Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme

Mansfield’s Visiting Student Programme, 2020/21

VSP Representative

Helen Lacey, Director of the Visiting Student Programme (VSP) at Mansfield, reports on this year’s developments, including the challenges of juggling time zones from the USA to China, via the UK.

Helen Lacey took up the position of Director of the Visiting Student Programme in Trinity term 2014. She is Supernumerary Fellow in Late Medieval History at Mansfield, and is Co-Investigator on a major project called The People of 1381 (www.1381.online).

Nina Stular VSP Representative

This year has been a unique one for us Visiting Students. We began Michaelmas term 2020 scattered around the globe and even those lucky enough to be able to come to Oxford in person soon realised that the Oxford we encountered was different.

The Visiting Student class of 2020/21 has been unlike any other, bringing together a group of students who were variously based in Oxford, the USA, China and Vietnam. Some were able to arrive in Oxford for the start of Michaelmas term; for others the first term involved remote study from home, before their flight to the UK in January; still others studied with us remotely for the whole academic year. We all became adept at scheduling meetings to accommodate different time zones.

Thanks to our determined students and the help of our partner institutions overseas, we were able to keep the cohort together, despite the challenges of Covid testing, quarantining and last-minute changes to rules and regulations. It was a proud moment to see 38 Visiting Students complete their study with us at Mansfield in the summer of 2021.

Our Visiting Student alumni continue to send us news of all their achievements. Meghna Kulshrestha (Kenyon College, VSP class of 2019) took up a position at a prestigious ‘global 200’ law firm. Peder Skjelbred (University of Oslo, VSP 2019) returned to Oxford to study for the BPhil in Philosophy. Helena Connell (College of the Holy Cross, VSP 2021) was interviewed on an American radio show about her research into the disproportionate care burden faced by women during the pandemic: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/820618879/ in-it-together. Recruitment for the class of 2021/22 has been excellent, and students are still keen to join us to experience a year of study in Oxford, despite all the challenges posed by the pandemic. This year we have students joining us from: Barnard College; Bates College; Boston College; Brown University; College of the Holy Cross; Cornell University; Dickinson College; Iowa University; Kenyon College; Santa Clara University; Shandong University; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Tsinghua University; University of Nebraska; University of Pennsylvania; Washington and Lee University; Wellesley College; Wheaton College; and William Jewell College.

The admissions round for the 2022/23 academic year has already opened and we look forward to another successful year.

We would love to hear from our Visiting Student alumni about what they are doing now. Do drop us an email with any news: vsp@mansfield.ox.ac.uk.

‘It was a proud moment to see 38 Visiting Students complete their study with us at Mansfield in the summer of 2021.’

Instead of immersing ourselves into the College community, attending formal halls, playing sports, and going to pub quizzes, we became awfully familiar with our bedrooms. We met our peers over Zoom and Teams or during often rainy and cold one-on-one socially distanced walks. Yet despite these drawbacks, many of us found tutorial work well-suited for the solitary world and preferable to the ways our home institutions conduct online teaching. And even though social events were scarce, strong friendships forged within household groups helped us weather the autumn and winter lockdowns.

By Hilary term we had successfully adjusted to the new academic system, only to realise that many who went home for Christmas weren’t able to return to Oxford as soon as desired. On the bright side, several students managed to gain permission from their institutions to travel to the UK. Throughout the lockdown periods – which were characterised by more walks, virtual teas, and chilly outdoor meetings – our hopes were set on Trinity term when restrictions were to loosen.

Alongside warmer and sunnier weather, Trinity term indeed brought ample opportunities to socialise. It went by extraordinarily quickly but gave us a taste of Oxford in more normal times. We had to balance our academic responsibilities with sports training and society events, outdoor picnics, and even some formal occasions. We finally got to meet each other and our tutors in person and make new friends within the College community, which made the time for goodbyes come far too quickly.

It has been hard to summarise 2020/21 because our experiences of it varied greatly. The only thing I dare assert with certainty is that the year bears witness to the resilience and courage of this cohort, and to that of Mansfield College staff who worked relentlessly to ensure we were able to experience Oxford despite the pandemic.

‘We finally got to meet each other and our tutors in person and make new friends within the College community’