PART THREE
Our Admissions teams have coped admirably with the challenges of delivering outreach and the selection of students at all levels remotely. For the second consecutive year we received well over 700 undergraduate applications. Interviews took place online, as did the majority of discussions about decisions, the winter ‘pool’ and related activities. The quality of the incoming students will be high, as always. The attainment of our admitted students has remained consistently strong, with the profile of an ‘average’ Selwyn entrant being around 2.5 to 2.75 A* grades a head at A-level. The performance of our first years in Tripos also suggests that a combination of the insight of the selectors, effective use of the admissions metrics, good teaching and, of course, the hard work of the students themselves has meant that neither much-derided algorithms nor the switch to teacher-assessed grades in August 2020 have deflected us from our consistent prioritisation of academic excellence. It is worth highlighting that, despite much concern before October, the incoming students have largely not manifested signs of needing remedial action to top up skills and knowledge as a result of the disruption to their studies in 2020. They have adapted to the Cambridge courses very well indeed. The workings of the College’s pastoral system have also continued through the year. The Dawson Fund helps us to provide mental health support to those students who need something more than what the NHS or the University can provide. We have expanded the hours of our excellent Nurse, Carolyn Taylor, to ensure that her extensive efforts are suitably recognised. The tutors and other colleagues do a great job of advising and supporting students. The University and the colleges are currently undertaking a strategic review of student mental health and wellbeing services and the first gleanings from that process suggest that there may be some important developments to follow which should further improve the support that can be provided for all our students. Alongside this review, there are also reviews of undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, and the colleges have agreed a major overhaul of the Cambridge Bursary Scheme which has resulted in a wider range of family incomes triggering grants (up from £42,000 to £62,500) as well as enhanced support for students from the least well-off backgrounds. Several elements of the revised system were trialled in a Trinity Collegebacked initiative over the past three years in which I am glad to say we were founder participants. The ‘Pilot Top Up Bursary Scheme’ has worked well and it has been a pleasure to see the rest of the colleges join the small band of pioneers who took it forward where others hesitated. We thank Trinity for their support. It has been exciting to be a Senior Tutor in the past academic year – and rewarding too. I think that there are solid grounds for suggesting that we have had a good year and that we have coped better than many in dealing with the challenges that have had to be faced. Dr Mike Sewell, Senior Tutor
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Selwyn College Calendar 2020–2021
