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St John’s is back for another battle of the brains as it faces LSE in a University Challenge showdown tonight. 🎥 👩‍🎓Our ...
19/10/2026

St John’s is back for another battle of the brains as it faces LSE in a University Challenge showdown tonight. 🎥 👩‍🎓

Our team is taking on the London School of Economics (LSE) in the repechage round, hoping to secure a place in the next stage of the fiendishly difficult BBC Two competition. 📚 🧠

Representing St John’s are team captain Liam Plimmer (PhD English), Callum Thomas (PhD Zoology), Aurelia Walker (undergraduate Mathematics) and Jonathan Watts (PhD Mathematics), with medical student Yusuf Adia as reserve.💡

The repechage round gives the highest-scoring losing teams a second chance to progress. St John’s earned its place after an impressive first-round score of 170 against University College, Oxford, in July, putting the team among the four highest-scoring losing sides. 🎉

Members of College will be cheering the team on in the College Bar from 8.30pm. 📺🤞

04/10/2026

Four St John’s students arrived in Cambridge to a hero’s welcome after punting more than 200 miles from Oxford.

Charlie Swinfen, Stefan Narinian, Beth Erskine and Ryan Vowles completed the epic fundraising journey in 12 days.

They faced broken and closed locks, tidal currents, dark tunnels and an impromptu river swim (Stefan): Their longest day was 18.5 hours - 5.30am until midnight.

A crowd of friends and family cheered them back into College as they passed under the Bridge of Sighs.

They smashed their £5,000 target for the and raised a whopping £13k (so far)

University of Cambridge

24/09/2026

Punting is normally best enjoyed on a lazy summer afternoon, four St John’s students are spending 12 days proving it can also be an endurance sport as they travel 204 miles from Oxford to St John’s.

Charlie Swinfen, Stefan Narinian, Beth Erskine, and Ryan Vowles are covering an average of 19 miles a day punting across country to support the Alzheimer’s Society. Initially they hoped to raise £5,000 but, having already reached their target, they are now aiming for £10,000.

Travelling from Oxford to Northampton, Peterborough and Ely, the team hopes to arrive back at College in time for the start of Michaelmas Term, almost two decades after St John’s students last completed the journey.

Follow their progress on Instagram

“Exceptional young people, with the potential to thrive at St John’s, should see us as a destination they should serious...
07/09/2026

“Exceptional young people, with the potential to thrive at St John’s, should see us as a destination they should seriously consider.”

Students from 142 schools and colleges will join St John’s this autumn. 👏🎉🧳

Some headline figures for our new undergraduate cohort: 📖

• 73.4% of UK entrants are from state schools and colleges

• 9% of UK entrants are from Free School Meal backgrounds

• 52.2% of the cohort are women 👩‍🎓

• More than half of UK entrants come from outside London and the south-east

• Students are joining us from 22 countries 🌎

• The College received 1,501 applications in the 2026 admissions round ✍️

• A-level entrants achieved an average of more than three A*s each, while International Baccalaureate entrants averaged 44 points💫

Tributes have been paid to a distinguished St John’s researcher renowned for his life’s work in African history.John Ili...
24/08/2026

Tributes have been paid to a distinguished St John’s researcher renowned for his life’s work in African history.

John Iliffe MA PhD LittD, Emeritus Professor of African History, and a Fellow of St John's College, wrote many notable books on Africa and specialised in Tanzania, where he taught at the University of Dar es Salaam for several years.

He became a Fellow of St John’s College in 1971, when he was appointed University Assistant Director of Research in History.

From 1980-90 he was Reader in African History and was Professor of African History from 1990 until his retirement in 2006. He was working on his latest research until recently and died on Thursday 20 August.

“African history owes John a staggering debt in his sheer curiosity, his extraordinary appetite for gruelling hard work, his courage in publishing in so many areas of others’ expertise, perhaps above all his intellectual capacity to lodge intimate human anxieties, hopes, obligations, determination and expectation in long spans of continental-wide change and continuity," said Professor John Lonsdale, Emeritus Professor of Modern African History and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Professor Malcolm Schofield, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy, and a Fellow at St John’s, described Professor Iliffe as ‘a historian of great distinction’.

“John was a very private person, but in St John’s an unfailingly friendly and courteous presence among us, often with a twinkle in the eye."

Fast-thinking St John's students will face Oxford in University Challenge, TV's toughest team quiz tournament, on Monday...
23/07/2026

Fast-thinking St John's students will face Oxford in University Challenge, TV's toughest team quiz tournament, on Monday 27 July.

St John’s latest University Challenge squad honed their general knowledge skills in the regular quizzes in the College Bar ahead of filming of the iconic TV show in which they went head-to-head against University College, Oxford.

Team captain Liam Plimmer, a PhD English student, Callum Thomas, PhD student in Zoology, first-year Mathematics undergraduate Aurelia Walker, and PhD Mathematics student Jonathan Watts recorded the episode earlier this year.

Their reserve player is final-year medical student Yusuf Adia and their mascot a toy eagle named Evie – named for the College of St John the Evangelist.

Understandably, the result is a closely guarded secret, so the team wouldn't answer the question: how well did you do? Fresher Aurelia buzzed in with a swift: “No spoilers allowed.”

The episode will air on BBC2 on Monday 27 July at 8.30pm. Viewers can also watch on BBC iPlayer.

07/07/2026

Want to know how to make a competitive application to Cambridge?

Dr Jonathan Padley, Tutor for Undergraduate Admissions at St John's, will give his advice and answer questions during multiple timetabled sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week.

You can also meet our subject specialists during the Cambridge Open Days, go on student-led tours to explore St John's, see our accommodation and facilities, and attend admissions talks to help you make the most of your visit.

📅 9–10 July

Plan your visit and view the full programme: joh.cam.ac.uk/apply/outreach-and-open-days/open-days

07/07/2026

Are you coming to Cambridge Open Days?

Senior Tutor, Richard Partington, who leads students' education and academic experience at St John's, shares his top tips to help you make the most of your visit.

We present to you our latest University of Cambridge graduates.Now this really is St John's. 🎓👏📸 Geoff Robinson
02/07/2026

We present to you our latest University of Cambridge graduates.

Now this really is St John's.

🎓👏

📸 Geoff Robinson

BOOM! That's a wrap on another academic year.St John's students know how to throw a party so on Tuesday night a drone an...
25/06/2026

BOOM! That's a wrap on another academic year.

St John's students know how to throw a party so on Tuesday night a drone and fireworks display illuminated the Cambridge sky as we celebrated the end of Exam (Easter) Term in style at the 7th best party in the world. As featured in The Times today.

📸 Geoff Robinson

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