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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, United Kingdom. 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, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where, in 1209, they established 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 43 constituent colleges, consisting of 36 semi-autonomous colleges, four permanent private halls and three societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their own royal charter), 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. The university 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 31 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 position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit was established in 1832 with money bequeathed to the university by Joseph Boden, a retired soldier who had worked for the East India Company. He wanted a Sanskrit professor to assist in converting British India to Christianity. The first two professors were elected by Oxford graduates; the 1860 election, in particular, was hotly contested. Reforms of Oxford implemented in 1882 removed all mention of Boden's original purpose, removed the power to elect the professor from graduates, and gave the holder of the professorship a fellowship at Balliol College (pictured). To date, Sir Monier Monier-Williams (professor 1860–99) has held the chair for the longest, although a deputy carried out his teaching duties for the last 11 years of his life. The current holder (as of 2014), Christopher Minkowski, was appointed in 2005 and is the eighth Boden professor. It is the only remaining Sanskrit professorship in the United Kingdom. (Full article...)

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Brian Twyne (1581–1644) was an antiquarian and an academic at Oxford. After being educated at Corpus Christi College, and becoming a Fellow of the college in 1606, he published his one main work, a history of the university, in 1608. This was designed to prove that Oxford was older than Cambridge University, and has been described by a modern writer as a "remarkable achievement for a young scholar of twenty-eight." His main accomplishment was to play a leading role in the revision of the university statutes under William Laud (Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Archbishop of Canterbury). He was rewarded by appointment in 1634 to the new position of Keeper of the Archives. In this role, he obtained a new royal charter for Oxford University to confirm its rights and privileges, and helped the university in its disputes with the city authorities. He also moved the archives into the Tower of the Five Orders (pictured) at the Bodleian Library, where they are still kept. (more...)

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The Queen's College was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield, chaplain to Queen Philippa of Hainault (the wife of King Edward III), and is named after her. The main college buildings are in the centre of Oxford, on the High Street, and the front of the college was designed by the 18th-century architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. The college has traditionally had strong links with the north of England: the founder's family had land in the area of Eaglesfield, Cumbria, and until the 20th century a number of scholarships were reserved for men from 20 schools in Yorkshire, Westmorland and Cumberland. The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship, named after an Iranian student who died in the 2009 Iranian election protests, was established at Queen's in 2009. There are about 350 undergraduate and 130 postgraduates. The Provost of the college is the chemistry professor Paul Madden. Former students at the college include the astronomer Edmund Halley, the comedian Rowan Atkinson, the internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, the neurologist Oliver Sacks and the theologian John Wycliffe. The Dean Ireland's Professorship of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture is one of the university posts linked to the college. (Full article...)

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Credit: kamshots

A winter view of Oxford from South Park on Headington Hill, to the east of the city.

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Did you know

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

... that Seymour King, Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull Central for 25 years, was the first climber to reach the summits of Mont Maudit and Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey (pictured)?
... that Andrew N. Meltzoff's research revealed that infants of only a few weeks of age can imitate facial expressions and hand gestures?
... that civil engineer Robert Wynne-Edwards was the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers to be elected while still working as a contractor?
... that Irish cricketer and artist Robert Gregory was the subject of four poems by W. B. Yeats?
... that when a rival took over an estate belonging to Sir Walter Clarges, Clarges used his position as a Member of Parliament to send the interloper to jail?