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Membership
Besides helping the University, through the grants financed from subscriptions, members enjoy a programme of events. Twice-yearly talks from eminent members of the University are acompanied by tea at which members have time to meet old friends and make new acquaintances. At our Yearly Meeting members are invited to visit areas in the University not usually accessible to the general public. In addition we arrange trips to external venues with University of Reading connections.
The Friends run guided walks around the University for both members and the public and have published a series of pamphlets on the history of the campuses.
Members receive: the eConnected magazine for alumni and Friends and all the generous benefits available to alumni such as discounts on University Library and Sports Centre membership.
Membership, open to anyone, is by subscription of £20 p.a. for individuals, £30 for two people living at the same address, although we welcome larger subscriptions from those who feel able to contribute. New members are always welcome. If you would like to know more please e-mail thefriends@reading.ac.uk
Grants
THE 2024 GRANTS ROUND IS NOW CLOSED.
Here is the calling notice from the 2024 round for info:
Do you have a project which would benefit from a Friends of the University grant?
If so please send a short email describing your project and the amount requested to: thefriends@reading.ac.uk as soon as possible and in any case by Monday 8th April 2024.
We are particularly interested in helping to fund projects which will enhance University-community relations and/or help student or staff extra-curricular activities.
We will be in touch shortly after receiving your email to let you know if your project is eligible and whether we need further information. The final decisions will be made towards the end of April and applicants will be informed immediately of the outcome.
If you would like further information see below where there is a list of our previous grants. However, please note that while we traditionally mainly funded physical “things”, we will consider funding towards other projects, online work, events etc.
Note that we give grants only to organisations, not to individuals. Students are welcome to apply but should ensure that a member of UoR staff agrees with the application and can provide information on the University account that the grant is to to paid into. An alternative route would be through another associated organisation such as RUSU.
Below is information on our normal grants procedure.
Each year we give out around half a dozen grants normally ranging from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand pounds, responding to applications for projects which would not normally be funded from University academic resources. In this way we enrich students’ experiences, provide additional social and cultural amenities, enhance the University’s landscape and support its outreach into the community.
Students across University life benefit from contributions. Examples range from materials for an Art/Archaeology outreach project to help towards purchase of an engine for the Scuba Diving Club.
Donations to departments have ranged from models of fossilised creatures to paintings. The ceremonial furniture seen in the Great Hall at London Road at Graduation ceremonies was among our earliest grants; we have since since contributed to the refurbishment of its organ.
Our funding has enhanced University landmarks, including The Friends’ Bridge over Whiteknights Lake, wildflower meadow planting, and the cloisters that characterise London Road campus. The fine stained-glass window at the Museum of English Rural Life and music stands for concerts by Music at Reading are other examples.
The Friends are particularly interested in projects which support the University’s outreach into the wider community. Past examples of such grants include a 3D model of a DNA molecule which can be used both for University teaching and in schools, support of community events such as May’s Community Festival and completion of an African Drum circle to enable workshops to be held outside the normal curriculum with local schools and at community events./p
Contact
Phone: 07401 282717
Email: thefriends [usual at sign] reading.ac.uk
The Friends of the University of Reading
c/o Campaign & Supporter Engagement Office
University of Reading
Whiteknights House
Whiteknights
Reading
RG6 6UR
Events
The Friends have devised walking trails around the University campuses. These may be available to local groups. Please contact thefriends (usual at sign) reading.ac.uk for further information.
Our Whiteknights Heritage Leaflets are available at: http://thefriends.org.uk/heritage-leaflets/
An informal series of get-togethers 3pm-430pm first Sunday of each month to find out how one of the Friends’ grants worked out. Non-members welcome to come along and find out something about the Friends. No need to book but to stay in touch please email: thefriends usual at sign reading.ac.uk
Note: occasionally we may coincide with another event and alter the date/time – please check on the website. We have a break July & August, returning first Sunday in September. If you have a particular grant whose fate you would like to pursue do let us know via thefriends usual at ...
Join us at 3pm in the MERL shop for the International Museum Shop Sunday. We’ll look at Edith Morley’s memoire – one of the books we’ve helped with a grant and you’ll have excellent opportunity for Christmas Shopping.
