St Mary's University, Twickenham

Happy New Year from the St Mary’s community 🥂
 
2025 marks St Mary’s University’s 175th anniversary. We were founded in 1850, which makes us one of the country’s oldest Higher Education Institutions.
 
To kickstart this historic year, we took a dive into the archives to bring you some Simmie vintage photos 

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas from everyone at St Mary’s! 🎄☃️

2024 has been a great year for St Mary’s and our Simmies. Here are some of those memorable moments in a photo recap.​

1. Students presented their innovative business ideas at our first Dragon Den style event.

2. We launched our state-of-the-art E-sports Arena.

3. Rugby personality Brian Moore spoke to our Sports Journalism students.

4. We celebrated the launch of the St Mary’s University Press.

5. We awarded honorary Bachelor’s degrees to former students who received a Certificate of Education before 1983.

6. The St Mary’s Spartans became the first University team to play in the Wheelchair Rugby League.

7. BBC News Editor Ros Atkins delivered a talk on presenting the news.

8. We won Varsity for the second year in a row!

9. We retained our Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating for the third consecutive time - with ’first-class levels of support from University staff from the point of application’ noted.

10. Thirteen Simmies competed at Paris 2024 winning five medals

11. We awarded an Honorary Doctorate to alum Jason Arday, one of the youngest Cambridge professors ever.

12. Olympic silver medalist Jess Hull trained at SMU on the Sir Mo Farah track.

13. Our award-winning ‘Get Set for Success’ widening participation programme welcomed freshers for the 12th year in a row.

14. The opened the doors to The 1850, a huge new social space - ahead of our 2024 Freshers’ arrival.

15. In September, our wonderful Student Ambassadors and Student Senior Residents welcomed our new students.

16. The Law School established a free Personal Injury Law Clinic for local communities with law firm Hodge Jones & Allen.

17. We announced plans to open The St Mary’s School of Medicine in September 2026.

18. Our third year Acting BA students held their winter showcases in the campus theatre.

19. We couldn’t sum up all the wonderful moments we’ve had this year in only 20 pictures, so we’ve snuck in a few more! :)

As we wrap up another term, we want to say how proud we are of all our Simmies 💙 🤍

Wishing you a joyful and peaceful holiday season, and we can’t wait to see you in January, ready to thrive and shine! ✨
 
Whether you’re heading home or staying close by, remember that you’re never far from support.
 
🎄 STUDENT SUPPORT RESOURCES OVER CHRISTMAS 🎄 
 
While Christmas can be a time of joy and celebration, it can also be a challenging time for some people. It’s important that you have resources available to support you while the University is closed for the Christmas break.  
 
Here’s a list of external support resources you can access during the Christmas closure period: 
 
WELLBEING 
  •  Student Space  
  •  Togetherall  
  •  MIND Christmas support 
  •  Cruse Bereavement Support  
  •  LGBT Foundation’s ‘Christmas survival guide’ 
  •  For support with eating disorders at Christmas, visit BEAT. 
 
FINANCIAL SUPPORT 
  •  St Mary’s Hardship Fund (please note: all applications submitted in the immediate lead up to and over the Christmas break will be assessed after the Christmas closure period in the New Year) 
  •  Save the Student has advice on how to do Christmas on a budget 
  •  The Trussell Trust can help you find a local food bank.  
 
HOUSING CONCERNS 
  •  Shelter provides information on how to access support for homelessness 
  •  St Mary’s Studentpad shows accommodation currently available locally. 
 
OUT OF HOURS MEDICAL EMERGENCIES 
  •  If you need to seek medical help outside of your doctor’s surgery hours you can call the NHS on 111 or visit the NHS 111 website (This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In an emergency call 999). 
  •  Or you can find your nearest walk-in centres or nearest A&E department. 
 
For more information and to access any links, click the ‘Christmas student support resources’ link in our bio.

Happy Christmas Jumper Day from some of our sports teams and Student Services! Don’t forget to show us your jumper by tagging us ☃️🎄🎁

Just in case you were wondering what our (unofficial) Spotify Wrapped looks like 😎

We’re delighted to announce that Professor Sara Spear has been appointed as the new Provost and Chief Academic Officer.

