Welcome
Southlands is a busy and engaging place where all are welcome, where diversity is celebrated, where learning and scholarship meet action and experience.
If you live at Southlands or study in the Faculty of Business and Law, you are a member of Southlands College - welcome!
Roehampton is made up of four colleges, each with long and rich histories. Every member of the university, staff and student, is also a member of a college, and this will come to mean as much to you as being part of Roehampton itself.
Being a member of Southlands College brings lots of opportunities for engaging more fully with the university, to make friends, extend your learning, develop skills and build your CV.
You can join college teams, societies, leadership programmes and learning events, as well as a rich programme of college social activities. Information about these opportunities can be found on these pages, on our social media, and in the college guide.
Our approach to living and working together is grounded in our college’s strongly held values. These are shaped by our long history and our continuing relationship with the Methodist Church, which founded our college in 1872.
Our college community is a very diverse one. Students and staff come from all over the world, speak numerous languages, practice many religions, look, think and behave in many different ways.
Part of the college experience includes the opportunity to get to know people with different backgrounds, skills and interests to your own, to learn from them, and to become a more understanding and inclusive person. Above all, at Southlands we value the dignity of all people and encourage respect, kindness and inclusivity.
Whatever you are studying, I wish you every success and look forward to getting to know you during your time here.
Dr Christopher Stephens
Head of Southlands College
What we stand for
Southlands aims to play its part in enabling the University of Roehampton to make a distinctive, values-based contribution to higher education in the UK.
The college property was offered by the Methodist Church to the university for that reason, and the college ethos, collegiate structure and college chaplaincy are all fundamental parts of what will continue to define Southlands.
In line with the Roehampton's values and against the background of its Methodist foundation, Southlands seeks to provide an environment for staff and students in which:
- Human dignity is recognised and there is mutual respect between all members of the College community
- College members learn to live as responsible citizens and as part of a diverse and supportive community
College members are encouraged to:
- Take responsibility for themselves and others
- Develop human, social and organisational skills
- Explore their own spiritual needs and religious identity
- Grow in understanding, maturity and confidence and have every opportunity to reach their potential
- Widen their horizons and to engage in discussion and/or action on contemporary issues
- Make a real contribution to the College and the University and to the wider community.
Methodist culture/ethos
The Methodist Church has developed a distinctive culture as a discipleship movement with a mission focus.
This can be hard to define in words, but is easy to recognise when it is embedded in a community like Southlands. Some, but by no means all, of its characteristics are:
- A warm and natural personal interest in each individual, irrespective of their role or status
- Practical care and thoughtfulness, shot through with generosity, in mutual relationships and in community service
- Respect for authority, but a suspicion of “hierarchy” or pomposity
- Concern for justice and fairness, especially for those whose voice is least likely to be heard
- Commitment to integrity, truth telling and the highest professional standards
- Searching for ways of exercising responsibility towards the world’s most disadvantaged people
- A matter-of-fact spirituality, which integrates faith and everyday life, and which becomes focussed in acts of worship which are relatively uncluttered, heartfelt and widely accessible
- A good sense of humour, which avoids hurtfulness and radiates esteem of others
We do not claim a monopoly on these points, recognising that we share them with people of other Christian traditions and other faiths, though they take a characteristic form in the Methodist culture.
We also gladly affirm that people who espouse no explicit faith often endorse many of these points in their relationships and daily work, and we look to explore these shared approaches and viewpoints as points of engagement with those of different beliefs.
Valuing One Another: Inclusion and Diversity
Every member of Southlands College should expect to feel loved – embraced by our whole community as a unique and utterly special person.
Each individual has the potential to change the world and to make society that bit better for us all. We want to make sure you realise that potential and that you encourage everyone around you to do the same.
At Southlands, we hope to provide a range of resources and activities to enable this to happen.
College Life
College Life at Southlands College
Members of Southlands, whether they live on site or off-campus, can get involved in a huge range of activities.
At Southlands we have all sorts of activities just for you - from small film nights in The Reef to college celebration dinners. We would love to hear from anyone wanting to get involved in running and participating in college campaigns, events and activities.
Make sure you get in touch with Tazim Fatima, our College Engagement and Activities Officer if you would like to get involved.
College merchandise
Hoodies and other merchandise are a great way of showing college pride, and ideal as gifts for family and friends to share your Southlands experience with them. You can purchase Southlands College merchandise on our online store.
College mascot
Each college has a mascot and colours that encourage a sense of belonging. Our college colours are blue and gold, and our sports mascot is the Shark.
