Hertford memories, fifty years on

16 October 2026

Recently, Hertford’s Development Office was contacted by Angela, whose mother attended one of Hertford’s summer programmes with her two best friends fifty years ago.

Anamarija Margan Šulc (Angela’s mother), Marijana Gašpert and Marina Stipčević Kirinčić, from Zagreb, former Yugoslavia, came to Oxford in the summer of 1976 to attend an international English-language course at Hertford College. They were high schoolers at the time and spent approximately four weeks at Hertford learning English and experiencing Oxford.

The three remained close friends, and this September they visited Oxford and Hertford to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their time here. Angela writes:

‘We had such a wonderful time in Oxford and at the college. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to share such a beautiful trip with my mum and her friends.

Oxford clearly shaped them in the best possible way. My mum has always spoken about her time there with such warmth, and throughout my childhood she would tell me that Oxford is a place where knowledge is not only valued, but genuinely cherished. I think that is something she has carried with her ever since.

All three of them went on to have very successful careers in Croatia – Marijana as a mathematician, Marina as a diplomat and my mum as an internal medicine doctor and clinical pharmacologist – and I like to think that the experience they had at Oxford was one of the things that helped shape the women they became. They have remained close friends all these years, too, which makes this story even more special.

Thank you again for helping us reconnect with this little piece of their history. It means so much to all of us. A whole life unfolded, but Hertford memories stayed the same.’

Anamarija remembers that her accommodation was on the ground floor in the part of the college beneath/adjacent to the Bridge of Sighs. Sadly, the current construction work on main site didn’t allow them to recreate a photo from fifty years ago, but perhaps that’s simply another reason to come back!