Portal:University of Oxford
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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, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where, in 1209, they established 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 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 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. The university does not have a main campus, but 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 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 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 31 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world. 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 programmes. (Full article...)
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The position of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture was established at Oxford in 1847. The professorship was instituted by John Ireland (pictured), Dean of Westminster from 1816 until his death in 1842, who acquired considerable riches during his ecclesiastical career. He left £10,000 to the university in his will, with the interest arising to be applied to the professorship. The first professor, Edward Hawkins, was appointed in 1847. In all, 12 men have held the position of Dean Ireland's Professor, with differing interests in scriptural exegesis (critical interpretation or explanation of biblical texts). Hawkins was elected on the strength of his reputation gained opposing the Oxford Movement (a group within the Church of England who aimed to reform the church by reasserting its links with the early Catholic church). In contrast, the third professor Henry Liddon was a prominent member of the Oxford Movement. Since 1932, the holder of the chair has been appointed to a fellowship at The Queen's College. Christopher Rowland became the latest Dean Ireland's Professor in 1991. (Full article...)
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Reginald Heber (1783–1826) was an English clergyman, man of letters and hymn-writer who, after working as a country parson for 16 years, served as the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta until his sudden death at the age of 42. The son of a wealthy landowner and clergyman, Heber gained an early reputation at Brasenose College, Oxford, as a poet. He was ordained in 1807 and took over his father's old parish of Hodnet in Shropshire, before taking office as Bishop of Calcutta in October 1823. During his short episcopate he travelled widely in the areas of India within his diocese, and worked hard to improve the spiritual and general living conditions of his flock. However, a combination of arduous duties, hostile climate and indifferent health brought about his collapse and death after less than three years in India. Monuments were erected to his memory in India and in St Paul's Cathedral, London. A collection of his hymns was published shortly after his death; one of these, "Holy, Holy, Holy", has survived into the 21st century as a popular and widely known hymn for Trinity Sunday. Later commentators have asserted that although Heber's example and writings inspired others to devote their lives to the mission fields, the paternalism and imperial assumptions expressed in his hymns are outdated and generally unacceptable in the modern world. (Full article...)
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Keble College was established in 1870 as a memorial to the Church of England clergyman John Keble, a leading member of the Oxford Movement that sought to emphasise the Catholic nature of the Church of England. The college is to the north of the city centre on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum of Natural History and the University Parks. The original buildings, designed by the architect William Butterfield, used bricks in an assortment of colours and patterns – a contrast with the traditional stone-clad colleges, and views on the merits of the design have varied. The college's alumni magazine is called The Brick. Women were first admitted in 1979, and there are now about 680 undergraduate and postgraduate students, making it one of the larger colleges. Keble owns the original of William Holman Hunt's painting The Light of the World, which is hung in the side chapel. Former students include the musician Thomas Armstrong, the journalist Andreas Whittam Smith and the cricketer Imran Khan, as well as many bishops, reflecting the long tradition of theological studies at Keble. (Full article...)
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Did you know
Articles from Wikipedia's "Did You Know" archives about the university and people associated with it:
- ... that Seymour King, Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull Central for 25 years, was the first climber to reach the summits of Mont Maudit and Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey (pictured)?
- ... that Andrew N. Meltzoff's research revealed that infants of only a few weeks of age can imitate facial expressions and hand gestures?
- ... that civil engineer Robert Wynne-Edwards was the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers to be elected while still working as a contractor?
- ... that Irish cricketer and artist Robert Gregory was the subject of four poems by W. B. Yeats?
- ... that when a rival took over an estate belonging to Sir Walter Clarges, Clarges used his position as a Member of Parliament to send the interloper to jail?
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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.
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