funds have already been, and will continue to be, truly transformational for the College and its students. We look forward to sharing with our supporters the impact of their giving, along with a more detailed breakdown of the Campaign’s achievements in this year’s issue of The Wheel.