History of the University Gazette

'A banquet of unmitigated fact': the Oxford University Gazette, 1870–

Background

The Oxford University Act of 1854 had set up a new Hebdomadal Council (to replace the unrepresentative Hebdomadal Board, established in 1631), and also began the modern revival of Congregation, which was to be the electing body for the new Council. The University was slowly acquiring a broader disciplinary basis: the Honour School of Natural Sciences was established in 1850; the Honour School of Theology in 1869; and Jurisprudence and Modern History in 1872. The University Tests Act of 1871 opened the University fully to non-Anglicans. Keble, the first new college since Hertford had acquired collegiate status in 1740, opened in 1870; and Lady Margaret Hall opened in 1878 as the first academical hall for women in Oxford.

Dissemination of information pre-Gazette

Information was disseminated to the wider University through broadsheets posted at specific locations, including the great door at the Bodleian Library and college butteries.

Creation of the Gazette

5 Dec 1868: Edwin Hatch writes to the Curators of the Chest, the body then overseeing University finances, proposing the idea of a University Gazette

24 Apr 1869: Curators of the Chest propose forming a committee ‘to consider the whole subject of Printing and of Stationery for the University including the form number and mode of distribution of University and other notices and of Examination papers’ 

8 May 1869: Printing and Stationery Committee meets for the first time

29 May 1869: committee recommendations presented, including proposal to publish an Oxford University Gazette via the Clarendon Press as a medium of University notices

10 Nov 1869:

• Curators of the Chest discuss Gazette proposal in detail, including costs, purposes and distribution arrangements (distribution to continue as with previous such notices, 'by the Proctor’s men')
  reasoning behind creation of Gazette include 'the insufficiency of the present Broad Sheet as a medium of notice of Professor’s Lectures and the expense and inconvenience of the present system of issuing University Notices, the present cost of Printing etc. (but including the printing of Examination Papers) being not less than £500 per ann.'
• estimated annual cost of editing, printing and publishing the Gazette given as £370, with expected profits of £380 (based on a price of 6d per copy)
• Senior Proctor notes that the existing Statutes were inconsistent with publication of professorial notices by the Gazette alone, so either a new statute must be framed or the question must be referred to the Hebdomadal Council 

22 Nov 1869: Motion from Curators of the Chest, seconded by the Dean of Christ Church (Henry Liddell), Hebdomadal Council approves establishment of the Gazette and instructs implementation in following term

Publication of the Gazette

28 Jan 1870:

• First issue of the Oxford University Gazette published
• Preliminary Notice:
  • The Gazette was to be published “every Tuesday during Term, and at such times as the exigencies of University business may require.”
  • “The official notices contained in the Gazette will be affixed to the Buttery of every College or Hall, and delivered to the several persons within the University to whom the Statutes require such notices to be delivered; but, in addition to this statutable publication, a copy of the Gazette will be delivered, free of cost, to every resident Member of Congregation, and sent by post to such non-resident Members of Congregation as remit annually to the office the sum of Two Shillings and Sixpence.”
  • Its intended form and function are revealed by its proposed permanent divisions, which were to be as follows:
    • Acts and Agenda of Convocation
    • The Ancient House of Congregation
    • The Congregation of the University
    • Announcement of Professors’ Lectures
    • University Examinations (lists of Candidates, Class lists, Subjects)
    • University Scholarships and Prizes
    • General University Notices (Bodleian Library, Elections of Professors)
    • Notices Relating to Colleges, Halls and ‘Scholares non Ascripti’
    • Unofficial Notices
    • Advertisements
  • Provision was made for supplements to the Gazette:
    • for extraordinary issues which might arise and which could not wait until the next regular issue (eg changes to meetings, cancellations of lectures)
    • to publish specific types of information (eg candidates lists for the first and second public examinations, lists of respondents, synopses of lectures)
    • to publish longer pieces of University information (eg annual reports, college charters, new statutes and regulations)
    • as a means for publishing questions to be set in the several public examinations of the University and in the University Scholarship Exams

