St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College
University of Cambridge
View over the rear buildings from the Backs
Arms of St John's College, being the arms of the foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort Arms: Royal arms of England a bordure componée azure and argent
Scarf colours: navy, with two equally-spaced narrow stripes of Cambridge blue edged with red
Location	St John's Street (map)
Full name	The College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge
Abbreviation	JN[1]
Motto	Souvent me Souvient (Old French; motto of the foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort)
Motto in English	I often remember / Remember me often[2]
Founder	Lady Margaret Beaufort
Established	1511; 513 years ago (1511)
Named after	The Hospital of St John the Evangelist
Sister colleges	Balliol College, Oxford Trinity College Dublin
Master	Heather Hancock, from October 2020
Undergraduates	634 (2022–23)
Postgraduates	368 (2022–23)
Endowment	£619.6m (2019)[3]
Website	www.joh.cam.ac.uk
JCR	sjcjcr.com
SBR	sbr.soc.srcf.net
Map
Location in Central Cambridge Show map of Central Cambridge Location in Cambridge Show map of Cambridge

St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge,^[4] is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The aims of the college, as specified by its statutes, are the promotion of education, religion, learning and research.^[5] It is one of the largest Oxbridge colleges in terms of student numbers. For 2022, St John's was ranked 6th of 29 colleges in the Tompkins Table (the annual league table of Cambridge colleges) with over 35 per cent of its students earning first-class honours. It is the second wealthiest college in Oxford and Cambridge, after its neighbour Trinity College, Cambridge.^[6]

Members of the college include the winners of twelve Nobel Prizes, seven prime ministers, twelve archbishops of various countries, at least two princes and three saints.^[7][8] The Romantic poet William Wordsworth studied at St John's, as did William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, two abolitionists who led the movement that brought slavery to an end in the British Empire. Prince William was affiliated with the college while undertaking a university-run course in estate management in 2014.^[9]

St John's is well known for its choir, its members' success in a variety of inter-collegiate sporting competitions and its annual May Ball. The Cambridge Apostles and the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club were founded by members of the college. The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race tradition began with a St John's student and the college boat club, Lady Margaret Boat Club, is the oldest in the university. In 2011, the college celebrated its quincentenary, an event marked by a visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.^[10]