Somerville College

College facilities

Library and IT services

The 24-hour access library stocks more than 120,000 volumes and offers unlimited book borrowing, with a loan period of one term or one vacation period. The library has strong research holdings across the humanities, multiple copies of science textbooks and special collections, including the library of John Stuart Mill. The librarian offers one-to-one orientation sessions with all new graduate students during the first two weeks of their first term.

Wi-Fi access is available in the library and throughout the college site. The library and computer rooms are equipped with scanning and printing facilities. There is an IT help desk available to handle student and staff queries and problems (including emergency laptop loans).

The Dorothy Hodgkin Quad music room offers access to Sibelius music software, and the college offers laptops and digital camera for loan to students.

Sport, music and college facilities

Somerville College has a study/reading room in the Catherine Hughes building for graduate use only.

It also has an on-site gym and croquet lawn, off-site shared sports facilities and numerous college sports clubs.

There are music practice rooms, an organ and pianos to support musicians at the college, and also a music society and chapel choir. There is a drama society, law, history, and medics’ societies.

The college's non-consecrated chapel is open to all faiths. There is a college nurse with a treatment room on site available by appointment and via open door sessions. Somerville College also has a nursery on-site available to student and staff members with young children. 

Facilities for disabled students

Although bedrooms in most of the college’s accommodation are not suitable for wheelchair users, wheelchair-accessible bedrooms are available on the college site.

The dining hall and Terrace Bar have lift access. The library, function rooms and chapel are on the ground floor and have level access, although they may not have automatic opening doors.
The Middle Common Room is accessed via the lift to the Terrace Bar and via several small steps, so as such it is not wheelchair-accessible.

Somerville is able to provide specific accommodation or equipment for students with a disability / disabilities or a long term health condition/s. Applicants and offer holders should contact the Welfare Lead prior to your arrival at Somerville to talk to us about your needs.

Welfare

Student health and welfare is a top priority at Somerville.

You can meet the welfare team and find out about the different resources available to make sure you are supported at every stage of your time at Somerville at https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/life-here/health-and-welfare/.

Browse through the links to find out more about the different kinds of support you can access at Somerville. You can also find out how to contact various key services such as out-of-hours doctors, counsellors and whom you should contact in an emergency.

MCR

Somerville has a friendly and active graduate student committee which organises a wide range of social and academic activities each term. There are twice- termly MCR/SCR symposia allowing graduate students an opportunity to present their research and an annual MCR dinner with supervisors and college advisers invited.

The Middle Common Room (MCR) is located in the primary graduate accommodation hub of Margery Fry House, next to the Terrace Bar and outdoor seating area. This space provides a communal kitchen, lounge area, a quiet study area, small computer room and a room available for graduates to tutor in.