Recreational Facilities
There are a number of rooms dotted around the college that play host to our tutorial program and can also be booked for private or group study. Our library is also a popular study space. Open 24/7, it provides access to printers, scanners and a variety of textbooks and fiction books for general reading. You can borrow your core textbooks from the UC library, rather than needing to purchase them.
For the creatively inclined, we have a dedicated art and design studio. This space hosts photography green screens, fashion mannequins and sewing machines, a large scale printer, drawing tables and several computers with access to the Adobe Creative Cloud software.
Each year we usually have quite a few students studying music or practicing music as a hobby. We have several pianos around the college, as well as a music room, which students can book for these purposes. We also recently created a music production studio, complete with all the equipment needed to mix music or record podcasts.
We believe outdoor space is fundamental to wellbeing. A world away from the high rise buildings of the city, our campus has lots of gardens, flower beds and courtyards, where students can spend time reading, studying, picnicking and more.
The founders of University (Women’s) College had an ambition to ensure the campus was set in a beautiful natural environment which always felt accessible to its students, in contrast to the more severe, often Gothic design of the traditional men’s colleges. Their plans for UC were inspired by the women’s colleges in England.
Over the years our gardens have continued to evolve and in 2010 we established an organic kitchen garden, opened by Stephanie Alexander (a highly regarded Australian cook and UC alumna). Each year, student volunteers from the sustainability committee work with our college gardeners to harvest the summer produce and help with the winter plantings. Students even get the chance to taste the fruits (and veggies) of their labour, as all the food produced goes into the meals cooked by our chefs.
We have also recently established a herb garden and a native food garden, with a focus on indigenous plants, including finger lime and lemon myrtle. Plus, we have developed a Hugelkultur composting system, ensuring garden waste can now be composted onsite.
UC has two junior common rooms where you can read, watch TV and Foxtel, play pool, table tennis, board games, or simply hang out with friends. There is also a senior common room for graduate students and resident tutors. This space is used for both study sessions and social events, such as wine and cheese nights.
UC has a well-equipped gym on site, featuring weights and cardio machines. All UC students also have access to the UniMelb gym included in their fees (even if they are not a UniMelb student). This gym is a short walk from the College and features a swimming pool and access to a wide program of group fitness classes, including yoga, pilates, Zumba, Bodypump and more.
UC also has a multi-purpose outdoor sports court for leisure or training and sits just across the road from the ovals and running track of Princes Park. There is also a busy calendar of intercollegiate sports to participate in each semester.