Oxford University students celebrate Pancake Day with relay in gowns
Oriel College’s annual pancake race took place today on Shrove Tuesday (March 4) and saw a whole host of the historic institution’s students take part in the special race.
With frying pans as batons, teams of four raced to complete four laps of the college’s historic First Quad, flipping a pancake as they passed each the quad’s four corners.
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First Quad, where the race took place, is located on the same site as the original buildings of Oriel College.
Oriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford Oriel which is celebrating its 700th anniversary in 2026 having been founded in 1326.
In the past century alone, the college has produced two Nobel Laureates, at least nine Olympic medallists and numerous luminaries in culture and the arts.
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Currently, Oriel College has c.350 undergraduates, c.270 postgraduate students and c.45 fellows.
In recent years it has become a centre for environmental science and energy demand research, but the tradition of the pancake relay come Shrove Tuesday has remained strong.
Organised by the undergraduate students themselves, the pancake race is an annual event at Oriel College in the winter and spring months.
2025’s event was no different with several students seen sporting full academic dress while frantically hurrying around the college armed with frying pans.
