Our Values and College Plan

The global pandemic has been a moment of intense self-reflection and recalibration, for individuals and institutions alike. In November 2020, Fitzwilliam recognised that our response to and recovery from the crisis will be governed by our shared values, and that to recover well we would first need to understand better this collective identity. Through a College-wide survey and a series of workshops with representative groups over several months, a strong and coherent set of guiding values have been identified. They speak of the importance of community, of a supportive place to achieve academic excellence, and of our responsibilities, to each other, to the environment, to future generations, and to our communities, whether local or global.

Community as our foundation

The founding ethos of the College was to offer opportunity to those left ‘outside’ the traditional structures of Collegiate Cambridge and we are proud of our history. Today we are proud to be a College in the University of Cambridge, but we retain and confidently assert our own identity.

Each new individual who joins our community enriches the whole community, not through assimilation, but through individuality. The community embraces and welcomes diversity in all aspects, including past academic achievement. Our work to nurture and develop a representative community will constantly evolve to identify and address those barriers present today, not just in terms of student access but also throughout the Fellowship and non-academic staff body.

From this foundation of community comes shared benefits and collective responsibilities: a guarantee of inclusion and space to be oneself; principles of fairness and mutual respect; and investment in academic excellence and achievement, personal and professional development, and physical and mental wellbeing.

It is clear that the pandemic has brought new challenges to this core value of the College, and it brings an important moment of reflection. Our community has been strengthened by the sense of ‘pulling together’ and collective effort in the face of practical difficulties, but it has also been challenged by remote learning, high workload, and challenges to our wellbeing. It has been a difficult period, and time and effort will now be invested in addressing these issues and rebuilding our sense of collective identity.

Supporting excellence

Fitzwilliam’s core activity is to provide a world-class educational environment for our students and to be a meaningful space for open-minded academic discussion and collaboration.

We will work hard to identify those undergraduate and postgraduate students with the highest academic potential, and to support them through their application, their time at the College and into professional life thereafter. Alumni philanthropy will play a key role in supporting these activities: no student should be deterred from study through financial disadvantage.

Wellbeing is key to high academic achievement and the College has an important role to play in providing appropriate support in this regard, whether through the guidance of a Tutor or in the sensitive design of person-centric accommodation.

A college is a unique space for the sharing of ideas between students, academic staff, non-academic staff, alumni and the wider community. We will create opportunities to promote imaginative collaborations, share research and develop public engagement skills. We will reflect on the changing professional needs of our students, academics and early career researchers and identify how we can offer practical support. We will continue to play an active and engaged role in the governance and academic life of the University.

The professionalism and dedication of our non-academic staff is key to the successful academic mission of the College. We are motivated to achieve the highest standards in the operation of the college and in the investment into our infrastructure and estate – from the technology we use in our work, to the gardens we enjoy at our leisure. All employees of the College will be supported by fair wages and benefits and opportunities to participate in the intellectual life of the College.

Concerned with our purpose

We recognise that the social purpose of a university extends beyond the world of academia. This means that we are concerned with the wider impacts of our work and the example we set as a community.

We know that prioritising sustainable choices – whether investment portfolio divestment, or food choices in the Buttery - raises conflicts and tensions, but we will not shy away from the debate. We are profoundly aware of our responsibility to manage our resources to ensure the College not just survives but thrives into the future and, in doing so, minimise the size of our footprint on the environment. We will take difficult decisions in an open, transparent and constructive way drawing on the skills and experience of members of our community.

We will extend our outreach work beyond an admissions function and play a more active role in terms of social mobility in the local area. We want to play a more visible and consistent role in the local communities of which we are a part, whether in sharing our resources, providing access to our spaces or applying our knowledge and skills to the good of others.

We recognise that supporting life-long learning, whether through lectures and workshops, or summer schools and conferences, is a priority for the post-pandemic recovery.

These values will be our compass and will set the course for the months and years ahead. The outline that follows shows how these values will inform decisions and approaches within the College’s six core activities: identifying potential; teaching and learning; community, wellbeing and inclusion; our environment; governance and growth; and engagement and networks.

In this public presentation, each core activity is briefly summarised. Internally, the College will circulate a detailed workbook which enumerates ownership, sets key objectives, targets and establishes timelines. The College Committee will report annually to Governing Body on progress achieved against this workbook.

Identifying Potential

Fitzwilliam was founded in 1869 to support students from non-traditional backgrounds access the opportunity that a Cambridge education represents. Historically this commitment has been at the heart of our admissions policy. To fulfil this central mission today, we will evaluate and respond to today's barriers to a fulfilling Cambridge degree: this may mean going beyond the targets set by regulatory bodies. To be successful in our work, we aim to offer students outstanding support before and at the point of application, throughout their degree course (whether undergraduate or postgraduate), and onwards into the world of work.

A Cambridge degree is a rigorous academic training and students from all backgrounds have - with the appropriate support - the ability to thrive at Fitzwilliam. Self-identification of potential, and identification by teachers is key to early support for applicants, and our outreach work begins there with early mentoring and targeted events.

Key Contacts: Admissions Tutors