Hey there, welcome to Green Templeton College or GTC for short.
My name is Spencer Tong and I'm a second year DPhil student in medical sciences,
today I'm going to be taking you on a tour of our college, which is a graduate only college,
it's one of the youngest colleges at the University of Oxford,
we have around 600 students who
focus on studying medicine, social sciences, MBAs and more.
I'll just see if my friends in here.
So I've managed to interrupt one student studying in the library,
and this is Suz and she's gonna be discussing the graduate common room
and the committee that's involved in all aspects of college life.
Hi, I'm a second-year a masters student at the Oxford Internet Institute,
I'm studying social science of the internet,
and I'm a here at GTC in the
graduate common room and we're a big committee of different people
organising all the events for college students.
Me personally I'm doing external entertainment,
so I'm doing everything where GTC students interact with students from
other colleges, for instance, exchange dinners, cheese and wine exchanges,
or common parties.
So welcome to the GTC library, we're gonna be a little bit
quieter here because everyone else is studying.
The best part about the GTC library is that it's open 24/7,
you can borrow medical equipment here,
as evidenced by it my friend,
also studying medical sciences.
Any book that you want you can request it from the librarian,
and that can be sorted out here as well.
So welcome to the stables bar.
So in the stables bar we host BOPs, which stand for
big open parties, and there are lots of events for everyone to join in on.
So this is the GTC hayloft,
if you want to come up here and play board games,
foosball do a little bit of quiet work,
it's a fantastic place for all those things.
Similarly we also have space for movie nights.
One other cool thing about GTC is that you can get grants
for conferences or student-led activities
from schemes such as the Annual Fund which is
very generously supported by our donors.
So welcome to the principal's office.
Our principal is Professor Denise Lievesley,
and one of the best parts about the college is that Denise's door
is always open if you want to have a chat, if you want some tea,
if you want to just get away from Oxford, this is the best place to be.
Denise do you mind?
- Hello Spencer - Hi there how are you? Happy New Year
- Happy New Year to you, did you have a good time?
- I did a little bit studying so it wasn't the best of times
but we're okay, we just passed transfer. - Oh brilliant
- Yeah thank you - That's really good news
- I'm really excited, but today we're actually gonna be making a short
video about the college, and I thought it'd be great if you could say hello
to everyone thinking about joining GTC. - Great well
Green Templeton College is the newest of the Oxford colleges,
just 12 years old, and we're a graduate college
for about 600 students who come from all over the world,
and it's a great place to be - Best place to be
- I love it, yes, and the students
are the life and soul of this place, it's really really wonderful.
I talk to the students and get excited
about the future that they're going to create.
- Well we're trying and one of the best parts about
Denise's open doors is that
often once a term we can come in and discuss
how things are going in our labs or in classes,
and it's really nice to have someone who's really invested in your
well-being at GTC, and whose doors always open,
always really welcoming so thanks so much for letting us come and say hello.
So for all the musically inclined students here we have a music rotunda
which has a various assortment of instruments,
we're gonna go in and see if we can find any GTC musicians.
And the answer is no.
I'm gonna sit like this.... so.
So this is the GTC music rotunda,
the string quartet and the choir
all practice here but all GTC students have access to it,
all you need to do is book it at the porters Lodge.
So here we have the two tennis courts that are available to all GTC students
again all you need to do is book it at the lodge.
Right behind us is the squash court,
and now we're going to head to the gym.
So this is the GTC gym, it's super well-equipped for a college gym.
There are more than enough machines for both boat club enthusiasts and novices.
The college gym is free and everyone can use it until 11 p.m. at night.
So this is the the Radcliffe Observatory
which was built in the 1800s it's actually a
listed historical site, so super important and central part of not just
the college, but also the entire region which is called
the Ratcliffe Observatory Quarter.
So this is the GTC dining hall, it seats around 40 people
and is set up in an informal way where there is no high table
and everyone sits together.
Formal dinners happen once a week,
but lunch service happens every single day
and I might be biased but it's the best food at Oxford.
So this is the GTC common room,
also known as the GCR.
Here you can study, you can read, there are newspapers
that are always provided here every day
as well as free coffee.
You might be wondering what this gong here is,
but every single week right before formal meals,
one of the kitchen staff will come here and hit the gong,
which I will not do because there are people studying,
to tell us that it's time to come downstairs
and eat the best food in Oxford.
So one of my favourite parts about being at GTC
is the fact that it is a graduate only college
which means that all 600 students
have a shared sense of purpose,
which makes for a really strong community,
really informal, casual, setting for everyone.