Our Anniversary Campaign
Posted:
22 Oct 2025
Master Mary Hockaday, Natalie Acton, Professor Ramji Venkataramanan, Dr Michael Sutherland and Tim HarveySamuel speaking at the Anniversary Campaign launch.
The world is changing, and with that change comes new challenges for our students and for our College. On Saturday 5 July, we launched our 675 Anniversary Campaign, our College’s transformational fundraising initiative to nurture and protect everything we love and cherish at Trinity Hall.
Our Anniversary Campaign can be summarised thus.
- All talented applicants should believe there’s a place for them at Trinity Hall, regardless of their background.
- All of our students should feel they truly belong to a community that inspires and supports their academic ambitions, wellbeing and resilience; a community surrounded by spaces to live and study while also being greener, more sustainable and more suited to the needs of students today.
- Our aim is to help every student become a success in whatever path they choose. Speaking on these aims at our Anniversary Campaign launch, our Senior Officers explained how your philanthropy and our College’s resources will secure Trinity Hall’s future.
Bursar
Tim Harvey-Samuel
“Collegiate Cambridge is much poorer financially than many other comparable institutions with whom we compete academically. We invest about £12,000 per head per annum more in our students than we receive in fee income, which means that we run an education deficit of about £6.8 million annually. We’re not fundraising to bridge that gap. Our endowment currently enables us to meet that deficit year on year, but it leaves us very short when it comes to investing for the future in our academic resources and estate. We aim to be able to adapt our estate to the new ways in which students work, creating spaces for both their academic and cultural activities that meet their needs for many years to come. Our target is to raise £50 million, of which we have already raised half. We are certain with your help and generosity; we can reach this goal.”
Senior Tutor
Dr Michael Sutherland
“The Campaign will have a huge impact on our outreach activities, addressing attainment gaps and reaching out to students who might not see Cambridge as a place where they could belong. Our ‘You’ll Fit In’ programme enables students from underrepresented backgrounds at Cambridge to learn more about the admissions process and see what the University is really like. 160 of these students then join us for a residential event each year. They are taught by our academics, have lunch in Hall, and begin to see themselves studying for an undergraduate degree at Trinity Hall.”
Acting Postgraduate Tutor
Professor Ramji Venkataramanan
“Our aim is to attract the best and brightest to Cambridge, and they come from all over the world. Many students have significant debt after undergraduate studies and pursuing a postgraduate degree is not an option without financial support. The costs are especially steep for international students. Donors have helped us make a real difference by enabling us to offer postgraduate studentships, but we aim to do much more. This Campaign is especially timely given the huge cuts that we’re facing from Research Council funding in the UK. Your donations can help to mitigate these cuts by helping our strongest applicants come to Cambridge and contribute their talents to society.”
Head of Student Support at the University of Cambridge
Natalie Acton
“25% of the undergraduate population have some sort of disability that would count under the Equality Act, and a growing proportion within that, face mental health difficulties. We as a college need to be very aware of that and be a place where early support can be given. The Campaign will enable our College Wellbeing team to provide early intervention to our students and direct students to University support services, like counselling and mental health and disability support, when needed.”
Master
Mary Hockaday
“In a very turbulent world, the College highlights the importance of sustained, independent, human-scale commitment to teaching, learning and innovation. We hope that you will join us in our mission to ensure that Trinity Hall supports the future of learning and continues to excel in the modern world.”