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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. 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...)
The election in 1860 for the position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit was a hotly contested affair between two rival candidates offering different approaches to Sanskrit scholarship: Monier Williams (pictured), an Oxford-educated Englishman, and Max Müller, a German-born lecturer specialising in comparative philology, the science of language. Both men battled for the votes of the electorate (the Convocation of the university) through manifestos and newspaper correspondence. The election came at a time of public debate about Britain's role in India particularly after the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58. Although generally regarded as the superior to Williams in scholarship, Müller had the double disadvantage (in the eyes of some) of being German and having liberal Christian views. At the end of the hard-fought campaign, Williams won by a majority of over 230 votes, and held the chair until his death in 1899. Müller, although deeply disappointed by his defeat, remained in Oxford for the rest of his career, but never taught Sanskrit there. (Full article...)
Worcester College, to the west of the city centre, dates back to 1283 as Gloucester College, a college for Benedictine monks which was closed in about 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Some of the buildings, known as "the cottages", are from the time of Gloucester College and are among the oldest residential buildings in Oxford. After a gap of about 20 years, Gloucester Hall was established, which became Worcester College in 1714 following a benefaction from Sir Thomas Cookes of Worcestershire. The chapel (which Oscar Wilde called a "perfect" piece of "simple decorative and beautiful art"), hall, and library were rebuilt in the 18th century; some of the designs were by George Clarke, who left his collection of books and manuscripts to the college. Further buildings have been constructed on the main college site, which has extensive grounds, and elsewhere in Oxford. Worcester College has about 400 undergraduates and 170 graduate students. Professor Jonathan Bate was appointed as the college's Provost in 2011. Alumni include the author Richard Adams, the composer Rachel Portman, the actress Emma Watson and the businessman Rupert Murdoch. (Full article...)
Articles from Wikipedia's "Did You Know" archives about the university and people associated with it:
Events for 19 August relating to the university, its colleges, academics and alumni. College affiliations are marked in brackets.
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