Southlands College celebrates 150th Anniversary
Southlands College, one of four colleges that makes up The University of Roehampton, has marked its 150th anniversary in a series of high-profile events, bringing together University presidents, academics and alumni from around the world to celebrate the College’s rich history and exciting future.
The celebrations included the launch of the College’s Transformation Fund, designed to raise money for the future redevelopment of Southlands College to create collaborative and inclusive spaces for students, and open the College up to the local community featuring Methodist minister and politician Lord Leslie Griffiths, local MP Fleur Anderson, Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard, Vice-Chancellor, and Phil Walker, Chair of the University of Roehampton’s Council. The College also hosted a conference, ‘Sustainability: Sharing Values, Creating Communities’, featuring talks from three of the UK’s leading environmental activists and academics, Professor Alastair McIntosh, Professor Robert Beckford, and Professor Molly Scott Cato who is based at Roehampton.
Southlands also played host to a party of distinguished Presidents and guests from US Methodist universities and the American Higher Education sector in addition to a major reunion of over 200 former students at a service in Digby Stuart Chapel and a celebratory lunch at Southlands itself. Included in the alumni was 104-year-old Freda Smith (née Walton), who trained at Southlands College in the 1930s.
Dr Christopher Stephens, Head of College, said: “Celebrating our foundation is an opportunity to reflect on the historic value of the Methodist Church’s mission in higher education and to consider how that mission can be relevant and important for our students today. As they look ahead to a challenging future, we hope that the underlying Methodist values espoused by Southlands College can help shape our students to be leaders in a society committed to inclusivity, to social justice and to building a better world for us all.”
For more information about the events celebrating the college’s 150th anniversary click here.
