Gonville and Caius

Welcome to Gonville and Caius College!

Congratulations on securing a place at Cambridge, and at Caius! Caius (known simply as “Keys”) is the fourth oldest college in Cambridge, and the college with the second highest number of Nobel Laureates in the university, so you’ll be surrounded by supervisors at the pinnacle of their degrees. The main college site is tucked in the centre of Cambridge, with the best library in the university a stone’s throw away. College accommodation is spread across the town, allowing you to experience what it’s like living in modern ensuites, shared houses, and everything in between.

We’re your Caius college reps, Yusuf (3rd year Economics) and Maria (2nd year PBS). If you have any questions or need any help settling into the college, feel free to contact either of us!

Pros

  • Freshers all live on West Road, which is right next to the Sidgwick site where humanities and economics lectures are held, and where the ISoc Prayer Room is

  • All the freshers being in one site fosters a sense of community

  • First year accommodation is guaranteed ensuite with some of the best rooms in Cambridge

  • First year rooms are good value for money

  • Harvey Court rooms have balconies, with a few lucky students having balconies facing the gardens

  • West Road is a very quiet part of Cambridge with zero tourists and beautiful greenery

  • Harvey Court is a 5 minute walk away from the University Library

  • Free laundry

  • Sports are heavily subsidised at Caius so you can do anything you want for free

  • Caius have the richest boat club in Cambridge, so if you’re into rowing, there’s no better college to apply to

  • The minimum dining requirement (MDR) for 36 meals per term (32 in Easter) makes hall food really cheap, and for the amount of food, it’s value for money

  • Best gowns in Cambridge - navy with a black velvet trim

  • Best college library in Cambridge

  • Easiest college to invite guests to for formals, which means you’ll run into people from different colleges all the time

  • One of the largest colleges in terms of undergraduate intake

Cons

  • A regular 10 minute walk to and from the main college site, which can become tedious (unless you use Clare and King’s as a shortcut - recommended)

  • Quite far from Mainsbury’s (15 min walk) especially if you’re carrying food

  • MDR has to be paid upfront, which is annoying if you have no interest in eating hall food

  • Kitchens are generally very small, with no ovens or freezers

  • Accommodation in second and third year not as good as first year

  • Only 5 washing machines and 5 dryers shared between all freshers

    Pretty small main college site

Washing Facilities

  • Caius has free laundry, but very few washing machines and dryers tend to be shared with a lot of people.

Prayer Space

  • The multifaith prayer room can be found in U5 Tree Court, the first court you see as you walk into the college. U staircase is on the right of the court, and the room is the leftmost one up a flight of stairs, exactly opposite the nurses’ office. There’s a toilet on the same floor that you can use for wudhu purposes.

Halal Food

  • At Caius, all the chicken and turkey are halal. There are vegetarian/vegan options for all courses including dessert. The halal desserts at Caius are often better than the desserts they put on the menu!

  • You attend halls by booking beforehand on a website, where you can enter your dietary requirements. A few days before hall, the menu will be published on the same website where you can see whether something will be halal or not. At every meal you’ll be given a card which lets the waiters know whether they should give a certain dish to you or not, but they’re very forthcoming and will appreciate you double checking to make sure if what they’ve given you is halal.

  • During Ramadan, Caius have a system that allows their Muslim students to collect takeaways to have iftar with - since ISoc ran iftars every day I ended up never using it.

Fridge/Freezer Provision

  • The college will provide you with a minifridge/freezer in your rooms, but you’ll have to let the accommodation officer know via email before you move into Cambridge.

Ensuite

  • All first year students have hotel-style ensuite rooms. This will all be on the West Road site (Harvey Court + Stephen Hawking building). Caius has a balloting system in second and third year where students are randomly allocated times where they can choose a room they’d like to stay in. Since I can count the number of ensuite rooms in other parts of the college on one hand, it would be best to contact the accommodation officer and opt out of the ballot for religious reasons as soon as you can, after which they’ll reserve an ensuite room for you in the college. If an ensuite room can’t be found, then the college will give you a room with a sink inside.

Useful Contacts

Concluding Remark

  • Caius say they’re really committed to enhancing the experiences of their students, but most of the time, if there’s an issue to do with how comfortable you feel in your day to day life, it’ll be your responsibility to talk to the relevant people in the college so they can get things sorted out for you. Porters, tutors, and your directors of studies will all cater to your every need, no matter how minor, so don’t be afraid to ask. If there’s anything about living at Caius that you need help with over the coming year, we’ll be here as your college reps to guide you. The best way to make the most of your Cambridge experience is to feel comfortable in your college, and insha’Allah you’ll enjoy living at Caius as much as we do!

    Signed, 

    Yusuf Salad (ys582@cam.ac.uk) 

    Maria Zaman (mz491@cam.ac.uk) 

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