, generally known as '''Caius''' (pronounced "Keys", since the College's second founder
John Keys fashionably latinized the spelling of his name after studying in Italy), is a constituent
College of
Cambridge University , one of the world's most respected academic institutions.
The college's present Master, the 41st, is Sir
Christopher Hum .
The College has been attended by many students who have gone on to significant accomplishment. As an academic institution it has included nine
Nobel Prize winners on the official Cambridge Nobel list
Caius claims to be one of the colleges with consistently high undergraduate academic achievement [http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/admissions/caius/academicstandards.php . Caius also has one of the more architecturally impressive student libraries [http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/library/tour/index.php].
The college has long historical associations with medical teaching especially due to its alumni physicians
John Caius (who gave the college the
Caduceus in its insignia) and
William Harvey .
The college first admitted women as fellows and students in
1979 . The college now has nearly 100 fellows, over 700 students and about 200 staff.
The College was first founded, as , by
Edmund Gonville , Rector of Terrington in
Norfolk in
1348 , making it the fourth-oldest surviving college. When Gonville died three years later, he left a struggling institution with almost no money. The executor of his will, William Bateman,
Bishop Of Norwich , stepped in, transferring the college to the land close to the college he had just founded,
Trinity Hall , and renamed it '''The Hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary''', endowing it with its first buildings.
By the sixteenth century, the college had fallen into disrepair, and in
1557 it was refounded by Royal Charter as by the physician
John Caius . John Caius was master of the college from
1559 until shortly before his death in
1573 . He provided the college with significant funds and greatly extended the buildings.
During his time as Master, Caius accepted no payment but insisted on several unusual rules. He insisted that the college admit no "deaf, dumb, deformed, lame, chronic invalids, or Welshmen", and built a three-sided court "lest the air from being confined within a narrow space should become foul". Caius did however found the college as a strong centre for the study of
Medicine , a tradition that it aims to keep to this day.
By
1630 , the college had expanded greatly, having around 25 fellows and 150 students, but numbers fell over the next century, only returning to the 1630 level in the early nineteenth century. Since then the college has grown considerably and now has one of the largest undergraduate populations in the university.
It is one of the more wealthy colleges with an estimated
Financial Endowment of £105m (
2005 ).
Caius also very selectively admits academically-accomplished
American and other foreign students for its various programmes, the most prominent of which has been organized in the United States by the
University Of New Hampshire , although these programmes are not to the
Tripos standard.
The first buildings to be erected on the college's current site date from
1353 when Bishop Bateman built Gonville Court. The college chapel was added in
1393 with the Old Hall (now used as a library), and Master's Lodge following in the next half century. Most of the stone used to build the college came from
Ramsey Abbey near
Ramsey, Cambridgeshire .
On the refoundation by Dr Caius, the college was expanded and updated. In
1565 the building of Caius Court began, and he planted the avenue of trees in what is now known as Tree Court. Caius was also responsible for the building of the college's three gates, symbolising the path of academic life. On matriculation, one arrives at the Gate of Humility (near the Porters' Lodge). In the centre of the college one passes through the Gate of Virtue regularly. And finally, graduating students pass through the Gate of Honour on their way to the neighbouring Senate House to receive their degrees.
Gonville Court was refaced in a classical design in the 1750s, and the current library and hall were designed by
Anthony Salvin in
1854 . On the wall of the hall hangs a college flag that was flown at the
South Pole by
Dr. Wilson during the famous
1912 expedition.
The modern Harvey Court (named after
William Harvey ) was built in
1961 on West Road, designed by Sir Leslie Martin.
is the largest of the Old Courts. It is so named because John Caius planted an avenue of trees there. Although none of the original trees survived, there are several trees which is unusual for a Cambridge front court. The interior North-East corner of the Waterhouse Building can be seen on the left and the Exterior South-East corner, as seen from ''King's Parade'', on the right.
, though remodelled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is the oldest part of the college. The interior East Side of Gonville Court, opposite Hall, can be seen on the left.
The ''Gate of Honour'' (to the left), at the South side of , though the most direct way from the Old Courts to the College Library (''Cockrell Building'', behind the wall on the right), is only used for special occasions like graduation. The ''Senate House'' (on the left) as well as ''King's College Chapel'' (directly behind the Gate of Honours) can also be seen.
