The University of Oxford comprises 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree of the university must belong to one of the colleges or PPHs. These colleges are not only houses of residence, but have substantial responsibility for student teaching. Generally tutorials (the main method of teaching in Oxford) and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories and the central library are run by the university. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only.
Undergraduate and graduate students may name preferred colleges in their applications. For undergraduate students, an increasing number of departments practice reallocation to ensure that the ratio between potential students and subject places available at all colleges are as uniform as possible. For the Department of Physics, reallocation is done on a random basis after a shortlist of candidates is drawn up and before candidates are invited for interviews at the university.[1]
For graduate students, many colleges express a preference for candidates who will be undertaking research in an area of interest of one of its fellows. St Hugh's College, for example, states that it accepts graduate students in most subjects, principally those in the fields of interest of the Fellows of the college.[2]
A typical college consists of a hall for dining, a chapel, a library, a college bar, senior, middle (postgraduate) and junior common rooms, rooms for 200-400 undergraduates as well as lodgings for the head of the college and other dons. College buildings range from the medieval to very modern buildings, but most are made up of interlinked quadrangles (courtyards), with a lodge controlling entry from the outside.
2008 saw the first merger of colleges, with Green College and Templeton College merging to form Green Templeton College. This has reduced the number of official Oxford Colleges from 39 to 38.[3] The number of Halls also reduced in 2008, when Greyfriars closed down.[4]
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The University of Oxford's collegiate system springs from the fact that the university came into existence through the gradual agglomeration of independent institutions in the city of Oxford.
The first academic houses were monastic halls. Of the dozens that settled in the university during the 12th to 15th centuries, none survived the Reformation. The modern Dominican permanent private hall of Blackfriars (1921) is a descendant of the original (1221), and is therefore sometimes described as heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford.
As the University took shape, friction between the hundreds of students living where and how they pleased led to a decree that all undergraduates would have to reside in approved halls. Of the hundreds of Aularian houses that sprang up across the city, only St Edmund Hall (c 1225) remains. What put an end to the halls was the emergence of colleges. Generously endowed and with permanent teaching staff, the colleges were originally the preserve of graduate students. However, once they began accepting fee-paying undergraduates in the 14th century, the halls' days were numbered.
The oldest of Oxford's colleges are University College, Balliol, and Merton, established between 1249 and 1264, although there is some dispute over the exact order and precisely when each began teaching. The fourth oldest college is Exeter, which was founded in 1314 and the fifth is Oriel, which was founded in 1326. The most recent new foundation is Kellogg College, founded in 1990, while the most recent overall is Green Templeton College, 2008 (the result of a merger of two existing colleges).
Women entered the university for the first time in 1878, becoming members of the University (and thus eligible to receive degrees) in 1920. Women's colleges before integration included Somerville College, St Anne's, St. Hugh's, and Lady Margaret Hall. All colleges are now co-educational, although one of the Permanent Private Halls, St Benet's Hall, only accepts men. St.Hilda's decided to accept male members at all levels from 2008. Some colleges, such as St. Cross and Linacre, accept only graduate students. All Souls College accepts only fellows. Harris Manchester College accepts only "mature students" with a minimum age of 21.[5]
| Name | Foundation | Sister college at Cambridge | Financial Endowment (July 2010)[6] | Undergraduates | Graduates | Total Students | Academics | Endowment / Student | Academic / Student Ratio | Undergraduate / Graduate Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Souls College | 1438 | Trinity Hall | £219,827,000[7] | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Balliol College | 1263 | St John's College | £58,031,000[8] | 403 | 228 | 631 | ||||
| Brasenose College | 1509 | Gonville and Caius College | £82,867,000[9] | 360 | 190 | 550 | ||||
| Christ Church | 1546 | Trinity College | £282,196,000[10] | 425 | 250 | 675 | ||||
| Corpus Christi College | 1517 | Corpus Christi College | £69,238,000[11] | 239 | 126 | 365 | ||||
| Exeter College | 1314 | Emmanuel College | £46,915,000[12] | 340 | 200 | 540 | ||||
| Green Templeton College | 2008 | St Edmund's College | £1,845,000[13] | 0 | 500 | 500 | ||||
| Harris Manchester College | 1786, College status 1996 | £5,857,000[14] | 110 | 40 | 150 | |||||
| Hertford College | 1282, College status 1740 | £39,988,000[15] | 396 | 216 | 612 | |||||
