
Cambridge
University is the second oldest - after Oxford - in Britain. The
university has 31 colleges
(see the list of colleges).
In 2009 the university celebrated its 800 year anniversary.
The colleges
The origins of Cambridge University date back to the arrival of former
students of Oxford University in 1209 but it wasn't until 1284 that
the first college - Peterhouse
- was founded. By the end of the 16th century another fifteen colleges
had been established and then - in the 19th and 20th centuries - fifteen
more.
As with Oxford, Cambridge University - especially its older established
colleges - has seen many of its students go on to achieve notable
things.
No degree
But a successful completion of their studies was not always necessary
for former students to achieve success in life. The Poet Laureates
Thomas Shadwell
and Alfred
Tennyson, the poets Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
and Siegfried
Sassoon and the writers William Makepeace
Thackeray and Christopher Isherwood
all left Cambridge without a degree. A degree also eluded Edward
VII,
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,
Britain's first Prime Minister
Robert Walpole and the chemist Henry Cavendish
(whose descendants endowed the university's world-famous Cavendish
Laboratory).
Women
It wasn't until Girton
College
(1869) and Newnham
College
(1871) opened that women were finally admitted to Cambridge. Since
then graduates have included the first British woman to win a Nobel
Prize, Dorothy
Hodgkin; the poet Sylvia
Plath and the writer Iris Murdoch.
The following list shows the thirty-one colleges, grouped by the century
in which they were founded.
The colleges founded before the 18th century include information on
a selection of famous people who have been connected to the college
and links to the college website and its history webpage.
The colleges founded since 1800 have links to their websites.


The 31 Cambridge Colleges
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13th century
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Peterhouse
Founded: 1284 |
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13th
century |
Peterhouse |
A
selection of famous people who have been connected with the college. |
Peterhouse
was founded by Hugo de Balsham, the Bishop of Ely, in 1284.
It is the oldest - and smallest - college at Cambridge University.
History


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Henry
Cavendish
Chemist. Natural philosopher

Undergraduate,
1749-53
No
degree 

James
Mason
Actor

Undergraduate,
1928-31 

Charles
Babbage
Mathematician. Computer pioneer 
Undergraduate,
1812-14
MA, 1817
Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics, 1828-39 

A.J.P.
Martin
Nobel
Prize
for Chemistry, 1952 
Undergraduate,
1929-32

Max
Perutz
Nobel
Prize
for Chemistry, 1962 

John
C. Kendrew
Nobel
Prize
for Chemistry, 1962 
Fellow,
1947-75

See
Trinity College

Aaron
Klug
Nobel
Prize
for Chemistry, 1982 
Fellow,
1962-93 

Michael
Levitt
Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2013 
Research student, 1968-71

See
Gonville &
Caius


Duke
of Grafton
Prime
Minister of Britain, 1768-70

Undergraduate,
1751-53
MA

Thomas
Gray
Poet

Undergraduate,
1734-38 (No degree), 1742-43
Fellow,
1742-56 
Regius Professor of Modern History, 1768-71 
Gray
lived at the college until 1756 when he moved to Pembroke
College



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