Common room (university)


A common room is a group into which students are organised in some universities, particularly in the United Kingdom, normally in a subdivision of the university such as a college or hall of residence, in addition to an institution-wide students' union. They represent their members within the hall or college, operate certain services within these institutions such as laundry or recreation, and provide opportunities for socialising. There are variations based on institutional tradition and needs, but classically the following common rooms will exist:
Common rooms are particularly found at collegiate universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, York and Lancaster, but can also be found at non-collegiate universities, where they are normally associated with halls of residence. A significant difference between colleges and halls of residence generally is that students continue to be members of a college when not resident in the college; thus college JCRs serve all students who are members of the college, whether or not they live in college accommodation, while hall JCRs serve only residents of that hall.
As well as in the UK, organisations known as common rooms are found in universities in Australia, Ghana, Ireland, Singapore and the US
In addition to this, each of the above terms may also refer to an actual common room designated for the use of these groups, and at some universities has only this meaning. At the University of Cambridge, the term combination room is also used, with the same abbreviations.

United Kingdom

Common rooms are found at almost all collegiate universities and in halls at a few non-collegiate universities. Student common rooms may be classified as students' unions under the Education Act 1994. Until the Charities Act 2006, common rooms were exempt charities, but under that act
and the successor Charities Act 2011 they are now required to register with the Charity Commission if they have an income of £100,000 per annum or higher., eight common rooms are registered with the commission, all from colleges of Durham University. Like other students' unions, student common rooms may appoint sabbatical officers; this is common at Durham but rare at other universities. As colleges vary in size between universities – the median Durham college had 1385 students in 2024/25, while the median Oxford college had 665 students – so do the sizes of their common rooms.
Common rooms at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are independent of their central students' unions, but the students' unions at these and the other collegiate universities have mechanisms for communication with the common rooms, either through membership of the executive, formal representation in the students' union assembly or regular meetings.

JCR president

Most JCRs are led by a JCR president, elected by the JCR members, supported by various other elected officers who together form the JCR committee.
The term senior man has been used to refer to this position at some colleges. The term reflects the history of these colleges, which were founded as single-sex, male-only institutions, and remains the only title used for the head of the JCR at Hatfield College, Durham. University College, Durham, also used the title of senior man exclusively until 2015, since when office-holders have been able to choose between senior student, senior man and senior woman. Similarly, Trinity College, Melbourne, also uses the title senior student for their student association president. St Chad's College, Durham, used senior man or senior woman for the head of its JCR until 2018, when this was changed to JCR president. Van Mildert College, Durham, also previously used the term senior man until at least 1998.

