The University of Oxford comprises 43 constituent colleges, consisting of 36semi-autonomous colleges, fourpermanent private halls and three societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their ownroyal charter).[19][20] and a range of academic departments that are organised into fourdivisions.[21] Each college is a self-governing institution within the university that controls its own membership and has its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college.[19] Oxford does not have a main campus. Its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre and around the town.Undergraduate teaching at the university consists of lectures, small-grouptutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments.Postgraduate teaching is provided in a predominantly centralised fashion.
Merton College'sMob Quad, the oldestquadrangle of the university, constructed between 1288 and 1378In 1605, Oxford was a walled city with several colleges outside the city walls (north is at the bottom).
The University of Oxford's foundation date is unknown.[26]
While no official papal bull established Oxford, the university emerged in the 12th century as part of Western Europe'sCatholic educational system. Early teaching was conducted by clerics likeTheobald of Étampes, and the curriculum focused on theology and canon law, reflecting its ecclesiastical roots. Most scholars were members of the clergy until the Reformation.[27][28][29]
In the 1300s, the chroniclerRanulf Higden wrote that the university was founded in the 9th century byAlfred the Great;[30] the story is today considered apocryphal, although it was believed until the 18th century.[31] It is known that teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it is unclear when the university came into being.[5] ScholarTheobald of Étampes lectured at Oxford in the early 1100s.[32]
The university experienced rapid growth beginning in 1167, when English students were expelled from theUniversity of Paris by order of King Henry II, who, amid tensions with France and the Church, banned his subjects from studying abroad—prompting many scholars to return and establish a thriving academic community in Oxford.[5] The historianGerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar,Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title ofchancellor from at least 1201, and the masters were recognised as auniversitas or corporation in 1231.[5][33] The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of KingHenry III.[34] After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence toCambridge, later forming theUniversity of Cambridge.[17][35]
The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two 'nations', representing the North (northerners orBoreales, who included theEnglish people from north of theRiver Trent and theScots) and the South (southerners orAustrales, who included English people from south of the Trent, the Irish and theWelsh).[36][37] In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students' affiliations when membership of acollege orhall became customary at Oxford. Additionally, members of manyreligious orders, includingDominicans,Franciscans,Carmelites, andAugustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students.[38] At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders wereWilliam of Durham, who in 1249 endowedUniversity College,[38] andJohn Balliol, father of a futureKing of Scots;Balliol College bears his name.[36] Another founder,Walter de Merton, aLord Chancellor of England and afterwardsBishop of Rochester, composed a series of regulations for college life;[39][40]Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford,[41] as well as at Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses.[38]
In 1333–1334, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a newuniversity at Stamford, Lincolnshire, was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning KingEdward III.[42] Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in large western European countries.[43][44]
With theEnglish Reformation and the break of communion with theRoman Catholic Church,recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, settling especially at theUniversity of Douai.[47] The method of teaching at Oxford was transformed from the medievalscholastic method to Renaissance education, although institutions associated with the university experienced losses of land and revenues. As a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxford's reputation declined in theAge of Enlightenment; enrolments fell and teaching was neglected.[48]
In 1636,William Laud, the chancellor andArchbishop of Canterbury, codified the university's statutes.[49] These, for the most part, remained its governing regulations until the mid-19th century. Laud was also responsible for the granting of a charter securing privileges for theUniversity Press, and he made notable contributions to theBodleian Library, the main library of the university. From the beginnings of theChurch of England as theestablished church until 1866, membership of the church was a requirement to graduate as a Bachelor of Arts, andDissenters were only permitted to be promoted to Master of Arts starting in 1871.[50] The university was a centre of theRoyalist party during theEnglish Civil War (1642–1651), while the town favoured the opposingParliamentarian cause.[51]
In 1827, a major review of the university's statutes, some over 500 years old, was conducted. Among the changes made at this time was the removal of the requirement that students swear an oath of enmity towards an Oxford townsmanHenry Symeonis, who was found guilty of murdering an Oxford student in the mid-13th century.[53]
Before reforms in the early 19th century, the curriculum at Oxford was notoriously narrow and impractical.Sir Spencer Walpole, a historian of contemporary Great Britain and a senior government official, had not attended any university. He said, "Few medical men, few solicitors, few persons intended for commerce or trade, ever dreamed of passing through a university career." He quoted the Oxford University Commissioners in 1852 stating: "The education imparted at Oxford was not such as to conduce to the advancement in life of many persons, except those intended for the ministry."[54] Nevertheless, Walpole argued:
