Previous Campaign Phases

Phase 1

The core goals of Phase 1 of our campaign were to fund our new accommodation building (Foundress Court), to increase the endowment to support our teaching, research and tutorial role, and to increase the funds available to give support to our students. Our thanks to everyone who made this possible.

Foundress Court

The construction of Foundress Court was completed in time for undergraduates to occupy it from Michaelmas 1997.

Foundress Court not only solved our accommodation problem; it transformed the feel of the College. With 50% more students living on site it seems to have brought the College very much closer together as well as adding a fine piece of late 20th-century architecture to the College's existing varied styles, and enhancing the beauty of the gardens. The 92 student rooms, common room, music practice room, computer room, function room and fitness room continue to be extremely popular.

The final cost of Foundress Court and some additional associated building works was £10.3 million of which Nihon University, Japan very generously contributed £3.3 million.

Teaching Support

Pembroke has a relatively modest endowment and, if the College is to continue to offer direction of studies and supervision in its traditionally broad range of subjects, it is essential that we improve our independent financial means.

With the committed support of the late Lord Chief Justice Peter Taylor (1950) and substantial backing from a host of James Campbell's former pupils and friends we have raised no less than £600,000 in support of a College Teaching Fellowship in Law - 'The James Campbell Fellowship'. By adding to this sum un-earmarked donations to the Campaign we have been able to endow this Fellowship in perpetuity. We have also elected a new College Teaching Fellow in English and a new R.A. Butler Research Fellowship, established with the support of the Butler family and a generous contribution from Trinity College, of which the late R.A. Butler was Master.

The commitments of our corporate partners cannot be over-emphasised in underpinning our existing Fellowships whilst we build up our endowments.

Student Support

Pembroke is committed to attracting and educating the best and most talented students regardless of their personal circumstances. Many of you will be aware of the daunting financial hurdles confronting today's undergraduates as they enter higher education. The progressive replacement of means-tested and inadequate grants by loans and the escalating cost of living in Cambridge combine to create much greater pressures than was the case even a few years ago. As a result, the call on hardship funds and the various bursaries has increased significantly over the last few years.

Thanks to the success of Phase 1, it was possible to create a new College trust fund with an initial endowment of £1 million for the purpose of alleviating student hardship. Prior to the Campaign it was possible for the College to award approximately 20 hardship bursaries to undergraduates per annum each worth £500 - £750. With the formation of the new trust fund it will be possible to increase the number we support to around 60 at any one time and the average level of funding will also rise. Welcome as this has been, even more needed to be done in this area in Phase 2 of the Campaign. The work continues today.

Phase 2

Our aim was to ensure that Pembroke remains one of the leading colleges in one of the great universities of the world. We sought to maintain and enhance the very special advantages inherent in the small group supervision and tutorial system, but the Government's decision to phase out its support of the College fee imposed considerable financial pressures on us. Phase 2 aimed to alleviate those constraints, concentrating as it did on the following main areas of activity.

Library Renovation

The provision of an effective library lies close to the heart of an institution dedicated to education and research. Pembroke College's Library was designed by Waterhouse in 1878. Today, the College has almost 600 graduate and undergraduate students, so lack of space rendered the Library quite inadequate for modern purposes. By enlarging the existing basement to create new archive and rare books storage it we were able to convert the whole of the ground floor of the building to provide undergraduates and graduates with a library which is up to modern standards and which includes the provision of 57 extra reader spaces and accessible shelf space for 25,000 extra books. A small extension to the eastern end has provided a new entrance, services, Law Library, seminar room and a new staircase to link all levels.

The project was completed in 2001.

Peter Taylor Law Library

It was clear from conversations with sixth-formers who came up to Cambridge that many prospective Law students were deterred from applying to Pembroke by the lack of a dedicated Law Library. As part of the Library Renovation, therefore, a new extension at the east end of the building houses seating for 12 around a large table in an attractive, well-lit room lined with shelving for 5,000 books. The shared work environment afforded by a Law Library gives the different years of Law students at Pembroke a greater opportunity to mix together; the pursuit of excellence has become contagious.

As a tribute to one of the most distinguished of Pembroke's legal alumni the Law Library was named in honour of the late Lord Taylor of Gosforth (Peter Murray Taylor, Pembroke 1950 - 1953), Lord Chief Justice of England 1992 - 1996.

Meredith Dewey Fellowship

In recent years, Pembroke has created and maintained several Fellowships in the sciences, particularly through the Pembroke College Corporate Partnership Scheme. It is much more difficult, however, to obtain outside funding to support teaching and study in the Arts and Humanities. The College raised sufficient funds to endow several bursaries in his name.

An original, greatly loved and respected figure, Meredith Dewey knew and was known by generations of Pembroke Members through his tutorship, his hospitality and through the remarkable pastoral work of his ministry.

Student Support

Pembroke is committed to attracting and educating the best and most talented students regardless of their personal circumstances. Many of you will be aware of the daunting financial hurdles confronting today's undergraduates as they enter higher education. The progressive replacement of means-tested and inadequate grants by loans and the escalating cost of living in Cambridge combine to create ever increasing pressures than were the case even a few years ago. As a result, the call on hardship funds and the various bursaries has increased significantly over the past five years.

Thanks to the success of Phase 1, it has been possible to create a new College trust fund with an initial endowment of £1 million for the purpose of alleviating student hardship. Prior to the Campaign it was possible for the College to award approximately 20 hardship bursaries to undergraduates per annum each worth £500 - £750. With the formation of the new trust fund it became possible to increase the number we support to around 60 at any one time and the average level of funding will also rise.

Peter May Sports Fund

Sport at Pembroke is organised by Junior Members with an annual College allocation of £15,000 to sport distributed by the Junior Parlour in support of individual clubs. In addition, playing fields, pavilion (including squash courts) and grounds staff are maintained at College expense (around £60,000 per annum). With the Government's reduction in the College fee, the College is anxious that the support it gives to sport should not suffer and to this end, a dedicated endowment to preserve and enhance support for all fields of sporting endeavour has been set up in the name of Peter May. Fundraising for this continues today.

One of the first major capital enterprises supported by the fund was a drainage project at the College's Sports Ground. This was completed in the summer of 2002.

A legendary post-war English cricket captain, the late Peter May (Pembroke 1949 - 1952) was marked out as an outstanding player from his early days at Charterhouse. A friend, both at school and at Pembroke, Lord Prior said of him: "The bats you usually pick up in the club pavilion or at school have lots of red marks all down the edges, with very few in the middles. Peter's bat was not at all like that. His just had a sort of dent in the middle where every ball had struck and it was only when you looked at the bat that you realised what a great cricketer he was."