Portal:University of Oxford

The University of Oxford portal

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England - colloquially known just as Oxford. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes erupted between students and Oxford townsfolk, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.

The University of Oxford comprises 43 constituent colleges, consisting of 36 semi-autonomous colleges, 4 permanent private halls and 3 societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their own royal charter). and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions. Each college is a self-governing institution within the university, controlling its own membership and having its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. Oxford does not have a main campus, but its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre and around the town. Undergraduate teaching at the university consists of lectures, small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided in a predominantly centralised fashion.

Oxford operates the Ashmolean Museum, the world's oldest university museum; Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world; and the largest academic library system nationwide. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2024, the university had a total consolidated income of £3.05 billion, of which £778.9 million was from research grants and contracts.

Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 31 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world. As of October 2022,^[update] 73 Nobel Prize laureates, 4 Fields Medalists, and 6 Turing Award winners have matriculated, worked, or held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, while its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals. Oxford is home to numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes in the world. (Full article...)

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The Council of Keble College, Oxford ran the college (in conjunction with the Warden) from its foundation in 1868 until 1952. The council – a group of between nine and twelve men – has been described as "an external Council of ecclesiastical worthies", as most of the members came from outside the college, and many were not otherwise linked to the university. Keble was established by public subscription as a memorial to the clergyman John Keble. The first council members were drawn from the committee whose work had raised the money to build the college. By keeping matters relating to religion and the college's internal affairs in the hands of the council, the founders hoped to maintain Keble's religious position as "a bastion of 'orthodox' Anglican teaching" against the opponents of Tractarianism. In total, 54 men served on the Council, 11 of whom were college alumni; in 1903, Arthur Winnington-Ingram (Bishop of London) became the first former Keble student to join the council. It ceased to exist after 9 April 1952, when new statutes of the college placed full management in the hands of the Warden and Fellows. (Full article...)

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Sir Wilfrid Kent Hughes (1895–1970) was an Australian soldier, Olympian and Olympic Games organiser, and politician. Kent Hughes was born in Melbourne. His studies at Christ Church, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar were delayed by service in the army in World War I. He represented Australia in athletics as a hurdler at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. Elected to the Victorian state parliament in 1927, Kent Hughes rose to the position of Deputy Premier of Victoria. Kent Hughes proved to be a controversial figure in politics, and was never afraid to publicly espouse his personal beliefs, such as an admiration for fascism, of which he had a poor understanding. He re-enlisted in the army at the outbreak of World War II but spent four years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Kent Hughes returned to Victorian state politics until switching to federal politics in 1949. He was appointed a Minister in the federal government led by Robert Menzies but complained his responsibilities were trifling. More interesting to him was the chairmanship of the 1956 Summer Olympics Organising Committee; his role has led sporting historians to refer to him as "one of the most important figures in Olympic History". (more...)

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Selected college or hall

Brasenose College was established in 1509 and is located in the centre of the city on Radcliffe Square, near the Bodleian Library, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and the Radcliffe Camera. It was founded by a lawyer, Sir Richard Sutton, and the Bishop of Lincoln, William Smyth, on the site of Brasenose Hall, one of the university's academic halls. The name is thought to derive from a "brazen" (i.e. bronze) door knocker in the shape of a nose. One such door knocker hangs above the high table in the college hall, and a replica is on display at Stamford School in Lincolnshire, where it is thought that the original was taken during the 1330s; the college repurchased it in 1890. There are three quadrangles in the main college site: the original Old Quad, a smaller second quad known as the Deer Park, and a larger New Quad designed by Thomas Graham Jackson and completed in 1911. Further buildings were added in the 1960s. Brasenose College Boat Club is one of the oldest boat clubs in the world, and participated in the first recorded inter-college race at Oxford, beating Jesus College Boat Club. There are approximately 550 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and notable former students include David Cameron (elected Prime Minister in 2010), the comedian Michael Palin, the supposed inventor of rugby football William Webb Ellis and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie. (Full article...)

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Credit: Shimgray

The top of the Radcliffe Observatory, which was the university's astronomical observatory from 1773 until 1934. The building is now part of Green Templeton College.

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Did you know

Articles from Wikipedia's "Did You Know" archives about the university and people associated with it:

... that the members of the Council of Keble College, Oxford (council member Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon pictured) had power to move the college away from Oxford?
... that British lawyer and activist of the Indian independence movement Eardley Norton was instrumental in establishing an UK-chapter of the Indian National Congress?
... that in 1996, the University of Glasgow renamed its Chair of Drama after former professor James Fullarton Arnott?
... that while Nicholas Fitzherbert was abroad, two priests were arrested in his father's house and hanged, drawn and quartered?
... that the equipment designed by the physicist Gwyn Jones to liquefy small amounts of helium for work at temperatures near absolute zero was made from parts of a motorcycle engine?

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Selected quotation

“

I saw the spires of Oxford
As I was passing by,
The grey spires of Oxford
Against a pearl-grey sky;
My heart was with the Oxford men
Who went abroad to die.

”

— Winifred Mary Letts, "The Spires of Oxford" (1916)

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Credit: Chensiyuan

An aerial view of Oxford, looking north. Merton College is at the bottom centre with Christ Church to the left (west). On the right-hand side lies University of Oxford Botanic Garden and, beyond that, Magdalen College.

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