The University and the City

The University and the city of Oxford have developed, intertwined, for centuries, with the city established as a settlement in the ninth century, scholars converging at Oxford from the late twelfth century, and the University constructing its first independent buildings in the thirteenth century.

The 38 colleges and six permanent private halls were founded and constructed over an 800-year period, often articulating their respective missions through their architecture and design.

Oxford features buildings of every notable English architectural style, from the medieval to the neoclassical, to the modern and post-modern. In the twenty-first century, the University aims to continue to develop Oxford’s architectural canon by commissioning today’s leading architects to design buildings intended to inspire the University’s research capabilities and nurture the student and faculty experience.

While the initial history of the city remains unknown, the first written record of Oxford dates back to the tenth century and there are substantial records of Oxford’s expansion in the eleventh century. By midway through the eleventh century, the city had more than 1,000 houses and was the sixth largest settlement in Britain, behind London, York, Norwich, Lincoln and Winchester. Known for its location between the rivers Thames and Cherwell, the town was prosperous, especially thanks to the cloth industry, which accelerated Oxford’s development in the twelfth century.

The University was developing in its earliest years at the same time as a conglomeration of independent monastic halls and centres of learning and left little physical imprint on the town’s landscape, as its scholars met in private buildings. It was the colleges, starting with the foundation of University College, Balliol College and Merton College between 1249 and 1264, which radically changed the character and architectural face of the city. Developed in close proximity to the city centre, each college began as an independent group of buildings comprising halls of residence, teaching and other facilities, such as a library or chapel, often grouped around a quadrangle or another form of shared outdoor space. Beyond transforming the Oxford cityscape, the colleges also provided a new approach to education, by allowing students to take simultaneous advantage of belonging to both a large, renowned institution and a more intimate academic community. All of the colleges were self-governing and thus became known for their unique characters and traditions.

In the fourteenth century, Exeter College, New College, Oriel College and The Queen’s College followed these first institutions, with New College building on an unprecedented scale. The fifteenth century saw All Souls College, Magdalen College and Lincoln College officially established; Brasenose College, Christ Church, Corpus Christi College, Jesus College, St John’s College and Trinity College came into being in the sixteenth century; Pembroke College and Wadham College in the seventeenth century; Hertford College and Worcester College in the eighteenth century; Keble College, Lady Margaret Hall, St Anne’s College, St Hilda’s College, St Hugh’s College and Somerville College in the nineteenth century; Harris Manchester College, Kellogg College, Linacre College, Mansfield College, Nuffield College, St Antony’s College, St Catherine’s College, St Cross College, St Edmund Hall, St Peter’s College and Wolfson College in the twentieth century; and most recently, Green Templeton College, which was established through the merger of Green College and Templeton College, in 2008.

Over the years, the University continued to build facilities to be shared among the colleges, and to complement their individual facilities. Major buildings developed for the collegiate University included the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera. These buildings, located in Oxford’s centre, became integral to the University as a whole, used by students, faculty, visiting academics, researchers and the community at large.

As the student size of the University continued to expand in the mid-nineteenth century, the Science Area and Keble Triangle were the first large, independent sets of University buildings to be established in order to house the new Honours School of Natural Science. Not only were these buildings on a huge scale, but they took the University beyond the city centre for the first time.

Today Oxford is consistently ranked highest, or among the highest, in league tables of the UK and world’s top universities. There are more than 20,000 students at Oxford – almost 12,000 undergraduates and in the region of 8,000 postgraduates. More than one-third are foreign citizens with students coming from 143 countries and territories. Oxford has more world-leading academics than any other UK university, according to the 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise. Its academic community includes more than 80 Fellows of the Royal Society and around 100 Fellows of the British Academy.

Oxford has produced no fewer than 25 British Prime Ministers, as well as famous Oxonians including Sir Thomas More, John Donne, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, William Morris, TS Eliot and Iris Murdoch.

All colleges are now co-educational, accommodating undergraduates, graduate students and Fellows, as well as mature students. The focus today is on widening access so that Oxford can attract the very best students, regardless of their financial status. College facilities continue to develop, with alumni often acting as benefactors to support the expansion of their alma maters. In the current era, the University continues to prioritise teaching and research in the sciences, medical science, the social sciences and the humanities through investment in major building and redevelopment projects, all of which will be explored in more detail later in this brochure. Significant developments include the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the second phase of the Saïd Business School, the Earth Sciences building and the Ashmolean Museum renovation, all of which are being designed by leading architects and planners.