Investigating ceramic pots at the South entrance to London Rd campus followed by tea in the Dairy cafe.
Meet at 3pm by the entrance next to the cafe under the red ‘sails’.
Professor Anne Curry was in the History Department before moving to Southampton. She was appointed Arundel Herald Extraordinary in 2022 – the first woman to be appointed as a herald in England. Her talk will cover the origins, development and activities of the heralds of the College of Arms.
The programme will be issued to members in advance.
The Friendship Gate was installed at the behest of the Chancellor, Lord Carrington, to mark the Japanese/Anglo friendship with Gyosei College.
Meet under the clocktower on London Rd campus at 3pm. Followed by tea in the SCR, Acacias. £1 cash
Foxhill House on the Whiteknights Campus will be open for tours at 11am and 12.15
Booking is essential. Please see https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/submission-event/tour-of-foxhill-house-at-the-whiteknights-campus.html
Tours at 11am and 12.15 of the University of Reading’s Great Hall on the London Road campus, RG1 5AQ
Booking is essential.
For details please see: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/submission-event/tour-of-the-university-of-reading-s-great-hall-on-the-london-road-campus.html
3pm meet by the bridge (it’s the one you get to on Whiteknights going down with Chemistry on your right and Park House on your left). We’ll be joined by our in-house heritage experts John Grainger, Dennis Wood and Ian Burn and afterwards repair to the SCR or Park House bar for tea (cake provided in the SCR – tea £1/cup please bring change).
A guided tour of the material held by the Society of Antiquaries, arranged by our chairman, Professor Mike Fulford, and led by the Director of Development, Dominic Wallis, combined with a visit to the adjacent Geological Society arranged by Professor Peter Worsley, member of The Friends.
The East Reading Festival, a community-focused festival, will take place in Palmer Park from 12 noon to 6 pm on Sunday 23 June.
With a music stage, a spoken-word/poetry stage, a funfair, food from around the world and a wide variety of community, charity and commercial stalls, there is something for everyone at East Reading Festival. The Friends of the University will have a stand so do come along to see us and all the other events.
The Whiteknights Studio Trail will be open from 11am to 6pm on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 of June this year. Venues will include the University’s Museum of English Rural Life. The Studio Trail map will be issued in due course or can be obtained in May at
https://studiotrail.co.uk
Meet by the border planted for our late member Jill Betts in the Harris Garden at 3pm. Bring picnic tea if desired. Non-members welcome. Booking not essential.
This Festival, hosted by the University and the Students’ Union, will take place between 10.30 am and 3.30 pm. The Festival is designed to give the people of Reading a free, local day out and to bring some vibrancy to the heart of Whiteknights Campus. The day will be action-packed with live performances, workshops, competitions and much more. The Friends of the University will provide a stall at the event. No booking required.
In association with Reading’s Economy and Destination Agency (REDA) Chris Rayner and colleagues among The Friends have volunteered to lead guided walks round Whiteknghts and London Road during the Walks Festival in May. Details will be sent out in due course.
We will be visiting the Bee Meadow on London Road which was part funded by our grants. The planting is designed to be particularly insect friendly and the area supports the work of the Institute of Education in teaching children. Followed by the nearby Dairy Cafe (once the teaching block for dairying on campus). No need to book. All welcome.
John Mullaney is a member of The Friends and holds first and postgraduate degrees from the University, as does his wife Lindsay. Booking essential via form already sent to members.
We’ll be investigating 3 portraits the Friends funded and which now hang in Park House.
Meet at Reception at 3pm, followed by tea (£1/cup) in the SCR.
Please note, the portraits and SCR are up stairs and there is no lift in Park House. The Park House bar is on the ground floor
We will have a stand at the Lower Earley Family Fun Event on Friday 5 April 10am-12noon Chalfornt Close Earley RG6 5HZ.
The Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at Earley Gate RG6 6BZ, invites twenty Friends to visit on Wednesday 27 March to hear about and see further ephemera. Booking essential.
The Friends of the Harris Garden have extended an invitation to join them for a recording of the BBC’s Gardeners’ Question Time. Booking is essential. Details have been sent to members.
