University of Oxford
Introduction:
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 banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.The University
of Oxford is made up of thirty-nine
semi-autonomous constituent colleges, four permanent private halls,
and a range of academic departments which are organized 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. Traditionally, each of Oxford's
constituent colleges is associated with another of the colleges in the
University of Cambridge, with the only exceptional addition of Trinity College,
Dublin. It does not have a main campus, and its buildings and facilities
are scattered throughout the city Centre. Undergraduate teaching at
Oxford 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 centralized 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 2023, the university had a total consolidated income
of £2.92 billion, of which £789 million was from research grants and
contracts.
Oxford has
educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 30 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of
state and government around the world. As of October
2022, 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 the
home of numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of
the oldest international graduate scholarship programmers.
History
Founding
The University
of Oxford's foundation date is unknown. 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. Scholar Theobald of Tamps lectured
at Oxford in the early 1100s.
It grew
quickly from 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris. The
historian Gerald of Wales lectured
to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Elmo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university
had the title of chancellor from at
least 1201, and the masters were recognized as a universities or
corporation in 1231.The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during
the reign of King Henry III.
After disputes
between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the
violence to Cambridge, later forming the University of Cambridge.
The students
associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two 'nations', representing the
North (northerners or Borealis, who included the English people from north of the River Trent and the Scots) and the South (southerners or Australia, who
included English people from south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh).In later centuries, geographical origins continued to
influence many students' affiliations when membership of a college or hall became
customary in Oxford. In addition, members of many religious orders, including Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century,
gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students. At about the
same time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly
communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, and John Balliol, father of a future King of Scots; Balliol College bears
his name. Another founder, Walter de Merton, a Lord Chancellor of England and afterwards Bishop of Rochester,
devised a series of regulations for college life; Merton College thereby
became the model for such establishments at Oxford, as well as at the
University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in
colleges rather than in halls and religious houses.
In 1333–1334,
an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford,
Lincolnshire, was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge
petitioning King Edward III. 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.
Renaissance period
The new
learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford
from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period
were William Grocyn, who
contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar.
With the English Reformation and
the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe,
settling especially at the University of Douai. The
method of teaching at Oxford was transformed from the medieval scholastic method to Renaissance education, although
institutions associated with the university suffered losses of land and
revenues. As a Centre of learning and scholarship, Oxford's reputation declined
in the Age of Enlightenment;
enrolments fell and teaching was neglected.
In 1636, William Laud, the chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury,
codified the university's statutes. These, to a large extent, remained its
governing regulations until the mid-19th century. Laud was also responsible for
the granting of a charter securing privileges for the University Press, and he
made significant contributions to the Bodleian Library, the main library of the university. From the
beginnings of the Church of England as
the established church until
1866, membership of the church was a requirement to receive the BA degree from
the university and "dissenters" were only permitted to
receive the MA in 1871.
The university
was a Centre of the Royalist party during the English Civil War (1642–1649), while the town favored the
opposing Parliamentarian cause.
Wadham College, founded in 1610, was the undergraduate college
of Sir Christopher Wren.
Wren was part
of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s,
the Oxford Philosophical Club,
which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This group, which has at times been linked with
Boyle's "Invisible College"
held regular meetings at Wadham under the guidance of the college's Warden, John Wilkins, and the group formed the nucleus that went on to
found the Royal Society.
Modern period
Students
Before reforms
in the early 19th century, the curriculum at Oxford was notoriously narrow and
impractical. Sir
Spencer Walpole, a historian of contemporary 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." 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.
Out 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).
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 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was
carried over from the athleticism prevalent at the public schools such as Eton, Winchester, Shrewsbury, and Harrow.
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
on classical
languages. Science students found this particularly burdensome and
supported a separate science degree with Greek 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 wrangling over the structure of the arts
curriculum, in 1886 the "natural science preliminary" was recognized
as a qualifying part of the first year examination.
At the start
of 1914, the university housed about 3,000 undergraduates and about 100
postgraduate students. During the First World War, many undergraduates and
fellows joined the armed forces. By 1918 virtually all fellows were in uniform,
and the student population in residence was reduced to 12 per cent of the
pre-war total. The University Roll of Service records that,
in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716
(18.36%) killed. Not all the members of the university who served in the
Great War were on the Allied side; there is a remarkable 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.
Reforms
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 enlargement 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 a college.
The system
of separate honour schools for
different subjects began in 1802, with Mathematics and Literae Humaniores. Schools of "Natural Sciences" and
"Law, and Modern History" were added in 1853. By 1872, the last
of these had split into "Jurisprudence" and "Modern
History". Theology became the sixth honour school. In addition to these B.A. Honours degrees,
the postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) was,
and still is, offered.
The mid-19th
century saw the impact of the Oxford Movement (1833–1845), led among others by the
future Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Administrative
reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations
with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent, and the
establishment of four women's colleges. Privy Council decisions in the 20th
century (e.g. 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
University of Oxford began to award doctorates for research in the first third
of the 20th century. The first Oxford DPhil in mathematics was awarded in 1921.
The list of
distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many
who have made major contributions to politics, the sciences, medicine, and
literature. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel laureates and more than 50 world
leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford.
Women's education
First two women's colleges
Lady Margaret
Hall, founded in 1878
Somerville College,
founded in 1879
The university
passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at roughly
undergraduate level; for a brief period in the early 1900s, this allowed
the "steamboat ladies" to
receive ad eundem degrees
from the University of Dublin. In
June 1878, the Association 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 were George Granville Bradley, T. H. Green and Edward Stuart Talbot.
Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of
the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group
founded Lady Margaret Hall in
1878, while T. H. Green founded the non-denominational Somerville College in
1879. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened their doors to their first
21 students (12 from Somerville, 9 from Lady Margaret Hall) in 1879, who
attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop. 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 into St Anne's College.
These first
three societies for women were followed by St Hugh's (1886) and St Hilda's (1893).
All of these colleges later became coeducational, starting with Lady Margaret Hall and St Anne's in 1979, and
finishing with St Hilda's, which
began to accept male students in 2008. In the early 20th century, Oxford
and Cambridge were widely perceived to be bastions of male privilege, 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.
On 7 October
1920 women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and
were given the right to take degrees.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. However, during this period
Oxford colleges were single 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.
In 1974, Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St Catherine's became
the first previously all-male colleges to admit women. The majority of
men's colleges accepted their first female students in 1979, with Christ Church following
in 1980, and Oriel becoming the
last men's college to admit women in 1985. 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. By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at
Oxford were female; in 2016, 45% of the student population, and 47%
of undergraduate students, were female.
In June 2017,
Oxford announced that starting the following 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. That
same summer, maths and computer science tests were extended by 15 minutes, in a
bid to see if female student scores would improve.
The detective
novel Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, herself one of the first women to gain an
academic degree from Oxford, is largely set in the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based
on Sayers' own Somerville College),
and the issue of women's education is central to its plot. Social historian and
Somerville College alumna Jane Robinson's book Bluestockings:
A Remarkable History of the First Women to Fight for an Education gives a
very detailed and immersive account of this history.
Main sites
Atrium
of the Chemistry Research Laboratory; the university has invested
heavily in new facilities at the laboratory in recent years.Sheldonian Theatre, built
by Christopher Wren between
1664 and 1668, hosts the university's Congregation and its
concerts and degree ceremonies.
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 the city centre. The Science Area, in which
most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest
resemblance to a campus. The ten-acre (4-hectare) Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in
the northwest of the city is currently under development.
Iconic
university buildings include the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre used
for music concerts, lectures, and university ceremonies, and the Examination Schools, where
examinations and some lectures take place. The University
Church of St Mary the Virgin was used for university ceremonies
before the construction of the Sheldonian.
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 overlooking Cripley Meadow and the historic Port Meadow, blocking views of the spires in the city centre.
The development has been likened to building a "skyscraper
beside Stonehenge".
Central
governance
Wellington Square has
become synonymous with the university's central administration.
The
university's formal head is the Chancellor,
currently Lord Patten of Barnes, though 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 of Convocation, a body comprising all graduates of the
university, and holds office until death.
The Vice-Chancellor, currently Irene Tracey, is the de facto head of the
university. Five pro-vice-chancellors have specific responsibilities for
education; research; planning and resources; development and external affairs;
and personnel and equal opportunities.
Two
university proctors,
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. The university's professors
are collectively referred to as the Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford. They are
particularly influential in the running of the university's graduate
programmes. Examples of statutory professors are the Chichele Professorships and
the Drummond
Professor of Political Economy.
The University
of Oxford is only a "public university" in the sense that it receives
some public money from the government, but it is a "private
university" in the sense that it is entirely self-governing and, in
theory, could choose to become entirely private by rejecting public funds.
Colleges
Main
article: Colleges
of the University of Oxford
Main
Quad, Worcester College
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-nine colleges of the
University of Oxford and four permanent private halls (PPHs),
each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and
activities.[16] Not all colleges offer all courses, but they
generally cover a broad range of subjects.
