The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university
located in Oxford, England. While having no known date of foundation, there is
evidence of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in
the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest surviving university.
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 northeast to Cambridge where they established what
became the University of Cambridge. The two "ancient universities"
are frequently jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".
The university is made up of a variety of institutions,
including 38 constituent colleges and a full range of academic departments
which are organised into four divisions. All the colleges are self-governing
institutions as part of the university, each controlling its own membership and
with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it
does not have a main campus; instead, all the buildings and facilities are
scattered throughout the city centre. Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is
organised around weekly tutorials at the self-governing colleges and halls,
supported by classes, lectures and laboratory work provided by university
faculties and departments.
Oxford is the home of several notable scholarships,
including the Clarendon Scholarship which was launched in 2001and the Rhodes
Scholarship which has brought graduate students to study at the university for
more than a century. The university operates the largest university press in
the world and the largest academic library system in the United Kingdom. Oxford
has educated many notable alumni, including 27 Nobel laureates, 26 British
prime ministers (most recently David Cameron, the incumbent) and many foreign
heads of state.
