College Library
The College Library – known as the Meyricke Library – holds 50,000 books and provides students with up-to-date publications in multiple copies, as well as a variety of comfortable spaces in which to read them. Not only is the library open 24 hours a day but there is also generous self-service borrowing. Wireless internet is available on all three floors, allowing students to connect to the University network, with its unrivalled access to online journals and e-books. Click here to visit the main Library pages.
The library incorporates a specialist Celtic Library, reflecting Jesus College’s historic association with Wales, and the Librarian encourages all students to make recommendations for new books. For further reading, the vast collections of the Bodleian Libraries – some of the greatest libraries in the world – are within walking distance.
The College’s Meyricke Library
A place to study
The Library is a lovely and quiet space to study in, but the College also has a number of study spaces in the new Cheng Yu Tung Building. These fully-accessible spaces have been designed with our students in mind, and include a wide range of desks (some with height adjusters) and seating options. Each desk comes with a study light and plug sockets to charge up your laptop or phone. Wifi is available throughout. There are also breakout spaces for a chat with friends or study partners.
A Jesus undergraduate hard at work in one of the Cheng Yu Tung study spaces.
If you want to work and enjoy a coffee or snack, the Cheng Building also has a large cafe, which overlooks the College’s Fourth Quad. It serves a range of hot and cold beverages, and cold food every weekday from 9-5pm. There are cafe tables and sofas to choose from, and views down to Cornmarket if you just want to watch the world go by.
Catching up with friends in the Cheng Building cafe.
IT Facilities
The College places great importance on IT provision, and the equipment and service provided is constantly monitored and upgraded. We have an IT support team on hand to give advice.
All student bedrooms, both on the main Oxford site and at our two annexe accommodation sites, have extensive wireless coverage, so if you bring your own computer you can have free, fast access to the College and University networks, and the internet, from your room. Wireless networking is also available free of charge in the libraries, common rooms and seminar rooms.
Sports Facilities
The College has excellent sports facilities, which are open to everyone, both serious athletes and those who prefer to join in just for fun. There are College teams, of varying standards, which play against other colleges. Jesus College has its own squash courts and Playing Fields with hockey, cricket, football and rugby pitches, tennis and netball courts, and a Sports Pavilion (see image on right).
The Jesus Men’s Rowing Team in action at Summer Eights, 2019
We have our own Boat House on the River Thames, with boats used all year round by our rowing crews, both complete beginners and more experienced rowers.
Visit the Jesus College Boat Club‘s website for details.
Jesus College students also enjoy free access to the University’s swimming pool and gym at the Iffley Road Sports Complex. We are also hoping to open a College gym in the Cheng Building in the next 18 months or so.
Music
There are also plenty of opportunities for Jesus College students to participate in music at both a College and University level.
The College has its own music room for practice, with a grand and upright piano. The Sports Pavilion (see image above) also provides a musical and dramatic venue, and music concerts take place in the Chapel (which has an excellent organ, piano and harpsichord).
A Music undergraduate rehearsing for a performance
The Chapel is home to a lively non-auditioning Choir.
Each year our students get involved in the Turl Street Arts Festival, organised jointly by students of the three Colleges on Turl Street (Jesus, Exeter and Lincoln).
Social Life
Jesus College is bursting with active clubs and societies, which provide the opportunity for like-minded students to join in with their favourite activities, organise events and share experiences. There are also the Common Rooms, which are at the centre of any student’s social life. These are:
The JCR (Junior Common Room), which is for undergraduates
The MCR (Middle Common Room), which is for graduates
The student-designed College Bar, located in the cellars beneath the Library, is a popular meeting place in the evenings, and the large Sports Pavilion at the College’s Playing Fields in East Oxford also doubles as an entertainment venue.