Darwin is the oldest and largest of Cambridge’s graduate colleges, with around 800 current members from 75 different countries. We were also the first college to admit both men and women as students and fellows.  Informal, inclusive and inter-disciplinary – our intake is generally around 48% scientists and 52% arts and humanities graduates – Darwin is a wonderful place to further your studies. Situated centrally, close to most University Departments and Faculties, our award-winning Study Centre and peaceful gardens overlook the River Cam. We also boast the finest college bar in Cambridge!

Dr Duncan Needham
Dean & Senior Tutor

Below you will find useful links to information on COVID-19 and the response by the College and the University.

If you are displaying symptoms, have tested positive, or have been notified to self-isolate you should inform the Porters Lodge immediately (porters@darwin.cam.ac.uk or 01223 335660)

University of Cambridge COVID testing

UK government stay at home guidance for households with possible or confirmed COVID-19 infection

Darwin COVID FAQs

Vaccination advice for incoming and current students

University guidance on exceptional circumstances for remote study in 2021-22

UK government guidance for international arrivals

Self-isolation guidelines following contact with a positive case

Derek Scott is our Head Porter. He runs the Lodge and a team of Porters who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Darwin College has a very active student association (the DCSA) who help organise and coordinate a wide range of events, activities, sports, socities and campaigns. They are a great point of contact to find out what is available for students to become involved with. You can find out more by reading their brochure below

A named Pigeonhole is allocated to every student, Fellows and College department. These are located in the Porters’ Lodge. Please check your pigeonhole regularly for any mail or notices.

The College address (Darwin College, Silver Street, Cambridge, CB3 9EU) should be used for your mail and any online deliveries such as Amazon, rather than your hostel address - this helps you if any packages are delivered as these can be signed for by the Porters’ and it also helps the College to forward any mail which arrives after you have completed your studies.

Large packages or letters will be kept at the Porter’s Lodge and a card asking you to collect them will be put in your pigeonhole. Packages that are being couriered should be delivered or picked up from the Porters’ Lodge. Please make sure the address is clearly marked on the package (preferably typed).

There are washing machine and tumble dryers located in most College accommodation. In the main building and Frank Young House there are a number of larger machines.

Laundry machines are free to use, and may be used by any College member. 

We recommend that you wash your laundry at 30 degrees as part of envirnmental good practice.

The preferred wireless network for Darwin College members is eduroam which is available everywhere in College where wireless services is offered and is federated with the eduroam services available across the University and beyond.

In order to access the eduroam network, you first need to configure your device

Instructions on how to configure this are available from http://www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/eduroam

A guest netwrok is available - please ask the Porters Lodge for a guest login and password.

If you wish to configure a smart speaker or other item for the Internet of Things please see https://webapps.dar.cam.ac.uk/support/ and then open new ticket with topic: IT Support / Network Issue(s) / IoT Network Registration

The MAC address of the device will be needed for a manual configuration.

Any emergencies should be reported by calling the Porters lodge immediately.

Please report any other faults or maintenance issues in your accommodation by:

• Filling out a maintenance request slip in the Porter’s Lodge and placing it in the Maintenance pigeonhole.

• Call the Porters’ Lodge on: 01223 (3) 35660 or Maintenance on: 01223 (3) 35688 – Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5.00pm or 

• email the Clerk of Works directly on maintenance@darwin.cam.ac.uk

Housekeeping issues should be reported using the book in the Porter’s Lodge. Alternatively the College Housekeeping team may be contacted by telephone on: 01223 (3) 35686 or by email: to: housekeeping@darwin.cam.ac.uk

We endeavour to resolve all Priority One emergency issues immediately. This normally means that they are in hand within the hour. Priority 2 urgent repairs are normally dealt with within 12 hours except at the weekend where we may need up to 48 hours. Priority 3 non-urgent repairs will be assessed within 48 hours and will be resolved within 14 days. If for any reason a room becomes uninhabitable due to the issue, or due to the disturbance caused by the repair, alternative accommodation will be offered either temporarily or permanently at the same rate as the original accommodation.

We strive to inform occupants of the time of any works to be carried out in room at least 24 hours in advance, except when an emergency issue requires immediate entry. Records are kept by the Clerk of Works as to when any room has been entered, the work that has been carried out, and whether further access will be needed.

Any complaints about outstanding or ineffective repairs may be made in the first place to the Accommodation Office who may then escalate the issue to the Second Bursar.

General

You will have both a tuition fees account for the combined University and College tuition fee (composition fee) which will be charged annually after you have arrived in College, and a non-fees account for all other expenses (accommodation, printing, meals, and other sundry charges).

