Postgraduate applicants to Cambridge often spend much less time thinking about which college to apply to than they might. But the choice of college can make a big difference to your Cambridge experience – and it can be very difficult to change colleges once you arrive. At Peterhouse we work hard to make the postgraduate experience academically and socially enriching. The postgraduate community at Peterhouse numbers around 140, and includes one-year, two-year and three-year students: that is, there are postgraduate students working for the degree of M.Phil and other degree and diploma courses, usually in one year but sometimes in two; and there are those studying for the PhD. The postgraduate students are drawn largely, and from outside the college, and represent a very wide variety of subjects, nationalities and backgrounds.

The College’s books are divided broadly into three collections: the Medieval and Musical Manuscripts (which are now deposited in the University Library); the Perne Library; and the Ward Library.  The Archives are stored separately from the library collections and contain records dating back to the foundation of the College in 1284. 

Contact information: 

The Ward (Fellow) Librarian is Mr Scott Mandelbrote.   

The Librarian is Ms Sarah Anderson; the Assistant Librarian is Dr Roz Green. 

To make contact with the Ward Library, email library@pet.cam.ac.uk or telephone (01223) 338218. Enquiries about the Perne Library should in the first instance be sent to perne@pet.cam.ac.uk. 

Peterhouse Libraries blog - news of the Perne and Ward Libraries

The Chapel sits at the centre of the oldest part of College, and is the building you are most likely to see pictured in connection with Peterhouse. It stands for a living tradition in the College's life - in particular, the 700-year-old tradition of the College as a place of prayer, enquiry, creativity and community. 

Being at university is not just about getting qualifications to equip you to compete in the job market, and university education has never promoted the acquisition of mere facts for their own sake. Universities have been places to learn about how the value of things is to be discerned. They have been places in which wisdom is searched for, and in which people seek to form their lives for good. The Chapel's regular round of services (see the current Termcard), sung or said every day in Full Term, will offer you an opportunity to share in the rich tradition of the Church's worship, and to examine yourself and all that you are learning in your university life in the light of Christian faith and practice. 

It is a place of enquiry, because it is a place where serious thought goes on: reflecting on human experience, the texts of Scripture, and the contemporary world. Time spent as a student at Peterhouse will give you an unparalleled opportunity to hear visiting preachers of extremely high quality each week, ranging from leaders of various Christian denominations, through to prominent political figures and academics working in all fields. 

The Chapel is a place of creativity, too. In a candlelit seventeenth-century building, surrounded by some of Europe's finest stained glass and carving, the Chapel Choir sings evensong twice a week, under the direction of two Organ Scholars and the College's Director of Music. Peterhouse's Choir is a friendly one. You do not have to be of professional standard to join it, but it produces music of very high quality. In addition to this, the Choir enjoys an active (and well-subsidised) social life, and the College provides free singing lessons for its members with professional teachers. Many regular visitors to the Chapel come to hear the music. You can hear recordings of the Choir on our website. 

Above all, the Chapel is the focus for a lively community. People of all kinds find a place in its life and activity. They come from all denominations and none. Some are committed Christians, others are curious enquirers. All of them are welcome. There are often opportunities to meet over meals: weekly breakfasts, weekly bible studies and termly Chapel Suppers. Once a year we normally go away on retreat. The Chapel's life is run by a team of Chapel Officers (undergraduate and postgraduate) and the Assistant Chaplain, who works closely with the Dean. 

The College occupies a surprisingly spacious site, including extensive gardens.  These are a well-kept secret, even in Cambridge, and provide a peaceful haven for study or relaxation on the grass during the summer months. 

Peterhouse is strikingly pretty: the 'Deer Park' is alive with daffodils in the spring, and the College features a range of historic buildings, some of which date back to its foundation.  There is a real sense of history as our students live, work and play in buildings which have been in continuous use for over 700 years - although our newest building was completed in January 2015, so there are plenty of modern bits too. 