Among the many deficiencies attending a university education there was, however, one good thing about it, and that was the education which the undergraduates gave themselves. It was impossible to collect some thousand or twelve hundred of the best young men in England, to give them the opportunity of making acquaintance with one another, and full liberty to live their lives in their own way, without evolving in the best among them, some admirable qualities of loyalty, independence, and self-control. If the average undergraduate carried from University little or no learning, which was of any service to him, he carried from it a knowledge of men and respect for his fellows and himself, a reverence for the past, a code of honour for the present, which could not but be serviceable. He had enjoyed opportunities... of intercourse with men, some of whom were certain to rise to the highest places in the Senate, in the Church, or at the Bar. He might have mixed with them in his sports, in his studies, and perhaps in his debating society; and any associations which he had this formed had been useful to him at the time, and might be a source of satisfaction to him in after life.[55]
Of the students who matriculated in 1840, 65% were sons of professionals (34% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (59% as Anglican clergy). Out of the students who matriculated in 1870, 59% were sons of professionals (25% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (42% as Anglican clergy).[56][57]
M. C. Curthoys and H. S. Jones argue that the rise of organised sport was one of the most remarkable and distinctive features of the history of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was carried over from the athleticism prevalent at the public schools such asEton,Winchester,Shrewsbury, andHarrow.[58]
All students, regardless of their chosen area of study, were required to spend (at least) their first year preparing for a first-year examination that was heavily focused onclassical languages. Science students found this particularly burdensome and supported a separate science degree withGreek language study removed from their required courses. This concept of a Bachelor of Science had been adopted at other European universities (London University had implemented it in 1860) but an 1880 proposal at Oxford to replace the classical requirement with a modern language (like German or French) was unsuccessful. After considerable internal haggling over the structure of the arts curriculum, in 1886 the "natural science preliminary" was recognised as a qualifying part of the first year examination.[59]
At the start of 1914, the university housed about 3,000 undergraduates and around 100 postgraduate students. During the First World War, many undergraduates and fellows joined the armed forces. By 1918 nearly all fellows were serving in uniform, and the student population in residence was reduced to 12% of the pre-war total.[60] TheUniversity Roll of Service records that, in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716 (18.36%) killed.[61] Not all the members of the university who served in the Great War fought with the Allies; there is a memorial to members of New College who served in the German armed forces, bearing the inscription, 'In memory of the men of this college who coming from a foreign land entered into the inheritance of this place and returning fought and died for their country in the war 1914–1918'. During the war years the university buildings became hospitals, cadet schools and military training camps.[60]
Two parliamentary commissions in 1852 issued recommendations for Oxford and Cambridge.Archibald Campbell Tait, a former headmaster of Rugby School, was a key member of the Oxford Commission; he wanted Oxford to follow the German and Scottish model in which the professorship was paramount. The commission's report envisioned a centralised university run predominantly by professors and faculties, with a much stronger emphasis on research. The professional staff should be strengthened and better paid. For students, restrictions on entry should be dropped, and more opportunities given to poorer families. It called for an expansion of the curriculum, with honours to be awarded in many new fields. Undergraduate scholarships should be open to all Britons. Graduate fellowships should be opened up to all members of the university. It recommended that fellows be released from an obligation for ordination. Students were to be allowed to save money by boarding in the city, instead of in one of the colleges.[62][63]
The system of separatehonour schools for different subjects began in 1802, with Mathematics andLiterae Humaniores.[64] Schools of "Natural Sciences" and "Law, and Modern History" were added in 1853.[64] By 1872, the last of these had split into "Jurisprudence" and "Modern History". Theology became the sixth honour school.[65] In addition to these B.A. Honours degrees, the postgraduateBachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) was, and still is, offered.[66]
The mid-19th century saw the impact of theOxford Movement (1833–1845), led, among others, by the future CardinalJohn Henry Newman. Administrative reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance forreligious dissent, and the establishment of four women's colleges. Privy Council decisions in the 20th century - the abolition of compulsory daily worship, dissociation of the Regius Professorship of Hebrew from clerical status, diversion of colleges' theological bequests to other purposes - loosened the link with traditional belief and practice. Furthermore, although the university's emphasis had historically been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded during the 19th century to include scientific and medical studies.
