University of Oxford
The University of Oxford (commonly referred to as Oxford University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university located in Oxford,
England of United Kingdom. Although its exact date of foundation is
unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096 making
it the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the second-oldest
surviving university in the world. In post-nominals the University of
Oxford is commonly abbreviated as Oxon., from the Latin Universitas Oxoniensis. Since 2007 Oxf has been used in official university publications, though
this 'has been criticized by some readers.'
The university has a long history.
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.
Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford
is organised around weekly tutorials at self-governing colleges and
halls, supported by classes, lectures and laboratory work organised
by University faculties and departments. Oxford regularly contends with
Cambridge for first place in the UK league tables. For more than a century,
it has served as the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, which brings students
from a number of countries to study at Oxford as postgraduates.
Founding:
The University of Oxford has no
known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in some form in 1096,
but it is unclear at what point a university came into being.[1]
The expulsion of foreigners from
the University of Paris in 1167 caused many English scholars to return
from France and settle in Oxford. The historian Gerald of Wales lectured
to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of
Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the University was named a chancellor
from at least 1201, and the masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231. The students associated
together on the basis of geographical origins, into two "nations",
representing the North (including the Scots) and the South (including
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. Members of many religious orders,
including Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, settled
in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence, and maintained
houses for students. At about the same time, private benefactors established
colleges to serve 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 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 forsook living in halls and religious
houses in favour of living in colleges.
In 1333-4 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 start in England even in London, and Oxford and Cambridge
had a monopoly unusual in western European countries.
Oxford at a glance
- There are over 22,000 students
at Oxford, including 11,832 undergraduates and 9,857 postgraduates.
- The University, including the
colleges and Oxford University Press, is the largest employer in Oxford
and the second largest in Oxfordshire, supporting more than 16,500 jobs
and injecting £750 million annually into the regional economy.
- In the 2011 National Student
Survey, 97% of Oxford students found their courses intellectually stimulating,
compared to 89% in other Russell Group universities and 84% of all English
university students.
- 93% of Oxford students are satisfied
with their course quality, compared to 88% in other Russell Group universities
and 84% of all English university students.
- Oxford has one of the lowest
drop-out rates in the UK: figures published in March 2012 by the Higher
Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that only 1.6% of Oxford students
dropped out, compared with the national average of 8.6%.
- 94% of Oxford leavers are employed
six months after graduating.
Undergraduate admissions and access
- Oxford is very competitive: over
17,200 people applied for around 3,500 undergraduate places for entry
in 2012.
- That means that Oxford receives,
on average, more than five applications for each available place.
- 98% of those taking A-levels who
enter the University achieve grades of AAA or better.
- The majority of Oxford’s UK
undergraduates come from state schools. Latest figures (entry 2012)
show that, for UK students attending schools or colleges in the UK,
57.5% of places on undergraduate courses went to applicants from the
state sector, and 42.5% went to applicants from the independent sector.
- The University conducts more than
24,000 interviews for over 11,000 applicants over the two-week interview
period in December.
- Oxford spends over £3 million
each year on outreach activities, in addition to the more than £8 million
it spends on bursaries.
- Oxford, through its outreach
work, reaches 78% of UK schools with post-16 provision – virtually
all schools that field candidates capable of making a competitive application
to Oxford.
- Oxford holds nearly 2,200 outreach
activities annually with groups from primary age upwards, including
summer schools, school visits, student shadowing schemes, e-mentoring,
aspiration days and events for teachers.
- Oxford’s flagship access programme
is the UNIQ summer school. 197 of the 2012 UNIQ cohort went on to win
an Oxford place, meaning that over a quarter (26.3%) of all attendees
will go on to study here. Of those UNIQ students who put in applications,
over 40% ended up with places – against an overall success rate for
Oxford applicants of around 20%.
- By 2014 UNIQ will be the largest
free university summer school in the UK, with 1,000 places available.
Financial support for undergraduates
- For students who started after
October 2012, Oxford has the most generous no-strings attached financial
support for UK and EU students from the lowest income households.
- While many universities are offering
either fee reductions or bursaries, Oxford provides both.
- The lowest-income students receive
support totalling £10,000 in their first year and over £6,000 in every
later year.
- Oxford centrally spends over
£8 million annually on bursaries, in addition to scholarships and bursaries
offered by individual colleges.
Postgraduate admissions and support
- Graduate students make up around
44% of the total student body at Oxford.
- 4% of all the UK’s graduate
research students are studying at Oxford University.
- Oxford offers more than 320 different
graduate degree programmes and has over 9,800 graduate students from
more than 140 countries and territories.
