Principal's Message

Welcome to Harris Manchester College,  which is Oxford's only college exclusively for undergraduates and graduate students over the age of 21. Situated in the heart of Oxford, we have a delightful college site, and we are known for being a warm, friendly and mutually supportive community, dedicated to academic excellence.  
 
As you browse through these web pages or visit the college in person, I hope you will get a sense of what makes Harris Manchester College special. Its radical background as a place of learning committed to freedom of belief and the pursuit of truth and liberty has always set the tone for what we do. We have always sought to be an inclusive community. When the college arrived in Oxford in the 1890s, it was already co-educational, which made it unusual at that time, and its student body was both international and ethnically diverse. Now, as a college where people of all ages study, we strive to erase the barriers of age to give people at many different stages in their lives and from all backgrounds a first, second or third chance at higher education.  
 
As we look to the future, we seek to meet the educational needs of a society where people are living longer so that they may wish to go to university at different stages in their life, not necessarily at the age of eighteen. And, as technology rapidly shifts the employment landscape, we know that many will want to rethink their careers and retrain, and we are ready to support them in that educational quest. 

Jane Shaw
Principal.   

jane shaw