Hi everyone, welcome to Corpus Christi College, my name is Faseeha and I'm a final year DPhil student
in cardiovascular science, and I'm going to be showing you around Corpus today.
So Corpus Christi College has about 280 undergraduate students and 90 graduate students here.
So this is Corpus's library, it's a really big library with two floors, holding around 70,000 books.
The librarians are super friendly and they can help you with any special rare archive books
that you might need, special collections we have also.
Across you have, like, the, the chapel, and like all the music can kind of fill the whole place
and it's really nice place to be, to study.
Our benches here across this section are like 400, 500 years old. They're the original ones,
and it's just a nice place to to be able to study, but also to find some peace and quiet.
So this used to be a graveyard but then they kind of dug up all the graves and made it into a second quad
but you can see the tombstones here on the walls and yeah, and here we have the MCR.
So here we have the MCR which is the heart, the hub of graduate life at Corpus.
You can always find people here and someone to chat to, someone to have a conversation with and
everyone's looking like they're hard at work today but it's a very social space.
We have our parties here, we have lots of events here, for example movie nights and the really nice thing about Corpus
is that you have a variety of people doing many different disciplines so even though I'm studying
cardiovascular science, I can come into Corpus, I can come into the MCR and I'll be sat next to
someone doing philosophy, someone doing some social sciences and you learn so much.
In the MCR, we have an MCR committee and these are just people who are responsible for governing of the MCR
but governing not in a scary way, governing in like, they will make sure that there's always biscuits and tea.
So whenever you come, you can always find food here.
They will organise formal hall, they will organise exchange dinners
which allows you to then go and see Oriel or go and see other colleges and they'll also organise the parties that we have in the MCR.
This is the, I think, the Gentleman's Quad and up there we have the SCR.
So at Oxford you have all these different colleges,
and within the colleges you have the JCR which is for the undergraduates,
the MCR which is the postgraduate community, and the SCR which are the fellows of the college.
Now then within the MCR, we have a lot of interaction with the SCR, with the fellows of college
because it's understood that people who are doing postgraduate degrees may want to
you know, know what to do next, and for that we have scrunches,
so lunches in the SCR with the SCR fellows,
as well as, you're able to dine on high table in the hall with the with fellows as well.
It just allows for more communication.
Actually so what you can see in this quad is the difference in architecture.
So you can see with this building where the chapel is
that the stone looks very different to where the SCR is because
this was built a lot later and that's one of the great things about Corpus actually, is that you
have different types of architecture and around Oxford, I think, you have different types of
architecture throughout, you know, the last thousand years that you can enjoy to your heart's pleasure.
So here we have Corpus dining hall. This is where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Saturdays and Sundays we also do brunch, and it's really nice place to just hang out with the MCR.
We gather together for Sunday brunches. Every Friday we have formal dinners
and that's a nice three-course meal at a, you know, for like £10 so it's a complete steal.
And the MCR, in the MCR we also organise exchange dinners with the other colleges
as I mentioned before, as well as guest nights, so you'll be able to bring anyone
to a guest night and that's nice, I think it's a four course meal even and, like, high class food.
I can tell you about Bishop Fox as well, so here we have a portrait of Bishop Fox who is
the founder of the college, and you can see him looking like very deathly pale in that portrait,
and that's because it's said that the portrait was made when he was on his deathbed.
So nice little anecdotes which you'll find littered throughout the college.
So this is our bar which we call the beer cellar, it's a really great size.
We have a pool table, we have loads of different cubby holes, the beer cellar is open
every evening until late so you can come with your friends and just chill,
and anyone is allowed in the beer cellar.
We have loads of alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks available from the bar at a great price and,
and yeah you can have a great time.
This is the small garden, so Corpus has some of the finest gardens I think in the UK,
kept by our eclectic gardener who can tell you about every single species
that is, that is on any of the Corpus grounds. So if you catch him, he's a great person to talk to.
So this is the auditorium.
So here you have this huge space and we use it for seminars, you can use it
for very big movie nights even, and you can have concerts here.
So Corpus MCR we have a lot of, there's a lot of societies
run mostly by the JCR but the MCR gets involved whenever they want to.
So this includes a, there's a rampant music scene here, as well as sports societies.
So we have a Corpus gym, and you can also get through Corpus
free membership to the University gym, and Corpus also has a boathouse
along the river for if you do rowing, and you have a load of, like, facilities there for the rowers.
So this is the Handa Terrace. If you had to ask me my favourite place in Oxford,
not just Corpus, it would be here.
So here you have a really beautiful view of Christ Church meadows
and you can see the sunset here, you can sit here with a cup of tea,
with a book and just enjoy the view of Corpus behind you, of Christ Church in front of you,
and of Christ Church itself. I think we have a better view of Christ Church here
than Christ Church do themselves.
Yeah it's a really beautiful space and whenever you want a photo,
if you come here, it doesn't matter what the weather is, and, or what the time you will look amazing.
Oh this is where our beehive is, here.
So here we have a beehive, kept by our gardener,
maintained by our gardener as well, and I think we get Corpus honey,
I'm not sure. I'm sure we do.
So at Corpus we also have a lot of welfare support for students.
So in the MCR we have our welfare officers who will host welfare teas,
and they're always available if you just need someone to talk to.
In terms of your academics, you have an academic officer on the MCR committee as well,
who will be able to sign post you wherever, you know, to help you with whatever inquiries
or queries that you have and you also have a college advisor lunch every term,
which is hosted by the college, and it's someone that you're partnered with in the in the SCR,
so a fellow you're partnered with who,
who is someone that you can go to for help whenever you want to.
Corpus offers graduate students two years accommodation; you're guaranteed accommodation
in your first year and Corpus' graduate accommodation is located in two places,
and both are great places to be, and the friends that you make there you probably will have for life.
I love this tree.
This is probably my favourite tree in Oxford, it's just so huge and majestic.
So every year Corpus is known infamously for its tortoise race.
It's an event where everyone from any college can come, hosted at Corpus,
and we just, like, race the tortoises.
And obviously they're super fast so it's a really quick event.
The best thing about Corpus in my opinion is the people.
You just have you have a beautiful location, beautiful place,
and absolutely wonderful people from a variety of places, a variety of backgrounds,
with a variety of experiences. Wherever you go you can just talk to anyone, and you'll feel fulfilled
for the rest of the day, and that's I think something really special that you have at Corpus.