Your College Account Number (which is the same as your University CRSID number, issued on arrival) will be the account reference of your non-tuition-fees account. Your College Account Number/CRSID plus the letter “F” at the end will be the account reference for your tuition fees account

Your College Account Number is very important and must be used as your reference when making a payment so that we can identify the payment with your account.

The combined University and College tuition fee (composition fee) will be charged annually, the payment of which is due 28 days from receipt of the invoice that is issued after you have arrived in College.

Students on certain courses at the Judge Business School (MBA, EMBA, MFin, MSt in Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation, MAcc) pay tuition fees directly to the Judge Business School rather than to College.

The payment of tuition fees by instalments can be arranged for those funded by Postgraduate Loans and American Federal Loans to coincide with disbursement dates.   

Instalment arrangements for others are discretionary and only agreed in exceptional circumstances. Any student requiring special arrangements for the payment of their tuition fees must contact Mr Chris Millward directly and as soon after arrival as possible (see contact details above).

All students will be asked to complete a form regarding their tuition fee funding arrangements shortly after arrival and, where funded partially or fully by external organisations or research councils, may be asked to provide appropriate evidence of the funding arrangements in place.

For students who are funded partially or fully by external organisations or research councils, College will invoice the external body directly for the portion of the tuition fees payable by them. Students will only be invoiced for the portion (if any) of the tuition fees for which they are self-funded.

When going to the servery for meals, you can pay by UK debit card at the till or swipe with your University card; if the latter the charge will appear on your College account at the end of the month and will be payable 14 days from the date the statement is issued.

Your University card should be linked to UPay for the purposes of going through the servery, but if you have any issues with this, please contact the Accounts Office.

Details of the meal transactions can be viewed through Upay – please see information regarding setting up an account here: https://www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/catering/setting-up-your-upay-account. Please note that at the end of the month, that month’s meals charges will appear on your monthly statement and will be payable 14 days from the date of the statement issued. Upay is not enabled to be a top-up or prepaid system in College.

Formal halls are also booked through Upay, and similarly any charges (or credits for cancelled bookings) will be posted to College account at the end of the month. The charge/refund is applied in the month of booking/cancelling.

Invoices can be issued quarterly or monthly in advance; the default is quarterly so if you would like to be billed monthly, please email accounts@darwin.cam.ac.uk to request monthly billing.

Accommodation invoices are issued from our accommodation software at the beginning of the month or quarter (as applicable) and are payable 14 days from the point of invoice, as per the terms of the accommodation licence.

The weekly charge will show on your accommodation licence; accommodation is then charged on a daily basis (the daily charge can be identified by dividing the weekly charge by 7), e.g. for a month with 30 days you will be charged for 30 days in accommodation.

If you are in a College-owned flat, you will be liable for gas and electricity used; College charges you estimated monthly utilities and then each quarter does a reconciliation between actual utilities used (and charged to College) and estimated monthly utilities paid by flat resident; the associated charge or credit is then put on your account.

A deposit of £400-£500 will be required for all flats and will be returned on departure, subject to the “schedule of terms”.

Within Cambridge

In and around Cambridge, the easiest and most common form of transport is bicycle. Darwin College is located close to the commercial centre of the city and within walking or cycling distance of most departments, faculty buildings and shopping. 

This Cambridge Cyclestreets will be useful if you are planning to find your way on bicycle.

There is an excellent bus netwrok and the University's U bus stops just outside the main College entrance on Silver Street 

The route map can be seen on the Map of the University and the timetable (as of 2021) is below

Travelling to Cambridge

By Rail

The usual method of travel from to Cambridge is by train. Here is a guide to the train services. Once you arrive in Cambridge, it is a long walk from the railway station to Darwin (about 30 minutes), so might better to hire a bicycle or take a bus.

By Air

The closest major airport to Cambridge is London Stansted - about half an hour by road from Cambridge. There is a bus service from Stansted to Cambridge every hour. The same coach service goes to London Heathrow (an hourly service, with a journey time of about two hours) and to London Gatwick (about three hours).

Darwin is within walking distance (10 minutes) of the Cambridge bus/coach station in Drummer Street. 

By Road

Driving in Cambridge is not recomended due to the congestion and one-way systems.

Here is a map of Cambridge provided by the University, showing routes into the City Centre by road. The usual motorway approaches are via the M11 (from the South), or the A14 (from the North, East or West).

Please note that there are no public parking spaces at Darwin College, and drop off for loading and unloading luggage is via the main Silver Street entrance. 

Please be aware that Silver Street has a bus gate installed and so should not be used for access to and from the College.

You will be assigned a Graduate Tutor - a College Fellow who is here to give you confidential advice and support on any non-academic problems you may experience and, aided by the Deanery, to direct you to specialist support if necessary. Regular academic queries should be directed to your Supervisor/Department/Director of Studies, but your Tutor may advise in case of difficulties. If you need urgent advice, you may wish to contact the Deanery directly; the Dean provides support and advice to Tutors and is available to take over complex issues as required.

Get to know your Tutor.  Then keep all relevant contact details to hand, and update your Tutor with your progress and any difficulties you might encounter. You should aim to see your Tutor at least twice each academic year, either in a group or individually as necessary.

Your Tutor is a source of general advice and support.  He or she is always happy to listen to your experiences of studying and research, to offer advice where appropriate, and to help you to find academic staff and students in College with similar interests. Your Tutor will have access to reports submitted online by your supervisor concerning your academic progress, and to any self-assessment exercise you complete via CamSIS and will liaise where necessary with academic supervisors and Departments/Faculties, particularly if you are experiencing difficulties. If you are worried by what a report says, or want a different perspective on your work, talk to your Tutor. More commonly, if you fall ill or your work has been disrupted or you need to take time out for personal reasons, your Tutor will help you ensure that your application is presented properly to the relevant university bodies. 

Upon arrival in the UK some overseas students are required to register with the Police (Parkside Police Station, 39 Parkside, Cambridge). For this you will need to make an appointment in advance by emailing:  OVRD@cambs.pnn.police.uk (within seven days of receiving your BRP).   They will then respond with an allocated appointment time. It can take several weeks to receive a response at this busy time but as long as the request has been made there is no need to worry about registering within a certain timeframe.

To register you will need your passport, BRP and two passport sized photographs. There is a charge of £34 and you will need to complete a Registration form obtainable from the ISO web-site.

For those who have previously studied in the UK you will need to update the Police with your new contact details.

The International Student Office website holds all relevant information for those entering the UK on a student visa and you should take the time to familiarise yourself with your responsibilities as set out here.

As a Cambridge student you will be able to collect your BRP at the University/College but in order to do this you must enter a particular code, called an ACL code, in the relevant section of  your application form. This code will be provided by the ISO following the issue of your CAS.   UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) advises students to use the University as the collection point for their BRP.

However, for those arriving in either Lent or Easter Terms, PGCE, MBA and MFin students, you are advised to use the ACL code for the Cambridge Post Office.

Normally, the College is required to upload scans of your passport, entry vignette and your BRP to CamSIS for the ISO/UKVI. For those who enter the UK via the e-Gate system then a copy of either your boarding pass or flight ticket will also need to be  provided to validate your date of entry to the UK.

However, due to the current situation with Covid-19 and social distancing measures the University will be asking all students to scan their own documents and to submit them electronically to a central system. Further details will be provided either in your information pack or by email shortly after arrival in Cambridge. If you have asked for your BRP to be delivered to the University/College then these will be scanned by the ISO prior to being given to the Colleges for distribution. However, you will still need to scan your passport, vignette and/or boarding pass.

For students currently in the UK and applying for a leave to remain visa a scan of your new BRP will be required. However, as it may be a while before your BRP arrives we will also need to see "proof of application/payment". Again, you may scan this information in yourself or email it to the deanery directly.

Darwin College does not have it's own College Nurse so all students, as soon after arrival as possible, are advised to register with a local GP Practice close to where they will be living.  

A list of all GP practices can be found here. A list of Cambridge GP's will also be provided in your registration pack. Once you have decided on a practice please go onto their website and register. 

Further information on healthcare in the UK is available here and healthcare information specially for international students here.

Darwin College welcomes partners and families of current members into College and welcomes them to benefit from a number of the facilities.

The Student Association (DCSA) also have an active families group aimed at members with children, wither regular get-togethers, games days and picnics. More information is available from dcsa_families@darwin.cam.ac.uk

Partners and family members may come into College and use the gardens, and are also able to use the gym once they have completed an induction session.

Partners may also benefit from subsidised rates at the Dining Hall by applying for a families card through the catering office. More information from catering.manager@darwin.cam.ac.uk

Unfortunately partners and family members may not use the Library or Study Centre - these resources are restricted to current members only.

Also, alcohol licensing regulations mean that partners or family members may not use the College bar if not accompanied by a current member.