- The number of applications for
postgraduate study at Oxford now surpasses those for undergraduate study.
- The University received 19,419
applications for graduate study for entry in 2011-12.
- 72.5% of applications came from
outside the UK.
- Overall, 61% of Oxford’s current
graduate students come from outside the UK.
- £13 million is awarded to some
600 graduate students each year through over 50 central University scholarship
schemes. In addition, there are over 400 full or partial scholarships
available through colleges and departments.
Oxford international
- 41% of our academic staff are
citizens of foreign countries.
- Our academic staff come from almost
100 different countries and territories. The largest groups of international
academic staff are from the USA, Germany, Italy, China (excluding Hong
Kong), Australia, France, Ireland, India and Canada.
- Students come to Oxford from
over 140 countries and territories. The largest groups of international
students come from the USA (1,516), China (865), Germany (806), Canada
(401), India (336), Australia (312), Italy (264), Ireland (232), Singapore
(229) and France (219).
- Oxford has more than a dozen
centres and institutes specialising in the study of specific countries
and regions.
- Oxford is the leading centre
for the study of China in Europe and has one of the top five departments
in the world in Japanese Studies.
- Oxford University Press, publisher
of the famous dictionaries and a department of the University, is the
world’s largest university press. It has offices in 50 countries and
almost 6,000 employees worldwide.
- More than one in five people
who learn English across the world do so with an Oxford University Press
resource.
- The University has offices in
New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Oxford colleges
- There are 38 colleges and 6 permanent
private halls at Oxford.
- The collegiate system is at the
heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics the
benefits of belonging to both a large, internationally renowned institution
and to a small, interdisciplinary academic community.
- Colleges bring together leading
academics and students across subjects and year groups, and from different
cultures and countries.
- The relatively small number of
students at each college allows for close and supportive personal attention
to be given to the induction, academic development and welfare of individual
students.
- Colleges invest heavily in facilities
including extensive library and IT provision, accommodation and welfare
support, and sports and social facilities.
- Thirty colleges and five halls
admit students for both graduate and undergraduate degrees. Green Templeton,
Linacre, Nuffield, St Antony’s, St Cross and Wolfson Colleges admit
only graduate students, as does Kellogg College, which supports the
lifelong learning work of the University for adult, part-time, and professional
development students. All Souls is unique among Oxford colleges because
it has no junior members: all are Fellows (except the Warden).
- All colleges accept both men
and women.
- The University’s oldest colleges
are University College, Balliol College, and Merton College, all of
which were established by the 13th century.
- Green Templeton College, which
came into existence in October 2008 following the merger of Green College
and Templeton College, is the University’s newest college.
- St Catherine’s College, which
takes both undergraduate and graduate students, currently has the largest
number of students (799), while some of the permanent private halls have
fewer than a hundred student members.
Museums, collections and libraries
- The Bodleian Libraries form the
largest university library system in the United Kingdom. The combined
library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition
to 50,000 e-journals and other materials in different formats.
- The Bodleian Library, the University’s
main research library, dates from 1602 and is globally
- acknowledged to be one of the
greatest libraries in the world. Its priceless collections include the
papers of seven British Prime Ministers; a Gutenberg Bible; the earliest
surviving book written wholly in English; a quarter of the world’s
original copies of the Magna Carta; and almost 10,000 western medieval
and renaissance manuscripts.
- Over 40% of users of the Bodleian
Libraries are people from outside the University.
- Over 2 million people visit the
University’s six museums and collections every year, including over
110,000 children on school visits and almost 35,000 adults taking part
in adult education activities.
- The Ashmolean Museum, established
in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK and one of the oldest in the
world. It houses the University’s extensive collections of art and
antiquities, ranging back over four millennia.
- The Museum of the History of
Science is housed in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum
building. It contains the world’s finest collection of historic scientific
instruments.
- The University Museum of Natural
History houses the University's collections of zoological, entomological,
palaeontological and mineral specimens. With 4.5 million specimens it
is the largest collection of its type outside of the national collections.
- The Pitt Rivers Museum holds
one of the world’s finest collections of anthropology and archaeology,
with objects from every continent and from throughout human history.
- The University of Oxford Botanic
Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Britain, and forms the most compact
yet diverse collection of plants in the world.
- The Bate Collection of Musical
Instruments celebrates the history and development of the musical instruments
of the Western Classical tradition, from the medieval period to present
day.
- Christ Church Picture Gallery
houses an important collection of 300 Old Master paintings and almost
2,000 drawings in a purpose-built gallery of considerable architectural
interest.