Oct 1874: Publication of examination questions as Gazette supplements discontinued; issued separately thereafter by Clarendon Press

1886: Gazette content structure revised to: 

• University Acts
• University Agenda
• Professors’ Notices
• Notices of Examinations and of Boards of Faculties and Studies
• University Scholarships and Prizes
• General University Notices
• Colleges, Halls and Non-Collegiate Students
• Clarendon Press Notices
• Unofficial Notices/Advertisements 

1899: AD Godley, Fellow of Magdalen and Public Orator (1910–20), writes ‘Lines to an Old Friend’ in celebration of the Gazette (read by Christopher Ricks, Public Orator, as part of the Creweian Oration at Encaenia 2007)

1963–64: many annual reports removed from the main Gazette and published only as supplements (eg Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum and the Delegates of the University Museum)

1972–73: Lecture lists and graduate student lists removed from the Gazette

1982: review of central administration recommends reducing Gazette production costs and content

1983: decision to discontinue publication of class and pass lists in the Gazette

20 September 1990: major format revision

• redesign to A4 size
• first 3 pages of each issue were news articles and photographs; back page was a weekly diary
• new section structure implemented:
  • University Acts
  • University Agenda
  • Notices
  • Lectures
  • Grants and Research Funding
  • Examinations and of Boards
  • Colleges, Halls and Societies
  • Advertisements
  • Diary

1990s: editor's employment and responsibility for production of the Gazette moved from OUP to University's Public Affairs Directorate, Wellington Square

23 September 1993: Gazette first published online

13 June 1996: News Pages included in online Gazette

1998: Gazette stopped publishing student-related information online in line with new data protection legislation

3 August 2000: last issue to include News Pages; succeeded by publication of Blueprint magazine (which in turn become the University Bulletin in 2020)

20 September 2001: to comply with new data protection legislation, Gazette ceases to publish online notices relating to students: Degrees by Resolution, prize/scholarship awards, leave to supplicate or higher degrees and notices of viva voce examinations

2003 & 2007: small redesigns

2010: major redesign and reduction in length, as cost-saving measure and to cut down on repeated notices which made new information hard to find. Approval received from General Purposes Committee for:

• redesign from 2-column layout to 3-column layout
• change of typeface used to Guardian Egyptian
• approval sought from Privy Council to stop publishing examination regulation changes in full, and to only include a brief descriptive notice and link to the webpage where the full text can be found
• move to new CMS (SiteManager), which allowed the full issue to be published online instead of a text-only webpage, improving appearance and navigability
• large changes to Gazette content to reduce duplication and costs:
  • notices and supplements to appear once only, with certain exceptions
  • 'University Acts’ to be renamed ‘Council and Main Committees’;
  • ‘University Agenda’ to be renamed ‘Congregation’
  • the Special Lecture List to be published in the Gazette only, and returned to its original purpose as a listing of lectures of cross-University interest
  • a supplement of lectures and seminars for the term to be published in 0th week
  • Prizes, Grants and Funding section to be removed and replaced by a brief list of prizes and grants notified, with a reference given to an appropriate website or contact information
  • lists of undergraduate awards made by Colleges, Halls and Societies to be removed
  • Appointments section to be removed and replaced by a listing of vacancies, with a reference given to a website on which information can be found/contact details for enquiries
  • Diary to be removed, replaced by an expanded ‘What's On’ page of the University website
  • University Libraries' Vacation Hours notice to be removed
  • Learning Institute supplements to be removed and replaced by a termly notice giving the Learning Institute web address
  • publication of non-urgent notices may be postponed for up to 2 weeks to help keep the Gazette to an even length
• annual number of issues to be reduced from 37 to 35, to be achieved by removing the issue of week 10 of Michaelmas term, and the final Gazette in July
• issues of week -2 of MT and week 10 of HT to include Council and Congregation business only (if no such business required publication, these issues could be omitted)