What's on at Southlands College
We offer a variety of inclusive and diverse cultural, community, education, sporting and learning events.
All our events aim to welcome everyone, offer entertainment and enhance our learning community.
Members of our community can make the most of their time with us by:
- Engaging in weekly fun and games sessions, fostering interactions with peers and staff while building connections and learning about college services
- Getting involved in hands-on learning with our Nettles Project, promoting eco-friendly initiatives and environmental conservation
- Discovering how to make the most of your time in London by exploring all it has to offer through our London Life social learning project
- Our diverse range of events includes educational events like the LinkedIn Masterclass, as well as cultural celebrations like American Fall and Diwali
- Throughout the year, join us in friendly competition against our sister colleges in the College Cup, featuring events such as dodgeball, bake-offs, tag archery, esports, and more!
QB010 (on the ground floor) is the College Community Hub. You’ll often find Southlands College Community Leaders or members of the college staff team down there and keen to hear from you or answer questions about getting involved in college life.
To find our more about our events please follow us Instagram or check out the calendar on the Nest.
To engage with Southlands College, whether for submitting Instagram photos organising events as current members, please email Southlands.College@roehampton.ac.uk.
Sport at Southlands College
There are lots of opportunities for taking part in sports at Roehampton and specifically at Southlands College.
Southlands has pockets of spaces that we offer for social sport. This has included frisbee in the Quad, video games in The Reef, pop-up badminton in Chapman Hall, and table tennis tournaments in The Reef.
You’ll find some sports and games equipment in The Reef, which you are welcome to use. On sunny days, find a member of the college team and they can help you set up equipment on Southlands Quad.
Find out more about Sport and Active Communities at Roehampton.
Music at Southlands
Southlands is the hub of music at Roehampton.
As well as housing the Applied Music Research department, our Director of Music, Dr Gulliver Ralston, leads an active programme of music performance events and music-focused activities, like talks and suppers.
Gulliver is always pleased to meet new performers (staff and students) and anyone who can support music activity, including people with skills in set design and the technical side of performances. Please do get in touch with him or find him in room QB136.
At Southlands there are a number of practice rooms and performance spaces. To use these, contact Gulliver.
The colleges all appoint music scholarships, of a value up to £1,200 per year, and have a student internship programme. To learn more about these, visit our Financial Support and Guidance page or speak with Gulliver.
Visit the Music Society Facebook group.
Southlands guide and map
Student Leadership opportunities at Southlands
There are many ways that Southlands students and staff can get involved with the life of the college.
Some of these are informal, where you can volunteer for the college or perhaps run a project idea that you are passionate about. There are also more formal, paid opportunities to get involved in the life of the college.
Wellbeing and Support
We'll support you from day one.
By being part of a college, we hope that you come to feel like this small community is a place of belonging, where you are supported throughout your time at Roehampton to achieve the most you can.
We are committed to supporting your wellbeing, and work in close partnership with the university’s central services to provide a wide range of support for our students.
Academic Departments
The academic departments based at Southlands include:
- Faculty of Business and Law
- Applied Music Research
Our world-class library is also part of the Southlands College community.
All our full members of the college community are welcome to take part in everything we do.
Chaplaincy
Flourishing in faith and friendship.
At Southlands, our chaplains are here to help the community to flourish create spaces and opportunities for those who want them to practice and explore faith; and to promote friendships across our diverse community.
Southlands Alumni
Southlands is keen to keep in touch with former students.
In order to stay in touch with you, we need your most recent contact details, please update or register your details on our alumni pages.
For information about the 2024 Southlands Annual Reunion, contact gilly.king@roehampton.ac.uk.
If you have any other alumni enquiries, please get in touch or for general information on alumni services, contact alumni@roehampton.ac.uk.
Former students are also members of the University of Roehampton alumni and may receive separate communications through that channel, unless they choose to opt out.
History
Southlands College opened in Battersea on 26 February 1872 as a training college for women teachers.
The Wesleyan Methodist Conference had established a college at Westminster in 1851, which trained both men and women and an increased demand for places was met by the foundation of a second college nearby at Battersea across the River Thames.
The Susanna Wesley Foundation
The Susanna Wesley Foundation is a research partnership of the Methodist Church in Britain and the University of Roehampton, sponsored by Southlands College’s charitable trust.
The foundation produces academic research with practical insights for churches, faith communities, and other institutions. Using the discourses of various disciplines housed at the university, and working with research partners, the projects elicit new learning around approaches to transformation, organisation and participation, and contribute to effective practice.
For more information, email their research team.
