From the Senior Tutor

This document contains information of importance to new undergraduates.

It is strongly recommended that you go through the sections and links below in order, certainly in the first instance.

There is also an online formwhich you are required to complete pertaining to your arrival at Peterhouse, along with a section to confirm that you have sent various paper documents to us.

  • Documents to Send Now
  • Prepayment of Room Rent
  • College Fees 2010/11
  • Fee Support and Government Student Loan
  • Student Health Form
  • What to Bring
  • On-Line Acknowledgement FormRequired

Accommodation

  • Accommodation Handbook 2010/2011
  • Residential Arrangements and End of Term

Financial Information

  • Fee and Financial Support Form

Arrival

  • When to Arrive and What to do on Arrival
  • Academic Gowns
  • On the First Monday of Residence
  • Matriculation Dinner
  • Medical Information and Forms
  • Medical Practitioner Form
  • Swine Flu information
  • Meningococcal infectioninformation

College Links

  • Peterhouse Tutorial Office and Academic Matters
  • Check here for information and forms throughout the year
  • College Administrative Arrangements
  • College Officers
  • Computing Facilities in Peterhouse
  • Fellows, Directors of Studiesand Staff
  • Map of area around Peterhouse
  • College Chapel
  • College Libraries
  • Peterhouse JCR Website

CambridgeUniversity Links

  • Cambridge University Student Handbook
  • Cambridge Bursary Scheme
  • Information and links for new undergraduates
  • Information for Current Staff & Students
  • University Computing Information for New Students
  • Funding Opportunities within the University
  • CamSIS Log-in
  • Counselling Services
  • Cambridge University Skills Portal
  • CUSU Study Skills

For international students

If you require a UK bank account, download an Introduction letter here, complete and return it to the Tutorial Office.

  • Cambridge International Office
  • CambridgeUniversity Students’ Union International Freshers Guide

Documents to send now

Matriculation Documents to send to us by post:

If you have not already done so, please send your General Certificates of Education (i.e. G.C.S.E.'s and 'A'-Level Certificates), or Scottish Highers, Certificates of Sixth Year Studies, Irish Leaving Certificates, International Baccalaureate, European Baccalaureate, as appropriate to your case, before you come into residence in order that I may check that you have satisfied the examination requirements for University Matriculation. These are required for matriculation (i.e. becoming a member of the University), and will be returned to you when you come into residence. We cannot make you a member of the University without sight of the originals of these documents. If you need them before you come here, please let me know and they will be returned forthwith. Photocopies or electronic copies are not acceptable. You must also return the completed ’A’-Level Unit Scores sheet sent to you by the Admissions Office.

If you do not yet have the original certificates you should send as soon as possible the original results notification slip provided to you by the examining board - not a copy. You may then bring the original certificates in person to the Tutorial Office immediately after you come into residence. This should be done during the hours when Junior Members may call(daily from 11.00– 12.30 and 2.15 – 3.00 p.m.).

Please also return by post:
□Completed Peterhouse Fees and Financial Support form

□ Electoral Registration Opt-Out Form (see end of this document)

□Financial Notification letter from Student Finance England(one page)

□Payment Schedule Letter from Student Loans Company Limited

Please note that these last two are SEPARATE documents and are BOTH needed.

Prepayment of Room Rent and Accommodation

You will be allocated a student room in College for next Term; you should already have been sent your room assignments. At a later time, you will receive an invoice for an amount that includes Michaelmas Term rent and £100 Caution Money (the latter is refunded when you go out of residence,subject to the settling of all accounts). On obtaining this invoice you should send a cheque for the amount shown made out toPeterhouse. The cheque should be sent to:

Mr C. Hayden,

College Office, Peterhouse,

Cambridge,CB2 1RD

International undergraduates will receive an invoice in your pigeonhole upon arrival. Please pay this invoice to the College Office as soon as you arrive.

Alternatively payment can now be made by electronic transfer or debit card: please contact the College Office (tel: 01223 761658) for more details.

Regarding accommodation, please contact the Rooms Coordinator if you have any questions. Room changes are now not possible.

College Fees 2010/2011

Fees Payable in the Michaelmas Term

In the majority of cases fees will be paid directly to the College (to whom the University has delegated their collection) by the candidates, or by the Student Loans Company on their behalf.

Definitive details on fees can be found on the University Website.

