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More Pembroke news

Access Week 2025: From Local to Global

Designed to emulate 'a week in the life of an Oxford undergraduate', Access Week is an annual summer residential at Pembroke College. Select pupils from our target regions who have participated in our Access and Outreach programmes were invited to attend the residential, which took place this summer. We welcomed 120 pupils who participated in tutorials, seminars, mock interviews, academic trips, and much more.

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Reflections of a Recent Pembroke Graduate

Michaelmas term is fast approaching, which can only mean one thing – an onslaught of Freshers will be imminently arriving to Oxford and Pembroke. Starting university can be a big transition for anyone. We thought we’d ask one of our fresh graduates, Rohit Ghosh, to reflect on his time at Pembroke, looking all the way back to his own Freshers’ week.

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Celebrating Success: Rhiannon Durant

NEWS |

Rhiannon Durant (2020, MBiochem Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry) recently finished her first year at Pembroke, earning a distinction in her prelims and ranking 1st in her cohort across Oxford University. Having enjoyed a very successful first year, she is also set to take over as JCR President for the 2021/22 academic year. We spoke to Rhiannon about her journey at Pembroke so far, and what she enjoys most about studying her course.

“My first year at Pembroke has been better than I ever could have imagined. I was nervous before I came, especially about the social aspect, but I didn’t need to be! Everyone I’ve met this year has been wonderful; they’re all from such varied backgrounds, which brings huge range of opinions and perspectives into the community.

I actually only ‘discovered’ Pembroke by luck. I came for an open day and had arranged to see other more well-known colleges but was feeling quite disillusioned, as I didn’t feel at home in any of them. However, on a whim at the end of the day I walked into Pembroke; it was like a scaled down, friendlier, warmer version of the ‘stereotypical’ Oxford college and I loved it immediately.

On the academic side, I feel as through my passion for Biochemistry has been allowed to flourish here. It is so wonderful to hear everyone talk about their subjects with such excitement and vigour. It creates an inspiring and motivating atmosphere to work in. My tutor is actually an RNA specialist, which means that I can tell you plenty about the mechanisms of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines! It’s been fascinating to study such a relevant subject during the pandemic.

I’ve particularly loved the practical side of the course. It makes the concepts we discuss more tangible, like when we isolated DNA from a roe sample and these long, white fibres precipitated out of the solution. Suddenly, DNA was a real compound, rather than just an abstract idea in my head.

All in all, it’s been an amazing year. I’m so grateful to be at Pembroke, and can’t wait to see what the next 3 years of my degree have in store!”

Rhiannon Durant (2020, MBiochem Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry)