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ABOUT THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM

The university in-character works as a collegiate system in which the university is divided into different colleges which are independently run, with their respective deans as the head of their college. Most colleges bring together academics and students from a broad range of disciplines, and within each faculty, school or department within the university, academics from many different colleges will be found. All students are attached to a college. The importance of colleges lies in the housing, welfare and social functions - this means that the college buildings essentially act as the students' dorms, and contain communal areas for students to bond with other members of their college. Scroll to find out more about the different colleges!

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SANDELL COLLEGE

Sandell College is the 'West' college, and accepts students from all departments. Students at Sandell are typically students who have a great passion for one chosen field — it’s that, or nothing. They aren’t exactly well-rounded, but their drive and enthusiasm for their passion, whether it be a hobby or an academic subject, is truly admirable.

Representative animal: Fox

Representative colour: Living coral

Representative values: Ambition & Determination

Traditions: Wild initiation ceremonies, growing potted weed in their rooms, intense debate sessions over dinner, feeding the stray cats that have taken up residence near the college building, starting various clubs within the college with only two members, inventing a new meal with your buddy (like cereal covered french toast), +.

College building (exterior): Sandell College boasts a modern uptake on the traditional hanok architecture of Korea. The tiled roofs of the college building were painted by the students during refurbishments, and create a colourful collage. Wooden beams and stone-block construction composes most of its foundations, and the special floor-based heating system means that the building is raised on a platform to house the heating system beneath. Several gingko and cherry blossom trees surround the college building, creating a spectacular display in the spring and fall. A small shelter sits by the wooden fox mascot statue for street cats to rest in, and is managed by the students. Sandell College was originally the first college to be designed and built upon the establishment of the university - located in the most favourable environment on campus in terms of light, direction of wind, evenness of ground, etc.

College building (interior): Unsurprisingly, Sandell College makes the most of its favourable location by letting in as much natural light as possible. All the doors and windows can be covered by special, breathable hanji blinds during the evening, but during the day, they remain uncovered. The flooring was designed to stay cool during the summer and warm during the winter - a feature unique to Sandell, and all entrants are asked to take their outdoor shoes off at the entrance. Visitors can rent slippers to use at the reception desk located in the entrance hall, but the Sandell students use their own indoor slippers which they leave in lockers lining the entrance hall.

In order to make use of the underfloor heating system, the students' dorms in Sandell College don't have beds - students sleep on special mattresses on the floor. Whilst the dorms are complete with their en-suite bathrooms much like the other colleges, Sandell College also has communal public baths featuring thermal spas that only its residents can use.

The communal dining room is designed in the traditional Korean dining style - with low-lying tables and seat cushions. Dining at Sandell College is a fairly formal experience - all the students are offered a course meal at dinner, and are expected to stay throughout the serving of all the courses, because it would be considered rude otherwise. The dining ladies and students share a fairly close relationship as a result. The tables are each labelled with dorm numbers, but students often choose to mingle rather than sitting with their roommates.

The communal room designed for students of the college to gather for leisure is fairly simplistic but shrouded in nature - a little vegetable patch grows out on the balcony, and various plants native to Korea grow in pots around the room. It's the college's club rooms that truly shine with their individualistic character and visual flair - the club rooms are all designed as little store-fronts with colourful banners unique to each college club, and students take great pride in their displays. Every year, the students of Sandell College have a vote on the best club room banner design, and the winning club is given monetary funds for club activities.

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RUSSELL COLLEGE

Russell College is the 'South' college, and accepts students from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) departments. Students at Russell are typically those determined to get the most out of the excellent education offered at Polaris University — they can usually be found in the library, pulling all-nighters, or mapping the stars in the Polaris Planetarium.

Representative animal: Dolphin

Representative colour: Classic blue

Representative values: Knowledge & Curiosity

Traditions: Students joking about not needing to go to the gym because their college is located on top of a steep hill, other students joking that Southerners wear checkered shirts to the point where it might as well be their official college uniform, cleaning the goldfish tank with your buddy (there are various fish tanks located around the college building), everyone gathering to make food together in the communal kitchens and sitting down for a movie night, being invited to the Dean’s (boring) birthday party every year, +.

