Oxford University

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Oxford University. When the quarrel between Henry II and Philip Augustus in 1167 made it impossible for English students to attend the University of Paris, the opportunity for developing a similar institution arose at Oxford. The town was already the residence of kings and by 1186 Gerald of Wales was lecturing to doctors, masters, and scholars. By the beginning of the 13th cent. there was a sufficient body of scholars to cause an encounter with the townspeople in 1209, leading to the long-running ‘town versus gown’ dispute.

Dominican friars established their main house of study there on arrival in England in 1221 and were followed in 1224 by the Franciscans. Divinity was constituted as a superior faculty and students were admitted who already possessed an arts degree. Until the dissolution of the monasteries, Oxford came within the diocese of Lincoln, with the chancellor appointed by the bishop. The first recorded chancellor was the great scholar Robert Grosseteste.

University colleges, endowed by patrons, were gradually formed where students resided during their long courses of study. Though the claim that University College was founded by Alfred the Great is no longer seriously entertained, the donation by William of Durham on which it was founded came in 1249. John Balliol left money which his widow applied to founding Balliol College in 1282. Earlier, in 1264, Walter de Merton, chancellor of England, devoted most of his fortune to establishing Merton College. Clerical patrons were particularly prominent and included William of Wykeham, who founded New College (1379), Richard Foxe, who founded Corpus Christi College (1517), and Cardinal Wolsey, whose great college became Christ Church in 1546. Undergraduates were admitted for the first time about 1500. By Elizabeth's reign, there were fifteen colleges, including Oriel (1324), All Souls (1438), and Brasenose, refounded 1502 by William Smyth, bishop of Lincoln. As at Cambridge, they increasingly attracted the sons of wealthy or aristocratic families rather than poor scholars.

The Oxford statutes were revised in 1636 by Archbishop Laud, a great benefactor to the university. Oxford became associated with high-church views, reinforced after the 1640s when the city was the headquarters of the royalist army during the Civil War. In the early Hanoverian period it was reputed a nest of Jacobitism, though such disloyalty as there was caused the authorities little more than momentary irritation. More than two-thirds of its graduates entered the Church of England, and the Oxford movement in the 19th cent. reflected their concerns about priesthood.

The 19th cent. saw the beginnings of change. Degrees were no longer awarded without written examination. Honours degrees in both classics and mathematics were introduced in 1801, creating the ‘double first’, and a similar provision was made for science and law in 1890. Further reforms followed the Oxford University Act of 1854, pushed through by Gladstone and instituting a new and less oligarchical constitution, and in 1871 the requirement that dons should be in holy orders was abandoned.

From the last quarter of the 19th cent. the number of Oxford colleges began to increase. The first two colleges for women were Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville (1879), and since 1937 colleges for postgraduate study, such as Nuffield, St Antony's, Linacre, and Wolfson, have been founded.

Peter Gordon

University of Oxford at Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages; such scholars as Roger Bacon , Duns Scotus , John Wyclif , and Bishop Grosseteste were associated with it. It has maintained an outstanding reputation, especially in the classics, theology, and political science.

Colleges

Oxford has its beginnings in the early 12th cent. in groups of young scholars who gathered around the learned monks and teachers of the town. The system of residential colleges began with Merton College (1264), although University College and Balliol had been founded earlier. Consisting of a corporation of scholars and masters, having its own statutes, property, buildings, and customs, the medieval college maintained almost complete autonomy within the university, as it does today.

The present colleges, with their dates of founding, include University (1249), Balliol (1263), Merton (1264, for men), St. Edmund Hall (1269), Exeter (1314), Oriel (1326, for men), Queen's (1340), New (1379), Lincoln (1427), All Souls (1438, for male fellows), Magdalen (1458 ; pronounced môd´lĬn ), Brasenose (1509 ; pronounced brāz´nōz ), Corpus Christi (1516), Christ Church (1546, for men), Trinity (1554), St. John's (1555), Jesus (1571), Wadham (1610, charter received 1612), Pembroke (1624), Worcester (1714), Keble (1871), Hertford (1874), Lady Margaret Hall (1878, charter received 1926), Somerville (1879, charter received 1926, for women), St. Hugh's (1886, charter received 1926, for women), St. Hilda's (1893, charter received 1926, for women), St. Anne's (1893, charter received 1952), St. Peter's (1929, charter received 1961), St. Catherine's (1962), and Rewley House (1990). Nuffield (1937, charter received 1958), St. Antony's (1948, charter received 1953), Linacre (1962), St. Cross (1965), Wolfson (1965), and Green (1979) are postgraduate colleges of men and women. Most of the undergraduate colleges were founded as either men's or women's colleges and later became coeducational.

