Principal’s Welcome

This particular introduction to The Homertonian was harder than usual to write, though you will be able to anticipate some of its content very easily. This is the year of plague, and it casts its shadow into every corner of life. Students are at the heart of what Homerton means, and we have had to learn how best to care for them in new ways and at great speed over these last few months. For students in normal times the College is a home from home, which means shared space and proximity, conversations in the Buttery and the Great Hall, friendships and fun - the closeness of a community. It is a cause of great sadness to me that these forms of proximity which until only a short time ago brought us all together in a daily reaffirmation of our identity as Homertonians are now, by a cruel irony, potential carriers of hidden threat. As I write it is the summer break, but when Michaelmas Term begins, we will all be working together across collegiate Cambridge on the conundrum of how to provide as joyful and creative a student experience as we can reasonably create, while keeping our students safe. The challenges are many, and will no doubt prove testing at points.

However, as is always the case, where there are challenges there are opportunities. There is also, even in this difficult time, much to celebrate. Our students performed better than ever in Finals in 2020, with no student achieving less than a 2:1, and over a third gaining a First class degree. We congratulate them on this fantastic achievement. Although the world in which they take their next steps will be harder than usual to negotiate, a Cambridge degree is still the best passport to the future that they could possibly carry. We are in the process of scrutinising the Finalists’ results to see what we can learn. For example, this year there were no crammed exam halls, and the vagaries of the three-hour test were replaced by the opportunity to work remotely on longer assessed projects over which the students had more control. In the Arts subjects particularly, this looks to have been a contributing factor in the number of Firsts, and students have reported back in very positive terms about being truly able to give of their best, when given more time. And so the crisis has generated new forms of working which we will continue to develop and refine even when the pandemic itself has passed. I sit on the University’s Remote Learning and Teaching Task Force, which has brought academics and administrators together with encouraging results. In College our VicePrincipal Dr Louise Joy is taking the lead on technology-led learning – and, after all, as the most modern and progressive college, Homerton must be able to shine in this area.

So there are new possibilities for us to explore, and I am extremely grateful to the dedicated team of College Officers and others who have been working with great diligence and ingenuity to ensure that the welcome we give our new and returning students will balance stimulus with safety, and academic challenge with pastoral care. I am grateful too to the alumni who have been quick to see that students from what were already precarious backgrounds and family circumstances will be disproportionately affected by the financial and other kinds of fallout from the pandemic. The College has itself taken a financial hit, chiefly through the loss of conference income. However this too presents an opportunity to review and where we are able, refresh our offering and our external partnerships. In terms of the Fellowship, we are all deeply proud of the tireless contribution which our academics, including much-quoted Professorial Fellow Ravi Gupta, are making in the battle against Covid.

This next year will no doubt have its poignant moments for me, as it will be my last as Principal. I am immensely proud of Homerton, and of all we have achieved over the years and continue to achieve as Homertonians. The College is more than its physical spaces. It stretches across the world and across decades, self-renewing, rich with tradition but always focussed on the new. Next month for example I will welcome our first Poet-in-Residence, Mariah Whelan, to the Alumni Weekend. Mariah’s post is funded by a generous gift from an alumna, the late Jacqueline Bardsley, some of whose contemporaries will be (in virtual form) present. If you will forgive me a bad pun, although next year will be my last, I will be, like my colleagues, busier than ever. In fact I think the year will Zoom by….

Professor Geoff Ward

Principal