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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 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 is made up of thirty-nine semi-autonomous constituent colleges, four permanent private halls, and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. 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 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 2022, the university had a total consolidated income of £2.78 billion, of which £711.4 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. 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...)

Selected article

Marshal Foch

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...)

Selected biography

Headstone marking Larkin's grave at Cottingham Cemetery, Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire
Philip Larkin (1922–1985) is widely regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the 20th century. After graduating from St John's College, Oxford in 1943, Larkin became a librarian, and it was during the 30 years he spent running the library at the University of Hull that he produced the greater part of his published work. He came to prominence in 1955 with his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). He declined the position of poet laureate in 1984, following the death of John Betjeman; he died in the following year and is buried at Cottingham near Hull (gravestone pictured). His poems are marked by what Andrew Motion calls a very English, glum accuracy about emotions, places, and relationships, and what Donald Davie described as lowered sights and diminished expectations. Larkin's public persona was that of the no-nonsense, solitary Englishman who disliked fame and had no patience for the trappings of the public literary life. The posthumous publication by Anthony Thwaite in 1992 of his letters triggered controversy about his personal life and reactionary political views. Despite this, Larkin was chosen in a 2003 Poetry Book Society survey as Britain's best-loved poet of the previous 50 years, and in 2008 The Times named him as the country's greatest post-war writer. (more...)

Selected college or hall

Coat of arms of Oriel College

Oriel College, in the centre of Oxford on Oriel Square, is the fifth-oldest college at Oxford. It is the oldest royal foundation in Oxford, a title formerly claimed by University College, whose claim of being founded by King Alfred is no longer promoted. The original medieval foundation set up by Adam de Brome (the rector of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin), under the patronage of Edward II, was called the House of the Blessed Mary at Oxford. The first design allowed for a Provost and ten Fellows, called 'scholars', and the College remained a small body of graduate Fellows until the 16th century, when it started to admit undergraduates. Oriel's main site incorporate four medieval academic halls, including St Mary Hall). During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the King's Oxford Parliament. The College has nearly 40 Fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 160 graduates, the student body having roughly equal numbers of men and women (although Oriel was the last of the men's colleges to accept women students). Its distinguished alumni include two Nobel laureates (the biochemist Alexander Todd and the economist James Meade); prominent Fellows have included John Keble and John Henry Newman, founders of the Oxford Movement. (Full article...)

Selected image

Roger Bannister was the first to run a mile in under four minutes at the university's Iffley Road track; it was renamed the "Roger Bannister running track" in 2007. Bannister has links to three Oxford colleges: he studied at Merton and Exeter, and was later Master of Pembroke.
Roger Bannister was the first to run a mile in under four minutes at the university's Iffley Road track; it was renamed the "Roger Bannister running track" in 2007. Bannister has links to three Oxford colleges: he studied at Merton and Exeter, and was later Master of Pembroke.
Roger Bannister was the first to run a mile in under four minutes at the university's Iffley Road track; it was renamed the "Roger Bannister running track" in 2007. Bannister has links to three Oxford colleges: he studied at Merton and Exeter, and was later Master of Pembroke.

Did you know

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

Barbara Ward

Selected quotation


Selected panorama

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.
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.
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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