Alumni
Celebrating 50 Years of the College of Ripon and York St John (CRYSJ)
Explore the evolution of CRYSJ's legacy and discover how you can contribute to its future.
In 1974, Ripon College and St John’s College in York faced a dilemma: How could they survive with a planned reduction in teacher training places?
By the end of the year, their plan to reunify as the College of Ripon and York St John (CRYSJ) finally received government approval. They had until September 1975 to complete the amalgamation, including unifying two campuses, finalising new courses, and recruiting students to a new college experience.
When CRYSJ opened its doors in Ripon and York in September 1975, they couldn’t have imagined that generations of students would study under the same College basis. Over the years, the name of the College might have slightly changed, but CRYSJ remained at its core until the closure of our Ripon campus in 2001.
The 2024 to 2025 academic year marks 50 years since the process of amalgamation began, and just like 50 years ago, we want to create something to be remembered!
Join our CRYSJ yearbook
To mark 50 years since the amalgamation, we would like as many alumni as possible who studied with us during this time to join our yearbook.
Tell your fellow CRYSJ friends your favourite memories of your time with us, share what you have been up to since completing your studies and tell alumni how they can contact you. If you’re looking to reconnect with someone you studied with, there’s also space to ask for them to get in touch!
Completing the yearbook is free. All you need to do is complete and submit your free, online profile. You can also upload photos from your time studying with us, as well as a ‘then and now’ pair of photos.
Create your profile here (GradFinale website)
Once you’ve completed your yearbook, you will have the opportunity to buy a physical or digital copy. If you buy a copy, you’ll be able to see everyone’s photos, read their pages and see how to contact other alumni.
To take part, please complete your profile by Spring 2025.
- Head to the Gradfinale website and fill in your first and last name. If you were known by a different name at College, there’s space to input this later during the registration.
- Select ‘University student’ as your registration type.
- Select York St John University – CRYSJ alumni from the drop down menu.
- Select the campus you studied at when asked to choose your Faculty/School or College Department.
- Select the type of course you studied with us and input the year you completed it. If you studied multiple courses with us, please select the course type and end year that you think most people will remember you from.
- Add your email address. Please note you will need an email address to create and access your account.
- Complete the other areas on the page, including creating a password so you can log back into your account to complete your profile or buy a copy.
- Answer the questions on the next few pages. Once you’ve created a password, you can log back in to do this.
- Once you’re happy with your answers and uploaded your photos, submit your profile to make sure it’s included.
You can also complete a paper form and send it back to us to take part. Please only complete the paper form if you are unable to complete the digital form.
Return of the original CRYSJ logo
For one year only, we’re bring back the original CRYSJ logo! In Spring 2025, we’ll be opening up preorders for our unique, 50th anniversary badges.
The badge price will include a small contribution to our CRYSJ Graduation Prize fund. The badge will be available for collection at our summer reunion or can be shipped nationally and internationally.
Further information
In late 1974, the Principals of Ripon College and St John’s College received confirmation that their plan to combine the Colleges had been approved. They had until Summer 1975 to complete the amalgamation so that the College of Ripon and York St John could open in September 1975.
To mark this period of transition, in the 2024 to 2025 academic year we will be celebrating CRYSJ in all its forms, and giving alumni the opportunity to get involved. To mark the opening of CRYSJ in 1975, 50 students will receive a CRYSJ graduation prize.
Alumni who have purchased a yearbook or pin badge will also receive these by September 2025.
Since 1841, York St John University has gone through so many name changes we have a timeline in the Alumni Office to keep track!
We’ve simplified the name of this celebration to bring together as many alumni as possible who studied with us in York or Ripon as a unified College with two campuses.
If you studied any part of your course between September 1975 and August 2002, you're welcome to participate.
It is free to complete your yearbook entry and be included in the yearbook.
After completing your yearbook, you can buy a physical or digital copy from GradFinale.
As with all our activities and events, York St John University will not make a profit from the sale of our badges or yearbooks. If sales of the CRYSJ badges do generate a profit, such as if metal prices decrease below the original quote, that profit will be donated to the CRYSJ Graduation Prize.
The CRYSJ yearbook is available to pre-order from GradFinale and will be dispatched in Summer 2025.
You can also choose to collect your yearbook copy at Your YSJ Reunion 2025 or wait for it to be posted to you in September 2025.
We are operating a pre-order system for the CRYSJ badge. You will be able to pre-order a badge in Spring 2025.
Before we open preorders in the Spring, we’ll obtain a new quote for producing each badge. Based on this quote, we will calculate the final price, considering:
- The cost of making each badge
- Postage and packaging
- A small contribution to the CRYSJ prize
Don't worry, we’ll provide a fixed price when you preorder and will stick to that price, even if our quote changes.
As with all our activities and events, York St John University will not make a profit from the sale of our badges or yearbooks. If sales of the CRYSJ badges do generate a profit, such as if metal prices decrease below the original quote, that profit will be donated to the CRYSJ Graduation Prize.
Badges will be available to collect at Your YSJ Reunion, or will be dispatched in late Summer 2025.
We want as many alumni as possible to participate in our celebration while minimizing waste.
GradFinale will print only the number of yearbooks that are preordered to ensure none are wasted. Consequently, yearbooks will not be available for general sale and must be pre-ordered.
Similarly, we will use a pre-order system for the CRYSJ pin badges to avoid any surplus. As a result, pin badges will not be available for general sale and must be pre-ordered.