The postgraduate degrees of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Letters (renamedMaster of Science andMaster of Letters in the 1970s) were introduced in 1895, and the university began to award doctorates for research in 1900 with theDoctor of Letters andDoctor of Science degrees.[67] Oxford was the first British university to institute aDoctor of Philosophy degree (abbreviated DPhil) in 1917; it was first awarded in 1919 to Lakshman Sarup of Balliol College.[68]
The university passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at a level approximately equivalent to undergraduate studies;[69] for a brief period in the early 1900s, this allowed the "steamboat ladies" to receivead eundem degrees from theUniversity of Dublin.[70] In June 1878, theAssociation for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association wereGeorge Granville Bradley,T. H. Green andEdward Stuart Talbot. Talbot insisted on a specificallyAnglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group foundedLady Margaret Hall in 1878, while T. H. Green founded the non-denominationalSomerville College in 1879.[71] Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened their doors to their first 21 students (12 at Somerville, 9 at Lady Margaret Hall) in 1879, who attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop.[69] There were also 25 women students living at home or with friends in 1879, a group which evolved into the Society of Oxford Home-Students and in 1952 intoSt Anne's College.[72][73]
These first three societies for women were followed bySt Hugh's (1886)[74] andSt Hilda's (1893).[75] All of these colleges later became coeducational, starting withLady Margaret Hall andSt Anne's in 1979,[76][72] and finishing withSt Hilda's, which began to accept male students in 2008.[77] In the early 20th century, Oxford and Cambridge were widely perceived to be bastions ofmale privilege;[78] however, the integration of women into Oxford moved forward during the First World War. In 1916 women were admitted as medical students on a par with men, and in 1917 the university accepted financial responsibility for women's examinations.[60]
On 7 October 1920 women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and were given the right to take degrees.[79] In 1927 the university's dons created a quota that limited the number of female students to a quarter that of men, a ruling which was not abolished until 1957.[69] Additionally, during this period Oxford colleges weresingle sex, so the number of women was also limited by the capacity of the women's colleges to admit students. It was not until 1959 that the women's colleges were given full collegiate status.[80]
In 1974,Brasenose,Jesus,Wadham,Hertford andSt Catherine's became the first formerly all-male colleges to admit women.[81][82] The majority of men's colleges accepted their first female students in 1979,[82] withChrist Church following in 1980,[83] andOriel becoming the last men's college to admit women in 1985.[84] Most of Oxford's graduate colleges were founded as coeducational establishments in the 20th century, with the exception of St Antony's, which was founded as a men's college in 1950 and began to accept women only in 1962.[85] By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at Oxford were female;[86] in 2016, 45% of the student population, and 47% of undergraduate students, were female.[87][88]
In June 2017, Oxford announced that starting in the 2018 academic year, history students may choose to sit a take-home exam in some courses, with the intention that this will equalise rates of firsts awarded to women and men at Oxford.[89] That same summer, maths and computer science tests were extended by 15 minutes, in a bid to see if female student scores would improve.[90][91]
The detective novelGaudy Night byDorothy L. Sayers, one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, is largely set in the all-femaleShrewsbury College, Oxford (based on Sayers' ownSomerville College[92]), and the issue of women's education is central to its plot. Social historian and Somerville College alumnaJane Robinson's bookBluestockings: A Remarkable History of the First Women to Fight for an Education gives a very detailed and immersive account of this history.[93]
The university is a "city university" in that it does not have a main campus; instead, colleges, departments, accommodation, and other facilities are scattered throughout central Oxford and in some other areas of the city. TheScience Area, in which most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest resemblance to a campus. There is a ten-acre (4-hectare)Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the northwest of the city.
In 2012–2013, the university built the controversial one-hectare (400 m × 25 m)Castle Mill development of 4–5-storey blocks of student flats overlookingCripley Meadow and the historicPort Meadow, blocking views of the spires in the city centre.[94] The development has been likened to building a "skyscraper besideStonehenge".[95]
TheBotanic Garden on theHigh Street is the oldestbotanic garden in the UK. It contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 ha (4+1⁄2 acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact major collections of plants in the world and includes representatives of over 90% of the higher plant families. TheHarcourt Arboretum is a 130-acre (53 ha) site six miles (9.7 km) south of the city that includes native woodland and 67 acres (27 hectares) of meadow. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km2)Wytham Woods are owned by the university and used for research inzoology andclimate change.[97]
Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their undergraduates, and the members of an academic department are spread around many colleges. Though certain colleges do have subject alignments (e.g.,Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences), these are exceptions, and most colleges will have a diverse community of students and academics representing a wide range of disciplines. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central university (theBodleian), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members).[98]
Wellington Square has become synonymous with the university's central administration.
The university's formal head is thechancellor, withLord Hague of Richmond expected to be inaugurated in early 2025[99] although, as at most British universities, the chancellor is a titular figurehead and is not involved with the day-to-day running of the university. The chancellor is elected by the members ofconvocation, a body comprising all graduates of the university, and may hold office until death.[100]
Thevice-chancellor, currentlyIrene Tracey,[9] is thede facto head of the university. There are five pro-vice-chancellors with specific responsibilities.[101]
Two universityproctors, elected annually on a rotating basis from any two of the colleges, are the internal ombudsmen who make sure that the university and its members adhere to its statutes. This role incorporates student discipline and complaints, as well as oversight of the university's proceedings.[102] The university's professors are collectively referred to as theStatutory Professors of the University of Oxford. They are particularly influential in the running of the university's graduate programmes. Examples of statutory professors are theChichele Professorships and theDrummond Professor of Political Economy.
