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Join The Student Room TodayBe part of the UK's largest and fastest growing student community. It's free to join and a lot of fun - Get inspired, express your ideas, interact and share Mansfield College, OxfordFrom The Student RoomTSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > Oxford > Mansfield College, Oxford
LocationThe college is five minutes from the Bodleian, at most, which means five minutes from Sainsbury's. Rather central but a little further out so you don't get the noise and bustle of Broad Street. Right opposite the Postgrad centre, I can't remember the name, which means if you make friends with the postgrads you can get into what I think is the most incredible sports centre and bar I've seen in all my trawlings of uni open days. I did have to sneak in to see it, though. AccommodationThe added bonus of Mansfield is that it has amongst the cheapest accommodation fees in the whole uni (deffo in the bottom 3 i think). The college provides everyone with a room on the main site in their 1st year, which are all completely HUGE. Everyone is also entitled to a college room either in the main site, in a college owned block in Cowley or in a college owned house in their 3rd year (or 4th year if you're doing a 4 year course) and there is a ballot to decide who gets to live where. We have to live out in the 2nd year and most people end up renting houses with friendship groups and paying at least £4000 in rent plus bills. The prices of college accommodation were pretty cheap in my 1st year, but I think their increasing the prices above the general inflation rate next year as the college is relatively poor. For the year 2008-2009, single occupancy rooms in college for all 1st years and some 3rd/4th years, many ensuite, the rent was £15.90 per night during term, including utilities. During vacations, including utilities, it was £11.34 per night. The non-ensuite rooms have a sink, and are have shared bathrooms with a maximum (I was told) of 4. The baths are surprisingly clean for shared baths - no icky filmy stuff at the bottom. The shower is in the bath if you see what I mean, not a separate unit. In the Ablethorpe annexe, single bed sitting rooms with shared self-catering and bathroom facilities for 3rd/4th years and Visiting Students was £391.50 per month including utilities on a 9 month tenancy. The rooms go from small (one bed size) to large (enough room for two beds, but still single occupancy, don't ask me why). The small rooms aren't even that small. The standard kit is a bed, desk, chair and wardrobe. You are allowed your own kettle and to rent a mini(notsomini)-fridge from college, but you're not allowed a toaster. Apparantly somebody had a toastie maker and that was okay, though. Posters are allowed - including with bluetack! Anybody who has been to Downing, Cam, will understand how snazzy that is. There are two kitchens for students, and as the college is so small, sharing the eight hobs is no problem - but it is still cheaper to eat in hall. Your room gets cleaned every week with a hoovering and your bathroom cleaned, and if you leave your bin out the night before it will be empty by the time you wake up. The cleaning staff have been known to knock and walk straight in but if you don't mind someone seeing you passed out from the night before this won't matter, and it's rare anyway. I was told you can expect to budget about £200 a month on stuff apart from accommodation if you don't go out that much. If you do go out a lot, push that up to £300 perhaps.
FoodThe breakfast is continental every day, at £2.20. There's cereal, bread, jam, honey, toasting machine, tea and juice, that kind of thing. On Tuesday and Sunday, at £3.36, you get a full cooked breakkie. Breakfast's at 8-8:30 weekdays and Saturday, 8:30-9 on Sunday. The average lunch is supposed to cost £3.78, the same for the average dinner. There is a choice of five things per meal. Chicken and Mushroom pie is particularly nom, and the broccoli is actually nice. Formal hall is twice a week. The 3 course is £6.50, the 4 course mega-posh black tie is £11.75. The chaplain said he spends about £10 a day on food, a student said he spent about a fiver. The hall is really pretty, with a gorgeous ceiling. Mansfield supposedly has some of the best food in Oxford. When I was being interviewed, there was a day without brown bread so I walked off to Sainsbury's, bought some microwaveable food, and the hall staff made it for me. Idk how true that is of normal days but it's an example of how nice the staff are. The chef likes Reggae Reggae Sauce, so he's okay by me.
Social SpacesThe bar is pretty small and staffed by students. It has a vaulted ceiling though, being a bit like a cellar really. I was told a story by a current student of visiting students manning the bar, and having no idea what a measure is - i.e. about a pint of gin = a measure if you are cunning enough. A pint of Carlsberg costs £1.50. You're not allowed to walk on the grass. Library and ComputingWelfareThe chaplain is called Ben, and is absolutely lovely. He did Hebrew BA and then did his doctorate at Mansfield. He's very kind and understanding. The woman's welfare person (the official title escapes me) does English, I think her name is Cath(?), and she is also very nice and kind, I chatted to her a bit on the open day. AtmosphereSeeing as the college is so small the social dynamic seems to vary quite a bit from year to year. I feel like I know most of my year, but regularly go out with the same group of people (which is fine by me) and a lot of my year appear to be the same, but in the year below people seem to socialise in larger, more random (spontaneous) groups. Though on the whole everyone knows each other and there are usually a group of people in the bar who will then go on somewhere, so you should be able to find a group of people to go out with when you want to. And, yeah there's definitely a lot more going on than work, and the atmosphere is fairly relaxed. FacilitiesThe college doesn't have any of it's own sports facilities, except for sharing a boathouse with St Hildas and a playing field rented off Merton. Mansfield is not particularly renowned for its musical tradition but there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved in music. We have our own choir, which is non-auditioning and fairly laid-back, or there are lots of other choirs, some more impressive, at other colleges and university based choirs that sings all different styles of music. We don't have an orchestra/band but there are uni based orchestras generally aimed for those of grade 8+ standard, as well as more relaxed ones in other colleges that you can join. There is also a huge range of uni-wide bands, groups and ensembles. We have a beautiful grand piano in the chapel which you can practise on. Student-eye viewTo be honest its rarely that hot as a first choice for people, but it should be, it is by far the most beautiful of the non-medieval colleges, and of course significantly less oversubscribed than the medieval colleges. It is very pretty, has old looking buildings, and it seems much more spacious than a lot of other colleges considering its size (though we don't have great gardens like Trinity or anything - its the non enclosed large circular quad that does it). Not a good place for sport, but not bad either.
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