Portal:University of Oxford

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 prohibited English students from attending the University of Paris. After escalating conflict between students and the Oxford townspeople, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.

The University of Oxford is made up of 43 colleges – of which 36 are chartered colleges (independent bodies), 4 are permanent private halls (owned by religious organisations), and 3 are societies (controlled by the university) – and a range of academic departments that are organised into four divisions. Colleges control their own membership and activities. Typically social life for students is centred around fellow college members. All students are members of a college. Oxford does not have a main campus. Its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre and around the town. Undergraduate teaching at the university consists of lectures, small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and 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 2025, the university had a total consolidated income of £3.02 billion, of which £801.3 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 2025,^[update] 76 Nobel Prize laureates, four Fields Medalists, and six Turing Award winners have matriculated, worked, or held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford. Its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals. Oxford is home to a number of scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes in the world. (Full article...)

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The Boat Race, also known as the "University Boat Race" and "The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race", is a rowing race between Oxford University Boat Club and Cambridge University Boat Club each spring on the River Thames in London. The course (map pictured), which is 4 miles 374 yards long (6,779 metres), runs from Putney to Mortlake, passing Hammersmith and Barnes. The clubs' presidents toss a coin before the race for the right to choose which side of the river (station) they will row on: the north station ("Middlesex") has the advantage of the first and last bends, and the south ("Surrey") station the longer middle bend. Members of both teams are traditionally known as "blues" and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. The first race was in 1829 and it has been held annually since 1856, with the exception of the two world wars. The 2012 race was won by Cambridge, after an interruption by a protestor swimming across the river into the path of the boats. As of 2014 Cambridge have won the race 81 times and Oxford 78 times, with one dead heat. The event is a popular one, not only with the alumni of the universities, but also with rowers in general and the public. (Full article...)

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David Lewis (1909–1981) was a Russian-born Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950, and was one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. He was the NDP's national leader from 1971 to 1975. Lewis's politics were heavily influenced by the Jewish Labour Bund, which contributed to his support of parliamentary democracy. He was an avowed anti-communist, and while a Rhodes Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, prevented communist domination of the university's Labour Club. He helped draft the Winnipeg Declaration, which modernized the CCF's economic policies to include an acceptance of capitalism, though under the eye of government regulators. He had a central role in uniting the labour movement with the creation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956. When his eldest son, Stephen Lewis, became the NDP's Province of Ontario leader, in 1970, they became one of the first father and son teams to simultaneously head Canadian political parties. In retirement, he was named to the Order of Canada for his political service. After a lengthy battle with cancer, he died in Ottawa in 1981. (more...)

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Jesus College was founded by Elizabeth I on 27 June 1571 at the request of Hugh Price, a leading Welsh clergyman. The college's oldest buildings date from the 16th and early 17th centuries, with additions or changes at intervals thereafter. The life of the college and its finances were disrupted by the English Civil War, but Leoline Jenkins, who became principal after the war in 1661, managed to put the college on a more stable financial footing. The 19th century saw a decline in numbers and academic standards, before reforms of the university led to removal of many of the restrictions placed on the college's fellowships and scholarships, such that the college ceased to be predominantly full of Welsh students and academics. The college is still informally associated with Wales, however. Students' academic achievements rose in the early 20th century as fellows were appointed to teach in new subjects. Women were first admitted in 1974 and now form a large part of the undergraduate population. There are about 475 students; the Principal of the college is Lord Krebs. Former students include Harold Wilson (who was twice British Prime Minister), Norman Manley (Chief Minister of Jamaica), T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Angus Buchanan (winner of the Victoria Cross) and Viscount Sankey (Lord Chancellor). (Full article...)

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Credit: David Iliff

The Divinity School, built between 1427 and 1483, was formerly used for lectures, oral exams and discussions on theology. The elaborate ceiling was designed by William Orchard.

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Did you know

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

... that the members of the Council of Keble College, Oxford (council member Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon pictured) had power to move the college away from Oxford?
... that British lawyer and activist of the Indian independence movement Eardley Norton was instrumental in establishing an UK-chapter of the Indian National Congress?
... that in 1996, the University of Glasgow renamed its Chair of Drama after former professor James Fullarton Arnott?
... that while Nicholas Fitzherbert was abroad, two priests were arrested in his father's house and hanged, drawn and quartered?
... that the equipment designed by the physicist Gwyn Jones to liquefy small amounts of helium for work at temperatures near absolute zero was made from parts of a motorcycle engine?

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To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.

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— Edward Gibbon

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Credit: David Iliff

Oxford looking south from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in the centre of the city – the spire on the left is Christ Church Cathedral and Tom Tower is on the right.

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