Fee Support and Government Student Loan

If you have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom for the three previous years immediately preceding 1st September 2010 and have not already done so, you should now apply to your Local Education Authority (L.E.A.) (if you live in England or Wales) or to the Scottish Government Education Department (if you live in Scotland) or to the Education and Library Board (if you live in Northern Ireland) for assessment of your and your family's income to work out how much fee support, supplementary grants and loan you are entitled to, provided that you are eligible. It is your responsibility to ensure that your fees are paid with whatever assistance is due to you. In order to obtain an award of any sort, it is essential that you apply to your appropriate awarding authority preferably before your course begins, but in any case not less than four months after 1st September. If you are not eligible for assessment by the L.E.A., etc. or if you do not seek assessment but are eligible to do so you will be liable to pay not only the University Tuition Fee but also a College fee.

Please print out, complete and send back by post or email the Fees & Financial Support Form, when your awarding or funding authority is known. If you can include this document with all the others requested, please do so, but do not delay sending the other documents if you cannot yet complete this one. Please include with the printout of the form a photocopy of your Payment Schedule Letter from the Student Loans Companyand the Financial Notification letter from Student Finance England if you already have such letters. If not, please supply a copy of these letters as soon as you are able. Please bring them to Cambridge with you and keep them safely.

Prospective undergraduates who are ordinarily resident outside the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man but within the European Union will need to download an application form for help with University Tuition Fees from the Student Finances European Team website. It should be completed and returned to:

Student Finance Services European Team

PO Box 89

Darlington, CountyDurham

DL1 9AZ

If you are eligible for and apply to the Student Loans Company for a Student Loan, instalments will be paid directly into your bank or building society account, normally in October, January and April.

Links for further information:

University of Cambridge Student Fees and Finance

DirectgovStudent Finance

Student Health Form

Please print out the Student Health Form, complete and return it to the Tutorial Office as soon as possible.

What to Bring

Obviously you will need the normal material possessions of daily living as well as academic items. Most students also like to make their College room welcoming. Do not, however, bring unnecessary items: you will be here for about 8 weeks each term and will be expected to remove your possessions every vacation and to leave not later than the last day of University Term (i.e. December 19th [except in your first year: see below THE END OF TERM], March 25th, June 25th). The College does not have space to store students' property.

Bicycles: You will almost certainly find a bicycle very useful in Cambridge; almost all undergraduates have a bicycle here. Cycling can be hazardous in Cambridge and advice to cycle safely, wear a helmet and use lights after dark is no idle platitude.

Cars: Cars may not be kept in Cambridge without special permission from both the Senior Tutor and the University authorities. Permission is not normally granted to undergraduates in their first year.

Residential Arrangements and End of Term

There are two parts to obtaining a degree at Cambridge: the most important by far is taking Honours in the necessary Tripos examinations, and you will already know something about our Tripos system; the other part is that of 'keeping Term'.

The University requires all candidates for the B.A. degree to have spent no less than nine Terms in Cambridge and the College has to certify to the University that this is the case for each undergraduate. In order to 'keep Term' an undergraduate must be resident in accommodation approved by the Tutor for no less than 59 nights during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms and 52 nights in the Easter Term.

This does not mean that you are obliged to stay in Cambridge for this period continuously, but if you wish to be away from Cambridge for any number of nights you should see your Tutor who will issue you with what is called an 'Exeat'. When this is presented at the Porter's Lodge and the Exit Book signed, our charges to you for meals are suspended while you are away and, most important to us, we know that you are not here.

Any nights taken off must be added on at the end of the Term in order to make up the 59 or 52 nights unless, as you will have done this Michaelmas Term, you have arrived early and so added a night on to the front of the Term which are, as it were, 'credit'. You may not count nights before University Term, i.e. 30 September. Full Term always starts on a Tuesday and ends on a Friday, which means that the first night of Full Term is a Tuesday night and the last is a Thursday night.

To each side of Full Term,at its start and after its end, runs University Term. During the dates between, on the one hand, the beginning of University Term and the beginning of Full Term and, on the other, the end of Full Term and the end of University Term, there are a number of nights that can be used to complete the residential requirements. All lectures and most teaching take place during Full Term. If an undergraduate fails to 'keep Term' it is not possible for the College to certify to the University that that term has been kept; this may have very inconvenient consequences for an undergraduate who has otherwise become qualified to take a degree. A more official account of the regulations will be found in College Regulations, Regulation II and in theUniversity of Cambridge: The Student's Handbook for 2010/11. You will receive both booklets when you arrive in College in October. I shall refer to this subject when I talk to all the new undergraduates in a group when you join us; and your own Tutor will be able to clarify any point that is not clear to you.

