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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.

It 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 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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The blade colours of Jesus College Boat Club

Jesus College Boat Club, the rowing club for members of Jesus College, was formed in 1835. Rowing at the college predates the club's foundation, as a boat from Jesus was involved in the earliest recorded races between college crews at Oxford in 1815, when it competed against a crew from Brasenose College. In the early years of rowing at Oxford, Jesus was one of the few colleges that participated in races. A number of college members have rowed for Oxford against Cambridge in the Boat Race and the Women's Boat Race. Barney Williams, a Canadian rower who studied at the college, won a silver medal in rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and participated in the Boat Race in 2005 and 2006. Other students who rowed while at the college have achieved success in other fields, including John Sankey, who became Lord Chancellor, and Alwyn Williams, who became Bishop of Durham. The college boathouse, which is shared with Keble College's boat club, dates from 1964 and replaced a moored barge used by spectators and crew-members. (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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St Anne's College began life as "The Society of Oxford Home-Students" in 1879, which was renamed "The St Anne's Society" in 1942, finally taking its present name in 1952 when it received a charter. It was originally an institution for women only, but men have been admitted since 1979. It is one of the larger colleges in Oxford, with around 440 undergraduate and 190 postgraduate students, in a roughly equal mix of men and women. The college is to the north of the city centre between Woodstock Road and Banbury Road, on land donated by St John's. Hartland House, built in 1937 and designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was the first purpose-built college building; other buildings include the Wolfson Building from the 1960s and the Ruth Deech building (2005), named after a former principal of the college. The current principal is the journalist and television executive Tim Gardam. Alumni include the novelists Penelope Lively and Helen Fielding, the politicians Edwina Currie and Danny Alexander, magazine editor Tina Brown, and Cicely Saunders, pioneer of the hospice movement. The novelist Iris Murdoch was a fellow of the college. (Full article...)

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Credit: Arnaud Malon

All Souls College, seen from the tower of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, was founded by King Henry VI in 1438. Uniquely at Oxford, the college does not have any students – only Fellows.

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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 establishment of the Marshal Foch Professorship of French Literature at Oxford was announced a few days after Marshal Foch (pictured) signed the Armistice with Germany to end World War I?
... that British international rally driver Tony Ambrose was given an MG sports car by his father for winning a scholarship to Jesus College?
... that Bishop Graham Chadwick served as a naval intelligence officer in World War II and was expelled from South Africa for anti-apartheid activism?
... that Somerset cricketer Izzy Westbury made her senior international debut for the Netherlands aged 15?
... that it was speculated that J. K. Rowling based the Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore on the "splendidly bearded" T. P. Wiseman, her classics professor at Exeter University?

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“

I did not go back to Oxford after the war. It was not just that I was still a cripple. There were plenty of cripples. But I could not face it. To me it was a city of ghosts. Of our eight scholars and exhibitioners who came up in 1912, Humphrey Sumner and I alone were alive. It was too much.

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— Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister 1957–63 and Chancellor of the University 1960–86

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