The Newsletter of Homerton College, Cambridge & The Homerton Roll

MCR
The MCR has had an exciting year in
this its second year of existence, in
particular as Homerton became a full
Cambridge college. His Royal Highness
Prince Philip, the University Chancellor,
visited College and talked to graduate
students about their life and research in
Homerton College.
STUDENT NEWS
The new academic year started off with
a brilliant and very well visited freshers’
week for our new students with a variety
of events ranging from a college tour, pub
crawls, clubbing, a ghost tour through
the historic city centre, to punting and a
cycle tour to Grantchester. The number of
graduate students in Homerton College
is steadily growing and so does the MCR.
There are now 325 PGCE students, 193 on
Master’s programmes and 119 studying
for PhDs. This year, we have 15 committee
members in the MCR, with posts very
similar to those in the JCR.
Above His Royal Highness
Prince Philip meets with
graduate students at
Homerton
Left MCR Christmas Dinner
Below MCR Christmas Tree
Bottom MCR Barbecue
One important role of the MCR is to help
to transform the college so that it better
suits the life and needs of the rising
graduate student community in Homerton.
We take this task very seriously and
communicate in many different ways with
college officials and committees to ensure
that this transformation works well. The
College initiated a graduate review with a
committee that consisted of tutors, fellows,
higher degree and PGCE students, and
members of the MCR exec. This committee
has been discussing how graduate student
needs can be better met. A variety of
issues, identified in a survey conducted at
the beginning of the review, have been
resolved. The recommendations of this
committee went to the College Council.
The second important role of the MCR
is to build a strong and vibrant graduate
community and to make graduate life
very enjoyable in Homerton. For instance,
the MCR organises a yearly conference,
where students and fellows can present
their research. There are also exchange
dinners with other colleges. Entertainment
highlights have been the very fancy MCR
Christmas Dinner in the city centre and the
highly amusing Burns Night that included
a formal dinner with poetry recitation and
ceilidh dancing afterwards in the Great
Hall. This was organised jointly with the
Fellows and the JCR. We also celebrated
the Chinese New Year in our recently
renovated common room. As our MCR
committee has become bigger, we are
currently organising events in brand new
formats, such as a regular movie night
in the common room and fun sports
competitions for graduates. The new PGCE
events officer position makes it easier for
us to organise additional events that are
targeted especially for PGCE students,
for example, the PGCE Christmas dinner.
Overall, I think that it is not an exaggeration
to say that it has been a very lively, busy,
but also very successful year so far for the
Homerton MCR.
Alexander Borek
MCR President 2010–2011
Homerton College 19