The University of Oxford (legally The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford) is a collegiate research university in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096,[2] making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation.[2][10] It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.[2] 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.[11] The two English ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly called Oxbridge.
The university is made up of 39 semi-autonomous constituent colleges, six permanent private halls, and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions.[12] All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college.[13] It does not have a main campus, and its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. Undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weekly small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls – a feature unique to the Oxbridge system. These are supported by classes, lectures, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided predominantly centrally.
Oxford operates the world's oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world[14] and the largest academic library system nationwide.[15] In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2019, the university had a total income of £2.45 billion, of which £624.8 million was from research grants and contracts.[3]
Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 28 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world.[16] As of November 2019, 72 Nobel Prize laureates, 3 Fields Medalists, and 6 Turing Award winners have studied, worked, or held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, while its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals.[17] Oxford is the home of numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes.
