1. Purpose 

1.1 Collingwood College’s Senior Common Room (SCR) is a community that supports the intellectual, social and developmental life of the college. 

1.2 The purpose of the Fellowship is to align the SCR with Collingwood’s next phase of leadership and intellectual development. It should bring together academic staff, alumni, distinguished external partners and others connected to the college who are willing to contribute to its life and ambitions. Fellows help create a college environment in which students benefit not only from formal teaching, but also from conversation, example, encouragement, mentoring and shared intellectual community. This matters because leadership is learned relationally. Students develop confidence, judgement, ambition and resilience not only in classrooms, but through sustained engagement with people whose experience, expertise and values broaden their horizons. A strong and active SCR helps make that possible. 

1.3 Collingwood Future gives this work thematic coherence, stronger external visibility and a clearer platform for activity, particularly around leadership, innovation, ethics and the future. But Fellows do not need to be directly involved in the programme to be valued members of the Fellowship. The wider purpose is to enrich college life, strengthen community, support student development and connect the college more effectively to the wider world.  

 

2. Aims and objectives 

2.1 SCR Fellows aim to: 

2.2 Why the SCR Matters 

2.21 The SCR should not be seen as simply ceremonial or social. At its best, it is one of the most effective ways a college can enrich student life. A strong SCR helps students encounter leadership in practice. It gives them access to people with experience in research, public service, professional life, entrepreneurship, the arts and wider society. It can support mentoring, encourage ambition, widen horizons and create opportunities that students might not otherwise have. 

2.22 It also provides a natural home for research forums, discussions, visiting speakers and informal intellectual exchange. In a collegiate university, much of the most valuable development happens through these relationships and encounters outside the curriculum. That is why the SCR matters: it helps turn the college into a place where leadership, ideas, confidence and community are formed together. 

 

3. Activities and Contribution 

3.1 SCR Fellows may contribute to college life in a range of ways, including: 

3.2 Not all Fellows will contribute in the same way or to the same extent. What matters is that the Fellowship is seen as a live, useful and engaged community. 

 

4 Collingwood Future Student Research and Leadership Grants 

4.1 To support the College’s strategic focus on leadership and intellectual development, the College should establish Collingwood Future Student Research and Leadership Grants. These small grants would support students pursuing opportunities that broaden their horizons and deepen their development beyond the curriculum. They could be used for:  

4.2 This would be a practical and visible way of showing that the College is investing in leadership as well as learning, and in student opportunity as well as student belonging. 

 

5. Categories of SCR Fellowship 

5.1 The College may maintain a small number of Fellowship categories, such as: 

5.2 Official Fellows 

5.3 Fellows 

5.4 Honorary Fellows 

5.5 Visiting Fellows 

5.6 Emeritus Fellows 

5.7 Appointment and Oversight 

5.71 Appointment to Fellowship should be made by the College through election by the Official Fellows. 

5.72 The College may set expectations, term lengths and criteria for different categories of Fellowship and may review these periodically to ensure they remain aligned with College’s priorities. 

5.73 Fellowship should be understood as both an honour and a relationship of mutual commitment. It does not in itself confer a role in the formal governance of the College unless separately specified. These positions are unpaid. 

5.74 The SCR will be chaired by a President. The President shall be elected from among all fellow categories serving for one academic year which can be renewed. The position is unpaid.

5.75 Official Fellows can remove any category of Fellow, including the President, without cause or notice. Only the Principal may consider any final appeal.

 

6. Expectations of SCR Fellows 

6.1 Fellows should be encouraged, as far as they are able, to take an active interest in the life of the College and in the development of its students. This may include: 

6.2 These expectations should be applied reasonably and proportionately recognising that Fellows will contribute in different ways. 

 

7. SCR Fellowship Fee 

7.1 SCR fellows must pay an annual fee of £20. 

7.2 SCR annual fees are determined by the Senior Management Team and may be amended at any time by that body. 

 

7.3 This would support the shared intellectual and social life of the SCR, including:  

8. SCR Benefits and Privileges  

 

8.1 SCR membership may include the following benefits, subject to College regulations and availability:  

8.2 These benefits help make SCR membership tangible, sociable and worthwhile, while also supporting a stronger sense of community within the college.  

  

8.3 Any Fellow discounts are determined by the Senior Management Team and may be amended at any time without advanced notice.   

Approved by Collingwood College Senior Management Team on 2 June 2026