The
University of Oxford
is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second
oldest surviving university. While its exact founding date is unknown, there is
evidence that teaching took place as far back as 1096.
Located
in and around Oxford’s medieval city centre, the university comprises 44
colleges and halls, and over 100 libraries, making it the largest library
system in the UK.
Students
number around 22,000 in total, just over half of whom are undergraduates while
over 40 per cent are international, representing 140 countries between them.
Called
the 'city of dreaming spires' by Victorian poet, Matthew Arnold, Oxford has the
youngest population of any city in England and Wales: nearly a quarter of its
residents are university students, which gives Oxford a noticeable buzz.
Oxford
has an alumni network of over 250,000 individuals, including more than 120
Olympic medallists, 26 Nobel Prize winners, seven poets laureate, and over 30
modern world leaders (Bill Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi, Indira Ghandi and 26 UK
Prime Ministers, among them).
The
university is associated with 11 winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, five
in physics and 16 in medicine. Notable Oxford thinkers and scientists include
Tim Berners-Lee, Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins. The actors Hugh Grant and
Rosamund Pike also went to Oxford, as did the writers Oscar Wilde, Graham
Greene, Vikram Seth and Philip Pullman.
Oxford’s
first international student, named Emo of Friesland, was enrolled in 1190,
while the modern day university prides itself on having an ‘international
character’ with connections to almost every country in the world and 40% of its
faculty drawn from overseas.
As
a modern, research-driven university, Oxford has numerous strengths but cites
particular prowess in the sciences, having recently ranked number one in the
world for medicine (if its Medical Sciences division was a university in its
own right, it would be the fourth largest in the UK) and among the top ten
universities globally for life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences,
and the arts and humanities.
Admission
In common with most British universities, prospective
students apply through the UCAS
application system, but prospective applicants for the University of Oxford,
along with those for medicine, dentistry, and University
of Cambridge applicants, must observe an earlier deadline of 15
October.
To allow a more personalised judgement of students, who
might otherwise apply for both, undergraduate applicants are not permitted to
apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year. The only exceptions are
applicants for organ scholarships and
those applying to read for a second undergraduate degree.
Most applicants choose to apply to one of the individual
colleges, which work with each other to ensure that the best students gain a
place somewhere at the university regardless of their college preferences.
Shortlisting is based on achieved and predicted exam results, school
references, and, in some subjects, written admission tests or
candidate-submitted written work. Approximately 60% of applicants are
shortlisted, although this varies by subject. If a large number of shortlisted
applicants for a subject choose one college, then students who named that
college may be reallocated randomly to under-subscribed colleges for the
subject. The colleges then invite shortlisted candidates for interview, where
they are provided with food and accommodation for around three days in
December. Most applicants will be individually interviewed by academics at more
than one college. Students from outside Europe can be interviewed remotely, for
example, over the Internet.
Offers are sent out in early January, with each offer
usually being from a specific college. One in four successful candidates receives
an offer from a college that they did not apply to. Some courses may make
"open offers" to some candidates, who are not assigned to a
particular college until A Level results
day in August.
Teaching and degrees
Undergraduate teaching is centred on the tutorial, where
1–4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week's work,
usually an essay (humanities, most social sciences, some mathematical,
physical, and life sciences) or problem sheet (most mathematical, physical, and
life sciences, and some social sciences). The university itself is responsible
for conducting examinations and conferring degrees. Undergraduate teaching
takes place during three eight-week academic terms: Michaelmas,
Hilary and Trinity.
(These are officially known as 'Full Term': 'Term' is a lengthier period with
little practical significance.) Internally, the weeks in a term begin on
Sundays, and are referred to numerically, with the initial week known as
"first week", the last as "eighth week" and with the
numbering extended to refer to weeks before and after term (for example
"-1st week" and "0th week" precede term). Undergraduates
must be in residence from Thursday of 0th week. These teaching terms are
shorter than those of most other British universities, and their total duration
amounts to less than half the year. However, undergraduates are also expected
to do some academic work during the three holidays (known as the Christmas,
Easter, and Long Vacations). Research degrees at the master's and doctoral
level are conferred in all subjects studied at graduate level at the
university.
Scholarships and financial support
There are many opportunities for students at Oxford to
receive financial help during their studies. The Oxford Opportunity Bursaries,
introduced in 2006, are university-wide means-based bursaries available to any
British undergraduate. With a total possible grant of £10,235 over a 3-year
degree, it is the most generous bursary
scheme offered by any British university. In addition, individual colleges also offer
bursaries and funds to help their students. For graduate study, there are many
scholarships attached to the university, available to students from all sorts
of backgrounds, from Rhodes Scholarships
to the relatively new Weidenfeld Scholarships. Oxford also offers the Clarendon Scholarship which is open to graduate
applicants of all nationalities. The Clarendon Scholarship is principally
funded by Oxford University Press in
association with colleges and other partnership awards.
Students successful in early examinations are rewarded by
their colleges with scholarships and exhibitions,
normally the result of a long-standing endowment, although since the
introduction of tuition fees the amounts of money available are purely nominal.
Scholars, and exhibitioners in some colleges, are entitled to wear a more
voluminous undergraduate gown; "commoners" (originally those who had
to pay for their "commons", or food and lodging) are restricted to a
short, sleeveless garment. The term "scholar" in relation to Oxford
therefore had a specific meaning as well as the more general meaning of someone
of outstanding academic ability. In previous times, there were "noblemen
commoners" and "gentlemen commoners", but these ranks were
abolished in the 19th century. "Closed" scholarships, available only
to candidates who fitted specific conditions such as coming from specific
schools, now exist only in name.
Libraries
The university maintains the largest university library
system in the UK, and, with over 11 million volumes housed on 120 miles
(190 km) of shelving, the Bodleian group is the second-largest library in
the UK, after the British Library. The
Bodleian is a legal deposit library,
which means that it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published
in the UK. As such, its collection is growing at a rate of over three miles
(five kilometres) of shelving every year.
The buildings referred to as the university's main
research library, The Bodleian, consist
of the original Bodleian Library in the Old Schools Quadrangle, founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 and opened in 1602, the
Radcliffe Camera, the Clarendon Building, and the New Bodleian
Building. A tunnel underneath Broad Street
connects these buildings, with the Gladstone Link connecting the Old Bodleian and
Radcliffe Camera opening to readers in 2011.
The Bodleian Libraries
group was formed in 2000, bringing the Bodleian Library and some of the subject
libraries together. It now comprises 28 libraries, a number of which have been
created by bringing previously separate collections together, including the Sackler Library, Social
Science Library and Radcliffe Science
Library. Another major product of this collaboration has been a
joint integrated library system, OLIS
(Oxford Libraries Information System), and its public interface, SOLO (Search
Oxford Libraries Online), which provides an electronic catalogue covering all
member libraries, as well as the libraries of individual colleges and other
faculty libraries, which are not members of the group but do share cataloguing
information.
A new book depository opened in South Marston, Swindon
in October 2010, and current building projects include the remodelling of the
New Bodleian building, which will be renamed the Weston Library when it reopens
in 2014–15. The renovation is designed to better showcase the library's various
treasures (which include a Shakespeare First Folio
and a Gutenberg Bible) as well as
temporary exhibitions.
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