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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 in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became 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 thirty-nine semi-autonomous constituent colleges, four permanent private halls, 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. Traditionally, each of Oxford's constituent colleges is associated with another of the colleges in the University of Cambridge, with the only exceptional addition of Trinity College, Dublin. It does not have a main campus, and 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 30 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world. 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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Bodley's Librarian is the head of the Bodleian Library, the main library at the University of Oxford. Both are named after the founder, Sir Thomas Bodley (pictured). The university's library was established in about 1320 but had declined by the end of the 16th century, so in 1598 Bodley offered to restore it. The first librarian, Thomas James, was selected in 1599, and the Bodleian opened in 1602. Bodley wanted the librarian to be diligent, a linguist, unmarried, and not a parish priest, although James persuaded him to dispense with the last two requirements. In all, 25 people have served as Bodley's Librarian, some less well than others: John Price (who held the post from 1768 to 1813) was accused of "a regular and constant neglect of his duty". The first woman, and the first foreign librarian, to run the Bodleian was Sarah Thomas (2007–13). The current librarian is Richard Ovenden. (Full article...)

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Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies at Christ Church, Oxford and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924. When the British Broadcasting Corporation appointed him director of music in 1930, he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. Forced to leave the BBC in 1950 on reaching retirement age, Boult took on the chief conductorship of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). The orchestra had declined from its peak of the 1930s, but under his guidance its fortunes were revived. Although in the latter part of his career he worked with other orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and his former orchestra, the BBC Symphony, it was the LPO with which he was primarily associated, conducting it in concerts and recordings until 1978. Known for his championing of British music, he gave the first performance of Holst's The Planets, and introduced new works by, among others, Bliss, Britten, Delius, Tippett, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In his BBC years he introduced works by foreign composers, including Bartók, Berg, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern. As well as a series of recordings that have remained in the catalogue for three or four decades, Boult's legacy includes his influence on prominent conductors of later generations, including Colin Davis and Vernon Handley. (more...)

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Magdalen College was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. It stands to the east of the city centre next to the River Cherwell, which is crossed by Magdalen Bridge. Its extensive grounds include a deer park and meadows alongside the river. By tradition, the college choir (which consists of 12 students from the college and 16 boys from Magdalen College School) sings madrigals from the top of Magdalen Tower at 6am on May Morning. The tower, built between 1492 and 1509, is a landmark at the east of the city. The President is the chemist David Clary. There are about 400 undergraduates and 185 postgraduates. Former students include the politicians William Hague and George Osborne (appointed Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively in 2010), the poets Oscar Wilde and John Betjeman, the judges Lord Denning and Lord Browne-Wilkinson and the editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop. The Fellows of Magdalen include the holders of the four Waynflete Professorships; the novelist and Christian writer C. S. Lewis was a fellow for nearly 30 years. (Full article...)

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Credit: David Iliff

The Clarendon Building, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, was built between 1711 and 1715 to house the Oxford University Press. It is now part of the Bodleian Library.

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Did you know

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

... that Christopher Tin (pictured) is the first Fulbright scholar for film scoring?
... that the world's largest mathematical experiment, designed by Brian Butterworth, found women to be faster than men at subitizing?
... that Englishman James McFarlane was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav for his eight-volume work Oxford Ibsen?
... that British plant physiologist Daphne Osborne showed that the gas ethylene is a natural plant hormone which regulates ageing and the shedding of leaves and fruits?
... that millionaire's daughter Rose Dugdale joined an IRA active service unit and took part in the first helicopter bombing raid on the British Isles in 1974?

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“

A secret in the Oxford sense: you may tell it to only one person at a time.

”

— Lord Franks, former Provost of Worcester College

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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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