Oxford is a "public university" in that it receives some public money from the government, but it is a "private university" in that it is entirely self-governing and, in theory, could choose to become entirely private by rejecting public funds.[103]
To be a member of the university, all students, and most academic staff, must also be a member of a college or hall. There are thirty-ninecolleges of the University of Oxford and fourpermanent private halls (PPHs), each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and activities.[19] Not all colleges offer all courses, but they generally cover a broad range of subjects.
‡ These three have no royal charter, and are officially departments of the university rather than independent colleges.
The permanent private halls were founded by different Christian denominations. One difference between a college and a PPH is that whereas colleges are governed by thefellows of the college, the governance of a PPH resides, at least in part, with the corresponding Christian denomination. The four PPHs are:
The PPHs and colleges join as the Conference of Colleges, which represents their common concerns, to discuss matters of shared interest and to act collectively when necessary, such as in dealings with the central university.[104][105] The Conference of Colleges was established as a recommendation of theFranks Commission in 1965.[106]
Teaching members of the colleges (i.e. fellows and tutors) are collectively and familiarly known asdons, although the term is rarely used by the university itself. In addition to residential and dining facilities, the colleges provide social, cultural, and recreational activities for their members. Colleges have responsibility for admitting undergraduates and organising their tuition; for graduates, this responsibility falls upon the departments.
The combined endowment figure of £8.708 billion makes Oxford hold thelargest endowment of any university in the UK.[7] The college figure does not reflect all the assets held by the colleges as their accounts do not include the cost or value of many of their main sites or heritage assets such as works of art or libraries.[107]
The central University's endowment, along with some of the colleges', is managed by the university's wholly owned endowment management office, Oxford University Endowment Management, formed in 2007.[108] The university used to maintain substantial investments in fossil fuel companies.[109] However, in April 2020, the university committed to divest from direct investments in fossil fuel companies and to require indirect investments in fossil fuel companies be subjected to the Oxford Martin Principles.[110][111]
The university was one of the first in the UK to raise money through a major public fundraising campaign, theCampaign for Oxford. The current campaign, its second, was launched in May 2008 and is entitled "Oxford Thinking – The Campaign for the University of Oxford".[112] This is looking to support three areas: academic posts and programmes, student support, and buildings and infrastructure;[113] having passed its original target of £1.25 billion in March 2012, the target was raised to £3 billion.[114]
The university has faced criticism for some of its sources of donations and funding. In 2017, attention was drawn to historical donations includingAll Souls College receiving £10,000 from slave traderChristopher Codrington in 1710,[115] and Oriel College receiving £100,000 from the will of the imperialistCecil Rhodes in 1902.[116][117] In 1996 a donation of £20 million was received fromWafic Saïd who was involved in theAl-Yammah arms deal,[118][119] and taking £150 million from the US billionaire businessmanStephen A. Schwarzman in 2019.[120] The university has defended its decisions saying it "takes legal, ethical and reputational issues into consideration".
The university also faced criticism, as noted above, over its decision to accept donations from fossil fuel companies having received £21.8 million from the fossil fuel industry between 2010 and 2015,[121] £18.8 million between 2015 and 2020[122][123] and £1.6 million between 2020 and 2021.[124]
The university accepted £6 million from The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust in 2021. Former racing driverMax Mosley stated that he set up the trust "to house the fortune he inherited" from his father,[125]Oswald Mosley, who was founder of two far-right groups:Union Movement and theBritish Union of Fascists.[126]
In common with most British universities, prospective undergraduate students apply through theUCAS application system, but prospective applicants for the University of Oxford, along with those for medicine, dentistry, andUniversity of Cambridge applicants, must observe an earlier deadline of 15 October.[139] TheSutton Trust maintains that Oxford University and Cambridge University recruit undergraduates disproportionately from 8 schools which accounted for 1,310 Oxbridge places during three years, contrasted with 1,220 from 2,900 other schools.[140]
To allow a more individualised judgement of students, who might otherwise apply for both, undergraduate applicants are not permitted to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year. The only exceptions are applicants fororgan scholarships[141] and those applying to read for a second undergraduate degree.[142]Oxford has the lowest offer rate of all Russell Group universities.[143]
