Learn more about life at St Hugh’s today
Each year the College marks our Patron Saint’s Day with dedicated events on site. Most notably we hold a special Formal Hall, this year on Friday 21st November. Featuring everything from top-class food to humourous speeches, it is a highlight in most of the Fellowship’s calendar. The College also holds special Chapel services, and other various activities. However, we do not regularly celebrate as a global community of alumni.
To come together this year we have gathered various stories from across the current community on site at St Hugh’s, to give you, wherever you are in the world, a sense of what life is currently like at College. Whether you only left us a few years ago, or were studying while we were breaking ground for the Kenyon Building, we hope you know that St Hugh’s is your home away from home, for life.
Who was St Hugh, and why does he have a day?
Hugh was a French-born bishop of Lincoln, England, who became the first Carthusian monk to be canonized. Born around 1140 AD in Avalon, France to Lord Willam of Avalon he came to England after being appointed the first prior of the Carthusian house at Witham, in Essex, by King Henry II. Eventually elected to the see of Lincoln in 1176 AD, Hugh was widely known as someone who would defend the marginalised and take a stand against anyone, most notably the King himself.
The College bears his name thanks to our founder, Elizabeth Wordsworth. She adopted the name and arms of St Hugh in recognition of his role as Bishop of Lincoln, a position also held by Elizabeth’s father.
Read more: Britannica – St Hugh of Lincoln
Updates from the College community
For all the changes the site has undertaken over the years, from the construction of new buildings to the growth of the student body, core parts of life remain the same. The gardens, dining hall and chapel are still cornerstones of St Hugh’s, enjoyed by the whole community. We’ve asked representitives from each for updates to give a slice of current day life.
Students returning after the Summer may have noticed an even larger diversity of wildflowers in the woodland areas and along the Banbury Road boundary fence line
After much perserverance both Wild Carrot and Wild Chicory flowered this year. Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) is beneficial for bees, beetles and hoverflies, and Wild Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is also beneficial for bees, as well as butterflies and flies. The leaves, which look like Dandelions, buds and roots are also edible!
We’re looking forward to putting the Christmas Trees in the next week, and always look forward to seeing the College come together to decorate the one inside Main Building. Here’s Carson Blake from the team with the tree – before it makes its way to St Hugh’s.
We have shifted to our next menus for Michaelmas Term – bringing a range of healthy and warming dishes to the Dining Hall. Burger Tuesdays have become a phenomenon at College, with the queue regularly stretching from the Dining Hall towards the Senior Common Room and beyond.
Below are the menus for Lunch and Dinner we will be serving this St Hugh’s Day. It is worth noting we only serve vegetarian and vegan food on Mondays, as voted for by the student body in 2022 to help reduce our carbon footprint and our overall use of animal products.
| Lunch | Dinner |
| Gnocchi with Sun-Blushed Tomato Sauce & Garlic Bread Lightly-Spiced Courgette Fritters with Poached Egg & Parsley Sauce Baby Potatoes Mixed Vegetables |
Thai Quorn Vegetable Curry with Rice Pizza Burrito Curly Fries Sweetcorn Salad |
For an advanced preview of the special Formal Hall taking place on Friday, our St Hugh’s Night Dinner, click the button below. As expected, it is always incredibly popular!
We marked our Patronal festival in chapel yesterday, and our guest speaker was alumnus Revd Dr Chris Dingwall-Jones (English Language & Literature, 2007). Chris is Team Vicar in the Witney Benefice and one of the Diocese of Oxford’s LGBTQIA+ Chaplains. Before moving to Witney he was Chaplain of Jesus College in town.
Music this week includes: Tallis, If ye love me and Wood, O thou the Central Orb
Advance notice: Christmas Choir – singers wanted!
If you would like to join in singing with the choir for our Christmas events we would love to hear from you – students and staff all welcome too – please email our Director of Music, Jacob (jacob.collins@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk)
Echoing Halls: Impactful conversations at meal times
The Dining Hall continues to be the heart of College life. Students from all courses regularly make the most of the incredible breadth of knowledge and experience found along those hard-working wooden tables. From first year students reading English to senior business leaders completing their EMBA, the hall at St Hugh’s plays host to possibly the most diverse group of intellectuals in the University, every single day.
For example, we recently broke bread (or more specifically; butternut, feta cheese & red onion strudel) with Carla Fuenteslópez, who is currently reading for a DPhil in Engineering Science. For this, she is developing a 3D microvasculature construct to study tissue damage immediately after traumatic injuries. Her 3D platform has exciting, practical applications, from testing new therapeutics to potentially enabling innovative (even personalised!) treatments for patients. She is also very involved with the Oxford University Exploration Club, and previously served as Chairwoman. In 2027, the Club are celebrating 100 years of scientific expeditions, and Carla has co-founded an initiative to commemorate this milestone with and fund a series of Arctic expeditions. Details here: Oxford 100 Arctic Expeditions
Have you heard? Updates from the alumni community
We regularly hear Fellows sharing news from their former students with each other. As a community, we are all proud of our collective achievements and love both hearing and sharing your news, both professional and personal. Here are a tiny selection of updates we’ve received in the last few weeks.
I recently joined a panel of Economic Inclusion & Job Creation at the Development 2030 conference in Geneva, presented alongside fellow panel member Halima Begum, CEO of Oxfam. There was a really rich discussion, and it was interesting how much agreement there was in a room full of people from all over the world around the best ways to do this: access to finance, creating dignity, hope and community. These are all things that Purple Shoots (the not-for-profit micro finance organisation I serve as CEO) does across Wales, the South West of England and South Yorkshire.
I am delighted to share that I have been elected to the Professorship of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology and Director of the University Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. I’ll be taking up these roles, and moving to Cambridge, in January 2026. My key aims as Director of the Museum are (i) to develop their excellent outreach and education programmes with a focus on engaging with historically and socio-economically excluded communities, (ii) to share more of the Museum’s amazing collection through a new exhibition programme, (iii) to digitise, and (iv) to decolonise the collection. I’d be delighted to hear from any alumni or current members of St Hugh’s who’d like to support these aims! I’m also looking forward to being on the winning side of the Boat Race, whatever happens!
I continue to be involved in history through my archive work at Wallingford museum. I also volunteer at our local library and run story time sessions which I very much enjoy. I have one daughter and son in law in Australia so I do a fair bit of travelling. My other daughters and grandchildren are nearer at home.
I passed the Harvard Bok Higher Education Teaching Certificate online short course, and have published two History book reviews on Golwg360 (‘360 View’ – a Welsh language news website).
