St Hilda's College, Oxford

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	St Hilda's College
	Established:	1893
	University:	University of Oxford
	Address:	Cowley Pl Oxford, OX4 1DY, UK
	Telephone:	+44 1865 276884
	Website:	www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk
	Student Union/JCR website:	sthildasjcr.co.uk
	Admittance:	Men and women

Location

St Hilda's is located on Cowley Place, across Magdalen Bridge, so most tourists tend to miss it - which in Oxford is a good thing, really. The location is very pretty: the college is right next to the river Cherwell (thankfully it's safe from flooding, though, because the meadow on the other side gets flooded instead), and from South lawn you have one of the most beautiful views of Oxford you can get. Views from the room windows can be amazing, looking either across the river or onto the squirrel rich garden.

Hilda's is frequently referred to as being one of the more remote colleges, which is technically true, as it's clearly not as central as Univ, Jesus or Trinity. Don't be misled into thinking this means Hilda's is miles away from everywhere, though. The centre of town is quite compact, actually, so the "remoteness" of Hilda's is only relative. It's actually close enough to the centre of town for the bells of Magdalen and Merton (Christ Church too, I think, but I'm not entirely sure about that) to be audible, but far enough for the ringing not to be a nuisance. Cowley Road is literally just around the corner, and as long as you're a reasonably fast walker, you can reach most other places within Oxford in 20 minutes or less. To give you a few examples, it takes less than 10 minutes to walk from Hilda's to the Exam Schools or Tesco's, about 15 to the Bodleian or Cornmarket and 20 to the English / Law Faculty building, but of course you can reduce those times by quite a bit if you get a bike, which is probably a good idea anyway.

Accommodation

Room size can vary quite a bit, depending on which building you're in, and sometimes even within one building. Rents for the academic year 09/10 are approximately £1000 per term. You usually only live in college rooms during your first and third year (and fourth, if applicable).

Social Spaces

Library and Computing

With about 65,000 books on three floors, cared for by several staff, St Hilda's library is, for a college, substantial. However, it is not a 24/7 library though during term time it has long opening hours (usually 8.30am to 1am), and graduate students can borrow a key if they need to use it at the dead of night. The library is located in the Hall Building and the seats on the west side of the gallery have a pleasant view towards the city centre, across the river. Several wifi networks are available within the library, and many (but not all) of the seats have power and ethernet sockets.

The library has a small computer room in the basement with scanning, photocopying and black & white or colour printing facilities, and there are two other IT rooms outside the library, one for undergraduates and a smaller one for graduate students. The college computers are not staggeringly fast, but certainly serviceable.

Welfare

Atmosphere

Sports

St. Hilda's has an ideal location directly next to the Iffley gym, and fields teams for rowing, rugby, pool and football. Being a student at st. Hilda's also gives you free access to the Iffley Road Gym (swim and fitness) and you can add weights to this for just £50 a year.

Facilities

There's a tennis court that double as a netball court, which can be booked by any Hilda's student.

Student-eye view