Most applicants choose to apply to one of the individual colleges. Undergraduate applicants benefit from the collaborative efforts of the colleges, which aim to ensure that top students secure a place at the university, regardless of their initial college choices. Postgraduate applicants who are offered admission by the university are assured a place in one of the colleges, even if their preferred college cannot accommodate them.[144]
Undergraduate shortlisting is based on achieved and predicted exam results, school references, and, in some subjects, written admission tests or candidate-submitted written work. Approximately 60% of applicants are shortlisted, although this varies by subject. If a large number of shortlisted applicants for a subject choose one college, then students who named that college may be reallocated randomly to under-subscribed colleges for the subject. The colleges then invite shortlisted candidates for interview, where they are provided with food and accommodation for around three days in December. Most undergraduate applicants will be individually interviewed by academics at more than one college. In 2020 interviews were moved online,[145] and they will remain online until at least 2027.[146]
Undergraduate offers are sent out in early January, with each offer usually being from a specific college. One in four successful candidates receives an offer from a college that they did not apply to. Some courses may make "open offers" to some candidates, who are not assigned to a particular college untilA Level results day in August.[147][148]
The university has come under criticism for the number of students it accepts from private schools;[149] for instance,Laura Spence's rejection from the university in 2000 led to widespread debate.[150] In 2016, the University of Oxford gave 59% of offers to UK students to students from state schools, while about 93% of all UK pupils and 86% of post-16 UK pupils are educated in state schools.[151][152][153] However, 64% of UK applicants were from state schools and the university notes that state school students apply disproportionately to oversubscribed subjects.[154] The proportion of students coming from state schools has been increasing. From 2015 to 2019, the state proportion of total UK students admitted each year was: 55.6%, 58.0%, 58.2%, 60.5% and 62.3%.[155] Oxford University spends over £6 million per year on outreach programs to encourage applicants from underrepresented demographics.[151]
In 2018 the university's annual admissions report revealed that eight of Oxford's colleges had accepted fewer than three black applicants in the past three years.[156]Labour MPDavid Lammy said, "This is social apartheid and it is utterly unrepresentative of life in modern Britain."[157] In 2020, Oxford had increased its proportion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students to record levels.[158][159] The number of BAME undergraduates accepted to the university in 2020 rose to 684 students, or 23.6% of the UK intake, up from 558 or 22% in 2019; the number of Black students was 106 (3.7% of the intake), up from 80 students (3.2%).[159][160] UCAS data also showed that Oxford is more likely than comparable institutions to make offers to ethnic minority and socially disadvantaged pupils.[158]
Undergraduate teaching is centred on the tutorial, where 1–4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week's work, usually an essay (humanities, most social sciences, some mathematical, physical, and life sciences) or problem sheet (most mathematical, physical, and life sciences, and some social sciences). The university itself is responsible for conducting examinations and conferring degrees. Undergraduate teaching takes place during three eight-week academic terms:Michaelmas,Hilary andTrinity.[161] (These are officially known as 'Full Term': 'Term' is a lengthier period with little practical significance.) Internally, the weeks in a term begin on Sundays, and are referred to numerically, with the initial week known as "first week", the last as "eighth week" and with the numbering extended to refer to weeks before and after term (for example "noughth week" precedes term).[162] Undergraduates must be in residence from Thursday of 0th week. These teaching terms are shorter than those of most other British universities,[163] and their total duration amounts to less than half the year. However, undergraduates are also expected to do some academic work during the three holidays (known as the Christmas, Easter, and Long Vacations).
Rhodes House is home to the awarding body forRhodes Scholarships, often considered the world's most prestigious scholarship.
There are many opportunities for students at Oxford to receive financial help during their studies. The Oxford Opportunity Bursaries, introduced in 2006, are university-wide means-based bursaries available to any British undergraduate, with a total possible grant of £10,235 over a 3-year degree. In addition, individual colleges also offer bursaries and funds to help their students. For graduate study, there are many scholarships attached to the university, available to students from all sorts of backgrounds, fromRhodes Scholarships to the relatively new Weidenfeld Scholarships.[164] Oxford also offers theClarendon Scholarship which is open to graduate applicants of all nationalities.[165] The Clarendon Scholarship is principally funded byOxford University Press in association with colleges and other partnership awards.[166][167] In 2016, Oxford University announced that it is to run its first free online economics course as part of a "massive open online course" (MOOC) scheme, in partnership with a US online university network.[168] The course available is called 'From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development'.
Students successful in early examinations are rewarded by their colleges with scholarships andexhibitions, normally the result of a long-standing endowment, although since the introduction of tuition fees the amounts of money available are purely nominal. Scholars, and exhibitioners in some colleges, are entitled to wear a more voluminous undergraduate gown; "commoners" (originally those who had to pay for their "commons", or food and lodging) are restricted to a short, sleeveless garment. The term "scholar" in relation to Oxford therefore has a specific meaning as well as the more general meaning of someone of outstanding academic ability. In previous times, there were "noblemen commoners" and "gentlemen commoners", but these ranks were abolished in the 19th century. "Closed" scholarships, available only to candidates who fitted specific conditions such as coming from specific schools, were abolished in the 1970s and 1980s.[169]
The university maintains the largest university library system in the UK,[22] and, with over 11 million volumes housed on 120 miles (190 km) of shelving, the Bodleian group is the second-largest library in the UK, after theBritish Library. The Bodleian is alegal deposit library, which means that it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK. As such, its collection is growing at a rate of over three miles (five kilometres) of shelving every year.[170]
The buildings referred to as the university's main research library,The Bodleian, consist of the original Bodleian Library in the Old Schools Quadrangle, founded bySir Thomas Bodley in 1598 and opened in 1602,[171] theRadcliffe Camera, theClarendon Building, and theWeston Library. A tunnel underneathBroad Street connects these buildings, with the Gladstone Link, which opened to readers in 2011, connecting the Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera.
TheBodleian Libraries group was formed in 2000, bringing the Bodleian Library and some of the subject libraries together.[172] It now comprises 28[173] libraries, a number of which have been created by bringing previously separate collections together, including theSackler Library,Law Library,Social Science Library andRadcliffe Science Library.[172] Another major product of this collaboration has been a joint integrated library system,OLIS (OxfordLibrariesInformationSystem),[174] and its public interface,SOLO (SearchOxfordLibrariesOnline), which provides an electronic catalogue covering all member libraries, as well as the libraries of individual colleges and other faculty libraries, which are not members of the group but do share cataloguing information.[175]
A new book depository opened inSouth Marston, Swindon, in October 2010,[176] and recent building projects include the remodelling of the New Bodleian building, which was renamed the Weston Library when it reopened in 2015.[177][178] The renovation is designed to better showcase the library's various treasures (which include a ShakespeareFirst Folio and aGutenberg Bible) as well as temporary exhibitions.
The Bodleian engaged in a mass-digitisation project with Google in 2004.[179][180] Notable electronic resources hosted by the Bodleian Group include theElectronic Enlightenment Project, which was awarded the 2010 Digital Prize by theBritish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.[181]
Oxford maintains a number of museums and galleries, open for free to the public. TheAshmolean Museum, founded in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in the world.[182] It holds significant collections of art and archaeology, including works byMichelangelo,Leonardo da Vinci,Turner, andPicasso, as well as treasures such as theScorpion Macehead, theParian Marble and theAlfred Jewel. It also contains "The Messiah", a pristine Stradivarius violin, regarded by some as one of the finest examples in existence.[183]
Adjoining the Museum of Natural History is thePitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which displays the university's archaeological and anthropological collections, currently holding over 500,000 items. It recently built a new research annexe; its staff have been involved with the teaching of anthropology at Oxford since its foundation, when as part of his donation GeneralAugustus Pitt Rivers stipulated that the university establish a lectureship in anthropology.[187]
TheMuseum of the History of Science is housed on Broad Street in the world's oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building.[188] It contains 15,000 artefacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of thehistory of science. In the Faculty of Music onSt Aldate's is theBate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards.Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a large collection ofold master paintings and drawings.[189]
Due to its age[198][199] and its social and academic status,[200][201] the University of Oxford is considered to be one of Britain's most prestigious or elite universities[202][203] and to form, along with theUniversity of Cambridge, a top two that stand above other UK universities in this regard.[198][200][201][204]
Oxford is regularly ranked within the top five universities in the world in theTimes Higher Education World University Rankings,[205][206] as well as theForbes's World University Rankings.[207] It held the number one position in theTimes Good University Guide for eleven consecutive years,[208] and themedical school has also maintained first place in the "Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health" table of theTimes Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for the past seven consecutive years.[209] In 2021, it ranked sixth among the universities around the world bySCImago Institutions Rankings.[210] TheTHE has also recognised Oxford as one of the world's "six super brands" on itsWorld Reputation Rankings, along withBerkeley,Cambridge,Harvard,MIT, andStanford.[211] The university is fourth worldwide on theUS News ranking.[212] ItsSaïd Business School came 13th in the world inFinancial TimesGlobal MBA Ranking.[213]
Oxford was ranked 13th in the world in 2022 by the Nature Index, which measures the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals.[214][215] It is ranked fifth best university worldwide and first in Britain for formingCEOs according to theProfessional Ranking World Universities,[216] and first in the UK for the quality of its graduates as chosen by the recruiters of the UK's major companies.[217]
