Our students are a diverse community, many attending theology college in training to become an ordained minister, some to become a licensed lay reader, and others who simply wish to follow a theology course. Other students are following our MA in Theology programme, continuing to pursue lifelong learning and formation.

Our students and alumni have told us that the diversity of our community is one of the elements which make St Augustine’s such a special theology college. We attract students from the whole spectrum of the Church of England tradition who find themselves working together, and building lifelong friendships, with people whose experience is very different from their own. They tell us that this opportunity to build relationships and explore differences adds an important dimension to their own formation.

Many of our students come to us having had long-standing careers outside the Church, with children (of any age!) and with widely different experiences of formal education. Some have pursued previous undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level study, but many have not. For some, enrolling on one of our theology courses is their first step into academic study for 20 years (or more), whilst others left school with little in the way of formal qualifications.

Whatever their vocation, academic and life experiences, we welcome support all our students as they share in the experience of exceeding their expectations through the learning and formation to which God has called them.

Exceeding expectations

Whether or not we are training to become an ordained minister, theological education changes us. It is meant to: whatever our background, whatever our experience, whatever our Church tradition, whatever our gifts and talents, a programme of theological study or ordination training involves us in mind and heart and promotes personal, intellectual, and spiritual change. At St Augustine’s, we support and encourage this change, knowing that your formation will not conform to any fixed and invariable standard and that we’d betray our mission if we aimed at a characteristic ‘product’, a ‘type’.

We have learned to expect surprises, to rejoice as you find yourself going beyond your expectations, discovering unanticipated strengths and capacities, and learning that grace exceeds dreams. St Augustine’s will encourage and support you as you develop your spiritual maturity, your courage and your readiness for social and personal change, as you engage in theologically reflective practice, and as you honour your commitment to lifelong formation.

Claire talks about her experience as an independent student studying theology at St Augustine’s

Rachel talks about studying at St Augustine’s to become an ordained minister

We have learned to expect surprises, to rejoice as you find yourself going beyond your expectations, discovering unanticipated strengths and capacities, and learning that grace exceeds dreams. St Augustine’s will encourage and support you as you develop your spiritual maturity, your courage and your readiness for social and personal change, as you engage in theologically reflective practice, and as you honour your commitment to lifelong formation.