Portal:University of Oxford

The University of Oxford portal

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. 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 prohibited English students from attending the University of Paris. When disputes erupted between students and the Oxford townspeople, 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, four permanent private halls and three societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their own royal charter). and a range of academic departments that are organised into four divisions. 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. 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-group tutorials 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.

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. In 2024, Oxford ranked first nationally for undergraduate education.

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. Its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals. Oxford is home to a number of scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes in the world. (Full article...)

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Selected article

The position of Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford was founded in 1918 shortly after the end of the First World War. Ferdinand Foch, or "Marshal Foch" (pictured), was supreme commander of Allied forces from April 1918 onwards. The chair was endowed by an arms trader, Basil Zaharoff, in Foch's honour; he also endowed a post in English literature at the University of Paris in honour of the British general Earl Haig. Zaharoff wanted the University of Paris to have a right of veto over the appointment, but Oxford would not accept this. The compromise reached was that Paris should have a representative on the appointing committee (although this provision was later removed). In advance of the first election, Stéphen Pichon (the French Foreign Minister) unsuccessfully attempted to influence the decision. The first professor, Gustave Rudler, was appointed in 1920. As of 2014, the chair is held by Michael Sheringham, appointed in 2004. The position is held in conjunction with a fellowship of All Souls College. (Full article...)

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Selected biography

John Marshall Harlan (1899–1971) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan was a student at Upper Canada College, Appleby College, Princeton University, and Balliol College, Oxford. He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as Special Assistant Attorney General of New York. In 1954 Harlan was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a year later president Dwight Eisenhower nominated Harlan to the Supreme Court. Harlan is often characterized as a member of the conservative wing of the Warren Court. He advocated a limited role for the judiciary, remarking that the Supreme Court should not be considered "a general haven for reform movements". In general, Harlan adhered more closely to precedent, and was more reluctant to overturn legislation, than many of his colleagues on the Court. Harlan is sometimes called the "great dissenter" of the Warren Court, and has been described as one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century. (more...)

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Selected college or hall

Regent's Park College (colloquially "Regent's") is one of the Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) of the University of Oxford. Unlike the colleges, which are run by their Fellows, PPHs are run by an outside institution – in the case of Regent's, the Baptist Church. It started as the Stepney Academy in East London in 1810, created to teach Baptists at a time when only members of the Church of England could enter Oxford and Cambridge. It moved to Regent's Park in London in 1855, and took its current name, developing links with the University of London. H. Wheeler Robinson (Principal 1920–42) decided to move the college to Oxford, which he thought was a more congenial setting. A site was purchased in 1927 and fundraising for a new building began. The foundation stones were laid in 1938, and Regent's became a PPH in 1957. Women have been admitted since the 1920s. It has about 100 undergraduates and 90 postgraduates, including those training for Baptist ministry in the UK and abroad. Alumni include the Victorian general Sir Henry Havelock (active during the Indian Rebellion), the legal scholar Malcolm Evans, the theologian Jane Shaw and the Baptist missionary Donald Foster Hudson. (Full article...)

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Selected image

Credit: Tim Regan

Part of the ceiling of the Divinity School. Built between 1427 and 1483 in the Perpendicular style, the Divinity School is Oxford's oldest surviving purpose-built building for university use.

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Did you know

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

... that Cheshire landowner Rowland Egerton-Warburton (pictured) arranged for his house, Arley Hall, to be designed in Tudor style while the chapel was designed in Gothic style?
... that Herbert Armitage James, who was headmaster of Rugby School for 14 years, had one of the best stamp collections in England?
... that Marrack Goulding, a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, was Warden of St Antony's College from 1997 to 2006?
... that Clive Ponting was found not guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act by a jury even after the judge, Sir Anthony McCowan, summed up strongly in favour of the prosecution?
... that Ion Calvocoressi won an immediate Military Cross in Libya in 1942, and was married to the sister of Ludovic Kennedy for over 60 years?

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Selected quotation

“

Gentlemen do not take soup at luncheon.

”

— Lord Curzon, Chancellor of the University, commenting upon the meal proposed to follow the award of an honorary degree to Queen Mary in 1921.

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Selected panorama

Credit: Bencherlite

A panoramic view of the First Quadrangle of Jesus College. The hall is in the centre (at the west of the quadrangle), on the right-hand of the passageway leading through into the Second Quadrangle, and lit by three large windows. The Principal's Lodgings are on the north side of the quadrangle, between the hall and the chapel.

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On this day

Events for 8 August relating to the university, its colleges, academics and alumni. College affiliations are marked in brackets.

Births

1852 – Carsten Peter Thiede (Queen's), German archaeologist and New Testament scholar
1860 – George Howson (Merton), headmaster of Gresham's School 1900–19
1881 – Oswald Samson (Hertford), cricketer
1907 – Richard Fort (New College), Conservative politician
1916 – John Poole-Hughes (Hertford), Bishop of Llandaff 1976–85
1926 – Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen (Magdalen and All Souls), Warden of All Souls 1977–95, Vice-Chancellor 1985–89
1931 – Roger Penrose (Wadham), mathematical physicist
1941 – Tyronne Fernando (Keble), Sri Lankan politician