You will not be surprised that Cambridge has its own distinctive traditions. Little wonder when you think it’s an institution that celebrates its 800th birthday in 2009. Time to explain two terms; ‘undergraduate’ and ‘Tripos’.

An ‘undergraduate’ is a student who is studying for their first degree. Many people at Cambridge are graduates continuing to study for a second or even sometimes a third degree. So, far from it being a complicated way of saying ‘student’, undergraduate is actually quite a practical word to explain who you are.

‘Tripos’ has its origin right here in Senate House. This used to be the place where oral exams took place. The lucky candidate took these while sitting on a three-legged stool – called a tripos. And that name survives today as the term used to describe degree courses and their examinations in Cambridge.

You might be thinking that the University of Cambridge is not like most other universities. For a start there is no main campus, so you can’t say that the University is anywhere in particular. In fact, it is everywhere. There are places to live, lecture rooms, libraries and computing facilities all intermingling with the buildings of this ancient city rather than on a single campus. The University has grown organically over time, with twenty-nine undergraduate Colleges and over one hundred and fifty faculties and departments scattered all over the town. And it is still expanding, with the development of a new science site 15 minutes’ walk from here in West Cambridge.