The End of Term: At the end of Michaelmas Term rooms occupied by Freshers are needed for other College purposes, including accommodating candidates for interview for places in October 2010.

It is therefore necessary that Freshers vacate their rooms no later than the end of the day on Saturday 4December 2010.

If this results in less than 70 days' occupancy of a room by a Fresher a rebate will be made on the rent for that Term to allow for the reduced availability of the room.

When to Arrive and What to do on Arrival

Which day to come: Full Term begins on Tuesday, 5 October. You, however, as a new undergraduate, MUST be in residence by 6 p.m. on Sunday, 3 October, but you may arrive on Saturday 2 October if this is a more convenient day for you to make the journey. Please indicate the date when you intend to come on the online form. If you expect to arrive by car you will find these maps and directions useful. For this, the beginning of your first Term, ONLY, the College's Garden Steward gives permission for cars to be parked on the grass in the area between the WilliamStoneBuilding and the rear of St Peter's Terrace (all shown on the map of the College). Access is via Grove Lane.

When you first arrive at the College: On arrival at the College you should call at the Porter's Lodge in order to sign the 'Redit Book'. This means you have 'signed in', and we know that you are here. You should always do this, whenever you return into residence after an absence from Cambridge, be it at the beginning of Term or during Term. (You must also sign out whenever you will be away from the College overnight - in the 'Exit Book'.)

Dinner on the day of arrival: Dinner will be served in Hall on the Saturday, but on Sundays the College does not provide breakfast or lunch from its kitchens. Please indicate on the formwhether you will be taking dinner. Should you intend to bring a guest to dinner (which is not usual on your first night) you should also indicate this by marking the relevant field in the form. If you or your guest would like a vegetarian meal that evening please also indicate this.

N.B. Vegetarian food is prepared as a matter of course in our kitchens. Inquiry should be made in the kitchens after you begin residence if this diet is of interest to you. If you have religious reasons (e.g. Jewish or Muslim) for not eating in College Hall or medical reasons for needing a particular diet please see the Senior Tutor during his Tutorial time so that action may be taken.

Post, notices from your Tutor: Post for undergraduates is always put in the pigeon-holes, which are individually labelled, in the Porter's Lodge; please collect your post regularly - more than once a day for the first few days, when you will receive a large number of letters and other notices - some will be urgent. Please check your Cambridge email regularly as well. Also, at the bottom of F staircase in Old Court by the door to the Servery, is the Senior Tutor's Notices board: please read any notices posted there - another habit to acquire. A second and important notice board also at the bottom of F staircase is labelledTutorial Appointments and Administration. On it you will find shown the times when you are expected to see your own Tutor. This will be on the Monday or Tuesday after you arrive. Undergraduates are communicated with by the Tutor or Tutors' Secretary by email, but notices and general instructions are also produced in the traditional paper form and pinned up.

The University Card: Meals in College are debited to your termly bill by use of a personal University Card. These cards will be waiting for new undergraduates at the Porter's Lodge and you should collect yours on arrival. The University Card is also used to gain access to controlled areas in College (e.g. the computer room and the library). Undergraduates are reminded to take care of their cards and report any loss immediately to the Duty Porter. Replacement is not straightforward and lost cards cause inconvenience to users and administration. You are entitled to one free replacement card; thereafter a charge of £10 is levied for replacing a lost or damaged card.

From the Head Porter: Academic Gowns

During your academic life in Cambridge you will on many occasions be required to wear an appropriate Academic Gown. The frequency of needing to do this makes it necessary to own your own.

Gowns are worn at Matriculation, which is your formal induction into the University, at Graduation, and for formal photographs associated with these events. You will require a gown on any night during Term that you choose to dine at Formal Hall, and at formal College dinners. A gown is also required at some Colleges if you dine as a guest either as an individual or with a Club or Society. Gowns are worn in College Chapel.

Academic dress must be worn when attending University ceremonies at the Senate House or UniversityChurch and other occasions as directed by the Vice-Chancellor.

Wearing of a gown is also mandatory at College and University official proceedings, and during disciplinary procedures.

Gowns may be purchased from the Porter's Lodge. Please telephone the Porter's Lodge in advance on 01223 338200 or by email to to place an order. The gown will be ready for collection on your arrival.

Prices:
£46.50new gown
£30.00secondhand gown

On the First Monday of Residence for Undergraduates

On Monday 3rdOctober you will be expected to do the following: