24 Facts About Fitzwilliam College

Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.

Fitzwilliam College is home to around 475 undergraduates, 500 graduate students and 90 fellows.

Notable alumni of Fitzwilliam College include six Nobel Laureates, a large number of prominent academics, public officials, businesspeople, clergy and athletes, three heads of state or government, one current UK Supreme Court Justice, and a significant number of political figures including a former Liberal Democrats leader, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the current and former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police.

In 1869 Cambridge University altered its statutes to allow men who were not members of a college to become members of the University under the supervision of a censor, whose office was in Trumpington Street, opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam.

The name "Fitzwilliam College" was chosen by the students at a meeting of the Non-Collegiate Amalgamation Club in the Spring of 1887 and, as a result, the University decreed that the house in Trumpington Street could be known as Fitzwilliam College Hall.

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Fitzwilliam College Hall became the headquarters of the Non-Collegiate Students Board and provided student facilities and limited accommodation.

The suggestion that Fitzwilliam College close prompted an outcry from former students and it was therefore decided that it should aim for collegiate status.

Since Fitzwilliam began operating at its current site in the north-west of Cambridge, it has grown steadily and developed into one of the University's larger, more cosmopolitan colleges.

Main grounds of the Fitzwilliam College are located off Storey's Way, towards the north-west of Cambridge.

Fitzwilliam College's centrepiece is the Grove, a Grade II regency manor house, designed by the architect William Custance and constructed in 1813.

Fitzwilliam College is at the top of one of the few hills in Cambridge, the Olisa Library's tower is one of the highest points in the city, sometimes said to be the highest.

Students from Fitzwilliam College are sometimes informally referred to as Fitzbillys or Billygoats.

Between 1997 and 2006, Fitzwilliam achieved an average of 17th place, near the bottom of the second third, in the Tompkins Table which lists the University's 29 undergraduate colleges in order of their students' examination performances.

Fitzwilliam College has no distinct political leaning and has, in recent years, produced prominent members of all three major national parties.

Fitzwilliam College enjoys a very strong sporting reputation and is traditionally strong in football, rugby union and table tennis.

In 2017, Fitzwilliam became the first college in CUAFL history to win all 4 major university men's football titles in one season, with Fitzwilliam's women's side winning their league simultaneously.

In 2010 Fitzwilliam had more active music groups than any other college.

Fitzwilliam College offers many music scholarships and bursaries, including, somewhat unusually, a saxophone scholarship.

The Fitzwilliam College Quartet was established by Cambridge undergraduates, two of them Fitzwilliam College students, in 1968.

Fitzwilliam College is a Labour peer, worked for eight years in 10 Downing Street and was Minister for Women and Equalities.

Fitzwilliam College served on the Olympic Delivery Authority board for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is a former Chair of Ofsted and vice-chair at King's College London.

Fitzwilliam College later received an MA in Education from the Institute of Education.

Fitzwilliam College has always been very involved in education, and since 2005 has been Chair or advisor to charities serving disadvantaged young people including ARK, Ambition Institute and Frontline.

Fitzwilliam College is currently a trustee of the Education Policy Institute and is Chair of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust.