[Music] A mature college is somewhere where people who are 21 or over
can come to study at the University of Cambridge.
There are currently three mature colleges in Cambridge.
St Edmunds, Wolfson and Hughes Hall.
The mature colleges in Cambridge are a very small group.
We aren't the well-known colleges and we're often tucked away
in little sites that people don't visit on the tourist trail.
And all three of us have years of experience in looking after students who
are that little bit older, who've come through unusual career trajectories,
or who perhaps have been out of education for some time
and are now thinking about coming back to studies.
So I was 25 when I decided that I wanted to do my first degree.
It definitely was the right choice to apply to a mature college,
because you don't feel the distance that you might feel from
18 year olds who are also doing their first degrees.
As a mature student you have lived a longer life, obviously
and you have a different background.
You have a different life story. Everyone is a book to read.
Everyone is an opportunity to learn from.
I would never move college now. If someone gave me the option to go to a
different college, or an older college, I just wouldn't do it
because the community here has kind of proved too valuable.
I think i've been surprised by how easy it's been to get to know people.
When you come to Cambridge to study you are treated like every other student.
You are taught like every other student.
You socialise like every other student.
But within a mature college we have the support infrastructure
which is specialised to your requirements ensuring
that you get the best education possible whatever your circumstances.
And that's what we're good at. That's what we do.
Our tutors are well versed in dealing with things like
student parents, if you come with prior commitments and possibly have a mortgage elsewhere.
Another thing that I really liked when I was applying to Hughes
is just how holistically the process looked at
me through the application process and the interview
and after it really felt like they were looking at who I was.
Like all of the mature colleges we have a very varied community with students
from all around the world, so we're very international.
It's the people that really matters to me. Hughes Hall students are so friendly
and college tutors and the supporting teams, they're really
fantastic in providing all of the resources and the welfare to the student body.
There's a rather more informal atmosphere and
it's a different sort of a community.
We're completely non-hierarchical. When you come into our hall you're as
likely to sit next to me as I am to sit next to our most senior professor.
It's very different from other colleges in that the atmosphere is much more sort of
informal and international which is something I'm personally used to and comfortable in.
It's such an amazing set of grounds we have.
We have such beautiful gardens here at Wolfson and the
community atmosphere sort of felt so relaxed and inclusive. This combination of factors
meant that this was always going to be the college I was going to apply to.
It can be an incredibly daunting prospect to
go to university a bit later let alone applying to Cambridge.
Try not to let those fears deter you from applying.
It is an incredible experience to be here and you gain so much more
from studying when you are a little bit older.
You appreciate every moment so much more. So apply, don't be scared.
I am a passionate believer in the power of education
to change lives and to change the world. And actually this is personal to me
because I was a school teacher and then at the age of 40 I changed careers completely.
I came to Cambridge, did a PhD, became Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge
and here I am, President of Wolfson College.
That's the power of education to change lives.
For general information the University of Cambridge has an excellent admissions website,
but for more specific information on mature students,
on applying and courses, Hughes Hall, St Edmunds and Wolfson
have brilliant, brilliant websites and admissions teams that are waiting to help you.