22 September 2011: student information published online behind SSO, so that members of the University could read it after logging in

2015: Gazette (and Blueprint/Oxford Magazine) available to non-Congregation members in print and online, and no longer automatically distributed to Congregation members unless they opted in

2018: move to new CMS (Mosaic)

26 March 2020: Gazette becomes a digital first publication; this decision forced by COVID-19-related office closures and the closure of OUP's printing arm, Oxuniprint, during COVID-19

• General Purposes Committee decides that the Gazette should not revert to printed publication even after re-opening of offices
• Gazette no longer published by OUP at all as Oxuniprint never reopens; now published by University of Oxford
• limited print copies produced and distributed by the University's Print Studio for distribution to libraries and archives only
• online précis created to highlight important content items in each issue, and link distributed to email subscribers

22 September 2022: redesigned précis sent directly as email to subscribers

21 September 2023: redesign to 2-column layout and University's new preferred typefaces: Roboto and Noto Serif

14 April 2026: move to new CMS (Oxweb) and redesign

Known editors of the Gazette

• S O’Malley (c1930–?)
• Sir Ivo Elliot (?–1949)
• Sir Frederick Puckle (1949–54)
• Miss W M Gibson (1954–8)
• Miss M L M Eady (1958–?)
• Genevieve Hawkins (1970s–?)
• Martin Harrington (1990–2010)
• Dawn Dooher (2010–present (Rosalind Cuomo, deputy editor, acted up to editor 2017–18))

History of advertising in the Gazette

• 1870: Adverts which pertained to 'Academical, Literary, Educational, Clerical, and Scientific Subjects' were to be selected for publication, and were to be inserted at 'moderate rates'.
• Supplements contained advertising, including lists of licensed lodging-houses
• 1920s/30s: full-page display adverts published for non-University businesses
• 2010: adverts published in print and online editions, including accompanying logos and photos in online edition (for an additional charge)
• 2018: adverts revert to text-only in online edition following change of web platform

Please note: this timeline is not complete and we aim to continue researching and adding to it. We would be glad to hear of any important points that readers feel should be added; in particular, if anyone has any further information about editors of the Gazette, we would be very pleased to add that to this page.

The poem 'Lines to an Old Friend' was recited by the Professor of Poetry, Christopher Ricks, in the Creweian Oration on 20 June 2007. The poem is by A D Godley (1856–1925), Fellow of Magdalen, who was Public Orator 1910–20. It is taken from his collection Lyra Frivola (London, 1899) and reproduced here.

Lines to an Old Friend

            When we're daily called to arms by continual alarms,
                And the journalist unceasingly dilates
           On the agitating fact that we're soon to be attacked
                By the Germans, or the Russians, or the States:
           When the papers all are swelling with a patriotic rage,
                And are hurling a defiance or a threat,
           Then I cool my martial ardour with the pacifying page
                Of the Oxford University Gazette.

           When I hanker for a statement that is practical and dry
                (Being sated with sensation in excess,
           With the vespertinal rumour and the matutinal lie
                Which adorn the lucubrations of the Press),
           Then I turn me to the columns where there's nothing to attract,
                Or the interest to waken and to whet,
           And I revel in a banquet of unmitigated fact
                In the Oxford University Gazette.

           When the Laureate obedient to an editor's decree
                Puts his verses in the columns of the Times;
           When the endless minor poet in an endless minor key
                Gives the public his unnecessary rhymes;
           When you're weary of the poems which they constantly compose,
                And endeavour their existence to forget,
           You may seek and find repose in the satisfying prose
                Of the Oxford University Gazette.

           In that soporific journal you may stupefy the mind
                With the influence narcotic which it draws
           From the Latest Information about Scholarships Combined
                Or the contemplated changes in a clause:
           Place me somewhere that is far from the Standard and the Star,
                From the fever and the literary fret,—
           And the harassed spirit's balm be the academic calm
                Of the Oxford University Gazette!

A D Godley, 1899