College building (exterior): Of all the college buildings, Russell College appears to be the most modern - built on sleek, straight lines of glass and metal. During its reconstruction, which lasted for two years, the students were housed temporarily in the other college buildings. Now complete, it’s one of the most eco-friendly, with: solar panels, a grey water collection system that recycles rainwater, and living walls. When ambient weather conditions are temperate, the building’s distinctive bronze blades can open and close, allowing the building to operate in a “breathable” natural ventilation mode. The college mascot statue is made of metal alloy sheets interwoven together- honestly, it’s “modern art” but all the other college students tease it for resembling everything but a dolphin.

College building (interior): The entrance hallway of Russell College leads straight into the open observatory - home of the Polaris Telescope and Planetarium. The floors of the observatory are open to the public on weekends, whilst Russell College students are able to access it whenever they please. With the floors made of a practical, easy-to-clean laminated surface and the ceilings made of bespoke ceiling panels which combine heating, cooling, lighting and acoustic functions in an innovative petal-leaf design, the overall feel of the interior is sleek and modern.

The students’ dorms fall in line with the central theme of eco-friendly efficiency, and are highly minimalistic in terms of what meets the eye. The student dorms are set in monochromatic colour schemes, with bunk beds to make room for larger tables and in-built shelves. The dorms are designed much like a study room, and all the lights installed in the rooms are designed to strain the eyes as little as possible.

The communal dining room is a simple dining hall, but one of the major perks of the dining system at Russell is that students can order room service - for their meals to be delivered directly to their rooms. This is done via an in-house college app that students can access to check the weekly menu and order meals to their rooms. This was designed in order to allow students to be as productive as possible, and as a result, the communal dining room is often empty. However, Russell College also boasts a state of the art communal kitchen free for students to use, and students often make their own meals in the middle of the night to pull all nighters.

The communal room designed for students of the college to gather for leisure is somewhat reminiscent of a combination of museums and aquariums. A large tank filled with tropical fish sits along the length of one wall, and the rest of the walls are covered in bookshelves and display panels. Inside the display panels lie various maps, and old scrolls. There are several reading tables for students wishing to study together, as well as a large whiteboard on wheels. One of the bookshelves contains a range of board games instead of books - battered versions of monopoly, chess boards, and the like.

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LOWELL COLLEGE

Lowell College is the 'East' college, and accepts students from arts, humanities & social science departments. Students at Lowell typically take a more relaxed approach to life. Many Easterners also enjoy a rich extracurricular life, engaging in many of the various clubs & societies on offer at the university.

Representative animal: Dove

Representative colour: Ultra violet

Representative values: Peace & Virtue

Traditions: The campus lake is closest to Lowell College, so Easterners often take picnics around the lake. Hanging flower wreaths around the Lowell Dove statue’s neck, hosting the scariest halloween parties with high-class costumes, painting the Dean’s portrait every year on massive tarpaulin to raise as a flag, telling your buddy the legend of the bloodstained curtain hanging in the entrance hall (every person tells it differently), +.

College building (exterior): Like Parnell College, the Lowell College building has maintained the original building in which the college was established. Inspired by the Parthenon, the college building resembles grecian temples with its stone pillars and frieze. The frieze contains carvings of doves in flight, around the college’s motto. A large flag - a painted caricature of the dean on white canvas - flies from the rooftop for all to see. The college’s mascot statue is located in the middle of a large stone fountain at the forefront of the building - meaning that students often become drenched whilst trying to place flower wreaths on the dove. The fountain is continually covered in flower petals as a result of the Lowell tradition.