MOVED TO UNIVERSITY BOATHOUSE RG4 8BB. The University Boat Club invites The Friends of the University to join them from 2 to 4 pm on Saturday 2 March 2024 to watch the afternoon division of the RU Head of the River, and enjoy tea and cake provided by the student rowers. The event is hosted at Reading Canoe Club, The Warren, Reading RG4 7TH (parking available), which has fantastic views of the final stages of the Head of the River, and providesthe comfort of being in the warm and dry. No need to book.
The Willis Museum in Basingstoke will be hosting an exhibition ‘Becoming Roman – Silchester a changing town’ in its Sainsbury Gallery and our Chairman, Professor Michael Fulford, has offered to act as a guide to the collection, which will showcase finds from the University’s excavations ranging from thetown’s Iron Age origins to its demise at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. Booking essential.
We gave a grant towards a special table for the reading room in the MERL/special collections and archives.
Meet some of those who have read there for a wide variety of projects and explore the grant over tea from the MERL cafe.
No need to book but it helps us find enough chairs in the cafe if you could email thefriends@reading.ac.uk to let us know you might be coming. Guests welcome.
We will be looking at how our grant to the Special Collections for display cases worked out. We will be joined by Jackie Bishop, archivist for the recently acquired James Joyce archive. Jackie will introduce the current exhibition in the main hall. Please meet in MERL reception area at 3pm.
Parking is available. Non-members welcome. No need to book but letting us know you may be coming by emailing thefriends@reading.ac.uk helps with the organisation.An informal get together over a cup of tea from the MERL cafe to chat about the book ‘The Art and History of Whiteknights’ that the Friends helped to fund with the editor and fellow member, Jenny Halstead. Note CHANGE OF DATE – to coincide with Museum Shop Sunday 11am-3pm – the book’s publishers, Two Rivers Press, will have copies for sale.
Just come along between 3pm-4.30pm on Sunday afternoon and look for us in the Museum of English Rural Life cafe. Parking is available. Non-members welcome. No need to book but letting us know you may be coming by emailing ...
An informal get together over a cup of tea from the MERL cafe to chat about the Shepherd’s Hut the Friends helped to fund with the grant holder, Philippa Heath, and convenor of the Museum’s knitters, Fong Scott.
Just come along between 3pm-4.30pm on Sunday afternoon and look for us in the Museum of English Rural Life cafe. Parking is available. Non-members welcome. No need to book but letting us know you may be coming by emailing thefriends@reading.ac.uk helps with the organisation.
Peter Must, Member of The Friends and Chairman of the Wokingham Society, will give a talk about the Heelas family, who established a draper’s store in Wokingham at the end of the eighteenth century and then a large department store in Reading in the nineteenth. Tea/coffee and cakes will be available from 3.00 pm in the Meadow Suite, Park House, and will be followed by the talk at 4.15 pm. Booking information will be sent out nearer the time.
The Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 11 October preceded by a guided tour of the Library at 3.00 pm. Tea will be provided in the Meadow Suite from 4.00 pm and the Annual General Meeting will be held there at 5.15pm, with an opening address from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Parveen Yaqoob. Booking details will be circulated in due course
About
The Friends of the University of Reading was formed as a charitable association in 1927. In 2017 it was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales as an Association Charitable Incorporated Organisation (number 1173347). In July 2017 The Friends was inducted into the University’s College of Benefactors in recognition of 90 years continuous support of the University.
Membership of The Friends is open to anyone with an interest in supporting the University.
The Association thrives with a membership of around 250 drawn from the neighbourhood and the wider community as well as from former and present members of the University. In this way we provide a companionable means of cultivating contacts between the University and those interested in its educational goals, history, current activities and future development. Membership of The Friends gives access to an array of social and cultural events. The subscription income that we generate is applied to grants, financing various amenities and activities throughout the University.
- Brochure
- Code of Conduct
- Complaints procedure
- Conflict of Interest
- Constitution
- Data Protection Policy
- Financial Policies and Procedures
- Grant Making Policy
- Health and Safety
- History of the Friends
- Membership application form (.docx for use with Microsoft Word)
- Membership Application Form (.pdf)
- Officers and Trustees
- Public Liability Insurance
- Volunteer Management