Collegiate universities

Oxford

The earliest junior common rooms at the University of Oxford, dating back to the 17th century, were private student clubs, limited to richer students who could afford their membership fees, and known for drinking and debauchery. With the reforms of Oxford in the mid-19th century, there was a crackdown on JCR activities, with Corpus Christi going as far as to disband its JCR in 1852. In 1868, New College moved to dissolve its JCR after a particularly egregious incident. An alternative solution was put forward by Alfred Robinson, a tutor at the college, which saw the JCR come under college oversight and, by including membership in the college battels, making it an inclusive society of all undergraduates in the college. Rather than a rich students' drinking club, the JCR became the centre of undergraduate life and the main point of contact between the college and the undergraduates.
By the end of the 19th century, similar arrangements were put in place at almost all Oxford colleges. When post-graduate numbers increased dramatically in the 1960s, similar arrangements, modelled on the JCRs, were put in place for them in the shape of middle common rooms.
A typical college now has a JCR for undergraduates, an MCR for graduates and an SCR for its fellows. JCRs and MCRs have a committee, with a president and so on, that represent their students to college authorities, the Oxford University Student Union, etc., in addition to being an actual room for the use of members. SCRs typically have a president, an academic member of the body who deals with higher-level administrative matters pertaining to the SCR, such as inviting proposed visiting fellows to the body and identifying invited lecturers to any particular college event. SCRs are typically characterised by a copious provision of coffee, newspapers, and moderately informal space for academics to think and discuss ideas.
Following the Charities Act 2006, student common rooms had the option of registering as independent charities or of registering with their college, with some common rooms taking each route. At Magdalen, for example, which was one of the first colleges to complete the process, the JCR voted to become an independent charity, while the MCR registered with the college. St Catherine's JCR "declared independence" from the college authorities in 2015 in protest against financial controls imposed by the college.
There exist several exceptions to the standard common room system. Instead of maintaining a separate JCR and MCR, St Benet's Hall maintained a Joint Common Room which jointly represented both undergraduate and graduate students, until the hall's closure in 2022. At Nuffield College, an all-graduate college founded in 1937 before the conception of MCRs, students are members of a JCR. Additionally, although Wadham College maintains a separate JCR and MCR, its entire student population is represented by a combined students' union.
Alternative names are sometimes used for college MCRs. Brasenose College has the "Hulme Common Room", and University College has the "Weir Common Room", named in honour of college alumni. At Christ Church, St Antony's and Templeton the representative bodies for postgraduate students are called "graduate common rooms" or "GCRs". At some graduate colleges such as Wolfson, St. Cross and Linacre College, students and fellows share a single common room.
The JCR and MCR presidents of all affiliated Oxford common rooms, in addition to their OUSU reps, are automatically voting members of OUSU's governing council, which meets fortnightly during term to decide on virtually all aspects of OUSU's policy. the OUSU council meetings take place in odd-numbered weeks of the university term. JCR presidents also get together in even-numbered weeks for meetings of the presidents' committee. MCR presidents also get together up to three times a term for meetings of the MCR presidents' committee.
Colleges sometimes have additional common rooms, such as the "Summer Common Room" at Magdalen College, or the "Alumni Common Room" at St John's College. These are sometimes, but not always, associated with a particular section of the student or academic body.
A pilot scheme started in 2025 sees the JCR and MCR presidents meet with the officers of Oxford University Students' Union twice a term in the Conference of Common Rooms.

Cambridge

At the University of Cambridge, common rooms as rooms have existed for a long time. However, it was only in the mid 20th century that the idea of the JCR committee as a representative body of the students arose. Prior to this, the room had generally been administered by the 'amalgamated clubs' – the college's sport societies – sometimes through a JCR committee formed by these societies, sometimes simply through a JCR secretary. At Magdalene, the JCR committee was appointed by the tutors rather than by students until the late 1950s, while at Caius the previous year's committee appointed their successors until 1963. The last college to move from a single officer to an elected committee was Fitzwilliam in 1969.
The same abbreviations, JCR, MCR, and SCR are used for combination rooms and common rooms. The JCR represents undergraduates, with postgraduate students being members of the middle combination room. In some colleges, postgraduates are members of both the MCR and JCR: for example, at St John's, where the MCR is known as the Samuel Butler Room. Most colleges also have an SCR. At Pembroke the common rooms are called "parlours", such as the Junior Parlour and Graduate Parlour. At Jesus College, Cambridge, the JCR is known as "The Jesus College Students' Union", with its physical space being the Marshall Room. A similar arrangement is found at Trinity College, where the JCR is known as the 'Trinity College Students' Union' and occupies the physical JCR, and the MCR is known as the BA Society, occupying the BA Rooms.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, has both a JCR, MCR, and SCR along with a Sidney Sussex College Students' Union of which all students are members.
At Homerton College the JCR is known as the Homerton Union of Students. The president is the only sabbatical JCR or equivalent officer at a Cambridge college.
JCRs and MCRs have elected committees to represent their interests within their colleges and in the central students' union. The committees are almost universally led by a president and a range of other elected positions to cover specific areas or interest or functions. There is a great deal of variety between the colleges in terms of the roles that the JCRs and MCRs undertake, how much influence they have in college affairs and how many functions they provide. Nearly all are responsible for organising Freshers Week and frequent entertainments.
Cambridge Students' Union's student council has two members per college, corresponding to one for each JCR and MCR except where a college has only a single student common room.