College building (interior): The interior of the Lowell College building mainly consists of white marble with pale pink undertones. It serves to brighten the hallways and rooms, making them feel spacious and airy - this is particularly well-reflected in the entrance hallway, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows (covered by the infamous bloodied curtains at night), with small pillars dotting the walls and supporting vases filled with fresh, seasonal flowers. Occasionally, students leave anonymous little notes tucked under these vases.

In direct contrast with the ivory walls and flooring, the furnishings are colourful, statement pieces that stand out and draw attention. Rugs in vivid colours cover the floor in the students’ dorm rooms, and each student dorm room has a differently coloured door - as a result, they find each other by colours as opposed to door numbers. Students are encouraged to personalise their rooms with whatever eccentric interests they may have, and enjoy the soundproof walls exclusive to Lowell College’s dorms.

The communal dining room is a brightly-lit canteen with clusters of seats dotted around the wide room, and the food is typically laid out in buffet-style. A small stage at the center of the room is open for students to come up and perform during dinner time, and students from other colleges often come to dine at Lowell for these performances.

The communal room designed for students of the college to gather for leisure is yet another wide, open space with a lot of character in each corner of the room. A wide flat screen covers one side of the wall, enabling students to turn the room into a cinema. A popcorn machine sits in a corner, always churning out freshly popped popcorn and giving the room a distinctly sweet, warm scent. Several arcade games line the wall opposite - from old school Tekken machines to claw machines which has an incredibly low success rate.

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PARNELL COLLEGE

Parnell College is the 'North' college, and accepts students from all departments. Students at Parnell are typically outgoing, extroverted students who aren't afraid to voice their opinion, which is unsurprising given that the college has produced the largest number of renowned alumni - from politicians, to famous actors.

Representative animal: Bear

Representative colour: Greenery

Representative values: Truth & Courage

Traditions: Black-tie welcome dinner on the first day of term, gifting your buddy ( a student in the year below you assigned by the college upon arrival ) with a teddy bear, Sunday debate nights, Christmas caroling, spontaneous drinking games popping up around various dormitory kitchens, avoiding the enthusiastic Dean in the corridors ( always wanting to talk to the students & tell them about how it was “in my day...” ), +.

College building (exterior): With many famous alumni and eager parents donating to the college, Parnell College is by far the most extravagant of the college buildings. Drawn on classic gothic architecture, Parnell College has continued to maintain the original building from when the college was first established - housing its students under its stained glass windows, arches and spirals. Elegant trails of ivy snake up the walls in a gatsby-an fashion, designed to artfully track up the building without hindering light from entering through its windows. The college building is lit up by lights after 6pm, giving it a decidedly ominous, villain-castle-esque look.</p>

College building (interior): Much like the traditional exterior of the building, the interior also remains true to form - with state of the art technology. A large chandelier dripping with cut diamonds decorated the entrance hallway, with the college’s bear statue located directly underneath. Of all the colleges, Parnell College is the only college to house their mascot statue indoors as opposed to outdoors.

Think: green carpets, brushed brass handles, heavy curtains and elegant woodwork. The interior is very reminiscent of old, luxurious hotels, and the students dorms’ are decorated in much the same way with wooden four-poster beds and matching furniture. However, all the lights are controlled by voice-recognition, as are the curtains and room temperature. The rooms are all also privy to some of the campus’ fastest wifi connection - some students from other colleges even ask their Northerner friends to let them use their wifi.

The communal dining room in which the welcome dinner takes place consists of straight rows of wooden tables and tables, with a large, decorative chair for the Dean sitting up front of all the tables. The walls are covered with paintings and pictures of numerous alumni, and the high ceilings are also lit up by the same chandeliers as the front entrance.

The communal room designed for students of the college to gather for leisure boasts a warm electric fireplace designed to look like a real, roaring fire behind the trellis. The couches are covered in plush, deep green velvet and there are little alcoves by the windows in which to read. A pool table takes up a space by the fire, and a section of the wall is covered with cupboards that house some of the most expensive brandy, wines and gin to ever be seen - and are regularly drunk by Parnell students.