| Jesus College | 1571 | Jesus College | £110,463,000[16] | 325 | 150 | 475 | ||||
| Keble College | 1870 | Selwyn College | £26,656,000[17] | 435 | 245 | 680 | ||||
| Kellogg College | 1990, College status 1994 | 0 | 400 | 400 | ||||||
| Lady Margaret Hall | 1878 | Newnham College | £24,337,000[18] | 424 | 174 | 598 | ||||
| Linacre College | 1962 | Hughes Hall | £8,141,000[19] | 0 | 410 | 410 | ||||
| Lincoln College | 1427 | Downing College | £65,310,000[20] | 281 | 299 | 580 | ||||
| Magdalen College | 1458 | Magdalene College | £135,529,000[21] | 395 | 185 | 580 | ||||
| Mansfield College | 1886, College status 1995 | Homerton College | £10,097,000[22] | 212 | 129 | 341 | ||||
| Merton College | 1264 | Peterhouse | £154,155,000[23] | 302 | 298 | 600 | ||||
| New College | 1379 | King's College | £133,226,000[24] | 420 | 180 | 600 | ||||
| Nuffield College | 1937 | £138,016,000[25] | 0 | 74 | 74 | |||||
| Oriel College | 1326 | Clare College | £80,630,000[26] | 304 | 158 | 462 | ||||
| Pembroke College | 1624 | Queens' College | £35,762,000[27] | 402 | 119 | 521 | ||||
| The Queen's College | 1341 | Pembroke College | £158,930,000[28] | 350 | 133 | 463 | ||||
| St Anne's College | 1878, College status 1952 | Murray Edwards College | £24,759,000[29] | 425 | 250 | 675 | ||||
| St Antony's College | 1950, College status 1963 | Wolfson College | £28,148,000[30] | 0 | 400 | 400 | ||||
| St Catherine's College | 1963 | Robinson College | £36,340,000[31] | 450 | 160 | 610 | ||||
| St Cross College | 1965 | Clare Hall | 0 | 467 | 467 | |||||
| St Edmund Hall | 1226, College status 1957 | Fitzwilliam College | £28,418,000[32] | 412 | 220 | 632 | ||||
| St Hilda's College | 1893 | £32,151,000[33] | 420 | 150 | 570 | |||||
| St Hugh's College | 1886 | Clare College | £21,755,000[34] | 419 | 205 | 624 | ||||
| St John's College | 1555 | Sidney Sussex College | £313,319,000[35] | 370 | 245 | 615 | ||||
| St Peter's College | 1929, College status 1961 | £24,814,000[36] | 346 | 130 | 476 | |||||
| Somerville College | 1879 | Girton College | £37,546,000[37] | 396 | 88 | 484 | ||||
| Trinity College | 1554 | Churchill College | £74,853,000[38] | 302 | 125 | 427 | ||||
| University College | 1249 | Trinity Hall | £106,299,000[39] | 420 | 144 | 564 | ||||
| Wadham College | 1610 | Christ's College | £62,408,000[40] | 460 | 180 | 640 | ||||
| Wolfson College | 1966, College status 1981 | Darwin College | £27,705,000[41] | 0 | 614 | 614 | ||||
| Worcester College | 1714 | St Catharine's College | £16,701,000[42] | 408 | 167 | 575 |
| Name | Foundation |
|---|---|
| Blackfriars | 1221, refounded 1921 |
| Campion Hall | 1896 |
| Regent's Park College | 1752, moved to Oxford 1927 |
| St Benet's Hall | 1897 |
| St Stephen's House | 1876, PPH status granted in 2003 |
| Wycliffe Hall | 1877 |
The senior member of each college is an officer known generically as the Head of House. His or her specific title varies from college to college as indicated in the list below. While the Head of House will usually be an academic, it is not uncommon for a person to be appointed who has had a distinguished career outside academic circles, especially in the Civil Service.
For a list of current Heads of Houses see Heads of Houses.
Until 2004 the President of Templeton was both Head of House and Chairman of the Governing Body. In 2004 the college statutes were amended so that these roles were separated. The Dean was the Head of House until 2008. When the college merged with Green the Head of the new college, Green Templeton, assumed the title of Principal. The Dean of Christ Church is head of both the college and the cathedral. The President of Kellogg is also Director of the Department for Continuing Education.
For some years an unofficial ranking of undergraduate colleges by performance in Final Honour Schools examinations has been published annually, known as the "Norrington Table". As the table only takes into account the examination results for the year it is published in, college rankings may fluctuate considerably.
Beginning in 2005, the university started publishing a list of colleges classified by a "Norrington Score", effectively replicating the Norrington Table. The university claim to have published the results "in the interests of openness". Although the university says that the college listings are "not very significant", the 2005 table is the first Norrington Table with official data, and also likely the first to be truly correct. Dame Fiona Caldicott, the Chairman of the Conference of Colleges, has said that in previous years some students have used the Data Protection Act to ensure their results were not published, rendering the unofficial tables inaccurate.[43]
A tradition of the University is a friendly rivalry between colleges. Often, two neighbouring colleges will be rivals, and each college will pride itself in its athletic victories over the other one. Examples include:
As well as historic rivalries based on geographical proximity, colleges often develop foes in the sporting arena that can become full-scale rivalries, although these are usually much more short-term. A recent example of this came as a result of the 2006 rugby Cuppers final between Pembroke and St. Peter's that culminated in a fight between the Pink Pembroke Panther and the St. Peter's Squirrel, the respective mascots of each team.
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