The Foundation Year is taught by a dedicated teaching team made up of specialists in one or several subjects in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and supported by professional services staff who ensure effective administration of the course.
The course is overseen by the Foundation Year Management Committee which includes representatives from across the University and which reports to the University's General Board of the Faculties.
The programme is generously supported by a cornerstone gift from founding benefactors Christina and Peter Dawson.
For the swiftest response to enquiries, view our contact details here.
Dr Alex Pryce
Foundation Year Course Director
Fellow, Homerton College
Bye-Fellow, Fitzwilliam College
Pronouns: she/her
Alex is responsible for the development, implementation and delivery of the Cambridge Foundation Year. Her professional experience includes work in widening participation and student recruitment at the University of Oxford and research communications at Cranfield University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She holds a DPhil in English at the University of Oxford specialising in contemporary Northern Irish poetry and feminism. She is a sixth form governor, a regular reviewer for poetry magazines and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Dr Corinne Roughley
Foundation Year Senior Teaching Associate
Fellow, Hughes Hall
Pronouns: she/her
Corinne is responsible for course development and teaches across a wide range of Foundation Year papers. At Cambridge, she has taught for the Department of Archaeology and the Institute for Continuing Education. Her research uses digital mapping and data analysis to explore relationships between people and landscapes from prehistory to the nineteenth century. Prior to joining the Foundation Year, she was Deputy Senior Tutor at Hughes Hall where she had responsibility for student welfare and admissions.
Dr Parul Bhandari
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Bye-Fellow, St Edmund's College
Pronouns: she/her
Parul teaches across a range of Foundation Year courses primarily within the data and text streams. Parul holds a PhD in Sociology (University of Cambridge 2014) and is a Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies (HSPS), and Associate Tutor at St. Edmund’s College. Her research interests lie in the study of class (elites and the middle class), money and consumption, gender, family, marriage, and love in South Asia.
Dr Marieke Dhont
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Bye-Fellow, Girton College
Pronouns: she/her
Marieke is responsible for the development and delivery of the Foundation Year courses, particularly within the language stream. With a background in classics, linguistics, cultural and religious studies, she specialises in ancient languages (particularly Greek and Hebrew) and her research focuses on Hellenistic Judaism and its literature. She holds a teaching degree from KU Leuven and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has been teaching at Cambridge since 2018, and is currently also an affiliated lecturer at the Divinity Faculty and a Bye-Fellow at Girton College.
Dr Stuart Palmer
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Fellow and Undergraduate Admissions Director for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Murray Edwards College
Bye-Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College
Pronouns: he/him
Stuart is a Teaching Associate responsible for delivery of a range of the Foundation Year papers. Stuart specialises in the history of early modern popular politics and culture, and holds a PhD in Medieval and Early Modern Studies from the University of Kent. Before joining the Foundation Year, Stuart worked in various Widening Participation roles and has taught in a range of settings, including the University of Kent, University of East Anglia, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Dr Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Bye-Fellow, Sidney Sussex College
Pronouns: she/her
As a Teaching Associate, Ruth develops and provides lectures, supervisions, and small group teaching to Foundation Year students. She obtained her PhD in philosophical theology at Cambridge in 2016, and has since held Research Fellowships at CRASSH and at Sidney Sussex College. Her research interests include hermeneutics, religious language, gender, and religious epistemology. She is currently an affiliated lecturer at the Divinity Faculty in Cambridge, a Tutor at Sidney Sussex College, and a Director of Studies in Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion.
Dr Shyane Siriwardena
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Bye-Fellow, Girton College
Pronouns: she/her
Shyane is responsible for development and delivery of a number of Foundation Year papers, particularly within the 'Working with Textual Sources' stream. She holds a PhD in Philosophy, and has previously taught undergraduate and postgraduate philosophy at the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds, and at Leeds Trinity University.
Dr Claire Wilkinson
Foundation Year Teaching Associate
Fellow in English, Murray Edwards College
Lecturer in English, Robinson College
Pronouns: she/her
Claire specialises in eighteenth-century literature and her research focuses on the relationship between literary writing and the economy. She has a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge (2017), an MA from the University of York, and a BA from the University of Cambridge. She is currently an affiliated lecturer in the Faculty of English in addition to roles in Robinson and Murray Edwards Colleges. As a FY Teaching Associate, she is responsible for delivering papers in the textual sources stream, particularly on literature post-1680.
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Cerys Minogue
Foundation Year Course Coordinator
Pronouns: she/her
Cerys is responsible for the overall management and administration of the Foundation Year course at Cambridge. Prior to working on the Foundation Year, Cerys coordinated the PhD in Politics and MPhil in Public Policy programmes in the Department of Politics and Interational Studies at the University of Cambridge. Cerys holds an MLitt in Women, Writing and Gender from the University of St Andrews.
Debbie Gray
Admissions and Data Services Administrator
Pronouns: she/her
Debbie administers the admissions process for the Foundation Year. Before joining the Cambridge Admissions Office, Debbie worked in postgraduate administration for the Degree Committee for Clinical Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh.
Hazel Taylor
Student Recruitment Coordinator
Pronouns: she/her
Hazel is responsible for student recruitment and marketing, including running our applicant support webinars and newsletter. She began her career as a secondary and sixth form teacher of English, before moving to Japan for six years to teach Japanese students. When Hazel returned to the U.K., she moved to Cambridge, where she began working on a variety of UK-based student recruitment events.