Student Blog: Leaving Brasenose

Leaving Brasenose feels almost the same as arriving did: terribly daunting, incredibly exciting and completely unknown. Now, four years and two degrees later, I feel just as uncertain as I dip my toes into the ocean of life-after-graduation. But I also feel prepared and confident that my time at Brasenose has given me the skills, qualities and friends needed to give this whole ‘adulthood’ malarky a really good go.

I don’t believe that anybody comes to Oxford feeling ready; I imagine many of us don’t even as we say our ‘see-you-laters’ to the city’s cobbled streets on graduation day. I clearly wasn’t ready to say mine last academic year and so applied to stick around at Brasenose to study my MSt in Global and Imperial History. My master’s research, which picked up on threads I had explored in my undergraduate dissertation, explored themes of decolonisation, political repression and state-building in post-colonial Cameroon throughout the 1960s. Cameroon had been a German colony until the First World War when the country divided by the League of Nations into two territories to be administered as trusteeships by Britain and France. In my undergraduate research, I had explored how this colonial dynamic shaped the Cameroonian war of decolonisation in an international context during the 1950s and I was eager to explore Cameroon’s history further at the post-graduate level.

I truly believe that there’s no better place to study history than at Brasenose. Right in the centre of Oxford, our college library overlooks the iconic Radcliffe Camera – that’s the History Faculty Library. Not only this, but Brasenose has exceptionally supportive tutors and an amazing college librarian who’s always willing to add material to our already extensive history and politics library. As both an undergraduate and post-graduate student, I have benefitted from the generous financial support provided by both Brasenose and the History Faculty which has allowed me to pursue my academic interests without the worry of financial limitations. I gratefully received funding to undertake two research trips to France where I collected archival material in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. Additionally, I enjoyed taking French courses at the University Language Centre, both paid for by the faculty and college and which have been invaluable to my personal, academic and professional development.

Over the past four years, I’ve loved getting involved in all aspects of college life. On the topic of funding, I had a great time working as a student caller in the 2022 and 2025 Telethon campaigns. On both occasions, I appreciated the opportunity to get to know the community of Brasenose alumni and to give back to the funds without which my university experience would have looked vastly different. I’ve also had tremendous fun working DTB – a great way to earn a bit of pocket money with an inbuilt excuse to socialise! Brasenose is such a vibrant place with an awesome sense of community and active social scene. I’ve dipped my toes into pretty much all of it…though to varying degrees. I was a member (I use the term very loosely) of the netball club in first year to go to sports socials, took part in the college team for the Oxford Town and Gown 10K twice, and I’m proud to be BNCFC’s number one fan. My only regret from my time at Brasenose is that I didn’t get involved in the college music scene sooner. I’ve loved singing in the college choir in my last year, reminding me how important music is for mind, body and soul. I had never sung Evensong repertoire before but have found such value in trying something new and challenging. Our recent tour to Belgium was an awesome experience, musically and socially…and performing in Brussles Cathedral was pretty cool!

My biggest, proudest, most special involvement in life at Brasenose, however, was my time as Access and Admissions Rep. Not only did I have the wonderful privilege of working so closely with the incomparable Dr Joe Organ and everyone else in the college office, but I got to contribute to making Oxford more accessible and inclusive. If I’m allowed to be cliché (I’ll keep it brief!), I certainly wouldn’t have made it to Brasenose had it not been for Joe and my Access Rep predecessors. A girl from Barnsley, a mining-town in South Yorkshire, Oxford was a dream that didn’t always feel possible. Even having managed to secure a place, I worried that I wouldn’t fit in – that, although I’d managed to infiltrate Oxford’s hallowed halls, it wasn’t for people ‘like me’. ‘You can take the girl out of Yorkshire…’ or something like that. Having spent four years successfully making this place a home, I feel very happy to have been proven wrong. It was poignant, then, to visit schools in Yorkshire, including my former sixth form, on Brasenose’s annual Roadshow to deliver assemblies and workshops encouraging aspirational students to apply to Oxbridge. I also loved giving tours of college to visiting school groups and helping to organise the 2023 Open Days, mostly because I’m super proud of everything that Brasenose is.

So, how to measure my time at Brasenose? It’s been four years, twelve academic terms, or 1,460 days. I’ve graduated twice and will be leaving with two degrees. It could be all the hours I spent in the library, or, more important, all those I spent out of it. The best unit probably isn’t time or achievements but memories and people. Getting here and leaving here can feel hard, uncertain and, at times, unreal but if I know anything at all, it’s that Brasenose certainly makes it all worth it.

By Erin (formerly of Kettlethorpe High School and Greenhead College)