Alumni Relations and Development

With alumni support, the College also established the TrinityPlus programme. This initiative is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to broaden their horizons while gaining new skills and experience to carry into their futures. Each of the three TrinityPlus strands offered this year – Entrepreneurship, Policy, and Musical Theatre – provided the chance to learn in collaboration with fellow students. Following the success of the pilot programme, plans are afoot to enhance and expand our TrinityPlus offering; do get in touch with the Alumni Office if you’d like to learn more about opportunities for support.

In February, the College launched the first Trinity Policy Dialogue in the series, another development made possible by a generous donation. Chaired by the Master, Dame Sally Davies (e2019), the event opened with the inaugural lecture entitled ‘The NHS is broken – how can life sciences fix it?’ from The Rt Hon. Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Senior Partner at Newmarket Strategy and an authority on health innovation, policy and life science. Thank you to our panel of experts who chaired the Q & A session before everyone enjoyed networking drinks and dinner in Hall. To strengthen Trinity’s impact and leadership in the sector, the Alumni Office is also developing a new alumni group, the Trinity Government and Policy Association. Please email the Alumni Office to join the group.

Trinity admitted three new Fellow Benefactors at the Commemoration of Benefactors Feast on 21 March: Robert Crawford (1992), Selena Sun (1995) and Dr Victor Dahdaleh. Robert has supported PhD studentships in the Humanities, particularly in Japanese language and studies. Selena’s generosity has enabled students to travel and study in Asia and supported bursaries, and Victor’s philanthropy is supporting a studentship in Medicine. We were pleased to be joined by other Fellow Benefactors, by Lord Justice Rabinder Singh (1982) who gave an address in Chapel, and by first-year doctor and Olympic rowing champion Imogen Grant (2014), who proposed the health of the College after Dinner.

Our mentoring programmes continue to go from strength to strength, with 150 alumni helping current students and recent graduates this academic year. In March, our students were able to take advantage of the third mentoring scheme, and in October, our recent graduate scheme returned for the second time, with alumni who graduated in the past six years benefiting from the valuable insight and experience of older alumni. We are grateful to everybody who has given their time and expertise to help make a success of the scheme.

We held four Annual Gatherings this year, welcoming back three cohorts in July – those who matriculated in 1993–1995, in 1975 for their 50th anniversary, and in 1978–1980. In September, it was the turn of those who matriculated in 1981–1983 to reunite. These are always happy and spirited occasions, and we are always impressed by the distances which many travel to take part.

Trinity Alumni Associations and Groups have had a very active year too, as you’ll see in the reports from our group Chairs that follow. The Trinity Law Association held its Biennial Dinner in March, followed by the Trinity College Choir Association Dinner in April and the Trinity Business and City Association in May. September was also notable for the splendid First and Third Trinity Boat Club Bicentenary Celebration Dinner, including a special exhibition marking 200 years of rowing at Trinity.

Good progress is being made on our Trinity 2046 estate plan, the vision for how our buildings and green spaces can be developed to ensure the best possible environment and facilities for future generations. We hope to make substantial progress on the priority projects (the redevelopment of the Brewhouse site, and the renewal of the undergraduate Library and the sports facilities at Old Field) in the next few years. We hope to share more news over the year ahead, but if you would like to discover more about opportunities to support the project, please do get in touch with me or the team.

The ARDO team is busy planning events and activities for 2026 to enable you to stay in touch with the College and one another wherever you’re based, so we hope you’ll get involved. Don’t forget to share your news and developments with us too by emailing alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk. We wish you the very best for the year ahead.