Faculties, Instruction, and Facilities

Oxford's faculties include theology, law, medicine, literae humaniores, modern history, English language and literature, modern languages, Oriental studies, Japanese studies, modern Middle Eastern studies, Slavonic and East European Studies, mathematics, physical sciences, biological sciences, physiological sciences, psychological studies, social studies, music, fine arts, archaeology and the history of art, and anthropology and geography.

Instruction at Oxford is by lectures and the tutorial system, by which each student writes a weekly paper on a prescribed subject and discusses it with his tutor. Women first received degrees in 1920, but they were not admitted to full university status until 1959. A large sum was left for scholarships for foreign students by Cecil Rhodes .

The Ashmolean Museum (see under Ashmole, Elias ) and the Bodleian Library are notable features of the university. Oxford Univ. Press was established by 1478, and the Oxford Union is a world-famous debating society. Until 1948 the university had two representatives in Parliament.

Bibliography

See C. E. Mallet, History of the University of Oxford (3 vol., 1924–27, repr. 1968); F. Markham, Oxford (1967); J. P. V. D. Balsdon, Oxford Now and Then (1970).

Oxford University When the quarrel between Henry II and Philip Augustus in 1167 made it impossible for English students to attend the University of Paris, the opportunity for developing a similar institution arose at Oxford. Dominican friars established their main house of study there on arrival in England in 1221 and were followed in 1224 by the Franciscans. Divinity was constituted as a superior faculty and students were admitted who already possessed an arts degree.

University colleges, endowed by patrons, were gradually formed where students resided during their long courses of study. William of Durham founded University College in 1249. John Balliol left money which his widow applied to founding Balliol College in 1282. Earlier, in 1264, Walter de Merton, chancellor of England, devoted most of his fortune to establishing Merton College. Undergraduates were admitted for the first time about 1500. By Elizabeth's reign, there were fifteen colleges. As at Cambridge, they increasingly attracted the sons of wealthy or aristocratic families rather than poor scholars.

Under the influence of Archbishop Laud, Oxford became associated with high‐church views, reinforced after the 1640s when the city was the headquarters of the royalist army during the Civil War. In the early Hanoverian period it was reputed a nest of Jacobitism, though such disloyalty as there was caused the authorities little more than momentary irritation. More than two‐thirds of its graduates entered the Church of England, and the Oxford movement in the 19th cent. reflected their concerns about priesthood.

the 19th cent. saw the beginnings of change. Degrees were no longer awarded without written examination. Honours degrees in both classics and mathematics were introduced in 1801, creating the ‘double first’, and a similar provision was made for science and law in 1890. From the last quarter of the 19th cent. the number of Oxford colleges began to increase. the first two colleges for women were Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville (1879), and since 1937 colleges for postgraduate study, such as Nuffield, St Antony's, Linacre, and Wolfson, have been founded.

Oxford University. Eng. university which has awarded degrees in music since 1499 (B.Mus. and D.Mus.). William Heather ( Heyther) founded lectureship in music in 1627, the holder of the post of choragus eventually becoming known as professor. Post of choragus re-established 1848. Professorship was long regarded as sinecure. Profs. of mus. since 1797: William Crotch (1797–1847), H. R. Bishop (1848–55), F. A. Gore Ouseley (1855–89), John Stainer (1889–1900), Hubert Parry (1900–8), Walter Parratt (1908–18), Hugh Allen (1918–46), J. A. Westrup (1947–71), Joseph Kerman (1971–4), Denis Arnold (1975–86), Brian Trowell (from 1988). The Faculty of Music was created in 1944, largely thanks to Allen.

Oxford, University of Oldest university in Britain. It developed from a group of teachers and students who gathered in Oxford in the 12th century. The first colleges, University, Balliol and Merton, were founded between 1249 and 1264. The colleges quickly increased in number and became almost autonomous. Women were not admitted until 1878.