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The University of Oxford has 38 Colleges and six 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 at 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 (one of the main methods 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.
Contents
- History
- College and permanent private hall arms and colours
- Heads of Houses
- Academic rankings
- College rivalries
- References
Undergraduate and graduate students may name preferred colleges in their applications. For undergraduate students, an increasing number of departments practise reallocation to ensure that the ratios between potential students and subject places available at each college are as uniform as possible. For the Department of Physics, reallocation is done on a random basis after a shortlist of candidates is drawn upon and before candidates are invited for interviews at the university.
For graduate students, many colleges express a preference for candidates who plan to undertake 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.
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 modern buildings, but most are made up of interlinked quadrangles (courtyards), with a lodge controlling entry from the outside.
2008 saw the first modern merger of colleges, with Green College and Templeton College merging to form Green Templeton College. This reduced the number of Colleges of the University from 39 to 38. The number of PPHs also reduced in 2008, when Greyfriars closed down.
History
The University of Oxford's collegiate system arose because 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 were established in Oxford 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 (from the Latin for "hall") 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. Often 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 were Somerville College, Lady Margaret Hall, St Anne's, St Hilda's, and St Hugh's. In 1974 the first men's colleges to admit women as members were Brasenose, Hertford, Jesus College, St Catherine's and Wadham. By 2008 all colleges had become co-residential, although one of the Permanent Private Halls, St Benet's Hall, continued to only admit men until the academic year running from Michaelmas 2015 to Trinity 2016, with female undergraduates being admitted from Michaelmas 2016. However, the Hall had begun to admit female postgraduate students from Michaelmas 2014.
Some colleges, such as Kellogg, Linacre, Nuffield, St Antony's, St Cross and Wolfson do not admit undergraduate students. All Souls College admits only Fellows. Harris Manchester College is intended specifically for "mature students" with a minimum age of 21.
College and permanent private hall arms and colours
Each college and permanent private hall has its own arms, although in some cases these were assumed rather than granted by the College of Arms. Under King Henry VIII Oxford colleges were granted exemption from having their arms granted by the College of Arms; and some, like Lady Margaret Hall, have chosen to take advantage of this exemption, whilst others, such as Oriel, despite having used the arms for many centuries, have recently elected to have the arms granted officially. The blazons below are taken from the Oxford University Calendar unless otherwise indicated. Shields are emblazoned as commonly drawn, and notable inconsistencies between blazons and emblazons (the shields as drawn) are indicated.
Each college also has its own colours used on items such as scarves and rowing blades.
Heads of Houses
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.
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 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.
Academic rankings
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 of publication, college rankings may fluctuate considerably.
Beginning in 2005, the University of Oxford started publishing a list of colleges classified by a "Norrington Score", effectively replicating the Norrington Table. The university claims 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 accurate. Dame Fiona Caldicott, the Chairman of the Conference of Colleges, has said that in previous years some students have used the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure their results were not published, rendering the unofficial tables inaccurate.
Out of the 30 Oxford undergraduate colleges, Merton College has ranked 1st in academic performance in the recent College rankings in the recent past (as of 2016).
College rivalries
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: