Category: Member Benefits

Posted on Annual Dinner, Around Campus, Events, Member Benefits, News, Outreach

Summer Dinner 6th June – Tickets Released

Sales of tickets for the dinner have got off to a strong and enthusiastic start with a third of the available tickets sold in the first few hours. So don’t delay, purchase your tickets promptly by clicking on this link……

When ordering, bypass a shortcoming of Imperial Union’s new on-line shop by following this top tip: When placing your order, pop your first name AND your email address into the ‘First name’ field. (And yes, go on to repeat your email address in the ‘Email’ field.) Honestly! It’s not a wind-up…. it really does help!

As our President, Mike Munroe, explained: We have secured an amazing venue for the RCSU/ RCSA Summer Dinner this year and our plan is to hold it at the London Postal Museum WC1. This iconic and award winning independent museum tells the 500 year story of British postal communications with interesting exhibits and displays. Our sumptuous dinner will be located in the atmospheric museum with access to the exhibits and displays.… Read more...

Posted on Annual Dinner, Around Campus, Events, Member Benefits, News

Summer Dinner: A Letter from our President

The RCS Summer Dinner, Great Exhibition Road Festival & RCSA Magazine

Dear RCS Students, Staff and Alumni,

First of all Happy Easter and hope you and your families have a great Easter break.

I am happy to share some exciting news about upcoming RCSA events so please get your diaries and calendars at the ready!

Stop Press!! We have just secured an amazing venue for the RCSU/ RCSA Summer Dinner this year and our plan is to hold it at the London Postal Museum WC1. This iconic and award winning independent museum tells the 500 year story of British postal communications with interesting exhibits and displays. Our sumptuous dinner will be located in the atmospheric museum with access to the exhibits and displays. It should be a really unique and enjoyable experience. The dinner will be held on the evening of Saturday 6th June which is during the Great Exhibition Road Festival (GERF) weekend making this a great weekend for alumni to spend in London!… Read more...

Posted on Annual Dinner, Events, Member Benefits, News

Another sparkling Summer RCS night out!!

More than 140 RCS students, staff, alumni and guests attended the RCSU/RCSA Summer Dinner at the Rembrandt Hotel in Knightsbridge last Friday 6th June and enjoyed a wonderful evening! The Hotel was a great venue for this dinner right opposite the V&A museum and a short walk from College.

Jack Swires, incoming RCSU President was host for the evening and declared “what a fabulous evening, the ballroom was really buzzing and it looked like everyone had a great time. The food was excellent, the wine flowed and the speeches and awards ceremony went down very well!“

Special guests included Professor Richard Craster, the Dean of RCS (or Dean of FoNS if you want to be terribly modern) and his wife Bernadette. Imperial’s new Vice-President for Advancement, Kristin Blanchfield, was there as well to help get a feel for RCS traditions and history. RCS Mascots Jez and Theta were in attendance during the evening!… Read more...

Posted on Annual Dinner, Around Campus, Events, Member Benefits, News

Summer Dinner: A Letter from our President

Dear Fellow RCS Alumnus,

I am delighted to be able to share with you details for the upcoming RCSU/RCSA Joint Summer Dinner to be held at the delightful Rembrandt Hotel on Knightsbridge just a few minutes’ walk from college on Friday 6th June starting at 6:30pm. It promises to be another wonderful evening with a sumptuous 3 course meal followed by a few speeches and awards and rounded off with a DJ set to help you dance the night away whilst mingling with fellow RCS alumni and current students. The dress code is formal which means lounge suits are fine but if you want to show off your dinner jacket or ball gown you are very welcome to!

Tickets for alumni are priced at £85 a head covering the three-course meal, wine and entertainment and a small subsidy to help reduce the ticket price for students. Tickets can be bought from noon this Friday (9th May) via this link to the ICU online shop.… Read more...

Posted on Events, Member Benefits, News, Sport

Summer Darts League

The South Kensington Academic Darts League (SKADL) was established in 2001, and is still going strong and is about to enter its ‘Summer League 2025’.

For the purposes of the Summer League, the ORCS, the “Old Royal College of Science” darts team, will continue playing their home matches in the Ship and Shovell near Charing Cross. But the ‘RCSA Double Elevens‘ team will join forces with the ‘Arrows’, and we will play our home matches out of The Rising Sun near Victoria.

As always, away matches will be played at a host of wonderful pubs across London.

The Arrows are captained by Gerry Donohoe, who many will remember managing the Union Bar from 1995 to 2003. Gerry originally founded the precursor to SKADL, the Imperial College Inter-Pub Darts Trophy, in 1996. His fellow Arrows team members originally played for either the Union Bar team, the Southside Bar team, or the Holland Club team and have very strong ties to Imperial College.… Read more...

Posted on Events, Jezebel, Member Benefits, News

A Most Successful Mascotry Dinner

On Saturday, March 21, 2025 a formal dinner took place in the Union Dining Hall at Imperial College Union.

While significant in its own right, as the first formal dinner in the UDH for a decade, this was no ordinary gathering!  It was a joyful celebration of the vibrant mascotry scene that used to permeate through Imperial life. And the RCSA was delighted to support the event, with our members attending in force.

As many readers will know, mascots have long been a symbol of university camaraderie, with most universities having some sort of mascot. Within the University of London, making off with another college’s violable mascot, in order to ransom it for charity, was once quite the thing.

Imperial’s violable (i.e. stealable) mascots take the form of colossal metallic representations of technical instruments, beautifully engineered to reflect Imperial’s technical bent.  Some of you may recall lugging around the RSCU’s violable mascot, Theta, an oversized stainless-steel representation of a thermometer. … Read more...

Posted on Around Campus, Events, Jezebel, Member Benefits, News

Celebration of Mascotry

The Royal College of Science Association are working with the Royal College of Science Motor Club to put on a Mascotry Dinner, an occasion dedicated to celebrating the mascots of Imperial College, to be held on 22nd March, 2025 at the Imperial College Union Dining Hall.

This year marks FOUR significant milestones: the 70th anniversary of the Royal College of Science Motor Club and of the Royal School of Mines Motor Club, and the 50th anniversary of the current iterations of Theta and Davy.

We invite you to join us in commemorating these landmarks and honouring the rich traditions of Mascotry.

With Jez, Clem, Bo, Derrick, Theta, Davy, Spanner, Bolt, and Mike the Micrometer in attendance, this is an event not to be missed.

The evening will commence with a reception at the RCS and RSM Motor Club garages, where guests will be treated to a curated exhibition showcasing the history of Mascotry at Imperial.… Read more...

Posted on Around Campus, Events, Member Benefits, News, Sport

ORCS, the Old RCS, Win Again

ORCS, the “Old Royal College of Science” darts team have once again been victorious in the Summer 2024 SKADL Darts League. They become the fourth winners, and winners for the third time, of the “RCSA Purse” – £100 of prize money. Of sixteen games, ORCS lost only two. A very impressive run for which we congratulate them most heartily.

The various teams in SKADL, the South Kensington Academic Darts League, have their roots in the Union Bar, in the Holland Bar, in the RCS and in various other academic institutions ‘not so far from South Kensington’. There is a second RCSA Team, the recently formed RCSA Double Elevens, who play their home fixtures in the Union Bar and their away fixtures in a variety of excellent pubs across London, all on a Monday night. If your Monday evenings are free and you fancy throwing a few darts, do contact us.… Read more...

Posted on Annual Dinner, Events, Jezebel, Member Benefits, News

Glittering and Steamy Night in West London!

What an evening!? The dust is only just settling after the fantastic joint RCSA and RCS Motor Club (RCSMC) dinner at the London Museum of Water and Steam (LMWS) last Saturday evening 23rd March. A lively group of students, alumni, faculty and guests gathered for the RCSA 116th and the RCSMC 69th anniversary dinners for what was in all likelihood their first ever joint dinner! The venue itself was spectacular with the largest collection of steam engines in the world as well as associated historical displays forming the backdrop for an evening of fine food, fine wines and scintillating conversation followed by two very entertaining guest speakers! Some of the steam engines were operational during the event as well, adding to the atmosphere (quite literally!!)

The Dean of RCS (or Dean of FoNS if you want to be terribly modern), Professor Richard Craster was in attendance with his wife Bernadette and he provided a delightful insight into his undergrad and postgrad days studying maths at Imperial.… Read more...

Posted on Around Campus, Events, Member Benefits, News

Celebrate with the youngsters

You are very welcome to celebrate with the youngsters (though perhaps you still ARE a youngster!)

The RCSU are delighted to extend an ‘invitation to party’ to all RCSA members and their friends. The youngsters are celebrating with anyone and everyone who is graduating that Commemoration Day and you are most welcome to join them. The party takes place at Infernos, Clapham from 9pm on Wednesday the 18th October. Tickets are just £6.00.

You can click here for tickets and further details…..  (you can create an account here…. or click on the head and shoulder avatar at top right. There are a few ‘trip hazards’ when purchasing from the Union…..so check out our top tips here….).

We are promised lively DJs, a generous happy hour, and a 100% takeover of one of the most renowned clubs in London.

Unmissable! Hope to see you there.… Read more...