In the 2018Complete University Guide, all 38 subjects offered by Oxford rank within the top 10 nationally meaning Oxford was one of only two multi-faculty universities (along withCambridge) in the UK to have 100% of their subjects in the top 10.[218] Computer Science, Medicine, Philosophy, Politics and Psychology were ranked first in the UK by the guide.[219]
According to the QS World University Rankings by Subject, the University of Oxford also ranks as number one in the world for four Humanities disciplines: English Language and Literature,Modern Languages,Geography, and History. It also ranks second globally for Anthropology, Archaeology, Law, Medicine, Politics & International Studies, and Psychology.[220]
An undergraduate student at the University of Oxford insubfusc for matriculation
Academic dress is required for examinations, matriculation, disciplinary hearings, and when visiting university officers. A referendum held among the Oxford student body in 2015 showed 76% against making it voluntary in examinations – 8,671 students voted, with the 40.2% turnout the highest ever for a UK student union referendum.[221] This was widely interpreted by students as being a vote not so much on makingsubfusc voluntary, but, in effect, on abolishing it by default, in that if a minority of people came to exams without subfusc, the rest would soon follow.[222] In July 2012 the regulations regarding academic dress were modified to be more inclusive totransgender people.[223]
'Trashing' is a tradition of spraying those who just finished their last examination of the year with alcohol, flour and confetti. The sprayed student stays in the academic dress worn to the exam. The custom began in the 1970s when friends of students taking their finals waited outside Oxford'sExamination Schools where exams for most degrees are taken.[224] Other traditions and customs vary by college. For example, some colleges haveformal hall six times a week, but in others this only happens occasionally, or even not at all.Balls are major events held by colleges; the largest, held triennially in ninth week of Trinity Term, are known ascommemoration balls; the dress code is usuallywhite tie. Many other colleges hold smaller events during the year that they call summer balls or parties.
Sport is played between college teams, in tournaments known ascuppers (the term is also used for some non-sporting competitions). In particular, much attention is given to the termly intercollegiate rowing regattas: Christ Church Regatta,Torpids, andSummer Eights. In addition, there are higher standarduniversity wide teams. Significant focus is given to annualvarsity matches played against Cambridge, the most famous of which isThe Boat Race, watched by a TV audience of between five and ten million viewers. Ablue is an award given to those who compete at the university team level in certain sports.
Music, drama, and other arts societies exist both at the collegiate level and as university-wide groups, such as theOxford University Dramatic Society and theOxford Revue. Most colleges have chapel choirs. The Oxford Imps, a comedy improvisation troupe, perform weekly at The Jericho Tavern during term time.[226]
TheOxford University Student Union, formerly better known by its acronym OUSU and now rebranded as Oxford SU,[229] exists to represent students in the university's decision-making, to act as the voice for students in the national higher education policy debate, and to provide direct services to the student body. Reflecting the collegiate nature of the University of Oxford itself, OUSU is both an association of Oxford's more than 21,000 individual students and a federation of the affiliated college common rooms, and other affiliated organisations that represent subsets of the undergraduate and graduate students.
The importance of collegiate life is such that for many students their college JCR (Junior Common Room, for undergraduates) or MCR (Middle Common Room, for graduates) is seen as more important than OUSU. JCRs and MCRs each have a committee, with a president and other elected students representing their peers to college authorities. Additionally, they organise events and often have significant budgets to spend as they wish (money coming from their colleges and sometimes other sources such as student-run bars).
Throughout its history, a sizeable number of Oxford alumni, known as Oxonians, have become notable in many varied fields, both academic and otherwise. More than 70 Nobel prize-winners have studied or taught at Oxford, with prizes won in all six categories.[24]More information on notable members of the university can be found in theindividual college articles. An individual may be associated with two or more colleges, as an undergraduate, postgraduate or member of staff.
Notable alumni include three Fields Medallists, two British kings and at least fifteen monarchs of eleven other sovereign states (including five reigning monarchs), twenty-eight British prime ministers, and thirty-five presidents and prime ministers of nineteen other countries. As of July 2019 there are seven Oxonians in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and two in the Shadow Cabinet.
The university has produced 291 Members of Parliament (excluding MPs who were subsequently peers), eleven Members of the European Parliament (excluding MEPs also serving at Westminster), twelve Lord Chancellors, nine Lord Chief Justices and twenty-two law lords; ten US Senators, ten US Representatives (including a Speaker of the House), three state governors, and four associate justices of the US Supreme Court; as well as six puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Canada and a chief justice of the now defunct Federal Court of Canada.
The University of Oxford is the setting for numerous works of fiction. Oxford was mentioned in fiction as early as 1400 whenChaucer, inCanterbury Tales, referred to a "Clerk [student] of Oxenford".[230] Mortimer Proctor argues the first campus novel wasThe Adventures of Oxymel Classic, Esq; Once an Oxford Scholar (1768).[231] It is filled with violence and debauchery, with obnoxious, foolish dons becoming easy prey for cunning students.[232] Proctor argues that by 1900, "novels about Oxford and Cambridge were so numerous that they clearly represent a striking literary phenomenon."[233] By 1989, 533 novels based in Oxford had been identified and the number continues to rise.[234]
^Includes those who indicate that they identify asAsian,Black,Mixed Heritage,Arab or any other ethnicity except White.
