Stay Kosher on Campus

College 'Kosher-Friendly' Ratings

St Hugh's College - Exceptional
St Hugh's is the only college with an exceptional record for providing for students wishing to keep kosher; fantastic pastoral care is combined with excellent facilities for three years accommodation. The college has a long history of providing kitchen facilities: providing a kitchen for two students 2000-2003, for three students in 2004, for two students in 2005, for one student in 2006 and for two students in 2007. The kitchens are willing to order pre-packaged kosher meals from a supplier (e.g. 'Hermolis') and heat the food for special formal dinners. There is no college 'meals fee' to be paid. The college staff are extremely kind and understanding; they will do their very best to help.

Corpus Christi College - Good
Corpus offers three years accommodation and as such has a variety of facilities available. Few people live out, although some college accommodation can be quite distant from the city centre (Banbury/Iffley). If first year students request a kitchen a room with a shared kitchen this can often be arranged. In general the college has been known to be accommodating and understanding about Jewish quirks.

Lady Margaret Hall - Good
LMH have always been very accommodating and understanding, although they have never had the resources to be able to offer a separate kitchen to those who have asked. Students who want to keep kosher have been exempted from kitchen charges and been allowed to have a microwave in their room. There are often also general kitchens available containing ovens and stoves, which can be helpful with a few tips and tricks (double wrapping etc). LMH have also been extremely helpful in terms of other issues: "During my first year they changed the locks on all the buildings to electronic locks; they then left the lock to my building deactivated for the rest of that term, and provided me with a manual key for the main entrance to college. They also then offered to put up an 'eruv' for me. In my second year I lived out, and when I came back they had made a couple more changes to locks etc. I spoke with the domestic bursar before the room ballot in the third term of second year, and we agreed that I would be best suited to the one building which you don't have to press a button to get out of, and they then installed a manual lock on that building for me. They had changed the lock to the main entrance somehow so it was no longer possible for me to have a manual key for it, so they installed a manual override lock on the side entrance and provided me with a key for it. All in all they couldn't be more helpful!"

University College - (Regarding Graduate Students)
Information in our possession regarding 'univ' applies principally to graduate students: The domestic bursar and Graduate Student Committee have been known to be particularly kind and understanding and have, for two years, provided a private kitchenette to a graduate student who keeps kosher (from committee accommodation).

Oriel College - Average
Students at Oriel have been able to arrange to be situated in close proximity to a communal kitchen, to have a fridge in their room and to keep a private microwave in the communal kitchen (but not in their room). The accommodation staff have been known to be difficult but the senior and pastoral staff are usually more understanding. Students have been able to avoid paying the compulsory meals fee.

St Hilda's College - Average
Students have struggled to obtain exemption from paying the compulsory fee for meals, but have managed it with the assistance of their personal tutor. Fridges and kettles are permitted in students' rooms (on request) but not microwaves (private microwaves may be kept in communal kitchens unsecured). There are some shared communal kitchen facilities. The kitchens are willing to order pre-packaged kosher meals from a supplier (e.g. 'Hermolis') and heat the food for special formal dinners.

Lincoln College - Average
Cooking is prohibited in the rooms, not even microwaves are allowed. However, third year accommodation at Museum Road and fourth year accommodation at St Johns Street has shared kitchen facilities (4-5 people) in which it might be possible to keep a degree of kashrut. Lincoln has been very sympathetic with issues of Shabbat observance (electronic door locks, not taking exams, etc.), and has done its best to be accommodating. The kitchens are willing to order pre-packaged kosher meals from a supplier (e.g. 'Hermolis') and heat the food for special formal dinners.

St Anne's College - Average (?)
St Anne's may well be sympathetic if you ask for a room big enough to accommodate a fridge. The college have a variety of facilities and some communal kitchen facilities.

Christ Church - Poor
Being an old college with antiquated facilities, keeping kosher at Christ Church is physically difficult but the college administration are helpful. Despite the fact that the college offers three years accommodation, facilities are still very difficult to come by. Fire regulations are very tight, microwaves can only be used at a few designated 'microwave points' and there is only one communal kitchen on the main site for the entire JCR, which is often shut! One of the annexes has flats of 3 or 4 people with their own kitchen. The other annex has a few different kitchens, shared between anything from 3 to a whole stairway of people. Despite this difficult lack of facilities, the college do try to be helpful where they can. One student writes, "In my first and second year I was given a room in the stairway with that microwave point and was able to put my own microwave in a cupboard to which I was given the only key; I was also allowed to keep a freezer in my room". It does seem that there are plans to expand the provision of 'microwave points' and kitchen facilities but this has not yet born fruit. Getting kosher meals in hall isn't easy (few have ever asked for it) but it has been known to happen on the odd occasion, for the odd formal Law Society dinner and so on; the society in question may be asked to pay for it. Christ Church are often generous with helping students in need of financial aid and this has, on rare occasions, been extended to those with greater expenses for the sake of Kashrut. Overall, good pastoral care but the antiquated facilities make using appliances in one's room difficult.

St Peter's College - (?)
St Peter's has been found to be generally unhelpful, although they are willing to take students off their meal plan if they are not living in college(!)

St Benet's Hall - Very Poor
As a Permanent Private Hall with a strong Catholic ethos, students wishing to keep kosher are recommended not to apply to St Benet's. On occasion that they have had a student who wanted to keep kosher they were found to be most unhelpful, "They refuse to provide me with food, despite me paying £280 a term (that's £35 a week). I have suggested that I could get meals for £4 a time and dine in four times a week. That'd be £16 of the £35 but the Master refused citing lack of funds… He also told me that if he'd interviewed me then I wouldn't have been accepted because 'it just doesn't work'".

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