A programme specifically designed for adult learners from around the world

Lifelong Learning Summer Programme

Sunday 20 August – Saturday 2 September 2023

This residential summer school gives lifelong learners the extraordinary opportunity to experience something of Cambridge student life in the context of a programme specifically designed for adult learners from around the world.

Girton College is one of the larger constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge, and its beautiful buildings, excellent facilities, including a gym and indoor swimming pool, and spacious grounds are located just outside the city centre.  Ultimately Girton is a wonderful place in which to meet other lifelong learners in comfortable surroundings and as part of a friendly community.

Choose to attend the full two-week programme, or opt to attend for just one week (Sunday 20 August – Saturday 26 August 2023, or Sunday 27 August – Saturday 2 September 2023).

Participants take two academic courses per week.

Courses offered in the first week

• The Stones of Cambridge: An Introduction to Architectural History
• The English Novel Through the Ages
• A Thousand Years of the British Monarchy, 1066-2023
• British Government in the 21st Century 

Courses offered in the second week

• Cambridge Scientists and Explorers, 16th Century to Present Day 
• The History of Art in Cambridge Collections
• Cambridge Poets Through the Ages: John Donne to J.H. Prynne
• Shaping the Modern World: European Politics since the 19th Century

Evening Talks

In addition to the academic courses on offer, a series of evening lectures are also provided to help participants learn more about Cambridge and the research that is going on in the University.

In past summers, these lectures included:

• Dr Amy Donovan on extreme volcanoes
• Dr Caroline Shenton on a thousand years of the British Parliament
• Dr Ben Outhwaite on the University of Cambridge’s Genizah Collection
• Dr Hazel Mills on the history of Girton College
• Dr Ewan St John Smith on the peculiarities of the naked mole-rat and what we can learn from them.

Further information 

• See what the summer school timetable might look like (PDF)