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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 of Oxford 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. 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.

It 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 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...)

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The Principal and Fellows of Jesus College form the college's governing body. The Principal must be "a person distinguished for literary or scientific attainments, or for services in the work of education in the University or elsewhere", and has "pre-eminence and authority over all members of the College and all persons connected therewith". The Principal's Lodgings (entrance pictured) are in the first quadrangle of the college. The current Principal, Lord Krebs, was appointed in 2005 and is the 30th holder of the office. Professorial Fellows are those Professors and Readers of the university who are allocated to the college. One of these professorships is the Jesus Professor of Celtic, which is the only chair in Celtic studies at an English university. Official Fellows are those who hold tutorial or administrative appointments in the college. Past Official Fellows include the composer and musicologist John Caldwell, the historians Sir Goronwy Edwards and Niall Ferguson, the philosopher Galen Strawson and the political philosopher John Gray. There are also Senior and Junior Research Fellows. Principals and Fellows who retire can be elected as Emeritus Fellows. The college can also elect "distinguished persons" to Honorary Fellowships. (Full article...)

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Sir Thomas Beecham (1879–1961) was a British conductor and impresario. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to Neville Cardus, was the first British conductor to have a regular international career. He came from a wealthy industrial family: his grandfather had founded Beecham's Pills, and Beecham was born in the house adjoining the factory. He studied briefly at Wadham College, Oxford before leaving to study music privately. He used the money at his disposal to transform the operatic scene in England from the 1910s until the start of World War II, staging seasons at Covent Garden, Drury Lane and His Majesty's Theatre with international stars, his own hand-picked orchestra and a wide range of repertoire. In the concert hall, London still has two orchestras founded by Beecham: the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic. He also maintained close links with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestras in his native county of Lancashire. His repertoire was eclectic, sometimes favouring lesser-known composers over famous ones. His specialities included composers whose works were rarely played in Britain before Beecham became their advocate, such as Frederick Delius and Hector Berlioz. He was known for his wit, and many "Beecham stories" are still told fifty years after his death. (more...)

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Wadham College, in the centre of the city on Parks Road, was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, using money that her husband Nicholas had bequeathed for the establishment of an Oxford college. The main quadrangle was designed by William Arnold and constructed between 1610 and 1613, and includes a statue of King James I (in whose reign the college was founded). The hall, one of the largest in Oxford, has a hammer-beam roof and Jacobean woodwork. The grounds include large gardens, the Holywell Music Room, dating from 1748, and more modern buildings used for accommodation and teaching. The original rules that no women were to enter the premises apart from a laundress who was "above suspicion" were gradually relaxed, and women were admitted as students in 1974. The college traditionally has a left-wing ethos. Alumni include the conductor Thomas Beecham, the poet Cecil Day-Lewis, the politician Michael Foot and Rowan Williams, formerly Archbishop of Canterbury. (Full article...)

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Credit: Steve Cadman

The Garden Quadrangle at St John's College, built between 1989 and 1993 by MJP Architects. The college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White, a merchant and Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. A number of buildings in modern styles have been added to the college since the 1950s.

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Did you know

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

... that after Evelyn Waugh (pictured) brought a priest to anoint lapsed Catholic Hubert Duggan on his deathbed, Duggan was reconciled to the church, an event Waugh fictionalised in Brideshead Revisited?
... that for helping endow a professorship of botany at Oxford, James Sherard was granted a doctorate in medicine by the university in 1731?
... that British journalist and Liberal politician Colin Coote was an editor of the The Daily Telegraph for 14 years?
... that Sir Ian Anstruther, 8th Baronet, held two separate baronetcies which on his death went to different sons?
... that George Hargreaves, Christian Party candidate in the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election, has said that the dragon symbol on the Welsh flag is "nothing less than the sign of Satan"?

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“

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all – the colleges I mean – like an opera.

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— W. B. Yeats, aged 23, in a letter to Katharine Tynan (1888)

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Credit: David Iliff

A 360-degree view of the main quadrangle of Keble College. Designed by the 19th-century architect William Butterfield, the buildings have attracted considerable praise and criticism for their use of bricks in various colours and patterns, in contrast to the older stone-clad colleges elsewhere in the city.

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