Peterhouse and all of its accommodation is centrally located, but off the tourist trail and in a relatively quiet part of town.  Travel costs whilst at Peterhouse are very low.  The majority of academic sites students will need to visit are within a ten minute walk (or a couple of minutes by bike).  The University bus service, which links University sites such as the West Cambridge site, the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Cambridge Biomedical campus, stops immediately opposite our gates.  Lots of shops (including the market), restaurants and evening entertainment are only five minutes away in the centre of town. 

All undergraduate accommodation at Peterhouse is located on or adjacent to the main College site and all rooms are less than 5 minutes’ walk from the Porter's Lodge, dining hall, College Bar and Junior Common Room (JCR).  Being on the College site means that our accommodation is very secure.  The Porter's Lodge is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and porters carry out regular patrols of the site.  Students can get also walk from one part of the College to another without leaving the site. 

Peterhouse freshers enjoy some of the best rooms in Cambridge and are housed together so that it’s easy to make friends in the first few months.  All first-years are accommodated in fully-furnished single rooms.  Most have shared bathroom facilities nearby, a few are en-suite.  All student rooms are equipped with a connection to the University’s high speed network for internet and email. 

Before they arrive, freshers are asked to indicate their preferred rent band.  The College then allocates rooms on a ‘best fit’ basis within the constraints of the available rooms. 

Students don’t need to worry about finding accommodation in subsequent years either, as Peterhouse guarantees accommodation for all its undergraduates for the duration of their course, whether for three or four years.  In later years, students choose rooms via a ballot. Most of the rooms are fully-furnished singles, but some en-suite rooms and shared ‘sets’ are also available.

Peterhouse is a certified Accreditation Network UK landlord – we follow the code of practice for the management of student accommodation, which sets out expected standards of service in accommodation provision for students. 

Please visit https://www.anuk.org.uk/ for further information on this.

There are two ANUK/Unipol National Codes:

The ANUK / National Code for accommodation owned or managed by educational establishments

Please take a look at the codes that are followed throughout Peterhouse accommodation.

Peterhouse offers a wide range of rents to suit all budgets, with rents determined by room size and facilities.  The College requires a 'caution payment' of £125 as a deposit before you first arrive.  This is held by the College and is refundable at the end of your stay provided you have paid all the rent due and no charges have been incurred. 

Rents include the cost of network connection, water, central heating, electricity, insurance, and cleaning.  Undergraduates are charged for rent on a termly basis (generally for 10 weeks), in advance, via their College account. Charges for additional days of residence or for damage caused, if any, are added to the College Bill for the following term.  Rents and other charges are reviewed annually and the College does not seek to make a profit from charges to undergraduates. 

Importantly, unlike most universities, students only pay rent for the three ten-week termly periods when they are likely to be in residence, although the flexibility exists to stay up for longer (subject to application approval). 

Room licences for freshers run for 29 weeks of the year, 9 weeks in Michaelmas and 10 weeks in Lent and Easter; for all other undergraduates, they run for three 10 week periods.  The licence dates fit around the University's academic term dates.  Rents fall into the following bands: 

• Band 1: £1031/term 
• Band 2: £1203/term 
• Band 3: £1306/term 
• Band 4: £1409/term 
• Band 5: £1512/term 
• Band 6: £1616/term 
• Band 7: £1719/term 
• Band 8: £1822/term 
• Band 9: £1925/term 
• Band 10: £2028/term 
• Band 11: £2131/term 
• Band 12: £2234/term 

Extended licence: £228/term on top of the rent band (this is not available for freshers).

First-year students, or 'freshers', usually live in either the William Stone Building (en-suite), or in one of the houses on St Peter's Terrace (non-en-suite).

There are a number of wheelchair-accessible student bedrooms available in College and social spaces such as the Theatre, Lubbock Room, JCR and Bar are all wheelchair-accessible.  However, due to the age of some of the buildings, there are a number of staircases and other places in College which may not be accessible to all students.  For more information, please consult the University's Disability Resource Centre's guide to Colleges as well as our AccessAble information on the website.

We are happy to consider other requirements such as live-in assistants or assistance dogs, but unfortunately cannot guarantee that these would be possible and would advise you to contact us and the University's Disability Resource Centre before applying.