Portal:University of Oxford

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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 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. 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, 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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

The Council of Keble College, Oxford ran the college (in conjunction with the Warden) from its foundation in 1868 until 1952. The council – a group of between nine and twelve men – has been described as "an external Council of ecclesiastical worthies", as most of the members came from outside the college, and many were not otherwise linked to the university. Keble was established by public subscription as a memorial to the clergyman John Keble. The first council members were drawn from the committee whose work had raised the money to build the college. By keeping matters relating to religion and the college's internal affairs in the hands of the council, the founders hoped to maintain Keble's religious position as "a bastion of 'orthodox' Anglican teaching" against the opponents of Tractarianism. In total, 54 men served on the Council, 11 of whom were college alumni; in 1903, Arthur Winnington-Ingram (Bishop of London) became the first former Keble student to join the council. It ceased to exist after 9 April 1952, when new statutes of the college placed full management in the hands of the Warden and Fellows. (Full article...)

More articles

edit

Selected biography

Kate Beckinsale (born 1973) is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while still a student at New College, Oxford. After leaving Oxford without completing her degree in Modern Languages, she appeared in British costume dramas such as Cold Comfort Farm, Emma and The Golden Bowl, in addition to various stage and radio productions. She began to seek film work in the United States in the late 1990s and, after appearing in some small-scale dramas, she had a breakout year in 2001 with starring roles in the war epic Pearl Harbor and the romantic comedy Serendipity. She built on this success with appearances in the bio-pic The Aviator and the comedy Click. Appearances in action films include Underworld, Van Helsing, and Contraband. She was nominated for a Critic's Choice Award in 2008 for her performance in Nothing but the Truth. Born and raised in London, Beckinsale is the child of actor Richard Beckinsale (1947–1979) and actress Judy Loe. She had an eight-year relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 until 2003; they have one daughter. She married American film director Len Wiseman in 2004 and they live in Brentwood, Los Angeles. (more...)

More biographies

edit

Selected college or hall

Nuffield College, to the west of the city centre, was founded in 1937 by the car manufacturer and philanthropist Lord Nuffield. He gave the site to the university and £900,000 (approximately £246M in modern terms) to build and endow the college. His intention had been to establish a college for engineering and business methods, but he was persuaded to let the money be used for a social sciences college instead – a decision that he sometimes later regretted, although he was sufficiently pleased with the college to leave it the bulk of his estate in his will. Construction began in 1949 and was finished in 1960, to a design by Austen Harrison. The main tower, about 150 feet (46 m) tall, holds the library and is a noted Oxford landmark. Nuffield is an all-graduate college (and was Oxford's first college for postgraduates only), primarily for research in economics, politics and sociology; there are about 75 students and 60 Fellows (many holding university posts), headed by the economist Andrew Dilnot as Warden. Former students include Kofi Abrefa Busia (former Prime Minister of Ghana), the British politician Patricia Hewitt, and the economist Robert Skidelsky. (Full article...)

More colleges and halls

edit

Selected image

Credit: Todd Huffman

Part of the Inorganic Chemistry building in the Science Area on South Parks Road. Oxford has the biggest school of inorganic chemistry in the UK and one of the biggest in the world.

More pictures

edit

Did you know

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

... that Harrison Oxley was the youngest cathedral organist in Britain when he became organist of St Edmundsbury Cathedral (pictured) at age 24?
... that the Rev. George W. Bridges libelled anti-slavery activists Escoffery and Lecesne when he said they wanted to "sheath their daggers in the breasts of their white inhabitants"?
... that Ian Harvey, a Conservative junior minister in the United Kingdom, resigned his seat in 1958 after a sex scandal?
... that English musician and poet Robert Wydow is the earliest known recipient of a Bachelor of Music degree from the university?
... that, after being defrocked as a Church of England priest, Harold Davidson became a seaside entertainer and was killed in 1937 by a lion when he trod on its tail?