WELCOME,

 

Many years ago, at the beginning of my own study journey, while walking the streets of Oxford, I was attracted by a very charming postcard. The card represented a collection of small square photos of sculptured heads, lined up together and in a different stage of agony: from terribly funny to really very tired. These heads belonged to countless creatures sculptured in wood and stone all over University buildings, chapels, pubs and libraries, undoubtedly mirroring a vivid and untamed imagination of artists living here. But all around these heads run an appealing inscription: ‘Why study? The more I study the more I know. The more I know the more I forget. The more I forget the less I know. So why study?’

 

Exactly. Why study? Everyone can find his or her own significant and important reason. Sometimes study is a mere necessity to become a professional; sometimes it can help in getting a better job and climb up a ladder of career, sometimes it is to increase one’s knowledge, and sometimes it can be just for pleasure. I deem, however, study is something more.

 

Study is like an unending journey to the source. To paraphrase the Oxford postcard: ‘The more I study the more I know how little I know.’ In fact, study never ends. This is a journey with a beginning but with no end.

 

I do believe that living in our College you will discover and taste this joy of studying. Study that is not a mere necessity but which is like a journey: the journey to discover new worlds, the journey to know yourself better, the journey bringing you closer to life; the journey that never ends.

 

This is why we have introduced the SAS Programme. I hope you will find a vital inspiration in it.

 

Please, note as well that participation in the SAS Programme is indispensible to live in our College. This is not but a little part of how we can travel together.