College Priorities

Trinity College Priorities 2025-28

Trinity’s Mission

For nearly five centuries, the enduring charitable mission of Trinity College has been “the advancement of education, learning, religion, and research” for the public benefit, primarily by the maintenance and development of a College in the University and City of Cambridge.

The College’s priorities for 2025–2028 build on our heritage and enduring mission, while adapting to the complex challenges of today. Underpinned by Trinity’s commitment to equality, diversity and accessibility, they set out how the College will continue to be a place where students, Fellows, and staff can thrive, and how it will contribute to the strength of the University and wider Cambridge ecosystem and community. It should be noted that the priorities are not in order of importance.

The College’s Principles

Our approach reflects three enduring common principles:
• Excellence in education, learning and research as part of the collegiate University.
• Sustainability of our College estate and of our activities.
• Wellbeing of our students, Fellows and staff.

Trinity College’s Priorities 2025-28

Attracting and retaining the best students
Trinity’s students are the heart of College life and the College will continue to reach out to schools and communities to ensure Trinity reaches the most talented applicants from all backgrounds.

Trinity also recognises the importance of communications to proactively reach potential students, which is why the College will oversee enhancements to the website.

There will be continued financial support of students through bursaries that are flexible and responsive to student needs, including increased travel bursaries for UK students and a continuation of the Trinity Maintenance Grant.

The Trinity Plus programme, which offers all students impactful opportunities in entrepreneurship, policy and the arts will be delivered and there will be continued support for international student visas and health surcharges.

Providing excellent education and learning
Trinity has always been a home for the world’s brightest minds and will continue to support excellent education, learning and research. The College will employ Teaching Fellows across a broad range of subjects and will continue to attract and retain the highest-quality Fellows through expanded HR services, dedicated careers support and competitive compensation packages.

At the undergraduate level, the College will provide domestic and overseas studentships and continue with piloting programmes to strengthen academic foundations for new undergraduate students.

Supporting research
Trinity will maintain the advancement of world-class research by expanding its support for Fellows’ research funding, including for travel and purchasing small equipment. The College will also provide studentships, including for MPhils leading to research degrees, and both internal and external graduate studentships.

The College will expand support for accommodation, academic conferences and events.

Attracting and retaining excellent staff
As a workplace that values and maintains excellent staff, Trinity will maintain fair and competitive compensation packages, invest in staff development (including leadership and management training), and support staff welfare and wellbeing.

Trinity will further enhance communication with staff, respond to feedback, and ensure that fair and transparent policies are consistently applied for all.

Fostering an outstanding and inclusive experience for all members
Trinity will foster an outstanding and inclusive experience for all members by ensuring the delivery of long-term priority building projects, which include the sustainable development of state-of-the art facilities such as a new communal social study place, enhanced student library and increased sports facilities.

The College will also deliver a cost-effective catering service while reducing waste.

Outside of academic studies, the College will enhance funding for student societies, boost its welfare provision for students, Fellows, and staff, and support the chapel and choir.

Digital and Technology services will continue to evolve to support learning, research and administration, including through the use of AI.

Stewarding and enhancing the College’s estate
The beautiful buildings at Trinity are both our heritage and our responsibility. The College will prioritise its multi-year planning for building maintenance, decarbonisation and capital projects.

Accessibility for all members of the College across the site will be improved, including an increase to the proportion of ensuite rooms.

College gardens will also continue to be managed with a focus on sustainability, biodiversity and accessibility, creating spaces that serve families and the Trinity community.

Continuing to support other colleges, the University and the City of Cambridge
Prioritising support for graduate studentships, Trinity will take a deliberate and diversified approach to ensure it provides complementary support through schemes such as the Trinity Cambridge Research Studentship Scheme (TCRS). The programme will continue to be expanded and strengthened, with the aim of securing sustainable long-term funding.

In addition, funding for other colleges and departments will be increased through the Colleges Fund and widening participation funds. Trinity will provide support for College teaching and mechanisms, such as encouraging joint appointments between underfunded colleges and departments, co-funding the establishment of lectureships where needed, and supporting any university decision on supervisors that underfunded colleges could not afford.

This collaborative spirit extends to schemes such as the Cambridge Bursary Scheme, which Trinity is helping to expand, as well as the Isaac Newton Trust and The Cambridge Trust, by increasing leverage of external sources of funds.

Outside of the University, the College will look to increase its support of local communities in Cambridge and East Anglia.

Leading positively on sustainability
Sustainability is core to Trinity’s mission, and the College aims to take a lead role in funding sustainable research. Trinity will fund studentships to encourage engagement in sustainability as well as leverage its convening power by bringing together policy experts and researchers to share lessons learned.

As part of a continued commitment to understand and reduce its impact on the environment, Trinity will reduce food waste and its reliance on fossil fuels by improving energy efficiency across its estate, leading by example and showing how a historic site can balance the requirements of heritage with thermal upgrades to buildings.

Trinity will also invest positively in its operational estate, including enhancing biodiversity.

Managing Trinity’s finances to support the College in perpetuity
To ensure the endowment continues to provide a sustainable source of long-term income in support of the College’s enduring charitable mission, Trinity will maintain appropriate financial governance and ensure that College spending growth is on a sustainable path.

The College will evolve the endowment to achieve its dual mandate of CPI+5% returns while having a positive environmental impact and effectively manage all investment and financial risk within tolerance.