Prof Spear joined St Mary’s in 2022 as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law. She has held the position of Interim Provost for the past three months, following the promotion of former Provost Prof Symeon Dagkas to Vice-Chancellor at Chichester University.

Speaking of the appointment, Vice-Chancellor Prof Anthony McClaran said, “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Sara Spear to the position of Provost and Chief Academic Officer, effective immediately.

“As part of the University Senior Leadership Team, the Provost will lead all academic areas and holds a key role in determining and implementing university strategy. I welcome Sara to the Senior Leadership Team and look forward to working closely with her to deliver our plans for the University’s growth through education, research, and excellent student experience and outcomes.”

Read more at stmarys.ac.uk 🔗

Something we’re extremely proud of at St Mary’s is our graduate outcomes, with 96% of graduates in employment, vocation, or further study within 15 months of graduation (HESA, 2024) 🎓

St Mary’s is in the Top 10 universities for graduate outcomes in the UK, excluding the Russel Group universities (The Tab, 2024)

Make sure to keep in touch with us after you leave St Mary’s, we want to hear what you’re up to!

This is your last chance to get £1000 from the Santander Bright Future Grants scholarship! Signing up will take five minutes top, so why not try it?

It was great to see so many future Simmies at our Open Day on Saturday 💙🤍

Even though this was our last one of 2024, we’re still here to answer any questions you have before the UCAS application deadline. We’re in this with you!

DM us and we’ll help 😊

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in our St Mary’s community celebrating today 🍁🦃

Sporting spotlight: The Women’s Gaelic Football team have seen great success this season, remaining undefeated in the league 🙌

The team are looking to continue their winning streak with the hope of entering the Gaelic Football Ladies Championship and Shield competitions later next year 🏆🌟

After putting on a great display so far, the team have recently received a generous kit donation of club quarter zips for both the women’s and men’s teams, as well as player of the match prizes from a parent who was impressed with the women’s team spirit and camaraderie at a recent match.

We can’t wait to see how the rest of the season goes!

Join Emma Sheppard, Founder of The MTPT Project - the UK’s charity for parent-teachers - to understand more about how the intersectional identities of teaching, parenting and gender impact teacher wellbeing.

Explore the ways we can celebrate the positive impacts of being a parent and a teacher, and strategies to boost wellbeing when the stresses of these two roles become too much.

Date: December 4th
Time: 1-2pm
Meeting ID: 316 855 138 160

Join us on our MA Public History webinar to find out more about the postgraduate course 🏫✏

On the Public History course you will investigate perceptions of the past with our hands-on approach to teaching!

Date: Thursday 5th December
Time: 12-1pm
Event ID: 9165

Find out more and sign up now on the MA Public History course page at www.stmarys.ac.uk 🔗

Our Edinburgh campus, the Gillis Centre, saw its first fall of snow at the weekend ❄⛄

St Mary’s has been running a number of postgraduate programmes in theology and education at the Gillis Centre since September 2021, located in Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield area.

Who else is excited for more snow this winter!

Throwback photo to another annual vs charity Movember game ⚽️

We’re proud of our teams!

📚

We’re delighted to announce that the School of Medicine at St Mary’s University has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with award-winning healthcare provider Circle Health Group.

The agreement will see Circle provide placements to students from the University’s new School of Medicine. The placements provided under the MOU will:

💉Offer students hands-on clinical experience aligned with the learning outcomes of their medical curriculum
🩺Develop students’ clinical reasoning, patient management, and professional skills
🥼Foster students’ understanding of the NHS’s structure, patient pathways, and healthcare delivery.

Circle Health Group is Britain’s largest network of independent hospitals, working with the NHS and insurance providers to deliver innovative patient focused healthcare.

Read more at https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/news/2024/st-marys-university-and-circle-health-group-sign-partnership-agreement

Interested in doing an MA in Catholic School Leadership? Sign up to one of our upcoming webinars!

This highly regarded postgraduate degree will be of interest to all who hold or are aiming for leadership positions in Catholic schools and colleges.

UPCOMING DATES:
25th November, 6pm (Event ID - 9166)
10th December, 6pm (Event ID - 9167)
27th January, 6pm (Event ID - 9168)

Find out more on the MA Catholic School Leadership course page or the upcoming events page at www.stmarys.ac.uk 🔗