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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...)

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The position of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture was established at Oxford in 1847. The professorship was instituted by John Ireland (pictured), Dean of Westminster from 1816 until his death in 1842, who acquired considerable riches during his ecclesiastical career. He left £10,000 to the university in his will, with the interest arising to be applied to the professorship. The first professor, Edward Hawkins, was appointed in 1847. In all, 12 men have held the position of Dean Ireland's Professor, with differing interests in scriptural exegesis (critical interpretation or explanation of biblical texts). Hawkins was elected on the strength of his reputation gained opposing the Oxford Movement (a group within the Church of England who aimed to reform the church by reasserting its links with the early Catholic church). In contrast, the third professor Henry Liddon was a prominent member of the Oxford Movement. Since 1932, the holder of the chair has been appointed to a fellowship at The Queen's College. Christopher Rowland became the latest Dean Ireland's Professor in 1991. (Full article...)

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Robert Hichens (1909–1943) was the most highly decorated officer of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), being awarded two Distinguished Service Orders, three Distinguished Service Crosses and three Mentions in Despatches. Family legend recalls on one of his many investitures King George VI is supposed to have joked "What you again?". He was also recommended for a Victoria Cross after being killed in action in April 1943; he had requested that the nomination be withdrawn as he felt he had put boats in danger when trying to rescue his friends. Before the Second World War, Hichens was a keen sportsman who rowed for Magdalen College, Oxford during Eights Week and competed in the Double sculls at the Henley Regatta. He also competed in International Fourteen sailing events and three times participated in the Fastnet race. On land he raced in hill climbing events in Somerset and also entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans race three times. After reading law at Oxford, he qualified as a solicitor and became a junior partner of a firm in Cornwall. During the Second World War, he rose in rank to become a lieutenant commander and commanded the 6th Motor Gun Boat Flotilla and later the 8th Motor Gun Boat Flotilla. (more...)

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The Queen's College was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield, chaplain to Queen Philippa of Hainault (the wife of King Edward III), and is named after her. The main college buildings are in the centre of Oxford, on the High Street, and the front of the college was designed by the 18th-century architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. The college has traditionally had strong links with the north of England: the founder's family had land in the area of Eaglesfield, Cumbria, and until the 20th century a number of scholarships were reserved for men from 20 schools in Yorkshire, Westmorland and Cumberland. The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship, named after an Iranian student who died in the 2009 Iranian election protests, was established at Queen's in 2009. There are about 350 undergraduate and 130 postgraduates. The Provost of the college is the chemistry professor Paul Madden. Former students at the college include the astronomer Edmund Halley, the comedian Rowan Atkinson, the internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, the neurologist Oliver Sacks and the theologian John Wycliffe. The Dean Ireland's Professorship of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture is one of the university posts linked to the college. (Full article...)

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Credit: Brighterorange

Old book bindings in the college library of Merton College. The college dates from the 1260s and is one of the contenders (along with University College and Balliol College) for the title of the first-established college. The oldest part of the library dates from 1373. The library holds approximately 70,000 volumes and 300 medieval manuscripts.

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Did you know

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

... that John Weston (pictured) became a published poet after retiring from his post as Ambassador to the United Nations?
... that Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, having lost his position on the Historic Churches Preservation Trust (for which he denounced the Archbishop of Canterbury as having "held a pistol to my face while the Dean of Gloucester plunged his dagger into my back"), founded his own, more intransigent, committee, the Friends of Friendless Churches?
... that archaeologist Francis Turville-Petre, discoverer of Neanderthal remains in Israel, was portrayed in works by authors W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood?
... that the highly influential jurist Sir Matthew Hale once said that lawyers were "a barbarous set of people unfit for anything but their own trade"?
... that Richard Cordray, the first Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is a five-time undefeated Jeopardy! champion and carried the Olympic Torch in 1996?