^Calculated from the Polar4 measure, using Quintile1, in England and Wales. Calculated from theScottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) measure, using SIMD20, in Scotland.
^"Organisation | University of Oxford".www.ox.ac.uk.Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved14 June 2024.The three societies – Kellogg College, Reuben College, and St Cross College – operate very much like the other colleges but are considered departments of the University rather than independent colleges because, unlike the others, they do not have a royal charter.
^abSalter, H. E.; Lobel, Mary D., eds. (1954)."The University of Oxford".A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3: The University of Oxford. London: Victoria County History. pp. 1–38.Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved15 January 2014.
^Rashdall, H.Universities of Europe. pp. iii,55–60.
^"Civil War: Surrender of Oxford".Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme. Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. 2013.Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved30 December 2015.
^Walpole, Spencer (1904). Lyall, Alfred Comyn (ed.).The history of twenty-five years. Vol. 3: 1870–1875. Longmans, Green and Co. p. 140.
^William D. Rubinstein, "The social origins and career patterns of Oxford and Cambridge matriculants, 1840–1900."Historical Research 82.218 (2009): 715–730, data on pages 719 and 724.
^For more details see Mark C. Curthoys, "Origins and Destinations: the social mobility of Oxford men and women" in Michael G. Brock and Mark C. Curthoys, eds.The History of the University of Oxford Volume 7: Nineteenth-Century (2000) part 2, pp 571–95.
^Curthoys, M. C.; Jones, H. S. (1995). "Oxford athleticism, 1850-1914: A reappraisal".History of Education.24 (4):305–317.doi:10.1080/0046760950240403.ISSN0046-760X.
^Handbook to the University of Oxford. University of Oxford. 1965. p. 43.
^Smith, David (n.d.)."St Anne's College: 1952 – 2012"(PDF).St Anne's College.Oxford: University of Oxford.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved2 October 2018.Only in 1959 did the five women's colleges acquire full collegiate status so that their councils became governing bodies and they were, like the men's colleges, fully self-governing.
^Hart, Jenifer (1989). "Women at Oxford since the Advent of Mixed Colleges".Oxford Review of Education.15 (3):217–219.doi:10.1080/0305498890150302.JSTOR1050413.
^Sian Griffiths; Julie Henry."Oxford 'takeaway' exam to help women get firsts".The Times.Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved13 June 2017.History students will be able to sit a paper at home in an effort to close the gap with the number of men getting top degrees
^Diver, Tony (22 January 2018)."Oxford University gives women more time to pass exams".The Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved24 January 2018.Students taking maths and computer science examinations in the summer of 2017 were given an extra 15 minutes to complete their papers, after dons ruled that "female candidates might be more likely to be adversely affected by time pressure"
^Dennis, Farrington; Palfreyman, David (21 February 2011)."OFFA and £6000–9000 tuition fees"(PDF).OxCHEPS Occasional Paper No. 39.Oxford: Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies.Archived(PDF) from the original on 1 September 2024. Retrieved20 March 2011.Note, however, that any university which does not want funding from HEFCE can, as a private corporation, charge whatever tuition fees it likes (exactly as does, say, the University of Buckingham or BPP University College). Under existing legislation and outside of the influence of the HEFCE-funding mechanism upon universities, Government can no more control university tuition fees than it can dictate the price of socks in Marks & Spencer. Universities are not part of the State and they are not part of the public sector; Government has no reserve powers of intervention even in a failing institution.
^"Organ Awards Information for Prospective Candidates"(PDF). Faculty of Music, University of Oxford. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 22 August 2012. Retrieved22 March 2009.It is possible for a candidate to enter the comparable competition at Cambridge which is scheduled at the same time of year.
^Sastry, Tom; Bekhradnia, Bahram (25 September 2007)."The Academic Experience of Students in English Universities (2007 report)"(PDF). Higher Education Policy Institute. pp. footnote 14. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 9 July 2013. Retrieved4 November 2007.Even within Russell Group institutions, it is remarkable how consistently Oxford and Cambridge appear to require more effort of their students than other universities. On the other hand, they have fewer weeks in the academic year than other universities, so the extent to which this is so may be exaggerated by these results.
^Morgan, John (January 1990)."Top Six Universities Dominate THE World Reputation Rankings".Archived from the original on 4 April 2014. Retrieved7 June 2014."The rankings suggest that the top six-...Stanford University and the University of Oxford – form a group of globally recognised "super brands".
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