From Ormond to the Theologisches Studienhaus

I entered Ormond straight out of school in 1949 and found I had joined a much more mature and varied community. There were many ex-servicemen and other senior students, as those doing Medicine and Theology (the latter usually first doing Arts) would regularly spend six years in college. Freshmen quickly aquired an acknowledged place in the student body through good-humoured initiations.

Although I had never held any special position at school, I grew up quickly in the Ormond atmosphere and became chair of the Students’ Club for three terms. 

After five years at Ormond, I switched to Heidelberg, Germany on a scholarship that included a free place in the Theologisches Studienhaus, which housed thirty-seven students from the Faculty of Theology. 

After two years, the head of the Theologisches Studienhaus (an ex-serviceman who had spent five years as a prisoner of war in Russia) persuaded the council to accept me as his successor. 

One task I then inherited was ensuring that we always had a sufficient proportion of students in more advanced semesters to ensure the community’s academic maturity and adequate leadership of our tutorial program. This was a challenge because German students usually spent a few semesters at one university and then switched to another. In addition, the council was also too sympathetic to local applicants coming straight from school. I agreed with the council that residence in the Studienhaus could give local students a good start, but had to insist that that would only happen if we had a sufficient proportion of more senior students for them to mix with. 

Maintaining a mix of junior and senior students is a perennial problem within communities of university students, but my Ormond experience had demonstrated that it was a worthwhile aim.