Finances
Dining
hall at Christ Church; the hall is
an important feature of the typical Oxford college, providing a place to dine
and socialize.
In 2017–18,
the university had an income of £2,237m; key sources were research grants
(£579.1m) and academic fees (£332.5m). The colleges had a total income of
£492.9m.
While the
university has a larger annual income and operating budget, the colleges have a
larger aggregate endowment: over £6.4bn compared to the university's £1.2bn.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. The university used to maintain
substantial investments in fossil fuel companies. 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.
The total
assets of the colleges of £6.3 billion also exceed total university assets
of £4.1 billion. 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.
Funding
criticisms
The university
has faced criticism for some of its sources of donations and funding. In 2017,
attention was drawn to historical donations including All Souls College
receiving £10,000 from slave trader Christopher Codrington in
1710, and Oriel College having receiving taken £100,000 from the will of
the imperialist Cecil Rhodes in 1902. In 1996 a
donation of £20 million was received from Wafic Saïd who was involved in the Al-Yammah arms deal, and
taking £150 million from the US billionaire businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman in
2019. The university has defended its decisions saying it "takes legal,
ethical and reputational issues into consideration".
The university
has 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 and £18.8 million between 2015 and 2020.
Affiliations
Oxford is a
member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities,
the G5, the League of
European Research Universities, and the International
Alliance of Research Universities. It is also a core member of
the Europaeum and forms part of the "golden triangle"
of highly research intensive and elite English universities.[114]
Academic profile
Admission
In common with
most British universities, prospective undergraduate students apply through
the UCAS application system, but prospective applicants for
the University of Oxford, along with those for medicine, dentistry, and University of Cambridge applicants,
must observe an earlier deadline of 15 October. The Sutton 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.
To allow a
more personalised 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 for organ scholarships and those applying to read for a second
undergraduate degree. Oxford has the lowest offer rate of all Russell
Group universities.
Most
applicants choose to apply to one of the individual colleges. For
undergraduates, these colleges work with each other to ensure that the best
students gain a place somewhere at the university regardless of their college
preferences. For postgraduates, all applicants who receive an offer from the
university are guaranteed a college place, even if they do not receive a place
at their chosen college.
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, and
they will remain online until at least 2027.
Teaching and
degrees
Main articles: Degrees of the
University of Oxford, List of professorships at the University of Oxford, and Undergraduate
education at University of Oxford
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 and Trinity. (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). Undergraduates
must be in residence from Thursday of 0th week. These teaching terms are
shorter than those of most other British universities, 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).
Research
degrees at the master's and doctoral level are conferred in all subjects
studied at graduate level at the university.
Scholarships and
financial support
Rhodes House is home to the awarding body for Rhodes 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, from Rhodes Scholarships to
the relatively new Weidenfeld.
Libraries
The university
maintains the largest university library system in the UK, 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 the British Library. The Bodleian is a legal 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.
A new book
depository opened in South Marston, Swindon, in October 2010,[164] and recent building projects include the
remodelling of the New Bodleian building, which was renamed the Weston Library
when it reopened in 2015. The renovation is designed to better showcase the
library's various treasures (which include a Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible) as well as temporary exhibitions.
The Bodleian
engaged in a mass-digitisation project with Google in 2004. Notable
electronic resources hosted by the Bodleian Group include the Electronic
Enlightenment Project, which was awarded the 2010 Digital Prize by the British Society
for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Museums
Oxford
maintains a number of museums and galleries, open for free to the public.
The Ashmolean Museum, founded
in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in
the world.[170] It holds significant collections of art and
archaeology, including works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Turner, and Picasso, as well as treasures such as the Scorpion Macehead, the Parian Marble and the Alfred Jewel. It also contains "The Messiah", a pristine
Stradivarius violin, regarded by some as one of the finest examples in
existence.
The University
Museum of Natural History holds the university's zoological,
entomological and geological specimens. It is housed in a large neo-Gothic
building on Parks Road, in the university's Science Area. Among its
collection are the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, and the most complete remains of a dodo found
anywhere in the world. It also hosts the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science,
currently held by Marcus du Sautoy.
Reputation and
ranking
University
of Oxford's national league
table performance over the past ten years
Due to its age and
its social and academic status, the University of Oxford is considered to
be one of Britain's most prestigious or elite universities and to form, along
with the University of Cambridge, a
top two that stand above other UK universities in this regard.
Oxford is
regularly ranked within the top five universities in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, as
well as the Forbes's World University Rankings. It held the number
one position in the Times Good University Guide for eleven
consecutive years, and the medical school has
also maintained first place in the "Clinical, Pre-Clinical &
Health" table of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University
Rankings for the past seven consecutive years. In 2021, it ranked sixth
among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings. The THE has
also recognised Oxford as one of the world's "six super brands" on
its World Reputation Rankings, along with Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT,
and Stanford. The university
is fifth worldwide on the US News ranking. Its Saïd Business School came
13th in the world in Financial Times Global MBA Ranking.
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. It is
ranked fifth best university worldwide and first in Britain for forming CEOs according to
the Professional Ranking World Universities, and first in the
UK for the quality of its graduates as chosen by the recruiters of the UK's
major companies.
Student
life
Traditions
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. This was widely interpreted by
students as being a vote not so much on making subfusc voluntary, but rather, in effect, on abolishing
it by default, in that if a minority of people came to exams without subfusc,
the rest would soon follow. In July 2012 the regulations regarding
academic dress were modified to be more inclusive to transgender people.
Clubs and
societies
The Oxford Union (not to be confused with the Oxford University Student Union)
is an independent debating society which hosts weekly debates and high-profile
speakers.
There are two
weekly student newspapers: the independent Cherwell and
OUSU's The Oxford Student.
Other publications include the Isis magazine, the satirical Oxymoron, the graduate Oxonian Review,
the Oxford Political Review,[213] and the online only newspaper The
Oxford Blue. The student radio station is Oxide Radio.
Sport is
played between college teams, in tournaments known as cuppers (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, and Summer Eights. In addition, there are higher standard university wide
teams. Significant focus is given to annual varsity matches
played against Cambridge, the most famous of which is The Boat Race, watched by a TV audience of between five and
ten million viewers. A blue is an award
given to those who compete at the university team level in certain sports.
Student union
and common rooms
The Oxford
University Student Union, formerly better known by its acronym OUSU
and now rebranded as Oxford SU,[217] 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.
Politics
British Prime Ministers who attended Oxford University
Clement Attlee, University College
Margaret Thatcher, Somerville College
Rishi Sunak, Lincoln College
International leaders who
attended Oxford University
Aung San Suu Kyi, St Hugh's College
Indira Gandhi, Somerville College
Bill Clinton, University College
Law
Lawyers who attended Oxford University
David Neuberger, Christ Church
Ronald Dworkin, Magdalen College
Elena Kagan, Worcester College
Mathematics and sciences
Scientists who attended Oxford University
Stephen Hawking, University College
Tim Berners-Lee, The Queen's College
Dorothy Hodgkin, Somerville College
Literature, music, and drama
Literary figures who attended Oxford University
Oscar Wilde, Magdalen College
Vera Brittain, Somerville College
J. R. R. Tolkien, Exeter College
Actors who attended Oxford University
Rowan Atkinson, Queen's College
Rosamund Pike, Wadham College
Hugh Grant, New College
Religion
Oxford has
also produced at least 12 saints, 19 English cardinals, and
20 Archbishops of Canterbury,
the most recent Archbishop being Rowan Williams, who studied at Wadham College and was later a Canon Professor at Christ Church. Duns Scotus' teaching is commemorated with a monument in the
University Church of St. Mary. Religious reformer John Wycliffe was an Oxford scholar, for a time Master
of Balliol College. John Colet, Christian humanist, Dean of St Paul's, and
friend of Erasmus, studied at Magdalen College. Several
of the Caroline Divines e.g.
in particular William Laud as President of St.
John's and Chancellor of the university, and the Non-Jurors, e.g. Thomas Ken had close Oxford connections. The founder
of Methodism, John Wesley, studied at Christ Church and was elected a fellow
of Lincoln College.[292] Britain's first woman to be an ordained
minister, Constance Coltman, studied
at Somerville College.
The Oxford Movement (1833–1846)
was closely associated with the Oriel fellows John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey and John Keble. Other religious figures were Mirza Nasir Ahmad, the third Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Shoghi Effendi, one of the appointed leaders of the Baháʼà Faith, and Joseph Cordeiro, the first Pakistani Catholic cardinal.
Philosophy
Philosophers who attended Oxford University
John Locke, Christ Church
Mary Midgley, Somerville College
Thomas Hobbes, Hertford College
Sport
People in sports who attended Oxford University
Imran Khan, Keble College
Bill Bradley, Worcester College
Matthew Pinsent, St Catherine's College
Adventure and exploration
Explorers and adventurers who attended Oxford University
Gertrude Bell, Lady Margaret Hall
T. E. Lawrence, Jesus College
Walter Raleigh, Oriel College
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