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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. 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 in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became 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 thirty-nine semi-autonomous constituent colleges, four permanent private halls, 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.

It 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 30 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 Registrar of the University of Oxford is one of the university's senior officials, acting (in the words of the university's statutes) as the "head of the central administrative services", with responsibility for "the management and professional development of their staff and for the development of other administrative support". The workload of the role, which has a 550-year history, has increased over time. In the 16th century, it was regarded as a lucrative position and one registrar reacted violently when the university voted to remove him from office for failing to carry out his duties for a year, leading to his temporary imprisonment. A commission headed by former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith recommended in 1922 that Oxford should improve its administration and that the registrar should become a more significant figure. As the historian Brian Harrison put it, Oxford's administration was "edging... slowly from decentralized amateurism towards centralized professionalism." The growth in Oxford's administration led to a move in 1968 to purpose-built accommodation in Wellington Square (pictured): until that time, the administration had been housed in the Clarendon Building in the centre of Oxford. About 4,000 of the university's staff of approximately 8,000 are under the Registrar's control. (Full article...)

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Richard Cordray (born 1959) is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician who has served since 2012 as the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He was a Marshall Scholar at Brasenose College from 1981 to 1983, and won his "Blue" in basketball. He later became Editor-in-Chief of the University of Chicago Law Review, and a law clerk for the U. S. Supreme Court. He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives (1991–93) before he was appointed by the office of the Ohio Attorney General as the first Ohio State Solicitor. In 1994, Cordray left his appointed position to pursue private law practice before becoming Franklin County Treasurer in 2002, then Ohio State Treasurer in 2006. In November 2008, he was elected to serve as Ohio Attorney General starting January 8, 2009, for the remainder of the unexpired term ending January 2011. (Full article...)

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Jesus College was founded by Elizabeth I on 27 June 1571 at the request of Hugh Price, a leading Welsh clergyman. The college's oldest buildings date from the 16th and early 17th centuries, with additions or changes at intervals thereafter. The life of the college and its finances were disrupted by the English Civil War, but Leoline Jenkins, who became principal after the war in 1661, managed to put the college on a more stable financial footing. The 19th century saw a decline in numbers and academic standards, before reforms of the university led to removal of many of the restrictions placed on the college's fellowships and scholarships, such that the college ceased to be predominantly full of Welsh students and academics. The college is still informally associated with Wales, however. Students' academic achievements rose in the early 20th century as fellows were appointed to teach in new subjects. Women were first admitted in 1974 and now form a large part of the undergraduate population. There are about 475 students; the Principal of the college is Lord Krebs. Former students include Harold Wilson (who was twice British Prime Minister), Norman Manley (Chief Minister of Jamaica), T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Angus Buchanan (winner of the Victoria Cross) and Viscount Sankey (Lord Chancellor). (Full article...)

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Credit: Akoliasnikoff

Stained glass in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The chapel of Christ Church also serves as a cathedral for the Diocese of Oxford, a unique combination of university chapel and cathedral.

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Did you know

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

... that the Laura Spence Affair was a major UK political row started over comments made by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (pictured) accusing Oxford of elitism?
... that in his first murder case, real estate and divorce laws specialist Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence saved suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams from being hanged?
... that former Anglican clergyman and Liberal Party life peer Tim Beaumont was the only Green Party representative in the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1999 until his death in 2008?
... that Kenneth Woollcombe, a former Bishop of Oxford, was a member of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved when it granted a faculty for the controversial altar by Henry Moore?
... that despite being personal secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Francis Charles Lawley's attempts at insider trading resulted in losses?